One of the great ironies of the Lutheran Reformation was that it adopted some of the very same canon law norms that it had at first set out to destroy. In 1520, Luther burned the canon law books. By 1530, he was commending their use in his own University of Wittenberg. In the 1520s, the first reformation ordinances banned canon law norms. By the 1530s, new reformation ordinances were commanding their use in the governance of both Church and state. This adoption of the canon law was, in part, a product of inertia. As the biblical radicalism of the early Reformation plunged Germany into deep crisis, the reformers simply returned to the canon law norms that they had learned in their youth. The adoption of the canon law was also, however, a product of innovation. As Luther's theological distinctions between Law and Gospel began to betray their institutional limitations, the reformers developed innovative new theories of the relationship of Church and state, ecclesiastical and political authority, canon law and civil law.

These innovative new theories were, in fact, only a small part and product of a complex rethinking of Luther's original theological message. Luther's radical theological doctrines of Law and Gospel, of justification by faith alone, of the priesthood of all believers, of sola Scriptura, and more had proved pungent and powerful enough to deconstruct traditional norms and forms. But left in raw and radical terms, these theological doctrines raised more questions than they answered.