Page "Priest" Paragraph 44

The general priesthood or the priesthood of all believers, is a Christian doctrine derived from several passages of the New Testament.

It is a foundational concept of Protestantism.

It is this doctrine that Martin Luther adduces in his 1520 To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation in order to dismiss the medieval Christian belief that Christians were to be divided into two classes: " spiritual " and " temporal " or non-spiritual.