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Martin Luther (November
10, 1483 –
February
18, 1546) was a
German monk,[1]
priest,
professor,
theologian,
and church reformer. His teachings inspired the
Reformation and deeply influenced the
doctrines
and culture of the
Lutheran
and
Protestant traditions, as well as the course of Western civilization.
Luther's formulation of the doctrine of
sola fide,
"salvation by faith alone," became the principal cause and distinctive feature
of the Reformation movement.
Luther's hymns, including his best-known "A
Mighty Fortress is Our God", inspired the development of congregational
singing within Christianity.[2]
His marriage on
June 13, 1525,
to
Katharina von Bora reintroduced the practice of
clerical marriage within many Christian traditions.[3]
(See
Marriage and family below.)
His contributions to Western civilization include his translation of the
Bible, which furthered the development of a standard version of the
German language and added several principles to the art of
translation.[4]
(See
Luther's Bible translation below.) Due to the recently developed
printing press, his writings were widely read, influencing many subsequent
Protestant Reformers and thinkers, giving rise to diversifying Protestant
traditions in Europe and elsewhere.[5]
Today, nearly seventy million Christians belong to Lutheran churches worldwide,[6]
with some four hundred million Protestant Christians[7]
tracing their history back to Luther's reforming work.
Luther is also known for his writings about the
Jews, in which he
proposed that Jews' homes be destroyed, their
synagogues
and schools burned, their money confiscated, and their rights and liberties
curtailed.
[8]
These writings were given "full publicity" by the
Nazis in
Germany in 1933–45.
[9]
(See
Luther and Antisemitism below.)
Early life
Luther was born to
Hans and
Margarethe Luther, née Ziegler, on
November
10, 1483, in
Eisleben,
Germany. He
was baptized the next morning, on the feast day of
St. Martin of Tours, after whom he was named. His family moved to
Mansfeld in
1484, where his father first worked in, then later operated,
copper mines.[10]
Having risen from the
peasantry,
Hans Luther was determined to see his eldest son become a lawyer. Luther was
sent to schools in Mansfeld and
Magdeburg
(in 1497), where he attended a school run by a lay group called the
Brethren of the Common Life. In 1498, he attended school in
Eisenach.[11]
In 1501, at the age of seventeen, he entered the
University of Erfurt, where he played the
lute and was
nicknamed "the philosopher". He received a B.A. in 1502 and an M.A. in 1505,
placing second of 17 candidates.[12]
In accordance with his father's wishes, he enrolled in the law school at the
same university.
The course of his life changed during a thunderstorm in the summer of 1505,
when, he wrote, a lightning bolt struck near him as he was returning to school.
Terrified, he cried out, "Help!
Saint Anna,
I'll become a monk!"[13]
His life spared, he left law school, sold his books apart from
Virgil and
Plautus, and
entered the
Augustinian
monastery
in Erfurt on
July 17,
1505.[14]
Monastic and academic life
Luther dedicated himself to monastic life. He devoted himself to
fasts,
flagellations, long hours in
prayer and
pilgrimage,
and constant
confession.
The more he tried to do to please God by being the best monk he could be, the
more aware he became of his sinfulness.[15]
He would later remark, "If anyone could have gained heaven as a monk, then I
would indeed have been among them."[16]
Yet this period of his life resulted in deep spiritual despair. In a sermon
given later in life, he said, "I lost hold of Christ the Savior and Comforter
and made of him a stock-master and hangman over my poor soul."[17]
Johann von Staupitz, Luther's superior, concluding the young monk needed
more work to distract him from excessive
rumination,
ordered Luther to pursue an academic career. In 1507 he was ordained to the
priesthood, and in 1508 he began teaching
theology at
the
University of Wittenberg.[18]
He received a Bachelor's degree in biblical studies on
March 9,
1508, and another
Bachelor's degree in the
Sentences
by
Peter Lombard (a major
Mediæval
textbook of theology) in 1509.[19]
On October
19, 1512, he
was awarded his
Doctor of Theology and, on
October 21,
1512, was "received
into the senate of the theological faculty" of the University of Wittenberg,
having been called to the position of Doctor in Bible.[20]
He spent the rest of his career in this position at the University of
Wittenberg.
Theology of grace
Luther's study and research as a Bible professor led him to question the
contemporary usage of terms such as
penance and
righteousness in the Roman Church. He became convinced that the church had
lost sight of what he saw as several of the central truths of Christianity — the
most important being the doctrine of
justification by faith alone. He began to teach that
salvation
is a gift of God's
grace
through Christ
received by faith
alone.
[21]
Another essential aspect of his theology was his emphasis on the "proper
distinction"[22]
between
Law
and Gospel. He believed that this principle of interpretation was an
essential starting point in the study of the scriptures. Luther believed that
failing to distinguish between
Law
and Gospel was at the root of many fundamental theological errors.
[23]
Indulgence controversy
In addition to his duties as a professor, Luther served as a preacher and
confessor at the city church, St. Mary's. He would also occasionally be asked to
preach to the Elector and his court at the
Castle Church in
Wittenberg.
