Being Shaped by Freedom: An Examination of Luthers Development of Christian Liberty, 1520–1525

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In the s the Welsers were allowed to exploit the colony of Venezuela, but after they had to write off their investment.

By then the growth of the German economy was not keeping up with the increase of the population. He believed that only the works God has commanded are good and that only those God has forbidden are sinful. The greatest work is trusting in God and that means having faith in Christ. Christendom is a spiritual community, and the true head is Christ in heaven, not the Pope. On June 15 Pope Leo accused Luther of heresy in 41 articles in his Exsurge Domine bull, and he had sixty days to recant. Anyone defending Luther or promoting his writings could also be excommunicated, and all his writings were to be burned.

On July 8 the Pope wrote to Friedrich asking him to arrest Luther if he did not recant on the 41 heretical sentences. On July 17 the Pope appointed his librarian Hieronymus Aleander and Johann Eck as nuncios to carry out the ban, but it only had impact in Meissen, Merseburg, and Brandenburg. Although Leipzig University was supported by Duke Georg, they refused to promulgate the ban.

Martin Luther

Luther published his Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation which came off the press in August in Wittenberg and sold 4, copies in 18 days. Luther complained that all Christendom and especially Germany were oppressed and afflicted. He sought to remove the following three walls from the Christian religion: He argued that the Pope practiced knavery and corruption behind the protection of these walls which prevented him from being held to account. He complained that the Pope was greedy for worldly gain and used benefices and other legal devices to increase his wealth at the expense of others and that these benefices and other techniques should be abolished.

He urged the nobles and their subjects to refuse to make annual payments to Rome. He proposed that bishops be confirmed by an archbishop or neighboring bishops as advised by the Council of Nicaea rather than by the Pope. No temporal matters should be referred to Rome. Bishops should no longer be compelled to take oaths to the Pope. The Pope should have no authority over the Emperor except to anoint and crown him. Pilgrimages to Rome and other places should be ended. Luther opposed the building of any more mendicant houses, and the Pope should not found or endorse orders.

Luther proposed that priests should be allowed to marry or not. He wanted to abolish masses for the dead. Many punishments in canon law such as the interdict should also be abolished, and excommunication should not be used for material advantage. He would also stop the canonization of saints. Luther argued that whatever one buys from the Pope is no good because what comes from God is always free.

He urged reconciliation with the Bohemians. Luther also wanted to reform the universities by modernizing the curriculum. Luther also suggested ways of reforming the secular governments by reducing luxuries and the abuses of eating and drinking. He opposed tolerating brothels, but he rejected chastity and other vows except for the voluntary vows of monks.

Festivals should be limited to Sundays. He called for a girls school in every town so that they could be taught the Gospel. Luther urged the secular leaders to convene a reforming council because the Pope had offended Christendom. He believed that Christians do not need a human mediator to have a relationship with God and that God does not need intermediaries to communicate with humans.

Thus he encouraged every Christian to proclaim the word of God. He argued that the believers could call a council, and he wanted to reduce the number of cardinals. He exposed the corruption of the Church by comparing the lives of the popes and prelates to Jesus. He argued that heresies should be overcome with books, not by burning heretics. Also in August Luther appealed to the recently installed Emperor Charles V who had borrowed , florins from the Fuggers to gain his position.

Luther wrote his next treatise, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church , in Latin for the clergy and scholars, and it came out on October 6. He complained that Christians had been carried away from the scriptures and were subjected to the tyranny of the Pope. He threatened a revolution in the Christian religion by proposing to reduce the seven sacraments of the Church to three—baptism, communion, and penance. Confirmation, weddings, and extreme unction could be retained without giving the Church authority over the youth, marriages, and the dying. Extreme unction came from James 5: Ordination gave the Church authority over priests, but Luther favored a priesthood of all believers.

He denounced rituals and priestly authorities because he believed the holy scriptures and individual conscience should be supreme. Although he valued penance, he concluded it is not a sacrament because it lacks a material sign. The Church had raised penance or confession to a sacrament in This sacrament should not be abused to extoll the despotic power of pontiffs. Luther argued that the Christ did not speak of power but of faith. Transubstantiation also became dogma in ; but Luther preferred the older concept that the bread and wine remained that though the body and blood of Christ are present in them.

He believed that the testimony of the Christ has more power than the ritual. Luther argued that no vow should be taken beyond the baptismal vow. Luther argued that God, not priests, absolves sins.

Grace comes from God, not from a church. He charged that the sacraments had been used for the captivity of Christians by turning them into merchandise for a profit-making business. Ultimately Luther believed that Christ is the only sacrament. He argued again that all vows in religious orders or for pilgrimages should be avoided or abolished.

The Captivity book shocked many people, and it was suppressed by the Duke of Saxony, the imperial council at Worms, and at the imperial diet in February Yet this book won over many Christians such as John Bugenhagen who previously had considered Luther a reckless heretic.

The book includes an open letter to Pope Leo X , offering him advice. Luther admits he has despised the Roman Curia, but he does not attack Leo personally. He urged him and his cardinals to remedy the evils he believed had become worse than Babylon or Sodom. He believed the pope had become more like the Antichrist and an idol than the Christ.

He noted that Bernard of Clairvaux wrote On Consideration to Pope Eugenius more than three centuries before to try to purify the corruption of the Roman See that was not nearly as bad then. Luther believed that the word of God teaches freedom. He accepted the paradox that a Christian is a perfectly free lord of all who is subject to no one while being a perfectly dutiful servant of all subject to everyone.

Thus a Christian is perfectly free inwardly, but a dutiful servant outwardly. No outward thing can make a person free or just, but these come from faith within. The second key to freedom is being truthful and trustworthy. In the third stage the soul becomes married to Christ. For Luther the true Christian is as free as a king and is a priest forever.

A result of the spirit of faith is the experience of joy in the laws of God. A good person does good works, and a wicked person does evil deeds. Luther stimulated the number of books being published in German which went from in to in and reached in Louvain also expelled Erasmus from their faculty.

Erasmus wrote to Cardinal Campeggio urging justice for Luther, and he pleaded that for the sake of the truth every person ought to be able to speak freely without fear. Friedrich notified Aleander that he would not submit because Luther had not been convicted of any error. Luther received the Exsurge Domine bull on October 10, and he had sixty days to submit. He replied by writing Against the Execrable Bull of the Antichrist.

He noted that the bull never referred to scripture, but he backed up his assertions from the Bible. Before being crowned at Aachen on October 23 Emperor Charles V promised he would not put the imperial ban on any German without cause and without a hearing. He met with Friedrich at Cologne in November.

Friedrich declined to see Aleander but asked for the opinion of the humanist Erasmus who made him laugh by saying that Luther had attacked the crown of the Pope and the bellies of the monks. On the 17th Luther renewed his appeal to the Pope for a council, and he also appealed to the Emperor, his prince, and the German people. On the 25th Melanchthon married. On November 28 Charles told Friedrich to invite Luther to the Diet at Worms so that he may be investigated; but on December 17 the Emperor rescinded the invitation.

On December 10 Melanchthon posted a notice at the university that godless books would be burned, and students built a bonfire at the gates of Wittenberg to burn the works by Eck. Luther tossed in the fire the Exsurge Domine bull and the entire papal law. The next day he began lecturing to students in German instead of in Latin. Instead of burning books he recommended burning the papal see to reject that kingdom. He complained that canon law idolized the pope.

The Diet at Worms opened on January 27, and the agenda included complaints about how the papacy was treating the oppressed German nation. On April 15 Paris theologians published their condemnation of statements by Luther. Melanchthon would publish his defense of Luther against these charges in October. In March Luther wrote a response to the Italian Dominican Ambrose Catharinus in which he demonstrated that the Pope was the Antichrist prophesied in the book of Daniel , but it was not published until June.

On April 2 Luther began his journey to the imperial Diet at Worms, and he arrived in a wagon two weeks later followed by a hundred nobles on horses, mostly from Saxony. When asked the next day if he repudiated all 20 volumes of his writings, Luther gained time by differentiating his works. On April 18 even more people crowded into a larger room. Luther refused to repudiate works no one condemned; but he also denied that the complaints he had made against the popes and papists were not true because many people agreed with him. When asked finally if he would repudiate his books, he declared,.

Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason— I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other— my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise. The next day Emperor Charles V read his statement in French in which he concluded that a single friar going against the Catholic faith of a thousand years must be wrong. Ludwig of the Palatinate and Friedrich of Saxony dissented.

Many left the diet, and the Edict of Worms was signed on May 6; but it was not issued until the last day of the Diet on May 25 when the Elector Joachim of Brandenburg declared its approval by the imperial estates. The Edict blamed Luther for damaging marriage, confession, and other sacraments. Yet Friedrich seems to have gained permission from Charles not to serve the mandate against Luther. On April 25 Luther was ordered to leave Worms, and he was guaranteed 25 days of safe conduct. The next day with an escort of twenty horsemen he traveled through Frankfurt, dismissing the imperial herald at Freiberg in Hesse.

He ignored a provision of the safe conduct when he began preaching on May 2 before dawn at Hersfeld. The next day he preached in Eisenach even though the local pastor protested before a notary. On May 4 Luther had only two companions when horsemen sent by Friedrich came and took him to Wartburg castle that night. Meanwhile Karlstadt in Wittenberg was arguing that priests and monks should be allowed to marry. Three men renounced their vows and got married, and Albrecht of Mainz had them imprisoned. Jacob Seidler was executed, and Melanchthon wrote a defense of Bartholomew Bernhard who believed he was following the traditions of the Old and New Testaments.

He gave communion with bread and wine on September 29, but he refused to be ordained. He hoped to lead students away from Aristotle to the teachings of the Christ. Luther in his Interpretation of the Magnificat denied that Mary could intercede for the faithful, but he accepted the doctrines of the immaculate conception and the virgin birth of Jesus.

Luther wrote On Confession , asking if the Pope had the power to require it and complaining that priests used it to increase their income. In The Misuse of the Mass Luther criticized private masses, especially those paid for the souls of the dead. Gabriel Zwilling opposed the concept of sacrifice and instituted agape meals in Wittenberg. On October 13 the mass was replaced by preaching. In October violence erupted in the streets and churches of Wittenberg. Ulrich von Hutten, whom Emperor Maximilian had named poet laureate in July , had been writing satires and criticisms of the Pope and favoring independence from Rome.

He urged Elector Friedrich to achieve freedom by appropriating monastic wealth and stopping money going to Rome. Hutten was prepared to use force against force on behalf of the reforms and was protected in the castles of the knight Franz von Sickingen; but Luther rejected his proposal of armed revolution for the teachings of the Gospels. He believed that the word of God had conquered the world and preserved the Church and that it would also reform the Church.

He noted that the Antichrist had been established without weapons, and he believed he would be overthrown by the Word without armed force. Luther considered it abominable to make a vow to earn salvation, and he wanted to free young people from the curse of taking a vow of celibacy. Albrecht of Mainz wanted money for his lavish way of living and displayed his collection of relics at Halle, promising indulgences to visitors. Luther wrote Against the Idol of Halle , but Spalatin refused to print it. Luther wrote to Albrecht again, and he wrote back and said he had eliminated the cause of the trouble.

Luther was allowed to visit Wittenberg on December 4 to persuade Spalatin to publishing his writing. On that day students destroyed the altars at the Franciscan monastery in Wittenberg. Luther urged the Augustinians to begin returning to the world in the new year, and they decided to let monks leave and to abolish begging. He criticized those who demolished altars, smashed images, and dragged away priests.

He argued that insurrection lacks discretion and usually harms the innocent more than the guilty, and thus it can never be right. I am and always will be on the side of those against whom insurrection is directed, no matter how unjust their cause; I am opposed to those who rise in insurrection, no matter how just their cause, because there can be no insurrection without hurting the innocent and shedding their blood. Karlstadt on Christmas Day dressed as a layman and speaking in German administered both the bread and the wine in communion as 2, people gathered in Castle Church.

Gabriel Zwilling led the Augustinians and urged people to burn pictures and destroy altars. On the 27th three prophets from Zwickau arrived in Wittenberg. They prophesied that priests would be killed and that the reign of God would bring communism. They impressed Karlstadt and Melanchthon. On January 6, Augustinian monks met in Wittenberg and resolved to abolish private masses, and they decreed that anyone could leave the monastery. On the 11th Karlstadt led a mob that destroyed altars in the old convent church and burned oil used in extreme unction.

Karlstadt married a year-old girl on January He wrote denouncing vows and masses and even images while demanding a vernacular liturgy. He published the pamphlet On the Abolition of Images with Adam and Eve shown naked on the title page. Karlstadt gained control of Wittenberg University and the town, and he urged a movement back to the land.

On January 24, the town council issued ordinances to regulate religion, public morals, and relieve the poor. Begging was forbidden as a common fund was maintained for those really poor. Prostitution was banned, and images were removed from churches on February 6. On February 13 Prince Friedrich decreed that images were to be left alone, that masses were to be kept, that Karlstadt was forbidden to preach, and that begging was to be examined.

He wanted reforms to be by territories, not by towns. Karlstadt agreed not to preach, and Zwilling left Wittenberg. Luther left Wartburg and returned to Wittenberg on March 6, explaining his reasons in a letter to Prince Friedrich. Dressed as an Augustinian monk he preached from the pulpit eight sermons deploring violence and urging the teachings of the Gospels as the orderly way of reform.

He advised that only images that were venerated needed to be put away by those in authority, and he warned that the fanatical destruction of images would only increase their adoration. He blamed the devil for the unrest in Wittenberg and wrote a letter to the court advising them not to use force against the radicals. Luther declared that he would preach, speak, and write, but he would not use force to compel anyone.

After his preaching, people calmed down, and students returned to their classrooms. He published his Personal Prayer Book in May. Luther began making liturgical changes and started with baptism. The Franciscan Thomas Murner of Alsace satirized the immorality of the times from the nobles to the monks. Because of the reformation he left Strasbourg and moved to Lucerne in Switzerland in On January 20, the imperial government at Nuremberg ordered rulers to take strong action against the innovations.

The first Diet at Nuremberg began on March 22 and extended into Pope Adrian VI demanded that they arrest Luther. They discussed Luther but declined to suppress the evangelical preachers while calling for a reforming national council. On July 15 Luther sent a letter to the Bohemian estates to inform them that he approved of the Bohemian disobedience to Rome, and he hoped they would unite with the Germans despite their differences. He published a pamphlet criticizing the false order of the Pope and the bishops. They printed 3, or 5,, and each copy cost as much as a good horse; but Luther never accepted any money for his writings.

He agreed with Augustine that no one should be compelled to believe. He advised nonresistance if authorities came to take their New Testaments by force. He distinguished spiritual from temporal government and emphasized obedience to lawful authorities. Luther followed the logic of Ockham and recommended acting based on reason in the earthly kingdom. The duty of the temporal power is to bring about peace and prevent evil deeds, and so the spiritual power needs the secular power to restrain evil. Yet the temporal power should not presume to prescribe laws for the soul which would only mislead souls.

No one can be compelled to believe something by force, and it is useless to try to do so. Only God has authority over souls. Humans can only extend their laws over earthly things, and Christians should be subject to no authority but only to each other. The Christian prince should not rule with force, for all works not done in love are cursed. No man is to be trusted, but all are to be given a hearing to see through whom God will speak. Luther considered the rulers of Meissen, Bavaria, and Brandenburg the current enemies of the gospel. Luther suggested specific principles for war.

Second, war is allowed against equals or foreigners only if an offer of peace has been rejected. Third, subjects must commit their lives and property to such a war. Fourth, if the ruler is in the wrong, Christians must refuse to follow him. They must not sin by violating women. When victory comes, they should offer mercy and peace to those who surrender.

Luther wrote that Christian congregations have the right and power to appoint and dismiss teachers because of the scripture, and this tract was widely circulated in On April 7 Luther gave refuge to nine nuns who had fled from the Nimbschen convent, and he endeavored to find husbands for them. Jews in the empire were only allowed to live in Worms, Frankfurt am Main, and Prague. Luther would get help from Jews in working on his translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew.

Luther wrote hymns and prepared a hymnbook for Germans by the end of Hundreds of monks were leaving the monasteries. Bucer helped convert Strasbourg and Ulm. In Ulrich of Hutten and Franz von Sickingen organized in Landau a union of Rhenish, Swabian, and Franconian nobles for self-defense, and they elected Franz von Sickingen their leader. On August 13 at Landau he recruited an army of knights he paid, and he sent manifestos to Trier and challenged their Archbishop Elector Albrecht of Mainz who promised Sickingen safe passage across the Rhine.

