What Are We Protesting About? Martin Luther and the Reformation
What are We Protesting About?: Martin Luther and the Reformation 4/26/2009: The Medieval Church and the Seeds of Reformation 5/3/2009: Martin Luther s Problems with the Church 5/10/2009: Luther s Bible and the Spread of Lutheranism 5/17/2009: Other Reformations and the Counter-Reformation
What are We Protesting About?: Martin Luther and the Reformation Last time A.D. 743-756: Pope Zachary and Pope Stephen II conspired with Pepin the Short, making Pepin King of the Franks in exchange for the eliminating the threat of the Lombards and creating the Papal States, a kingdom ruled by the Popes. 1305-1378: The Avignon Papacy; 1378-1414: The Western Schism. St. Peter s Basilica fell into disrepair. 1513: Giovanni di Lorenzo de Medici becomes Pope Leo X, bankrupting the papacy and necessitating increased fundraising, including indulgences.
An overview of the Catholic life of Martin Luther, including his time in an Augustinian monastery, indulgences, justification by faith, 95 Theses, and the Diet of Worms.
Martin Luther was born on 10 November, 1483 in Eisleben, Holy Roman Empire to Hans and Margarethe Luther. Hans wanted his son to be a lawyer, but after receiving his Master s degree from the University of Erfurt in 1505 at the age of 21 and enrolling in law school, he dropped out almost immediately. He was instead interested in philosophy and theology. Image: Martin Luther, portrait by Lucas Cranach, 1529. Via Wikimedia Commons.
Image: Cell in the Augustinian Monastery in Erfurt, Germany, taken in June 2006 by Paul T. McCain. Via Wikimedia commons. Luther entered an Augustinian monastery later that summer, after being caught outside in a thunderstorm and praying to St. Anne (mother of Mary, patron saint of miners) that he would do so if he survived. As a monk, he was very devout he fasted, prayed, confessed for hours on end. He was ordained a priest in 1507.
1510: The Augustinian order had, for nearly a century, been divided into Observant and Conventional Augustinians. Luther traveled to Rome to plead the case of the Observants to the head of the Augustinian order. Luther was at first awed by his time in Rome all those sacred relics! But before long, he became disenchanted with the riches ostentatiously displayed by the Bishops, Cardinals, and above all, the Pope. Many of these men had mistresses, and children. His own reading of the Bible (and of Augustinian tradition) led him to eschew such earthly pleasures. He returned home in 1511, having been refused an audience with the head of his order. Image: The Scala Sancta, in the Basilica of St. John Lateran, October 2004, by Wikipedia user Carlomorino. Via Wikimedia commons.
Image: Frederick III, engraving by Albrecht Dürer, 1524, via Wikimedia commons His superior at the monastery, Johann von Staupitz, decided he needed something to distract him, and told him to move into academia, and later that year Luther began teaching theology at the recently founded University of Wittenberg, whose patron was Frederick III, elector of Saxony. In 1512, shortly before his 29th birthday, he received his Doctorate of Theology. The next year, Pope Leo X was crowned. Within two years, he had exhausted the Papal savings, and began looking for new ways to fundraise for his lifestyle and the Church.
In 1516, a Dominican friar named Johann Tetzel was sent by the Church into the Holy Roman Empire to sell indulgences. He was very good at his job: He created a price sheet showing what the appropriate donation would be for most any venial sin; he had a large retinue with drummers, trumpeters, and criers to announce his arrival in a town. Frederick refused to let Tetzel enter Saxony not because of any theological problem with the indulgences, but rather because he himself had procured many, many sacred relics, and was charging admission to have people see them and thus reduce their time in Purgatory! Image: A Question to a Mintmaker, woodcut by Jorg Breu the Elder, c. 1530. Via Wikimedia Commons
Image: Albrecht of Brandenburg (as Cardinal), engraving by Albrecht Dürer, 1519 Tetzel had a powerful backer in Albrecht of Brandenburg, who had recently become Archbishop of Mainz, and thus an Elector. Albrecht was already Archbishop of Magdeburg and administered another nearby diocese (Halberstadt). His brother, as margrave of Brandenburg, was also an Elector. In order to receive the necessary dispensations to become a double-archbishop and allow one family to control two votes in electing the Emperor, he had gone deep into debt.
A deal was worked out whereby he would heavily promote Tetzel and the sale of indulgences in exchange for a cut of the proceeds. Wittenberg was near the border of Saxony. Quite a number of people from Wittenberg made the 20- mile walk to hear Tetzel and purchase indulgences from him. Image: The Holy Roman Empire, created by Wikipedia user Silverhelm. Via Wikimedia Commons.
Luther, meanwhile, had come to what he later termed his tower experience (Turmerlebnis). When he became a priest, he began by preaching on the Psalms (in order, one per week). By this time, he had moved on to Paul s letter to the Romans. His reading of Romans 1:17 was a spiritual breakthrough: For in it [the Gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, The one who is righteous will live by faith. The Latin for righteousness is justia, hence, justified by faith. Luther had, throughout his 12 years of holy orders, been constantly worried about how he, a sinner, could ever be worthy of a Holy God. In this verse, he finally found a theology that made sense to him: Christ took on his sin everyone s sin when he died. Humans are unworthy sinners, but God, though his gift of Grace, chooses to ignore that and allow us to be saved anyway. Anyone who confessed and turned away from sin truly had those sins forgiven. As Luther later wrote, At this I felt myself straightway born afresh and to have entered through the open gates into paradise itself.
