The crisis at Leipzig was reached when Eck backed into a dialectical
corner and had to resort to foul tactics. How discredit Luther? Perhaps
if he made him synonymous with heresy....
Craftily Eck pointed out the similarity between Luther’s arguments and
those of the Bohemian reformer, John Hus, whom the Council of Constance
had condemned to the stake a century before. Luther denounced the
insinuation and declared the Bohemian heresy irrelevant to the debate.
It was inevitable in opposing the Roman Church’s contention to primacy
that Luther would use arguments similar to those of previous reformers.
The condemnation of Hus as a heretic did not necessarily make all of his
views heretical. In fact, Luther insisted, some of Hus’s articles were
genuinely Christian and evangelical.
The spectators and visiting theologians were stunned, and perhaps Luther
shocked even himself. Clearly his remark would be interpreted to mean
that the general councils—the highest earthly authority—were not beyond
fault. This was heresy.
Luther had long been aware of the need for reform in the church. As his
ideas developed it became apparent that the pope was not above human
weakness. The church militant needed an earthly head, and for the sake
of good order it was necessary that he be obeyed. But that didn’t make
him infallible. After all, he was human.
Now this same reasoning had pushed from Luther’s lips the admission that
councils could err also. Unwittingly Eck had contributed what probably
was the greatest outcome of the debate—Luther’s growing conviction that
even general councils could be unreliable. Henceforth he would take his
stand on the unassailable Word of God as revealed in the Scriptures.
Results of the debate were weighed by judges at the University of Paris
who condemned Luther and his views as heretical. When Philip
Melanchthon, a Wittenberg associate and close friend of Luther,
questioned the opinion on the basis of Scripture, the Parisians looked
down their noses at the upstart, informing him they were chief among the
few to whom interpretation of Scripture could be entrusted.