The Castle Church in Wittenberg was the site of one of Europe's largest single
collections of relics, accumulated by Elector Frederick the Wise. Relics are
objects considered to be holy and the viewing of which considered meritorious,
allowing the viewer to receive relief from temporal punishment for sins in
purgatory. By 1509 the Elector "already owned 5,005 of them, including several
vials of the milk of the Virgin Mary, straw from the manger [of Jesus], and the
entire corpse of one of the innocents massacred by
King Herod. These relics were kept in reliquaries--artistially wrought
vessels mostly of silver guilt--and exhibited once a year for the faithful to
venerate. In 1509 each devout visitor who donated toward the preservation of the
Castle Church received an indulgence of one hundred days per relic."[24]
By 1520 the Elector's collection of relics had increased to 19,013 allowing
pilgrims to the Castle Church to receive an indulgence that would reduce their
years in purgatory by 1.9 milion years.[25]
An
indulgence is the remission (either full or partial) of temporal punishment
still remaining for sins after guilt has been removed by absolution. A buyer
could purchase one, either for himself or for one of his deceased relatives in
purgatory.
The
Dominican friar
Johann Tetzel was enlisted to travel throughout
Archbishop Albert of Mainz's episcopal territories promoting and selling
indulgences for the renovation of
St. Peter's Basilica in
Rome.
Tetzel was very successful at it. He urged: "As soon as the coin in the
coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs."[26]
Luther saw this traffic in indulgences as an abuse that could mislead people
into relying on the indulgences themselves, to the neglect of confession, true
repentance, and satisfactions. Luther preached three sermons against indulgences
in 1516 and 1517. On
October 31,
1517, according to
tradition, Luther posted
95 Theses
on the Castle Church door in Wittenberg for a disputation on indulgences.[27]
The Theses condemned greed and worldliness in the Church as an abuse and asked
for a theological disputation on what indulgences could grant. Luther did not
challenge the authority of the Pope to grant indulgences, but insisted that the
power of indulgences was limited to penance assigned by the Church.[28]
Luther wrote to his ecclesiastical superior, Archbishop Albrecht of
Magdeburg, on October 31, 1517 to express his deep concerns about the traffic in
indulgences that Albrecht was allowing in the territories under his authority.
With the letter, Luther included a copy of his 95 theses. Albrecht did not
reply, but instead forwarded the theses on to Rome, suspecting Luther of heresy.[29]
As a Doctor of Holy Scripture it was well within Luther's right to discuss
indulgences, or any open question, since the matter of indulgences had not at
this point been established as formal church dogma, nor would be for several
more years. However, "his adversaries, detected severe criticism of the pope in
his theses, and this was considered heretical."[30]
The 95
Theses were quickly translated into German, printed and widely copied.
Within two weeks they had spread throughout Germany, and within two months
throughout Europe. This was one of the first events in history that was
profoundly affected by the
printing press,[31]
which made the distribution of documents easier and more widespread.
Response of the papacy
After disregarding Luther as "a drunken German who wrote the Theses" who
"when sober will change his mind,"[32]
Pope Leo X
ordered the Dominican professor of theology,
Sylvester Mazzolini, called from his birthplace
Priero,
Prierias (also Prieras), in 1518, to inquire into the matter. Prierias
recognized Luther's implicit opposition to the authority of the pope by being at
variance with a
papal bull,
declared him a heretic, and wrote a scholastic refutation of his theses. It
asserted papal authority over the Church and denounced every departure from it
as a heresy.
Luther replied in kind, and a controversy developed.
Meanwhile, Luther took part in an
Augustinian convention at
Heidelberg,
where he presented theses on the slavery of man to sin and on divine grace. In
the course of the controversy on indulgences, the question arose of the absolute
power and authority of the pope, since the doctrine of the "Treasury of the
Church", the "Treasury of Merits", which underpinned the doctrine and practice
of indulgences, was based on the Bull Unigenitus (1343) of
Pope Clement VI. Because of his opposition to that doctrine, Luther was
branded a heretic, and the pope, who had determined to suppress his views,
summoned him to Rome.
Yielding, however, to the
Elector Frederick, whom the pope hoped would become the next Holy Roman
Emperor and who was unwilling to part with his theologian, the pope did not
press the matter, and the cardinal legate
Cajetan was
deputed to receive Luther's submission in Augsburg in October 1518.
Luther, while professing his obedience to the Church, boldly denied papal
authority, and appealed first "from the pope not well informed to the pope who
should be better informed"[33]
and on November 28 to a general
council. Luther now declared that the papacy formed no part of the original
and immutable essence of the Church.
Wishing to remain on friendly terms with Luther's protector, Elector
Frederick the Wise, the pope made a final attempt to reach a peaceful
resolution. A conference with the papal chamberlain
Karl von Miltitz at
Altenburg
in January 1519 led Luther to agree to remain silent as long as his opponents
would, to write a humble letter to the pope, and to compose a treatise
demonstrating his reverence for the Catholic Church. The letter was written but
never sent, since it contained no retraction. In the German treatise he composed
later, Luther, while recognizing purgatory, clergy/laity distinction,
indulgences, and the invocation of the saints, denied all effect of indulgences
on purgatory.