Image: Door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. Photo by Torsten Schleese, via Wikimedia Commons. Imagine his dismay when his parishioners began showing up in church with indulgence receipts, saying they had paid good money for them and didn t need confession anymore. This was in direct conflict with the theology he saw in Romans. He wrote a series of 95 debating points, commonly called the 95 Theses, and posted them to the church door at the University this being the typical way of posting announcements on 31 October, 1517.
He also mailed copies to several people, including the Archbishop of Mainz (who forwarded it to the pope), urging him to stop the sale of indulgences on theological grounds. Many copies were made via printing press, woodcutting, and manuscript, and the 95 Theses became a popular read in the area. Luther, for his part, continued to lecture on his understanding that faith alone justifies salvation. Image: Castle Church in Wittenberg. Photo by Wikipedia user Cethegus. Via Wikimedia Commons.
Image: 95 Theses. Via Wikimedia Commons Some examples from the 95 Theses: 56: The treasures of the church, out of which the Pope grants indulgences, are not sufficiently named or known among the people of Christ. 62: The true treasure of the Church is the Most Holy Gospel of the glory and the grace of God. 82: Why does the Pope not empty Purgatory, for the sake of holy love and the dire need of the souls that are there, if he redeems an infinite number of souls for the sake of miserable money with which to build a Church? The former reasons would be most just; the latter is most trivial.
Pope Leo X at first tried to ignore Luther. He was more concerned with, among other things, trying to organize a new Crusade against the Ottoman Empire (which had recently captured Egypt and Syria and was threatening Cyprus), eliminating Cardinals who tried to stand against him, and using the Papal States army to capture the city of Urbino for his nephew, Lorenzino de Medici. Image: Pope Leo X. Detail of a portrait by Raphael, 1518/1519
Image: Cover of Exsurge Domine, scanned from Concordia Theological Seminary s first edition copy by Robert E. Smith. Via Wikimedia Commons. Luther spent 1518 and 1519 traveling and preaching on justification by faith, gaining quite an audience. Tetzel and his Dominican order recognized the threat this Augustinian posed, and were able to present their concerns to the Pope. Finally, on 15 June 1520, Leo X responded with an encyclical called Exsurge Domine, requiring Luther to recant 41 sentences from his writings, including the 95 Theses, within 60 days, or face excommunication. Luther refused, publicly burning the bull and decretals.
Later that year, he published three books that developed his theology further. In Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, he urged the leading citizens of the Holy Roman Empire to note the inherent conflict of interest of having the head of the church as a secular power within the Empire as well; that the Pope had no special authority when it came to the ability to interpret scripture; and that it was a bad idea that the only person allowed to call as church council was the Pope himself. Image: Screenshot of Three Treatises, which collects Luther s three major writings from the fall of 1520, from amazon.com. Retrieved 5/2/2009.
Second, in The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, written in Latin and aimed at his fellow clergy, he discussed the Church s seven sacraments. For the Eucharist, he advocated allowing laity to hold the Cup and dismissed the idea of transubstantiation. For Baptism, he insisted that it justifies a person before God only if combined with faith. For Penance, he insisted that the whole point was that the absolution was received by faith. And he denied that the remaining four (Confirmation, Matrimony, Holy Orders, and Unction) were sacraments at all.
Finally, in The Freedom of a Christian, written in German, he developed the idea of justification by faith, the priesthood of all believers, and freedom through grace. Martin Luther was excommunicated on 3 January, 1521. Image: Decet Romanun Pontificem from the Vatican Secret Archives (http://asv.vatican.va/en/doc/1521.htm)
Image: Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, by Hieronymus Hopfer. Via Wikimedia commons. For failing to submit to Exsurge Domine, Luther was required to appear before an assembly, called a Diet, in the city of Worms. This Diet of Worms ran from 28 January to 25 May, 1521, and was chaired by the Holy Roman Emperor himself, Charles V. Luther arrived on 16 April. The following day, he was shown copies of his writings, and asked if he stood by them. He agreed that they were his writings, but took a day of prayer before admitting that he did still stand behind what he wrote.
The Edict of Worms was penned by Charles V on 25 May. "For this reason we forbid anyone from this time forward to dare, either by words or by deeds, to receive, defend, sustain, or favor the said Martin Luther. On the contrary, we want him to be apprehended and punished as a notorious heretic, as he deserves, to be brought personally before us, or to be securely guarded until those who have captured him inform us, whereupon we will order the appropriate manner of proceeding against the said Luther. Those who will help in his capture will be rewarded generously for their good work." Image: Luther Before the Diet of Worms, photogravure of painting by Anton von Werner (1843-1915), via Wikimedia commons.
Image: Wartburg Castle. Photograph by Robert Scarth, via Wikimedia commons. Luther left Worms for home, knowing he was a marked man. Before he reached Wittenberg, however, masked horsemen intercepted his party and he disappeared for nearly a year To be continued