Having quoted Augustine’s Letter to Januarius, Luther stops to explain at some length Augustine’s handling of the councils and fathers (AE 41, 22-26).  He praises Augustine as a “fine, sensible man” and his work of careful differentiation is called a “great” work.  Augustine takes us part of the way toward a solution to our dilemma when he distinguishes between the “great principal councils” and all of the other councils and decrees of the bishops.  Nevertheless, he does not go far enough in winnowing out the wheat from the chaff even in the great principal councils.  Augustine argues that even the decrees of the “great principal councils” are to be obeyed as saluberrima autoritas, but, maybe if Augustine had attended them, he would have written differently about them!

Perhaps, had Luther remembered that many of the “external” decrees and canons that gave him, the sixteenth-century Christian, so many headaches, were nonetheless useful for the church at the time of Augustine (as Luther himself admits later), he might not have been so hard on Augustine.  Perhaps also, Luther is thinking of the histories of these councils that are now available to him, that may not have been available to Augustine, who himself attended none of them.  Now that Luther reads these “histories” he sees that “the Roman bishops have from the first sickened, ailed, wheezed, and gasped for sovereignty over all the bishops. . . but no one paid any attention to this at the time, and the bishops in Africa, Asia, and Egypt proceeded as though they had not heard it,” and believes his disgust is justified (p. 24).

At any rate, by outlining evidence of the fourth-century bishops’ impotence and petty power plays, Luther calls our attention to what is foundational in any study of the councils: “This is what you will find when you read the histories and compare them diligently.  But you must pay no heed to their clamor or that of their adulators; rather, keep eyes and mind fixed on the text and the history."  Luther argues for the necessity of rightly interpreting the words of the councils and fathers throughout this document.  

Pay attention to the “text and the history,” according to Luther, and you will be able to distinguish what is to be received and what is to be rejected from this tradition in the church.  Now that sixteenth century Christians have access to the histories of these councils and the vicious effects of the Roman hegemony over the church, they are better able to discern between councils and within councils to understand what is lasting and what is temporary, indeed worthless and tyrannical.

If the Christian will but carefully investigate the facts of the councils, that is, their texts and histories, then he will not be confused by the deceptive, magical way in which the Papacy uses the word “council.”  They would have the whole world “associate the name ‘council’ with themselves so that all Christendom would have to believe what they said, and so that they themselves might secretly become monarchs with the help of this fine name" (pp. 24, 25).  

Luther discloses here that the word “council” is being subtly misused, serving the interests of the monarchial bishops and popes.  “I wager that I am here hitting the truth and also their own conscience, if they could have a conscience.” Thus, the bottom line for Luther at this point, drawing out as he does the implications of Augustine’s judgment on the usefulness of the councils, is that the papal “council screamers” have commandeered the word “council” for their own selfish purposes, to buttress their own tyrannical power.  Simple Christians are suckered in.  Nevertheless, rant as they may, an inquiry into the facts, now that the facts are universally available to the doctors of the church, specifically “the story and the text,” will unveil the truth of the matter and expose the papal fraud.  Luther does not yet quite tell us explicitly what usefulness the councils do have; he only leaves hints and clues here and there.  He is primarily concerned at this point to make a case for the necessity of a careful examination of what has been received under the exalted names of “fathers” and “councils.”

Luther next moves on to Augustine’s opinion of the fathers (AE 41, 25-27).  He begins by citing a comment from Augustine’s letter to Jerome (Ep. 82): “I have learned to hold the Scriptures alone inerrant.  Therefore I read all the others, as holy and learned as they may be, with the reservation that I regard their teaching true only if they can prove their statements through Scripture or reason.”

This comment about “reason” need not imply a double source or criterion of truth for Christian doctrine.  No doubt Luther did not understand the statement this way or he would have stopped to clarify the matter.  Luther has not given us Augustine’s entire quotation, but compressed a longer passage into a handy dictum.  Augustine’s own words will help us see his intent.  Luther’s purpose is to highlight the categorically different way in which the Christian reads his Bible as compared with other books, religious and otherwise, the councils and fathers included.  Teachings in other religious books must be proven “through Scripture” if they purport to set forth Christian doctrine.  Indeed, we are called upon to use our reason to compare these extra-canonical writings with the Scripture.  Indeed, non-inspired authors might also treat secular matters of politics, economics, science, etc.  All such truth claims must succeed in convincing us by means of “arguments addressed to reason.”

Luther also quotes Augustine’s appeal from De Trinitate:  “My dear man, do not follow my writing as you do Holy Scripture.  Instead, whatever you find in Holy Scripture that you would not have believed before, believe without doubt.  But in my writings you should regard nothing as certain that you were uncertain about before, unless I have proved its truth.” There are many other such passages in Augustine, Luther says; passages that prove that Augustine “wants to be free” from subjection to the “fathers, councils, and bishops of Rome,” and instead, “have all of them, including himself, subjected to the Holy Scriptures.” Clearly, then, Augustine recognized flaws in the “fathers.”  Indeed, even though he is counted as one, if not the preeminent “father” of the church, he himself warned against elevating his own writings to the level of Holy Scripture.