Sickingen returned to his castle at Landstuhl, and neighboring princes helped Albrecht storm the castle. On May 7, Sickingen was mortally wounded trying to defend his castle. Luther wrote a letter to the Christians in the Netherlands venerating the first Lutheran martyrs and included his first hymn. He had 24 of his hymns published in and 36 all together.

Most of the music was composed by his friend Johann Walter. Luther wrote a tract urging all the city councils in Germany to establish and maintain Christian schools. In February he advised the persecuted Miltenbergers not to resort to insurrection because force would not help them. The Christ prohibits vengeance. That summer Luther published On Trade and Usury. Melanchthon sent his Summary of the Renovated Christian Doctrine to Philip of Hesse in October , and on February 25, Philip declared himself for the reformation. That year Nuremberg implemented the reformation.

In The Prognostication of Johann of Lichtenberg was published in Latin predicting great disturbances for the year when Jupiter and Saturn were conjunct in the sign of Pisces. Because Pisces is a water sign, many astrologers of the time predicted floods, and later this erroneous prediction was used to refute astrology.

Yet the Piscean Age based on the precession of the equinoxes is the 2,year era that correlates with the influential Christian religion. Thus this massive conjunction in could be interpreted as a time when the Christian religion might be undergoing a major change. In Johann Stoffler predicted in his almanac that great changes would come in 25 years. Scholars have found 56 authors who published in books such predictions for the year After this was proved fairly accurate, Stephan Roth republished the book in his German translation in Melanchthon wrote his Enchiridion elementorum puerilium on childhood education and made a speech On the Dignity of Astrology arguing that it is a true science and is of practical value for understanding the influence of the cosmic environment, though it is not deterministic.

In October Melanchthon was invited to organize a new high school at Nuremberg, and he gave the inaugural address on May 23, Because of his radical speeches he was expelled from Prague before the end of On July 13, he delivered a sermon to the princes, comparing himself to Daniel who advised royalty.

He appealed to the poor and advocated revolution so that God would rid the world of its shame. He published two pamphlets that criticized Luther for leading people into a carnal yoke rather than to God. He urged a general revolution. Karlstadt met with Luther at Jena on August 22, and Luther admitted Karlstadt had not rebelled and gave him money and urged him to write a tract against himself. He accused them of seeking their own glory rather than the salvation of souls. He argued that images could be tolerated as memorials and witnesses, though he praised their destruction at pilgrimage sites.

Luther believed that the commandments against worshipping images and keeping the Sabbath were abrogated in the New Testament. Karlstadt wrote rebuttals to Luther who tried to set up a debate, but the Elector Friedrich would not give Karlstadt a safe conduct. He sent a public apology to Luther and hid in his house in June and July Since there had been several revolts by peasants in the Black Forest and Swabia. Thousands of peasants surrounded the town of Tenger. They demanded their medieval rights with the game and forest laws and with tithes. Their emblem was the Bundschuh , the low shoe of the peasant compared to the boot of the nobles.

They referred to the theology of Luther and of Zwingli. In the fall of peasants around the Lake of Constance rose up. Their numbers increased to 3,, and nobles with 17, agreed to an armistice in their camp at Eratingen. The peasants formulated sixteen articles asking for the abolition of hunting rights, serf labor, excessive taxes, and feudal privileges with protection against arbitrary arrests and partisan courts.

After the peasants went home, the nobles refused to change. The peasants assembled again, and Georg Truchsess of Waldburg negotiated with peasant chiefs. Archduke Ferdinand armed with money from Welser of Augsburg and the Swabian Union imposed a special tax to support troops. Whoever refused to join them was banished from their community. To compel the lords to submit they broke into granaries, emptied cellars, demolished castles, and burned the convents.

Images were defaced, and icons were broken into pieces. Armed women threatened monks. The insurrection spread from Swabia to the Rhenish provinces of Franconia, Thuringia, and Saxony by the end of the year. Princes hired mercenaries who attacked peasants near Donaueschingen in December. By January the country between the Danube, the Rhine, and the Lech was aroused, and on February 9 in Ried above Ulm 10, peasants rose up with a red flag led by Ulrich Schmid.

By early March about 35, peasants of Upper Swabia were in six camps with weapons, but some of them were vagabonds who came and went. The cities of Memmingen and Kaufbeuren joined the peasants, and representatives of the Swabian peasants met at Memmingen on March 6, and formed the Christian Association. They printed thousands of copies and distributed them widely in Germany. They asserted their right to elect or remove preachers and pay them with tithes with the surplus going to help the poor or for a war tax. They claimed the right to hunt game and catch fish. They called for the woods to be given back to the municipality and the commons.

They abolished the death tax that left widows and orphans without their inheritance. The last article affirmed that they would decide everything based on the word of God. In the spring peasants sacked several monasteries and raided the wine cellars. They wanted a community of goods, but they used the sword and executed their enemies. He wanted to attack the peasants, but the Lansquenets refused.

Truchsess moved his army to Ulm. In Franconia the peasants elected the revolutionary Anton Forner their mayor, and uprisings began in the first days of April. Also that week peasants in Anspach revolted, and the rebellion spread to Bavaria. On the 27th peasants attacked the cathedral in Rothenburg. The priest Jakob Wehe led 3, peasants who captured Leipheim near Ulm; but they were defeated by the Swabian League on April 4, and Wehe and four other leaders were beheaded.

On that day in the Odenwald peasants followed the innkeeper Georg Metzler who led an attack on the monastery of Schoenthal. Peasants from the Neckar valley joined them. Wendell Hipler led peasants who took Oehringen. Hipler argued in his Divine Evangelical Reformation that merchant companies such as those of the Fuggers, Hochstetters, and Welsers should be abolished.

The Common Gay Troop burned the Hohenstaufen castle and monasteries, compelling peasants and nobles to join them. On April 11 the people of Bamberg rebelled against their bishop and pillaged his castles and the homes of the Catholics. By the end of April about , peasants were armed.

Truchsess led the fight against the insurrections at Leipheim on April 4, Baltringen peasants on the 17th, Gaeu peasants at Boeblingen on May 12 during an armistice, and against the Franks at Konigshofen on June 2. Rohrbach was leading a slaughter until Metzler stopped it. Helfenstein was captured, and after a trial on the 17th Rohrbach forced him and seventeen others to run a gauntlet that killed them.

Peasants took over the city of Heilbronn and were given 12, guilders but only pillaged the possessions of the clergy and the Teutonic Order. The knight Goetz von Berlichingen and Metzler led the aroused peasants in Main, and they compelled nobles to join them and spared their castles. Hans Berlin persuaded councils and chiefs to accept a modification of the Twelve Articles. Luther tried to refrain from judging the peasants and believed his task was to educate the conscience. On May 3 he advised Duke Johann of Weimar to oppose the peasants, and he approved Count Albrecht of Mansfield when he attacked peasants in the village of Osterhausen.

Let everyone who can, smite, slay, and stab, secretly or openly, remembering that nothing can be more poisonous, hurtful, or devilish than a rebel. He accused them of rebelling against their rulers, of robbing and plundering convents, and of claiming their crimes were done for the Gospel. He argued that the disciples and apostles voluntarily shared their possessions but that the peasants using force were stealing.

Melanchthon completed his Confutation of the Articles of the Peasants in early June, and he agreed the peasants were committing crimes and that the princes should restore order. About 6, peasants took over Stuttgart on April On April 28 about 20, peasants attacked Zabern and destroyed the monastery of the bishop of Strasbourg.

Then on May 13 they took over the town and forced a fourth of the men to join them. Metzler and Wendel Hipler managed to keep 2, peasants together and led them towards Kautheim. They had 8, men when they withdrew toward Koenigshofen where on June 2 they were attacked by the army of Truchsess that killed all middle-class men from Koenigshofen. Landgrave Philip of Hesse assembled an army and defeated the Fulda peasants at Frauenberg on May 3, Then he joined with Saxon troops and took Eisenach and Langensalza. He stirred the people with his words. When they saw a rainbow, they took it as a sign of their movement.