When
Johann Eck challenged Luther's colleague Carlstadt to a disputation at
Leipzig,
Luther joined in the debate (June 27 –
July 18,
1519). In the
course of this debate, he denied the divine right of the papal office and
authority, holding that the "power of the keys" had been given to the Church
(i.e., to the congregation of the faithful).[34]
He denied that membership in the western Catholic Church under the pope was
necessary to salvation, maintaining the validity of the eastern
Greek (Orthodox) Church. After the debate Johann Eck claimed that he had
forced Luther to admit the similarity of his own doctrine to that of
Jan Hus, who
had been
burned at the stake. Eck viewed this as corroborating his own claim that
Luther was "the Saxon Hus" and an arch heretic.
Luther's excommunication
On June 15,
1520, the Pope
warned Martin Luther with the
papal bull
Exsurge Domine that he risked
excommunication unless he recanted 41 points of doctrine culled from his
writings within 60 days. In October 1520, at the instance of Miltitz, Luther
sent his On the Freedom of a Christian to the pope, adding the
significant phrase: "I submit to no laws of interpreting the word of God."
Meanwhile, it had been rumored in August that Eck had arrived at Meissen with a
papal ban,
which was actually pronounced there on
September 21. This last effort of Luther's for peace was followed on
December
12 by his burning of the bull, which was to take effect on the expiration of
120 days, and the papal
decretals
at Wittenberg, a proceeding defended in his Warum des Papstes und seiner
Jünger Bücher verbrannt sind and his Assertio omnium articulorum.
Pope Leo X
excommunicated Luther on
January 3,
1521, in the bull
Decet Romanum Pontificem.
The execution of the ban, however, was prevented by the pope's relations with
Frederick III, Elector of Saxony and by the new emperor
Charles V, who, in view of the papal attitude toward him and the feeling of
the
Diet, found it inadvisable to lend his aid to measures against Luther.
Luther said of the Exsurge Domine: "As for me, the die is cast; I despise
alike the favor and fury of Rome; I do not wish to be reconciled with her; or
even to hold any communication with her. Let her condemn and burn my books; I,
in turn, unless I can find no fire, will condemn and publicly burn the whole
pontifical law, that swamp of heresies." In 1545, Luther wrote a pamphlet
entitled, Against the Papacy Established by the Devil, and during his
life became known for diatribes against the papacy.[39]
Diet of Worms
Emperor Charles V opened the imperial
Diet
of Worms on
January 22,
1521. Luther was
summoned to renounce or reaffirm his views and was given an imperial guarantee
of safe passage.
On April 16
Luther appeared before the Diet. Johann Eck, an assistant of Archbishop of Trier,
presented Luther with a table filled with copies of his writings. Eck asked
Luther if the books were his and if he still believed what these works taught.
Luther requested time to think about his answer. It was granted. Luther prayed,
consulted with friends and mediators and presented himself before the Diet the
next day. When the matter came before the Diet the next day, Counsellor Eck
asked Luther to plainly answer the question: "Would Luther reject his books and
the errors they contain?" Luther replied: "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 will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither
right nor safe." According to tradition, Luther concluded by saying, "Here I
stand. I can not do otherwise. God help me. Amen."[40]
At this, the meeting hall erupted in pandemonium. An eyewitness reported,
"There was a great noise."[41].
Eck began to argue with Luther in the midst of the noise, and Emperor Charles V,
excited and angry, stood up and walked out the hall stating that he had enough
of such talk.[42]
Luther's supporters began cheering Luther, while the Emperor's Spanish
supporters started jeering and shouting, "To the fire with him!"[43].
Luther left the hall and once outside he raised his arms and in the traditional
shout of a victorious knight at a tournament he yelled, "I am through! I am
through!"[44]
Over the next few days, private conferences were held to determine Luther's
fate. Before a decision was reached, Luther left Worms. During his return to
Wittenberg, he disappeared. The Emperor presented the final draft of
Edict of Worms to the Diet on
May 26,
1521, declaring
Martin Luther an
outlaw and a
heretic and banning his literature.[45]
Exile at the Wartburg Castle
Luther's disappearance during his return trip was planned. Frederick the Wise
arranged for Luther to be seized on his way from the Diet by a company of masked
horsemen, who carried him to
Wartburg Castle at Eisenach, where he stayed for about a year. He grew a
wide, flaring beard, took on the garb of a knight, and assumed the pseudonym
Junker Jörg (Knight George). During this period of exile, Luther worked hard at
translating the New Testament from Greek into German.
