Modern textbooks on the history and theology of the Reformation often designate the Reformation teaching on justification as the “article by which the church stands or falls” and attribute this quote to Martin Luther. However, this quote cannot be found in Luther’s works. A similar formulation, though, can be found in one of his lectures on the Psalms, where he interprets Psalm 130:4 as summarizing the Bible’s teachings on sin and salvation: “Stante enim hac doctrina stat Ecclesia, ruente autem ruit ipsa quoque” (WA 40/3:351,34–35 [printed version]) – “If this doctrine stands, the church stands; if this doctrine collapses, the church also collapses.” As demonstrated by the German theologian Theodor Mahlmann in an article published in 2003 (“Die Rechtfertigungslehre ist der Artikel, mit dem die Kirche steht und fällt”. Neue Erkenntnisse zur Geschichte einer aktuellen Formel, in: Zur Rechtfertigungslehre der lutherischen Orthodoxie, ed. Udo Sträter, Leipzig 2003, pp. 167–271), it was the Rostock theologian Simon Pauli (see image above) who first adopted and adapted this formula around 1570:
“Divinus ille Lutherus … verissime dixit: Stante articulo iustificationis stare ecclesiam, eiusque doctrinae corpus; convulso autem et labefactato hoc articulo velut fundamento, simul collabi et ruere ecclesiam, et totum doctrinae corpus quod amplectitur, everti et infinitis erroribus infici atque implicari.” (Mahlmann, pp. 230–32)
“The divine Luther … said very truly: If the article of justification stands, then the Church and its entire teaching stands; if this article (which is its foundation) is overturned and shaken, then the Church falls and collapses, and its entire teaching (that it holds) is overturned and corrupted and riddled with countless errors.”
Over the following decades, other theologians adapted the formula until, in 1615, Balthasar Meisner, a professor at Wittenberg, coined the wording still in use today:
“verissimum est illud Lutheri proverbium, quo saepius fuit usus: Iustificatio est articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae.” (Mahlmann, pp. 189–91)
“Very true is Luther’s saying, which he often used: Justification is the article by which the church stands and falls.”
Theodor Mahlmann lists dozens of references from the 16th to the 20th centuries in order to trace the history of the reception of this “proverb of Luther,” which is actually a formula coined by post-Reformation Lutheranism. Despite searching hundreds of works published over five centuries, he presents his findings as an interim result. There may be additional sources from the 16th and early 17th centuries that could provide further insight into the history of this well-known formula.
Mahlmann’s article belongs to a series about commonly used designations and formulas in historical and theological research on the Reformation and post-Reformation Protestantism, which require critical review, like Melanchthon as Teacher of Germany (Praeceptor Germaniae), Crypto-Calvinism, or that the church always needs reform (ecclesia semper reformanda). He has written a number of articles that are useful for researching 16th and 17th century German Protestantism:
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- Die Bezeichnung Melanchthons als Praeceptor Germaniae auf ihre Herkunft geprüft. Auch ein Beitrag zum Melanchthon-Jahr (in: Melanchthonbild und Melanchthonrezeption in der Lutherischen Orthodoxie und im Pietismus, ed. Udo Sträter, Lutherstadt Wittenberg 1999, pp. 135–226)
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- Melanchthon als Vorläufer des Wittenberger Kryptocalvinismus (in: Melanchthon und der Calvinismus, eds. Günter Frank/Herman Selderhuis, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 2005, pp. 173–230)
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- “Ecclesia semper reformanda.” Eine historische Aufklärung. Neue Bearbeitung (in: Hermeneutica Sacra. Studien zur Auslegung der Heiligen Schrift im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert, ed. Torbjörn Johannsson et al., Berlin/New York 2010, pp. 381–442)