We confess Jesus Christ. We are not here to harm anyone John 2 , but to maintain divine justice. Thus we are not here to shed blood. If you are of the same mind, we do not want to do anything to you. Let everyone preserve this. When the artillery breached the crude fortification of wagons on a hill, the peasants fled and were slaughtered. Only peasants were taken prisoner, and Philip ordered more than a hundred killed with the sword. The citizens were spared because they paid a ransom of 40, guilders.

At Halle 4, peasants were led by Brentz but fled before citizens. Friedrich Myconius at Ichterhausen managed to persuade peasants to abandon their purpose. Johannes Agricola and Melanchthon also wrote pamphlets urging repentance. Rothenberg fell on June Margrave Casimir the Hohenzollern kept the peasant revolt in check by burning their villages and hanging them. Peasants were disarmed, and the leaders were arrested.

Casimir had 80 of them decapitated, and 69 had their eyes put out or fingers cut off. Bishop Wilhelm von Strassburg restored order while executing only four men. After an agreement was broken in Frankfort 8, peasants gathered and burned monasteries and castles. The Archbishop of Trier had helped the Marshal of Zabern defeat them at Pfedersheim on May 23; 82 were executed, and the revolt there ended with the capture of Weissenburg on July 7.

In Luther supervised, although he did not entirely agree with, the writing of Philipp Melancthon's — Augsburg Confession , one of the foundations of later Protestant thought. In Luther wrote his On Councils and Churches and witnessed in the following years the failure of German attempts to heal the wounds of Christianity. In the s Luther was stricken with disease a number of times, drawing great comfort from his family and from the devotional exercises that he had written for children. On the return trip he fell ill and died at Eisleben, the town of his birth, on February 18, A Life of Martin Luther.

Grand Rapids , MI: True Faith in the True God: An Introduction to Luther's Life and Thought. Although the Reformation was in its purest essence a religious movement, from the outset it also involved social, political, and economic forces and effected fundamental changes in many areas of life.

The first of the magisterial reformers, Martin Luther — , was pre-eminently concerned with theological matters, but his evangelical insight into the deepest meaning of the Christian gospel had tremendous implications for all aspects of social life and theory. Throughout his life he gave evidence of his concern for social action.

This ethical principle intensifies the force of conscience and the inner directedness of the Christian in society, minimizing heteronomous controls. Thus, such natural orders as the family, the various vocations, the state, and the organization of society in general are also divine orders. While historically they have shown development and are structurally subject to change, these natural orders have their origin in the divine will and are divinely ordained. This view allowed Luther to transcend the negative assessment of secular institutions characteristic of much medieval thought.

Institutions such as marriage and state authority had been viewed merely as restraints necessitated by sin or as systems whose legality depended upon the sanction of the church. Luther held natural law to be the basis of the natural orders and of all secular authority, including that of non-Christian rulers. On the one hand, culture and society are theonomous insofar as they are sustained by the ever-present creative action of God, who initiates all, encompasses all, and rules over men. Christians moved by love should participate in the social order and mend and improve it for the good of mankind.

Because of his own foreshortened eschatology and preoccupation with ecclesiastical concerns, Luther did not invest effort in the systematic renovation or reorganization of society, as Calvin did, but his thought contained the basic elements for a constructive social philosophy. In addressing himself to specific social issues, Luther at times reflected conservative views of long standing and at other times expressed novel ideas, which were ahead of his time and which found echoes in subsequent theorists.

Although he was himself the son of a rising middle-class mining entrepreneur, he believed in the superior virtues of agrarian life over commerce. He opposed usury with vehemence and flayed the monopolies of ruthless large capitalists like the Fuggers and Medicis. He argued for the just-price theory and accepted the labor theory of value. He stressed the value of vocation to the active life and raised the ordo naturalis to the dignity of the ordo spiritualis.

He opposed the mere giving of alms to beggars and urged that people sunk in poverty be given the means to help themselves. While encouraging support of the government and military service in the case of a just war of defense against an aggressor oran international lawbreaker, he insisted that under absolutely no circumstances could a Christian serve in an unjust cause or against his own conscience. It would seem that the highly organized and welfare-oriented social philosophies of such Lutheran lands as Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland reflect generically the basic social thought of Luther.

His pivotal faith in God gave him a certain detachment toward material ealth and a courageous attitude in the face of hostile political power and military threats—qualities that perhaps retain a basic relevance for modern social thought. A Study in Psychoanalysis and History. Austin Riggs Monograph No. Luther, Martin ? United Lutheran Publication House. Pauck, Wilhelm The Heritage of the Reformation. A German monk, scholar, and writer, and leader of the Reformation that brought about a new Protestant church.

Luther was born in Eisleben, in the kingdom of Saxony. His father was a mine operator who. Luther's days at the University of Erfurt, however, were shadowed by doubt and guilt over his sinfulness and his worthiness in the eyes of God. On passing through a forest in a thunderstorm, Luther vowed to follow a life of devotion should he survive.

He decided to drop his study of the law to become a monk, much to his father's dismay, and entered the Augustinian monastery of Erfurt. He led a strict life of confession, fasting, and prayer, which did little to relieve his self-doubt and uncertainty. Luther was ordained as a priest in and studied for a doctorate in theology at the University of Wittenberg. After winning his doctorate in , he was appointed to a teaching position at the university that he held throughout his life.

In the meantime, the questions of worthiness plagued him; he came to the conclusion that only a relationship with God based on personal faith could bring redemption and grace. This idea provided the foundation of his revolution against the Catholic Church hierarchy that had long been plagued by greed, corruption, and bureaucratic struggles for power.

The church judged Christians by their charitable works, their obedience to the pope, and their purchase of indulgences — a system that Luther saw as the artificial and unholy creation of unworthy men. In , a monk named Johann Tetzel arrived in Wittenberg on a mission to sell indulgences for the archbishop of Mainz, who would use the money to pay off loans he had used to pay bribes. This inspired Luther to write the founding document of the Reformation, known as the Ninety-five Theses. By tradition, he posted this bold challenge to the papacy on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg.

Only God could grant remission of sin, in Luther's opinion, and only God can judge souls worthy of release from purgatory and salvation from hell. The Ninety-five Theses were soon printed and circulated throughout Europe , touching off a controversy that permanently divided the Christian community. Over the next few years, Luther debated his ideas with leading religious men in Germany. He denied the infallibility and primacy of the pope; he defied the pronouncements of the Papacy and of the church councils; he condemned the sale of indulgences; he appealed for a return to the scriptures in all questions of faith and doctrine.

His stand earned him excommunication from the church by Pope Leo X in ; Luther had defied the papal bull challenging him by publicly burning it. He was now at risk for arrest and execution on a charge of heresy. Guaranteed safe passage, Luther arrived at Worms and refused to recant his writings. He then rode in disguise to Wartburg Castle, where he lived under the protection of Frederick the Wise, the elector of Saxony. Luther grew a beard and took the name of Knight George while Charles V declared him an outlaw subject to immediate arrest.

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At Wartburg Luther completed a German translation of the New Testament , which was published in and which helped to spread his ideas and influence among the common people of Germany. In , however, a bloody Peasants' Revolt broke out in Germany, in which the old social order was threatened by mobs proclaiming adherence to Luther's ideas. Appalled by the violence, Luther condemned the revolt in his pamphlet Against the Murdering, Thieving Hordes of Peasants , which he urged that revolting peasants be struck down like dogs.

After the Peasant's Revolt, Luther found himself embroiled in controversy within the Reformation movement. He broke with Desiderius Erasmus, the leading humanist of his time; but Lutheranism was enthusiastically taken up by German princes who saw it as a way to escape the authority of the emperor and his ally, the pope. In the meantime, Luther completed a German translation of the Old Testament in ; he wrote many treatises on the Bible as well as instruction on the Mass, several hymns, and pamphlets and essays on matters of personal faith.

In he completed On the Jews and Their Lies , in which he condemned in the strongest terms the freedom of Jews to follow their faith and advocated their homes and places of work be burned to the ground. In the meantime, the Protestant Reformation was taken up in Scandinavia , England , the Low Countries , and in France , where the struggle between Catholic and Protestant would turn into a virtual civil war. Founder of the German Reformation. In he entered an Augustinian monastery. Ordained priest in , he was sent for further study at the newly founded University at Wittenberg, later to Erfurt.