His time at the Wartburg was a very productive period in his career. It was
during this time that Luther first had to deal with those who, claiming to be
his followers, were pursuing the reformation of the church, in ways Luther
considered to be not reformation, but deformation. In his "desert" or "Patmos"
(as he often referred to his time at the Wartburg), Luther translated the New
Testament from Greek into German. It was printed in September 1522. Here, too,
besides other pamphlets, he prepared the first portion of notes and helps for
preachers with his Church Postils. He issued an essay on the practice of
Confession Concerning Confession,[46]
in which he rejected laws by the church, forcing people to go to private
confession, although he affirmed the value of private confession and absolution.
He also wrote a polemic against Archbishop Albrecht when he learned Albrecht was
attempting to continue the sale of indulgence, bringing such pressure against
Albrecht that he stopped the sale. In a polemical treatise against Jacobus
Latomus, Luther discussed the relatonship between the law and grace in Christ.
In this treatise Luther emphasized that the sinner receives God's grace as a
gift and it is God's grace, not some indwelling quality in man, that results in
the sinner's salvation. He also discussed the reality of sin in the life of the
baptized Christian, and how God's grace in Christ is the constant need of every
person.
Although his stay at Wartburg kept him hidden from public view, Luther often
received letters from his friends and allies asking for his views and advice.
For example,
Philipp Melanchthon wrote to him and asked how to answer the charge that the
reformers neglected pilgrimages, fasts and other traditional forms of piety.
Luther replied on
August 1,
1521: "If you are a
preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. If the mercy
is true, you must therefore bear the true, not an imaginary sin. God does not
save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and let your sins be
strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is
the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are
here, for this life is not a place where justice resides. We, however, says
Peter (2
Pet 3:13) are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where justice
will reign."[47]
Meanwhile, some of the Saxon clergy, notably
Bartholomäus Bernhardi of Feldkirchen, had renounced the vow of celibacy.
Others, including Melanchthon, had assailed the validity of monastic vows.
Luther wrote Concerning Monastic Vows, at the Wartburg Castle.
Though more cautious that others at this point, Luther concurred, on the ground
that the vows were generally taken for the purpose of receiving salvation as a
result of a monastic life. With the approval of Luther in his Concerning the
Abrogation of the Private Mass, but against the firm opposition of their
Prior, the Wittenberg Augustinians began changing their worship practices at the
Augustinian cloister. They did away with many elements of the Mass. Their
violence and intolerance, however, were displeasing to Luther, and early in
December he spent a few days among them. Returning to the Wartburg, he wrote his
A Sincere Admonition by Martin Luther to All Christians to Guard Against
Insurrection and Rebellion. In Wittenberg, Carlstadt and the ex-Augustinian
Gabriel Zwilling demanded the abolition of the private mass, communion in
both kinds, the removal of pictures from churches, and the abrogation of the
magistracy, and the destruction of what they considered to be idolatrous images
in the form of statuary and other works of art.
Return to Wittenberg
Around Christmas 1521
Anabaptists
from Zwickau added to the anarchy. Thoroughly opposed to such radical views and
fearful of their results, Luther secretly returned to Wittenberg on
March 6,
1522, and the
Zwickau prophets left the city. For eight days beginning on
March 9,
Invocavit Sunday, and concluding on the following Sunday, Luther preached eight
sermons that would become known as the Invocavit Sermons. In these
sermons Luther counseled careful reform that took into consideration the
consciences of those who were not yet persuaded to embrace reform. Communion in
one kind (the consecrated bread) was restored for a time, the consecrated cup
given only to those of the laity who desired it. He was thought by his hearers
John Agricola and Jerome Schurf to have accomplished his goal of quelling
unrest. The
canon of the mass, giving it its sacrificial character, was now omitted.
Since the former practice of penance had been abolished, communicants were now
required to declare their intention to commune and to seek consolation in
Christian
confession and absolution. This new form of service was set forth by Luther
in his Formula missæ et communionis (Form of the Mass and Communion,
1523), and in 1524 the first Wittenberg hymnal appeared with four of his own
hymns. Since, however, his writings were forbidden in that part of Saxon ruled
by
Duke George, Luther declared, in his Temporal Authority: to What Extent
It Should Be Obeyed, that the civil authority could enact no laws for the
soul.
Marriage and family
On April 8,
1523, Luther wrote
Wenceslaus Link: "Yesterday I received nine nuns from their captivity in the
Nimbschen convent." Luther had arranged for Torgau burgher Leonhard Koppe on
April 4 to assist twelve nuns to escape from Marien-thron Cistercian monastery
in Nimbschen near Grimma in Ducal Saxony. He transported them out of the convent
in herring barrels. Three of the nuns went to be with their relatives, leaving
the nine that were brought to Wittenberg. One of them was
Katharina von Bora. All of them but she were happily provided for. In May
and June 1523, it was thought that she would be married to a Wittenberg
University student, Jerome Paumgartner, but his family most likely prevented it.
