History Essay

Johannes Eck: “404 Articles” on the Errors of the Reformers (March, 1530)

Johannes Eck was a Scholastic theologian. Although initially on friendly terms

with Martin Luther, the two broke friendship over the Reformation. Johannes

became a defender of Roman Catholicism against the Protestant reformers. In

this excerpt, Johannes Eck is writing to the Holy Roman Emperor urging him to

defend the Catholic faith against Protestants such as Luther.

All Catholics believe that, in the midst of these numerous tumults of wars and

afflictions of Christianity, you most worshipful Emperor, are the divinely

appointed, chosen and consecrated instrument for stopping the decline of the

Catholic faith, for helping the afflicted Church and the oppressed

ecclesiastics…But Martin Luther, the Church’s enemy within the Church has

refused to heed the high admonitions addressed to him by your majesty and

hurled himself into a veritable whirlpool of godlessness…He…Blasphemes God; he

has no reverence for saints or sacraments and no respect for ecclesiastical or

secular magistrates; he is contumelious and rebellious;…he kindles the fires of

sedition throughout the empire; he is making ardent preparations for a deluge of

Christian blood; he is arming the hands of the Germans in order that they may

bathe in the blood of the Pope and cardinals.

Thus he has produced a vast offspring, much worse than himself, bringing forth

broods of vipers…[T[hey destroy churches, demolish altars, and trample upon the

most holy Eucharist; they burn the images of Christ and the saints, extinguish the

worship of God, cast the relics of the saints into the dirt; they steal the church’s

treasures…Nevertheless, most of them now have the audacity openly to glory in

all their dreadfully execrable crimes…

Source: The European Reformations Sourcebook, Edited by Carter Lindberg