In he was made Doctor of Theology and was appointed professor of scripture at Wittenberg, a post he held for the rest of his life. Deeply troubled concerning personal guilt, he became convinced concerning justification by faith alone, finding help in the study of the Bible , Augustine's anti-Pelagian writings, John Tauler's mysticism and the Theologia Germanica , as well as the sensitive counsel of his superior John Staupitz.

In , pastorally concerned about the propagation of the indulgence traffic by the Dominican preacher J. Tetzel, Luther protested in his famous ninety-five theses. In the inevitable controversy which followed their publication, Luther debated his views with Catholic opponents, and produced in some of his most influential writings, On Good Works , The Babylonian Captivity of the Church , Address to the German Nobility , and The Freedom of a Christian.

In the same year the papal bull , Exsurge Domine , censured his teaching as heretical, and the promulgation a few months later of Decet Romanum Pontificem declared him excommunicate. He returned to Wittenberg in in order to preach against the extreme views of Andrew Carlstadt. In Luther married Catharine von Bora, a former nun. The Augsburg Confession , mainly the more diplomatic work of Melanchthon , gave moderate expression to his leading ideas; and his prolific writings, on average a book a fortnight, circulated his teaching addressed to circumstances, rather than being systematic throughout Europe.

His leading ideas were treasured by the Lutheran Churches who summarized Luther's essential message in their Book of Concord On major articles of faith Trinity , Christology , atonement , etc. Luther adhered to the classic credal tradition. The distinctive Lutheran emphasis is on the authority of scripture and soteriology. Because scripture is the word of God , it is the truth of God, in relation to which innovations of the Church esp.

Sola scriptura scripture alone is the source of doctrine and practice. Justification through faith is thus a central Lutheran theme. Luther, Martin — German Christian reformer who was a founder of Protestantism and leader of the Reformation. He was deeply concerned about the problem of salvation, finally deciding that it could not be attained by good works but was a free gift of God 's grace. By tradition, in Luther affixed his Ninety-five Theses to the door of the Schlosskirche in Wittenberg. This was a document that included, among other things, statements challenging the sale of indulgences.

This action led to a quarrel between Luther and Church leaders, including the Pope. Luther decided that the Bible was the true source of authority and renounced obedience to Rome. He was excommunicated, but gained followers among churchmen as well as the laity. After the publication of the Augsburg Confession , he gradually retired from the leadership of the Protestant movement. See also Lutheranism http: Luther, Martin b Eisleben, ; d Eisleben, Player of lute and fl. Wrote treatise on mus. Luther was born in Eisleben on November 10, the son of Hans Luder, who was engaged in copper mining.

After moving to nearby Mansfeld, the family increasingly acquired modest prosperity. Because Hans Luder appears prominently in Luther's later recollections as a stern and oppressive presence, the question has arisen whether the son's development was significantly affected by intense conflict with his father. No satisfactory answer to this question has been given. After initial schooling in Mansfeld, Martin Luther attended the cathedral school in Magdeburg from to , where he came into contact with the Brethren of the Common Life, one of the most spiritual of late medieval religious movements.

Between and he attended school in Eisenach, and, in , he matriculated at the University of Erfurt to pursue the customary study of the seven liberal arts. Luther was declared ineligible for financial aid, an indirect testimonial to the economic successes of his father. The philosophical climate at the university was that of Ockhamism, which undoubtedly exerted its influence upon the young student.

Upon receiving the master's degree in , Luther began the study of law in the summer of that year, in accordance with the wishes of his father. Less than two months later, however, the experience of a terrifying thunderstorm near Stotterheim prompted his vow to Saint Anne to become a monk, resulting in the abandonment of his legal studies. Undoubtedly, spiritual anxiety and uncertainty about his vocational choice combined to precipitate the determination to carry out the vow. His choice of this monastic order is explained not only by its strictness but also by its philosophical and theological orientation, to which Luther had been exposed during his earlier studies.

Two years later, on February 27, , Luther was ordained to the priesthood. In his later recollections his first celebration of the Mass stood out as an awesome experience. Afterward, at the behest of his monastic superior, Johann von Staupitz, Luther began graduate studies in theology, first at Erfurt and then, in the fall of , at the recently founded university at Wittenberg, because of his transfer to the Augustinian monastery there. In accordance with custom, he served as philosophical lecturer in the liberal arts curriculum. In he received his first theological degree, the baccalaureus biblicus.

In the fall of Luther was transferred back to Erfurt, where he continued his theological studies. Sometime thereafter the exact date is uncertain he was sent to Rome on monastic business. In his reflections of later years, he attributed great significance to that trip: Soon after his return from Rome, Luther transferred a second time to Wittenberg, completing his doctorate in theology there in October He then assumed the lectura in Biblia , the professorship in Bible endowed by the Augustinian order.

The first academic courses that Luther taught were on Psalms — , Romans — , Galatians — , Hebrews — , and another on Psalms His lecture notes, which have been analyzed intensively, chronicle his theological development: At the same time Luther acquired increasing responsibilities in his monastic order.

In he became preacher at the parish church in Wittenberg and was appointed district vicar of his order. The latter position entailed the administrative oversight of the Augustinian monasteries in Saxony. In his later years Luther spoke of having had a profound spiritual experience or insight dubbed by scholars his "evangelical discovery" , and intensive scholarly preoccupation has sought to identify its exact date and nature.

Two basic views regarding the time have emerged. One dates the experience, which Luther himself related to the proper understanding of the concept of the "righteousness of God" Rom. The matter remains inconclusive, partly because nowhere do Luther's writings of the time echo the dramatic notions that the reformer in later years associated with his experience. The import of the issue lies both in the precise understanding of what it was that alienated Luther from the Catholic church, and in understanding the theological frame of mind with which Luther entered the indulgences controversy of The dating of the experience before or after is thus important.

Placing the experience in seems to be the most viable interpretation. The Ninety-five Theses of October 31, the traditional notion that Luther nailed them to the door of the Wittenberg castle church has recently been questioned catapulted Luther into the limelight. These theses pertained to the ecclesiastical practice of indulgences that had not as yet been dogmatically defined by the church.

Luther's exploration of the practice was therefore a probing inquiry. Almost immediately after the appearance of the Ninety-five Theses, a controversy ensued. Undoubtedly it was fanned by the fact that Luther had focused not merely on a theological topic but had also cited a number of the popular grievances against Rome, thus touching upon a political issue. In addition to sending copies of the theses to several friends, Luther sent a copy to Archbishop Albert of Hohenzollern, whom he held responsible for a vulgar sale of indulgences in the vicinity of Wittenberg, together with a fervent plea to stop the sale.

Luther was unaware that the sale was part and parcel of a large fiscal scheme by which Albert hoped to finance his recent elevation to the politically important post of archbishop of Mainz. Albert's response was to ask the University of Mainz to assess the theses and, soon thereafter, to request the Curia Romana to commence the processus inhibitorius , the proceedings by which Luther's orthodoxy would be ascertained.

Thus the theses and Luther became an official matter for the church. The commencement of official proceedings against Luther added far-reaching notoriety to the affair, as did the related accusation of heresy by several theological opponents. The ensuing debate therefore became a public one, eventually allowing for the formation of a popular movement. In April Luther presented a summary of his theological thought, which he called the "theology of the cross," at a meeting of the Augustinian order in Heidelberg.

In presenting a caricature of scholastic theology, Luther appropriately emphasized its one-sidednesses. Soon afterward he was ordered to appear in Rome in conjunction with the proceedings against him, but the intervention of his territorial ruler, Elector Frederick, caused the interrogation to take place in Augsburg, Germany. With Cardinal Legate Cajetan representing the Curia, the meeting proved unsuccessful, since Luther refused to recant. Luther fled from Augsburg and, upon his return to Wittenberg, issued an appeal to a general council. Overwhelmed by the unexpected notoriety of the affair, Luther agreed to refrain from further participation in the controversy.

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All the same, he was inadvertently drawn into a disputation held in Leipzig in July In the context of a wide-ranging, if tedious, discussion of the fundamental issues in the controversy, Luther's opponent, Johann Eck, professor of theology at Ingolstadt, was intent on branding him a heretic and succeeded in eliciting Luther's acknowledgment that the church's general councils had erred. Luther posited a difference between the authority of the church and that of scripture, a notion that late medieval thinkers had never seen as problematic. After the election of Charles V as the new emperor, which had preoccupied the Curia for some time, official proceedings against Luther were resumed.