Dr. Caspar Glatz was the next prospective husband put forward, but Katharina had
"neither desire nor love" for him. She made it known that she wanted to marry
either Luther himself or Nicholas von Amsdorf. Luther did not feel that he was a
fit husband considering his being excommunicated by the pope and outlawed by the
emperor. In May or early June 1525, it became known in Luther's circle that he
intended to marry Katharina. Forestalling any objections from friends against
Katharina, Luther acted quickly: on the evening of Tuesday,
June 13,
1525, Luther was
legally married to Katharina, whom he would soon come to affectionately call
"Katy". Katy moved into her husband's home, the former Augustinian monastery in
Wittenberg, and they began their family: The Luthers had three boys and three
girls:
- Hans, born
June 7, 1526,
studied law, became a court official, and died in 1575.
- Elizabeth, born
December 10, 1527,
prematurely died on
August 3,
1528.
- Magdalena, born
May 5, 1529,
died in her father's arms
September 20,
1542. Her death was particularly hard to bear for Luther and his wife.
- Martin, Jr., born
November
9, 1531,
studied theology but never had a regular pastoral call before his death in
1565.
- Paul, born
January
28, 1533,
became a physician. He fathered six children before his death on
March 8,
1593 and the male
line of the Luther family continued through him to
John Ernest, ending in 1759.
- Margaretha, born
December 17, 1534,
married
George von Kunheim of the noble, wealthy Prussian family, but died in 1570
at the age of 36. Her descendants have continued to the present time.
Peasants' War
The
Peasants' War (1524–25) was in many ways a response to the preaching of
Luther and others. Revolts by the peasantry had existed on a small scale since
the 14th century, but many peasants mistakenly believed that Luther's attack on
the Church and the hierarchy meant that the reformers would support an attack on
the social hierarchy as well, because of the close ties between the secular
princes and the princes of the Church that Luther condemned. Revolts that broke
out in Swabia, Franconia, and Thuringia in 1524 gained support among peasants
and disaffected nobles, many of whom were in debt at that period. Gaining
momentum and a new leader in
Thomas Münzer, the revolts turned into an all-out war, the experience of
which played an important role in the founding of the
Anabaptist
movement. Initially, Luther seemed to many to support the peasants, condemning
the oppressive practices of the nobility that had incited many of the peasants.
As the war continued, and especially as atrocities at the hands of the peasants
increased, the revolt became an embarrassment to Luther, who now professed
forcefully to be against the revolt; since Luther relied on support and
protection from the princes, he was afraid of alienating them. In
Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants (1525), he encouraged
the nobility to visit swift and bloody punishment upon the peasants. Many of the
revolutionaries considered Luther's words a betrayal. Others withdrew once they
realized that there was neither support from the Church nor from its main
opponent. The war in Germany ended in 1525 when rebel forces were put down by
the armies of the
Swabian League.
Luther's German Bible
Luther translated the
Bible into
German to make it more accessible to the common people. He began the task of
translating the
New
Testament alone in 1521 during his stay in the
Wartburg
castle. It was completed and published in September 1522. The entire
Bible appeared in
a six-part ion in 1534 and was a collaborative effort of Luther,
Johannes Bugenhagen,
Justus
Jonas,
Caspar Creuziger,
Philipp Melanchthon,
Matthäus Aurogallus, and
George
Rörer. Luther worked on refining the translation for the rest of his life,
having a hand in the ion that was published in the year of his death, 1546.
The
Luther Bible, by reason of its widespread circulation, facilitated the
emergence of the modern
German language by standardizing it for the peoples of the
Holy Roman Empire, encompassing lands that would ultimately become the
nation of Germany
in the
19th century. The Luther Bible is regarded as a landmark in
German literature.
Luther's 1534 Bible translation was also profoundly influential on
William Tyndale, who, after spending time with Martin Luther in Wittenberg,
published an English translation of the New Testament.[48]
In turn, Tyndale's translation was foundational for the King James Bible.[49]
Liturgy and Church government
Luther's Deutsche Messe (German Mass) in 1526
provided for weekday services and for catechetical instruction. He strongly
objected, however, to making a new law of the forms and urged the retention of
other good liturgies. While Luther advocated Christian liberty in liturgical
matters in this way, he also spoke out in favor of maintaining and establishing
liturgical uniformity among those sharing the same faith in a given area. He saw
in liturgical uniformity a fitting outward expression of unity in the faith,
while in liturgical variation, an indication of possible doctrinal variation. He
did not consider liturgical change a virtue, especially when it might be made by
individual Christians or congregations: he was content to conserve and reform
what the Church had inherited from the past.
The gradual transformation of the administration of baptism was accomplished
in the Baptismal Booklet[50]
In May 1525 the first evangelical ordination took place at Wittenberg. Luther
had rejected the Roman Catholic view of ordination as a sacrament. A service of
ordination with the laying-on of hands with prayer in a solemn congregational
service was considered sufficient.
