The Grace Meme of Wessel, Luther & Lefevre

John of Wessel, a professor at the University of Erfurt in Germany (1445-1456) introduced a new belief that would become very popular: “He who thinks to be justified through his own works does not know what it is to be saved . . . the elect are saved by grace alone.” He wrote, “Whom God wishes to save He would save by giving him grace. . .” Wessel rejected the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation.


In 1505 Martin Luther graduated from the University of Erfurt in Germany; the same university where John Wessel had taught fifty years earlier. Did Wessel influence Luther’s work? A number of scholars believe he did, but Luther denied it: “If I had read the works of Wessel beforehand, it might well have seemed that I derived all my ideas from him.” Luther was ordained a priest in 1507 and one year later became a tutor at the same university at the age of 25.

Professor Jacques Lefevre (Paris) published a Latin translation and commentary on the epistles of Paul in 1512. He appears to have been influenced by either Wessel or Luther, as can be seen by his teaching that “it is God who saves “by grace alone.” He denied that good works plays a role in one’s salvation. Wessel, Luther and Lefevre were teaching the same basic idea of “salvation by grace alone without works.” The “works” they were against were the rituals and sacraments that could only be administered under the direction of an authorized minister of the Roman Catholic Church.