In June the papal bull Exsurge Domine Arise, O Lord condemned forty-one sentences from Luther's writings as "heretical, offensive, erroneous, scandalous for pious ears, corrupting for simple minds and contradictory to Catholic teaching. His response was to burn the bull in a public spectacle on 10 December It was now incumbent upon the political authorities to execute the ecclesiastical condemnation, but Luther was given the opportunity to appear before the German diet at Worms in April Several factors converged to bring about the unusual citation.

Luther had begun to precipitate a popular movement, in part playing on prevailing anti-Roman and anticlerical sentiment. There was apprehension about popular restlessness. Moreover, Luther claimed persistently that he had not received a fair hearing. To invite Luther to appear at Worms, and, indeed, give him an opportunity to recant, seemed to be to everyone's advantage. When he appeared before the diet, Luther acknowledged that he had been too strident in tone, but he refused to recant anything of theological substance.

After several weeks of deliberation, and despite some reluctance, a rump diet promulgated an edict that declared Luther and all of his followers political outlaws and called for the suppression of his teachings. By that time, however, Luther had disappeared from the public scene. At the instigation of his ruler Elector Frederick, he had been taken on his return to Wittenberg to a secluded castle, the Wartburg, where he was to spend almost a full year in hiding.

A period of self-doubt, it was also an exceedingly creative time, part of which he spent in translating the New Testament from Greek into German. He returned to Wittenberg in March to calm the restlessness that had surfaced there over the nature of the reform movement. In a series of sermons he enunciated a conservative notion of ecclesiastical reform, and his stance left its imprint on the subsequent course of the Reformation. Luther resumed his professorial responsibilities and continued his prolific literary activities, clarifying theological themes and offering guidelines for undertaking ecclesiastical reform.

His own theological formation was essentially complete by ; his theological work thereafter consisted in amplification and clarification. The year proved to be a major theological and personal watershed for Luther: On June 13 of that same year he married Katharina von Bora, a former nun who had left her convent the previous year. Even though the marriage — coming as it did on the heels of the German Peasants' War — was a subject of notoriety among Luther's enemies, it set the tone for a Protestant definition of Christian marriage for which the term "school for character" was aptly coined.

The next several years were overshadowed by Luther's growing controversy with Huldrych Zwingli over Communion. The controversy reached its culmination in October with a colloquy held at Marburg at the instigation of Landgrave Philipp of Hesse, who viewed the split of the Reformation movement over this issue as a major political liability.

Luther was a reluctant participant in the colloquy, for he saw the theological differences between Zwingli and himself to be so fundamental as to make conciliation impossible. The major issue debated at Marburg was the bodily presence of Christ in the Communion elements. It is unclear whether for Luther the politically more prudent course of action would have been theological conciliation which would have presented a unified Reformation movement or intransigence which by its separation from Zwingli would have underscored the proximity of the Lutheran and the Catholic positions.

No agreement was reached at Marburg; as a result, at the diet at Augsburg the following year, the Protestants appeared divided. As a political outlaw, Luther was unable to be present at Augsburg. He stayed at Coburg as far south as he was able to travel on Saxon territory , and his close associate Philipp Melanchthon functioned as spokesman for the Lutherans. Several of Luther's most insightful publications appeared during that summer — a tract on translating, an exposition of Psalm , and Exhortation That Children Should Be Sent to School. The unsuccessful outcome of the discussions at Augsburg and the subsequent formation of the League of Smalcald were accompanied by Luther's reconsideration of his views on the right of resistance to the emperor, which he had previously rejected.

The s brought Luther's extensive involvement in the reorganization of the University of Wittenberg — His extensive participation in the academic disputations that were now resumed were evidence of the richness and fullness of his thought. Luther's final years were overshadowed by his growing antagonism toward the papal church, and the consequences of his well-meant but misunderstood counsel to Landgrave Philipp of Hesse that bigamy was permissible under certain circumstances.

In addition, the Lutheran movement was torn by several internal conflicts, and Luther was concerned about the increasing role of the political authorities in ecclesiastical affairs. Luther's recognition that his norm of authority — scripture — did not preclude disagreement in interpretation and that the papal church was unwilling to accept the primacy of the word of God undoubtedly serve to explain — along with his increasing physical ailments — the vehemence of his last publications, especially those against the papacy and the Jews.

He was plagued by insomnia and, from onward, by kidney stones, which in almost led to his demise. In February Luther traveled, together with two of his sons and Philipp Melanchthon, to Luther's birthplace, Eisleben, to mediate in a feud among the counts of Mansfeld. There, having succeeded in that assignment, he died on 16 February. Not surprisingly, Martin Luther has received considerable scholarly and theological attention throughout the centuries.

Assessments of Luther have always been staunchly partisan, with a clear demarcation between Protestant and Catholic evaluations. The former, while uniformly positive, have tended to follow the intellectual or theological currents of their particular time, such as the eighteenth-century Enlightenment or nineteenth-century German nationalism. In the twentieth century, particularly in the latter part, the biographical and theological evaluation of Martin Luther focused on a number of specific aspects.

There was a preoccupation with the "young" Luther, that is, Luther between and , and particularly with Luther's "evangelical discovery," his formulation of a new understanding of the Christian faith. This new understanding has generated much speculation about Luther's relationship to the late Middle Ages , the medieval exegetical tradition, the significance of Augustine, Ockham, and mysticism.

The "older" or "mature" Luther, generally defined as Luther after , is only beginning to receive widespread attention; this part of his life has not attracted much scholarly interest because it lacks the excitement of Luther's earlier years. The general question is whether the "older" Luther should be seen in continuity or in discontinuity with the young Luther. A key theme in Luther's theology is that of the sole authority of scripture, formulated as the notion of sola scriptura; this notion, because it implied the possibility of a divergence of tradition from scripture, raised a startling new question.

Late medieval theology had formulated the issue of authority in terms of the possible divergency of pope and council. A related theme in Luther's theology was the relationship of law and gospel, which provided the key to the understanding of scripture. God reveals himself as both a demanding and a giving God, two qualities that Luther loosely assigned to the Old and New Testaments respectively; but in truth, so Luther asserted, grace is found in the Old Testament even as law is found in the New.

The notion of justification by faith is traditionally cited as the heart of Luther's thought.

It is, in fact, his major legacy to the Protestant tradition. In contradistinction to the medieval notion of a cooperative effort between man and God, between works and grace, Luther only stressed grace and God. Such grace is appropriated by faith, which affirms the reality of the grace of forgiveness, despite the reality of sin.

Luther's "theology of the cross" affirmed that God always works contrary to experience. These themes must be considered in the context of Luther's general affirmation of traditional dogma. His sacramental teaching repudiated the medieval notion of transubstantiation and affirmed a "real presence" of Christ in the bread and wine of Communion. Besides the sacrament of Communion, only that of baptism was affirmed. At least in his early years, Luther advocated a congregationally oriented concept of the church, with the "priesthood of all believers," another key motif, as an important corollary.

Luther's teaching of the "two kingdoms" sought to differentiate the Christian principles applicable in society. The definitive Weimar edition of Luther's works, D. Kritische Gesammtausgabe , edited by J. Knaake and others Weimar, — , in more than a hundred volumes, continues to be the basic tool for Luther research.

An exhaustive sampling of Luther in English can be found in his Works , 55 vols. A useful general introduction to facets and problems of Luther scholarship is found in Bernhard Lohse's Martin Luther: Of the numerous Luther biographies, the following deserve to be mentioned: Haile, Luther Garden City, N. Two useful collections of sources are Martin Luther , edited by E. The Man and His Work Minneapolis, Eisleben, village in Thuringia, Nov.

As was the practice of the time, the child was baptized the following day by the pastor, Bartholomew Rennebecher; and since it was the feast of St. Martin of Tours, he was named after the sainted Roman soldier. Within a year after his birth the family moved to Mansfield, where the father was employed as a laborer in the copper mines. Luther's father was a strict disciplinarian and in his early childhood the family was beset by poverty.

There is little evidence to argue, as Erik Erikson once did, that the atmosphere of the household was abnormal. By the turn of the 16th century his father's financial situation had improved, and in he became owner in a number of mines and foundries in the area. He had been elected to the city council in Young Martin was enrolled in the local Latin day school in and there began the traditional study of Latin grammar. In he was sent to Magdeburg, where he remained until Easter of the following year at a school conducted by the brethren of the common life.