To fill the vacuum of the lack of higher ecclesiastical authority—few bishops
in the German lands embraced Luther's doctrine—as early as 1525 Luther held that
the secular authorities should take part in the administration of the Church, by
making appointments to ecclesiastical office and directing visitations of clergy
and churches. These tasks were not inherent powers of the secular authorities as
such, and Luther gladly would have had them vested in an evangelical episcopate
had a larger number of bishops become evangelicals. He declared in 1542 that the
evangelical princes themselves "must be emergency-bishops", and envisioned
ecclesiastical powers being exercised in congregational meetings of Christians,[51]
but he determined to be guided by the course of events and to wait until
parishes and schools were provided with the proper persons. The discoveries of
the Saxon visitation (1527–29) showed that parishes and schools were not ready
for such responsiblity, necessitating the retention of ecclesiastical forms as
they were at the beginning of the Reformation.
Melanchthon's Unterricht der Visitatoren an die Pfarrherrn (Instruction
for the Visitors of Parish Pastors), with the preface by Luther, facilitated
the Saxon visitation. Luther himself participated as a visitor to one of the
districts after October 1528. To remedy what Luther considered to be "deplorable
conditions" in the churches and schools of Saxony, he wrote his Large and Small
Catechisms, printed in April and May 1529.
At the same time, he took the keenest interest in education, conferring with
George Spalatin in 1524 on plans for a school system, and declared that it
was the duty of the civil authorities to provide schools and to see that parents
sent their children to them. He also advocated the establishment of elementary
schools for the instruction of girls.
In the meantime, Lutheran churches in Scandinavia and many of the Baltic
States, as well as the
Moravians,
continued to maintain the
Historic Episcopate and
apostolic succession, even though they had adopted Luther's anti-papal
theology.
Eucharistic views and controversies
The nature of the
Eucharist
became an important issue in Luther's career. Rejecting the
Roman Catholic doctrine of
transubstantiation, he nevertheless maintained the
Real
Presence. He stood by the simple, literal meaning of the
Words of Institution ("This is my body," "This is my blood"). He summarized
his belief about the Lord's Supper in his Small Catechism when he wrote,
"What is the Sacrament of the Altar? It is the true body and blood of our Lord
Jesus Christ under the bread and wine, for us Christians to eat and to drink,
instituted by Christ Himself."
[52]
Refusing to define the mystery of the Eucharist by concepts such as
consubstantiation or
impanation,
Luther utilized the
patristic
analogy for the doctrine of the Personal Union of the two natures in Jesus to
illustrate his eucharistic doctrine: "by the analogy of the iron put into the
fire whereby both fire and iron are united in the red-hot iron and yet each
continues unchanged," a concept which he called the "Sacramental
Union".[53]
Luther's doctrine distinguished him from
Carlstadt,
Zwingli,
Leo Jud, and
Œcolampadius, who rejected the
Real
Presence altogether.
Carlstadt,
Zwingli and
Œcolampadius offered differing interpretations of the words of institution:
Carlstadt
interpreted the "This" of "This is my body" as Jesus's action of pointing to
himself, Zwingli
interpreted the "is" as "signifies", and
Œcolampadius interpreted "my body" as "a sign of my body". In the
controversy that ensued, Luther replied to
Œcolampadius in the preface to the
Swabian
Writing,
[54]
and also set forth his views in his Sermon on the Sacrament ... Against the
Fanatical Spirits[55]
and That These Words ... Still Stand Firm, (spring 1527)[56],
and, more exhaustively, in his Confession on Christ's Supper, 1528[57].
In view of the perils to Protestantism in the measures of the
Second Diet of Speyer in 1529 and the coalition of the emperor with France
and the pope, the Landgrave Philip desired a union of all the adherents of the
Reformation, but Luther declared himself opposed to any alliance which might aid
heresy. He accepted, however, the landgrave's invitation to a conference at
Marburg (Oct. 1–3, 1529) to settle the matters in controversy. At Marburg
Luther opposed Œcolampadius, while Melanchthon was the antagonist of Zwingli.
Although they found an unexpected harmony in other respects, no agreement could
be reached regarding the Eucharist. Luther therefore refused to call his
opponents brethren, even while he wished them peace and love. Luther was
convinced that God had blinded Zwingli's eyes so that he could not see the true
doctrine of the Lord's Supper. In customary polemical style, Luther denounced
Zwingli and his followers as "fanatics" and "devils".
The princes themselves then subscribed to the Schwabach Articles, upheld by
Luther as a condition of alliance with them. Luther's basis for his Eucharistic
doctrine was what he considered to be a simple, straightforward understanding of
the words of institution, but he extolled Jesus's bodily sacrifice and the
giving of this very same body to communicants in the Eucharist. When Zwingli
excluded the possibility of the
Real
Presence by his denial of the capability of Jesus's human nature to be
present anywhere but locally, one place at a time, Luther reaffirmed the
integrity of the
hypostatic union: Jesus is not divided, wherever He is as God, He is as man
as well. Luther adduced
William of Ockham's three modes of presence: "local, circumscribed" (being
at only one place at a time, taking up space and having weight), "definitive"
(unbound by space but being where specified), and "repletive" (filling all
places at once) to introduce the probability of Christ's body and blood being
really present in the Eucharist.[58]
Luther felt the "definitive presence" to be the mode of the
Real
Presence, but he was quick to assert:
I do not wish to have denied by the foregoing that God may have and know
still other modes whereby Christ’s body can be in a given place. My only
purpose was to show what crass fools our fanatics are when they concede only
the first, circumscribed mode of presence to the body of Christ although they
are unable to prove that even this mode is contrary to our view. For I do not
want to deny in any way that God’s power is able to make a body be
simultaneously in many places, even in a corporeal and circumscribed manner.
