# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1916_S43
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1916. 43

world, who rule in the darkness of this world, with the evil spirits under heaven. It is clear that we must confess here that nothing is accomplished with our power, that we are soon lost against this enemy if we were thereby dependent on our power alone. But we add confidently with Luther: "He fights for us, the right Man, whom God himself has chosen." And this Man is Jesus Christ, the Lord of Hosts, who must and will hold the field. God himself will destroy the adversary, but he will not do it directly, but "by the spirit of his mouth," that is, through the Word that goes out of his mouth, through the Gospel, which he has entrusted to his Church and commanded her to proclaim. So the Lord will combat the wicked one and overcome him, in that his Church preaches and proclaims the Gospel. Through this and through this alone the Lord makes the consciences of men free, truly free from work-righteousness, human ordinances and the tyranny of the papacy. Through this he grounds the hearts of men on the firm rock of Christ's merit and thereby of the certainty of their salvation. And when they stand on this rock, then they are secured against all enticements and threats of the Pope and his adherents.

That all other means of combat against the Pope are powerless, cannot overthrow him, history also teaches clearly. Not without earnest resistance, also within the Church, has the papacy risen to the summit of its power. For centuries the struggle lasted, which was waged especially by the bishops. Let us think only of the three so-called reforming councils of the fifteenth century, the councils at Pisa, Constance and Basel. They wanted in all earnestness to reform the papacy, wanted above all also to establish the principle that the council stands above the Pope, and so to break his power. The Church of that time had sent to these councils its best, most learned representatives, men to whom the welfare of the Church was truly at heart. With great zeal they tried to reform the papacy and the whole Church, to keep the papacy at least to some extent within bounds. The contest between the Pope and the councils was long since decided; the Pope has won a complete victory. It has long been acknowledged in the Roman Church that the Pope stands above the councils. How decisive the victory of the papacy has been is shown, among much else, also by the manner in which formerly and now the councils announce their decrees. Formerly the councils made known their decrees in their own name. Even in the Tridentinum it says: "Sacrosancta oecumenica et generalis Tridentina Synodus, in Spiritu Sancto legitime congregata, praesedentibus in ea tribus Apostolicae Sedis Legatis, statuit, fatetur et declarat." (The most holy, ecumenical and general Tridentine