The next semester he transferred to Eisenach because he had relatives there. Two of his professors, Jodocus Trutvetter and Bartholomew Arnold von Usingen, were followers of the via moderna. Whether Luther was deeply influenced by nominalism is still disputed. The picture drawn by Heinrich denifle, OP, that portrays Luther as an ossified Ockhamite is no longer tenable. Although Luther, in his later life, remarked that he belonged to the school of William of Ockham , he did not, on other occasions, hesitate to refer to the nominalists as"hoggish theologians.

In January he passed the examinations after the shortest period of study possible, standing second in his class. Although the young Luther had but a slight knowledge of Greek, he was well acquainted with the classical Latin authors. Ovid, Vergil, Plautus, and Horace were well known to him. He was also fairly well acquainted with humanism. The humanist Hieronymus emser had lectured at Erfurt during the summer of ; and Luther was familiar with the Eclogues of the Latin humanist Baptista Mantuanus.

Grotius Rubeanus, a close friend of young Luther, was painfully shocked at his decision to enter the monastery. The Call to Religion. In the summer of Luther, influenced no doubt by his father, began the study of law. Sometime in July of the same year, while returning to Erfurt from a visit to Mansfield, he encountered a severe thunderstorm near the village of Stotternheim; as a lightning bolt threw him to the ground, he vowed to St. Anne in a sudden panic that he would become a monk. To assume that the decision to enter the monastery was as impromptu as it is often depicted does Luther an injustice.

His strict religious upbringing, his natural bent toward piety, and above all the experiences of the last few years at the university were unquestionably factors of his move. In he had severely wounded himself by accidentally cutting the artery in his thigh and had spent many weeks in meditative recuperation. In the same year one of his closest friends, a fellow student, had died suddenly. The plague that struck the city of Erfurt in made him keenly aware of the preeminence of death.

All of this indicates that a call to religion was something that had been in his thoughts for a long period. Nor is it without significance that he chose to enter the monastery of the Hermits of St. The city of Erfurt boasted a Dominican, a Franciscan, and a Servite monastery in addition to the Black Cloister, a member of the Observant, or stricter Augustinian, congregation of Saxony, which was by far the most severe religious house in the city. On July 16, , much to the chagrin of his parents, who were already selecting a bride for the student of law, Luther entered the novitiate.

Soon after his profession, the exact date of which is not known, he was told to prepare himself for the reception of Holy Orders. He was ordained a deacon by the suffragan bishop, Johann von Laasphe of Erfurt, on Feb.

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Soon after ordination, Luther was sent to wittenberg, where the order held two professorships at the Elector Frederick's newly founded university. Johann von staupitz, vicar-general of the Saxon congregation of the Augustinians, held the chair of scriptural theology; Luther was given the chair of moral philosophy in the arts faculty. In addition to lecturing on the Nicomachean Ethics , Luther was also obliged to continue his theological studies. He received his baccalaureate in theology in the spring of The following autumn he returned again to Erfurt, where he continued with his study of the Sentences of Peter of Lombard and lectured on philosophy to the Augustinian students there.

Luther's studies were interrupted in , when he was chosen to accompany Staupitz to Rome. The vicargeneral had for years been identified with the reform group in the order who sought to unite both the observant, or stricter, group in the order with the more numerous conventuals. Luther probably spent a month in Rome, visiting its shrines and churches. He was not edified with the horde of unlettered clergy whom he encountered there, many of whom were unable to hear confessions.

He later observed that the priests said Mass in such an irreverent fashion that it reminded him of a juggling act. Yet there is little evidence that the scandals of Rome had any bearing on the gradual religious transformation that was taking place in his mind. After his return to Erfurt he was again sent to Wittenberg in the late summer of In October of he received the doctorate in theology and was assigned to the theological faculty succeeding Staupitz as professor of Scripture.

The next five years were of vital importance in the development of Luther's theological ideas. During this period he lectured on the Psalms — 15 , on the Epistle to the Romans — 16 , the Epistle to the Galatians, and the Epistle to the Hebrews — One gains some idea of the competence of the man in considering that in addition to following a monastic and academic schedule, he also preached at the castle church and held the office of Augustinian vicar of the district of Meissen and Thuringia. If Luther had sought peace of mind in entering religion, he found it illusory. He gradually grew aware of the vast abyss between what he felt himself to be in his innermost self and the demands of God.

He was increasingly conscious of the power of sin, and repeated confession brought him no peace. Further, the complacency that he felt at doing good seemed, as he said, "to poison his soul as the frost nips flowers in the bud. He tells us that while contemplating the righteousness of God in the monastery tower, probably in , a new concept, a new illumination came to him, and "the gates of paradise were opened. The study of the Epistle of Paul to the Romans had convinced him that the justice of God before which he trembled is not exacting, does not condemn, but is wholly beneficent.

It is a justice that reinstates the sinner qua sinner in the eyes of God, in virtue of Christ's redemption. In explaining how this phenomenon is produced, Luther logically rejected the traditional teaching of the Church. For justification, no longer an objective transformation, is produced by the word of God, the Gospel. It is in, with, and through the Gospel that God works upon the soul through His Spirit. The soul remains passive and receptive. Thus Luther made an extremely personal experience the center of a new theory of salvation that was no longer in harmony with the one traditionally taught by the Church.

These ideas were only gradually formed, but a study of the glosses and the notes kept by Luther's students during the years to leaves no doubt that they had formed the basis of his religious thought. They would probably have remained within the depths of his own inner spiritual struggle and never spread beyond the confines of the classroom where he lectured were it not for a series of events that brought the focus of all Christendom on the Wittenberg monk and changed the course of history. Both his age and the accumulation of two bishoprics were in direct violation of Canon Law; nor was his personal life beyond reproach.

The Holy See condoned the appointment and a year later the same pluralist was elected archbishop of Mainz, a position that automatically made him prince elector, Reich-chancellor, and primate of all Germany. The move was undeniably inspired by political aspirations since it gave the Hohenzollerns two votes in the electoral college. Yet the price was incredibly high. For the dispensation to hold benefices in three dioceses Albrecht had to pay the Curia a sum of 10, golden ducats. Another 14, was demanded to pay up the arrears in pallium taxes for the See of Mainz.

An agreement was made with the Curia whereby, for allowing the Peter's Indulgence to be preached in his episcopal territories, the bishop would receive one half of the income and the other half would go toward the construction of St. As principal agent for this sordid simoniacal act, the Fuggers chose the well-known indulgence preacher Dominican Johann tetzel.

Of the indulgence agreement between the House of fugger, the Curia, and the archbishop of Mainz, Luther knew nothing. He wrote him on October 31, Peter's are hawked about under your illustrious sanction. I am not denouncing the sermons of the preachers who advertise them, for I have not seen them, but I regret that the faithful have conceived some erroneous notions about them. These unhappy souls believe that if they buy a letter of pardon they are sure of their salvation; also that souls fly out of purgatory as soon as money is cast into the chest, in short, that the grace conferred is so great that there is no sin whatever which cannot be absolved thereby, even if, as they say, taking an impossible example, a man should violate the mother of God.

They also believe that indulgences free them from all guilt of sin. At the same time as Luther approached Tetzel with his criticisms he also wrote and circulated his attack upon indulgences, the so-called 95 theses, and announced his intention to hold a debate on their value. What had been for years a question in the mind of Luther, a matter of theology, now became a matter of reform. Most of the theses were not opposed to traditional Catholic doctrine. Tetzel, who was in Berlin at the time the theses were published, was supported by the members of his order, and to confirm their confidence in his theological competence they later gave him an honorary degree in theology from their Roman college.

Luther's own attitude toward his antagonist was anything but hostile. Later, when he heard that Tetzel was stricken with a fatal illness, he wrote him a consoling letter stating that the unfortunate affair was in no way the Dominican's responsibility. The roots of the controversy lay much deeper. In early February , Luther presented the bishop of Brandenburg with a series of Resolutiones on the theses, requesting that the bishop strike out whatever he found displeasing.