For who wants to try to prove that God is unable to do that? Who has seen the
limits of his power?[59]
The sacrament does not depend on human action but on divine action according
to Luther:
Even though a knave takes or distributes the Sacrament, he receives the
true Sacrament, that is, the true body and blood of Christ, just as truly as
he who [receives or] administers it in the most worthy manner. For it is not
founded upon the holiness of men, but upon the Word of God. And as no saint
upon earth, yea, no angel in heaven, can make bread and wine to be the body
and blood of Christ, so also can no one change or alter it, even though it be
misused.[60]
The benefit of the sacrament is received only by communicants who have faith
in the words of Jesus: "Given and shed for you for the remission of sins."
Luther wrote that someone who did not have faith would incur God's judgment in
accordance with
Saint
Paul's teaching.
[61]
Also, while he disputed the view that the Eucharist is a mere memorial, he
recognized the commemorative element in it. As regards the effect of the
Sacrament on the faithful, he laid special stress on the words "given for you",
and hence on the atonement and forgiveness through the death of Jesus.
Lutheran confessions
In 1528 Luther took part in the Saxon visitation of parishes and schools to
determine the quality of pastoral care and Christian education the people were
receiving. Luther wrote in the preface to the Small
Catechism,
Mercy! Good God! what manifold misery I beheld! The common people,
especially in the villages, have no knowledge whatever of Christian doctrine,
and, alas! many pastors are altogether incapable and incompetent to teach.[62]
In response, Luther prepared the Small and Large Catechisms. They are
instructional and devotional material on the
Ten Commandments; the
Apostles' Creed; the
Lord's PrWidening breach
There was no longer hope of peace. Luther's writings were now circulated
widely, reaching France, England, and Italy as early as 1519. Students thronged
to Wittenberg to hear Luther, who had been joined by
Melanchthon in 1518, and now published his shorter commentary on Galatians
and his Work on the Psalms,[35]
while at the same time, he received deputations from Italy and from the
Utraquists
of Bohemia.
These controversies necessarily led Luther to develop his theses further, and
in his Sermon on the Blessed Sacrament of the Holy and True Body of
Christ, and the Brotherhoods, he set forth the significance of the
Lord's Supper that it is for the forgiveness of sins and the strengthening
of faith for those who receive it, he advocated that a council be called to
restore communion in both kinds for the laity.
The Lutheran concept of the Church, wholly based on immediate relation to the
Christ who gives himself in preaching and the sacraments, was already developed
in his On the Papacy in Rome,
[36]
a reply to the attack of the Franciscan
Augustin von Alveld at Leipzig (June 1520); while in his Sermon on
Good Works,[37]
delivered in the spring of 1520, he controverted the Catholic doctrine of good
works and works of
supererogation, holding that the works of the believer are truly good in any
secular calling (vocation) ordered of God.
To the German Nobility
The disputation at Leipzig (1519) brought Luther into contact with the
humanists, particularly Melanchthon,
Reuchlin,
Erasmus, and associates of the knight
Ulrich von Hutten, who, in turn, influenced the knight
Franz von Sickingen. Von Sickingen and Silvester of Schauenburg wanted to
place Luther under their protection by inviting him to their fortresses in the
event that it would not be safe for him to remain in Saxony because of the
threatened papal ban.
Under these circumstances, complicated by the crisis then confronting the
German nobles, Luther issued his To the Christian Nobility of the German
Nation (Aug. 1520), committing to the
laity, as
spiritual priests,
the reformation required by God but neglected by the pope and the clergy. For
the first time of many, Luther here publicly referred to the pope as the
Antichrist.[38]
The reforms Luther proposed concerned not only points of doctrine but also
ecclesiastical abuses: the diminution of the number of
cardinals and demands of the papal court; the abolition of
annates; the
recognition of secular government; the renunciation of papal claims to
temporal power; the abolition of the
interdict and abuses connected with the
ban; the abolition of harmful
pilgrimages;
the reform of
mendicant orders to eliminate wrongdoing; the elimination of the excessive
number of holy days; the suppression of nunneries, beggary, and luxury; the
reform of the universities; the abrogation of the
clerical celibacy; reunion with the Bohemians; and a general reform of
public morality.
Prelude on The Babylonian Captivity of the Church
Luther employed doctrinal polemics in his
Prelude on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, especially with
regard to the
sacraments.
With regard to the Eucharist, he advocated restoring the cup to the
laity, called
into question the
dogma of
Transubstantiation while affirming the real presence of the body and blood
of Christ in the Eucharist, and rejected the teaching that the Eucharist was a
sacrifice offered to God.
