Luther's Smalcald - Against Enthusiasm

Book of Concord, Smalcald Articles, VIII, Of Confession

3] And in those things which concern the spoken, outward Word, we must firmly hold that God grants His Spirit or grace to no one, except through or with the preceding outward Word, in order that we may [thus] be protected against the enthusiasts, i.e., spirits who boast that they have the Spirit without and before the Word, and accordingly judge Scripture or the spoken Word, and explain and stretch it at their pleasure, as Muenzer did, and many still do at the present day, who wish to be acute judges between the Spirit and the letter, and yet know not what they say or declare. 4] For [indeed] the Papacy also is nothing but sheer enthusiasm, by which the Pope boasts that all rights exist in the shrine of his heart, and whatever he decides and commands with [in] his church is spirit and right, even though it is above and contrary to Scripture and the spoken Word.

Ichabod readers - you will never find this paragraph expressed in the synodical publications. Sometimes they speak about the Word, as WELS AnswerMan recently did, without condemning Purpose-Driven false doctrine or commending the work of the Word alone in accomplishing God's will.

Enthusiasm was a term commonly used among Lutherans to condemn the errors of the papacy and the Reformed. Once Lutheran clergy began swinging both ways, toward Rome (or Istanbul) and toward Pasadena (or Willow Creek), they dropped the term faster than a prickly pear cactus.