He wrote, "I know that Christ does not need me. He will show His Church what is good for her without me. Nothing is so difficult to state as the true teaching of the Church, especially when one is a serious sinner as I am. The bishop answered Luther, informing him that he found no error in the Resolutiones and that in fact he thoroughly objected to the manner in which indulgences were being sold.

Rome had already been alerted to the dangers contained in Luther's novel doctrine by the archbishop of Mainz. In view of the recent negotiations between Albrecht and the Curia, it is understandable that his protest was interpreted in terms of declining revenues rather than threatened dogma. However, with the powerful Dominican Order now denouncing the Wittenberg professor, Rome had no alternative but to act.

Following an established pattern, the Roman authorities, having failed to silence Luther through his own order, instigated a formal canonical process against him. The provincial of the Saxon province of the Dominicans, Herman Rab, induced the fiscal procurator, Marius de Perusco, to have the pope instigate charges against Luther. At the procurator's request, an auditor of the Curia, Girolamo Ghinucci, was entrusted with the preliminary investigation, and a Dominican, Sylvestro Prierias, Master of the Sacred Palace and censor librorum of Rome, was commissioned to draw up a theological opinion on Luther's doctrinal writings.

A thorough Thomist, Prierias handled Luther's writings as if he were conducting a scholastic disputation. His Dialogus was nothing more than a polemic tagging the various theses as erroneous, false, presumptuous, or heretical.

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A citation, which reached Luther on August 7, , was drawn up demanding that he appear personally in Rome within 60 days to defend himself. The citation and the dialogue were dispatched to the general of the Dominican Order, Tommaso de Vio, commonly known as cajetan, probably the outstanding theologian of the century. The Meeting with Cajetan. During the same month, the pope, now informed of Emperor Maximilian's willingness to prosecute Luther, instructed Cajetan, whom he had appointed as his legate to the Diet of Augsburg, to cite the accused to appear before him.

An order of extradition was also sent to Frederick the Wise, Luther's territorial sovereign, and also to his provincial, Gerhard Hecker, who was commanded to arrest him. Upon receipt of the citation, Luther immediately moved to forestall his appearance before what he considered anything but an impartial tribunal.

Supported by Frederick the Wise, he demanded that his case be tried in Germany and by a group of competent scholars. Frederick managed to obtain a promise from Cajetan of a fair hearing and pledged safe-conduct to the young monk. On October 12, Luther appeared before the Dominican cardinal and his entourage of Italian jurists. It was Cajetan's hope to obtain recantation by paternal exhortations, but Luther obstinately refused to make an act of revocation, maintaining that he would not do so as long as he was not convinced of his errors on a basis of scriptural proof.

When Luther suggested that the decretal be submitted to the opinion of a Council, Catejan accused him of being a Gersonist. On October 16, Luther informed the cardinal of his willingness to stop commenting on indulgences and his readiness to listen to the Church. He apologized for his violent outbursts against the pope. Yet there was not a word of recantation. To his brethren at Wittenberg he wrote: On November 28, Luther appealed to a general council.

by Sanderson Beck

The appeal was actually a legal device intended to stay the civil effects of the excommunication that was now imminent. Rome and the Impending Imperial Election. The delay of the excommunication of Luther was not a result so much of this legal maneuver as it was of a developing political situation that involved the papacy once again in the affairs of Germany.

The election of Charles would have constituted a threat to the territorial independence of the pope because of the latter's sovereignty over Naples. Hence the Curia, favoring an election of either Francis I of France or, preferably, Frederick, Luther's sovereign, made efforts to delay any move that would antagonize the elector.

To win the support of Frederick, Karl von miltitz, a swaggering, alcoholic Saxon, holding the office of papal notary in the Rome court, was sent to the elector with a plan to have Luther tried in a German ecclesiastical court, preferably in Trier. In addition he was to present the elector with the Golden Rose, as well as a letter of legitimization for Frederick's two children.

None of the supporters of Luther were, however, deceived by the boastful Saxon. In fact, his presence in Germany supported their conviction that politics, not theology, was behind Rome's denunciation of Luther. Leo X 's Bull of Excommunication. A bull of excommunication, Exsurge Domine , was issued in Rome on June 15, , and Johann eck, Luther's opponent in his debates with karlstadt at Leipzig in July , was commissioned to promulgate it throughout the empire. In September he published the bull in the diocese of Brandenburg and in the diocese of Saxony.

Before the day time limit, within which he had to submit, Luther again appealed to a general council. The appeal did not delay, however, the final bull of excommunication, Decet Romanum Pontificem , which pronounced sentence on Luther on January 3, In April of that year he appeared before the Diet in Worms; and although protected by a writ of safe-conduct, he was declared henceforth a criminal in the Empire.

It is one of the strange turns of history that Luther was never officially prosecuted in his own country, although excommunication, by labeling him a heretic, made him liable to the death penalty in the Empire. A number of circumstances combined to render the ecclesiastical and civil penalties ineffective. In the first place there was strong public reaction that rebelled at the prospect of condemning a man who had become the outright spokesman for their own grievances against corruption in the Church.

The conviction that until a council had actually pronounced against him, he and his followers were not definitely cut off from the Catholic Church was widespread. Finally, the majority of the German bishops, still influenced by conciliarism, were hardly inclined to stand in the way of a man whose attacks on papal claims to ecclesiastical supremacy expressed their own opposition to Romanism. Almost everywhere the publication of the bull met with strong opposition.

In Luther's home diocese of Brandenburg, the local ordinary, Hieronymus Schulz, did not dare to publish it. The University of Wittenberg brushed it aside as a further example of Eck's skullduggery. In Erfurt the document was cast into the river, and in Leipzig a riot of the students at the University forced the executor to flee the city. During the summer and fall of , Luther wrote what many consider, after the translation of the Bible, to be the most important of his works.

In a series of pamphlets, An Appeal to the Nobility of the German Nation, On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church , and the Liberty of a Christian Man , he outlined what he felt would be a program for reforming and revitalizing the Church. The first edition some 4, copies of the Appeal to the Nobility was sold out between August 18 and In this work he pointed out the three walls the Romanists have built about themselves that constitute the main obstacles to true reform and are responsible for the decline of Christianity: While the first had been an attack on the century-old abuses of the Church and contained little that was novel, this next work openly struck a blow at the sacramental system and the Sacrifice of the Mass.

Written in Latin, it was intended for theologians and scholars and opened the eyes of many, for the first time, to the radical elements in his new doctrines. Erasmus declared that it precluded all possibility of peace with the papacy. The third great work of this period, On Christian Liberty , continued to strike out at the roots of papal Christianity by emphasizing the primacy of Scripture, the priesthood of the laity, and the doctrine of justification by faith alone. In emphasizing Christian liberty, Luther stresses the freedom expressed in obedience to God and service to one's neighbor.

He traces the religious implications of justification by faith and impugns the idea that good works are the mechanical performance of ecclesiastical laws. Rather, they are the fruit of faith from which they flow. Although these three writings in a certain sense epitomize the salient features of the early Lutheran movement, it would be unjust to say that they are the very heart and soul of Luther's doctrine. Neither would it be correct to assert that Luther or his followers felt that they had in any way separated themselves from the Catholic Church by condemning the abuses within it.

But the three treatises of , widely circulated in the next decade, did win large numbers of converts for the evangelical movement. Progress of the Lutheran Reform. While returning from Worms Luther was kidnapped by the agents of Frederick the Wise and placed in hiding at Wartburg, where he continued to pour forth his scriptural and reformatory writings. The years between and were the most decisive period in the growth of Lutheranism. Since neither the bull of excommunication nor the Edict of Worms were actually put into effect in the empire, the reform movement continued to flourish.

A number of events, however, caused a loss in its original momentum. As a popular uprising it was thwarted by the very forces that Luther had originally hoped to liberate. For several generations the peasants in the south and west of Germany had threatened local governments with grievances arising out of the economic and sociological changes of this transitional period. The doctrines of Luther, particularly his teaching on Christian liberty, were quickly transformed into demands for social reform.

Eventually, peasant uprisings broke out in the Black Forest region in June and spread throughout Swabia, Franconia, Thuringia, and parts of the Rhineland. Luther firmly opposed the revolt, asserting that rebellion would stir up more ills than it would cure. The subsequent failure of the revolt and the urging of Luther that the civil authorities step in to stop the political anarchy that was threatening large areas of the Empire gave a definite impetus to the formation of territorial or state churches.

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