With regard to
Baptism, he taught that it brings
justification only if conjoined with saving faith in the recipient; however,
it remained the foundation of
salvation
even for those who might later fall and be reclaimed.
As for penance,
its essence consists in the words of promise (absolution)
received by faith. Only these three can be regarded as sacraments because of
their divine
institution and the divine promises of salvation connected with them; but
strictly speaking, only Baptism and the Eucharist are sacraments, since only
they have "divinely instituted visible sign[s]": water in Baptism and bread and
wine in the Eucharist. Luther denied in this document that
Confirmation,
Matrimony,
Holy
Orders, and
Extreme Unction were sacraments.
Freedom of a Christian
In like manner, the full development of Luther's doctrine of salvation and
the Christian life is seen in his
On the Freedom of a Christian (published
November
20, 1520). Here
he required complete union with Christ by means of the Word through faith,
entire freedom of the Christian as a priest and king set above all outward
things, and perfect love of one's neighbor. The three works may be considered
among the chief writings of Luther on the Reformation.
""""Christians are to be taught that the pope would and should
wish to give of his own money, even though he had to sell the basilica of St.
Peter, to many of those from whom certain hawkers of indulgences cajole money.
Martin Luther
Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure
and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.
Martin Luther
Faith must trample under foot all reason, sense, and
understanding.
Martin Luther
First I shake the whole Apple tree, that the ripest might
fall. Then I climb the tree and shake each limb, and then each branch and then
each twig, and then I look under each leaf.
Martin Luther
For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider,
every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.
Martin Luther
Forgiveness is God's command.
Martin Luther
God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on
trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.
Martin Luther
God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees,
and flowers, and clouds, and stars.
Martin Luther
Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me. Amen!
Martin Luther
How soon not now becomes never.
Martin Luther
I am afraid that the schools will prove the very gates of
hell, unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures and
engraving them in the heart of the youth.
Martin Luther
I am more afraid of my own heart than of the pope and all his
cardinals. I have within me the great pope, Self.
Martin Luther
I shall never be a heretic; I may err in dispute, but I do
not wish to decide anything finally; on the other hand, I am not bound by the
opinions of men.
Martin Luther
If I am not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don't want to go
there.
Martin Luther
Justice is a temporary thing that must at last come to an
end; but the conscience is eternal and will never die.
Martin Luther
Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him
make her sorry to see him leave.
Martin Luther
Make sure to send a lazy man the angel of death.
Martin Luther
My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been
solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary.
Martin Luther
No man ought to lay a cross upon himself, or to adopt
tribulation, as is done in popedom; but if a cross or tribulation come upon him,
then let him suffer it patiently, and know that it is good and profitable for
him.
Martin Luther
Nothing good ever comes of violence.
Martin Luther
People must have righteous principals in the first, and then
they will not fail to perform virtuous actions.
Martin Luther
Pray, and let God worry.
Martin Luther
Prayer is a strong wall and fortress of the church; it is a
goodly Christian weapon.
Martin Luther
Reason is a whore, the greatest enemy that faith has.
Martin Luther
Reason is the enemy of faith.
Martin Luther
Some plague the people with too long sermons; for the faculty
of listening is a tender thing, and soon becomes weary and satiated.
Martin Luther
Superstition, idolatry, and hypocrisy have ample wages, but
truth goes a-begging.
Martin Luther
The Bible is the cradle wherein Christ is laid.
Martin Luther
The fewer the words, the better the prayer.
Martin Luther
The God of this world is riches, pleasure and pride.
Martin Luther
The human heart is like a ship on a stormy sea driven about
by winds blowing from all four corners of heaven.
Martin Luther
The Lord commonly gives riches to foolish people, to whom he
gives nothing else.
Martin Luther
The man who has the will to undergo all labor may win to any
good.
Martin Luther
The multitude of books is a great evil. There is no limit to
this fever for writing.
Martin Luther
The reproduction of mankind is a great marvel and mystery.
Had God consulted me in the matter, I should have advised him to continue the
generation of the species by fashioning them out of clay.
Martin Luther
The will is a beast of burden. If God mounts it, it wishes
and goes as God wills; if Satan mounts it, it wishes and goes as Satan wills;
Nor can it choose its rider... the riders contend for its possession.
Martin Luther
There is no more lovely, friendly and charming relationship,
communion or company than a good marriage.
Martin Luther
To gather with God's people in united adoration of the Father
is as necessary to the Christian life as prayer.
Martin Luther
War is the greatest plague that can affect humanity; it
destroys religion, it destroys states, it destroys families. Any scourge is
preferable to it.
Martin Luther
War is the greatest plague that can afflict humanity, it
destroys religion, it destroys states, it destroys families. Any scourge is
preferable to it.
Martin Luther
When I am angry I can pray well and preach well.
Martin Luther
Who loves not women, wine and song remains a fool his whole
life long.
Martin Luther
You should not believe your conscience and your feelings more
than the word which the Lord who receives sinners preaches to you.
Martin Luther
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