At Least 48 Reasons why Luther was Excommunicated, as per Armstrong

Armstrong actually gives 50 reasons, I happen to disagree with two of them.

Here are the two I disagree with:

10. Only justified men can do good works.
33. The Church cannot institute sacraments.

The Catholic Church actually agrees that the Church cannot make any act an Eighth Sacrament. While the Polish priests I converted for said "in Sweden, Church coffee is the eighth sacrament", they said that as a joke.

As a quip on Swedes who, even when Catholic, seem to think Church coffee (the coffee time after Holy Mass, in the parish hall near the Church) merits more preparation and work than receiving the sacraments. Obviously, the sacraments merit much more, since they are what God has instituted for our justification and also after justification ongoing sanctification.

Note, the seven sacraments are instituted by God. Sacramentals may, of course, be instituted by the Church, like the Christian coronation of a monarch. Indulgences are also sacramentals, and some sacramentals have indulgences attached.

But all seven sacraments were instituted by God. Either we must say that Confirmation (Acts 8) and Extreme Unction (Epistle of St James) were already instituted by Christ before the Ascension, only publicised afterwards, or we must say the Holy Ghost - also a divine person, remember! - inspired them in the Apostles who were able to receive new doctrine as long as one of them was alive on earth. Probably the former, since the announced function of the Holy Ghost was to remind the Apostles of all that Christ had told them.

As to the other reason, "only justified men can do good works", I distinguish.

If you are in a state of mortal or original sin, you can do a work which is good in its kind, naturally, like giving alms. It does not become a sin because performed by someone not justified. It may or may not be accompanied by a sinful intention, but that is nothing to whether the man not yet justified is doing a work which is good rather than sinful.

However, if by good we mean a work which can be rewarded with eternal life, no, the man in a state of sin is not capable to such works before justification. Not works which in themselves merit eternal life, like even the least act of devotion or love of neighbour by one at present justified. Some natural habits - like that of almsgiving in the as yet pagan Eustace - may be such that God thinks "what a waste if he is not justified" and so God gives them a chance of justification, as God did to St Eustace (who also took the chance). But if St Eustace had not been baptised, had not renounced the Pagan gods, and so on, his almsgiving would still have merited some rewards on earth, but would not have given him eternal life.

Now, these two sentences are the exceptions to the rule, there were about fifty very good reasons in Catholic theology why Luther was excommunicated:

NCR : 50 Reasons Why Martin Luther Was Excommunicated
Nov. 23, 2016 : Dave Armstrong
http://www.ncregister.com/blog/darmstrong/50-reasons-why-martin-luther-was-excommunicated

From the list of fifty, deduct one and a half, as per above. I have read through all of the list, and agree with all of the other reasons without reservations like these. There were one or two on which I am doubtful whether Luther said that or continued saying that (he considered Confession a sacrament too, making his list of "Gospel sacraments" one of three, not just two, but that could be a later modification after 1521).

And as for reason 10, Luther actually did say that the good works as in naturally good works of a man in a state of sin were themselves sins. Which is clearly wrong. As for reason 33, I wonder if this is not a mistake for his saying Church not being able to change conditions of validity for a sacrament. Church can, like when certain modes of marriage were valid before but not after Trent, certain degrees of proximity were sometimes nullifying and sometimes not nullifying marriages, as well as an age below 14 / 12 if not dispensed, and other example, when leavened bread is invalid matter in Latin rite and unleavened bread is invalid bread in many an Eastern rite.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Nanterre UL
Feast of Immaculate Conception
of the Blessed Virgin Mary
8.XII.2017