Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
LUTHER, MARTIN (1483-1546)
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: LUP-MAL
del.icio.us it!
|
See also:LUTHER, See also: After three happy years at Eisenach, Luther entered the university of See also:Erfurt (15oi), then the most famous in See also:Germany. Hans Luther had been prospering, and was more than ever resolved to make his son a lawyer. Young Luther entered his name on the matriculation See also:book in letters which can still be read " Martinus Ludher ex Mansfelt," a free student, no longer embarrassed by great poverty. In Luther's time Erfurt was the intellectual centre of Germany and its students were exposed to a variety of influences which could not fail to stimulate young men of See also:mental ability.
Its See also:theology was, of course, scholastic, but of what was then called the See also:modern type, the Scotist; its See also:philosophy was the nominalist See also:system of See also: The young Humanists would have gladly welcomed him into their select See also:band. They dubbed him the " philosopher," the " musician," recalled in after days his See also:fine social disposition, his skill in playing the See also:lute, and his ready See also:power in debate. He took the various degrees in an unusually brief time. He was See also:bachelor in 1502 and See also:master in 1505. His father, proud of his son's steady application and success, sent him the costly See also:present of a Corpus See also:Juris. He may have begun to study law. Suddenly he plunged into the Erfurt See also:Convent of the Augustinian Eremites and after due noviciate became a See also: He was driven to do what he did by the pressure of a practical religious need, the See also:desire to See also:save his soul. The fires of See also:hell and the shades of See also:purgatory, which are the See also:constant
background of See also:Dante's " Paradiso," were present to Luther from childhood.
Luther was the greatest religious See also:genius which the 16th See also:century produced, and the roots of the See also:movement in which he was the central figure must be sought for in the popular religious life of the last decades of the 15th and opening decades of the 16th centuries—a See also: He records how it was burnt into him by pictures which filled his boyish See also:imagination. Jesus in the painted window of Mansfeld church, stern of See also:face, See also:sword in See also:hand, sitting on a See also:rainbow, coming to judge; an altarpiece at Magdeburg, in which a See also:ship with its See also:crew was sailing on to See also:heaven, carrying no layman on See also:board; the deeds of St See also: The older theology declared that such sorrow must be based on love to God. Had he this love? God MARTIN always appeared to him as an implacable judge, threatening See also:punishment for breaking a law which it was impossible to keep. He confessed to himself that he often hated this arbitrary Will which Scotist theology called God. The later theology, taught in the convent by John of Palz and John Nathin, said that sorrow might be based on a meaner See also:motive provided the Sacrament of Penance was continually resorted to. Luther wearied his superiors with his attendance at the See also:confessional. He was looked upon as a young See also:saint, and his reputation extended throughout the convents of his order. The young saint felt himself to be no nearer the pardon of God; he thought that he was " gallows-ripe." At last his superiors seemed to discover his real difficulties. Partly by their help, partly by study of the scriptures, he came to understand that God's pardon was to be won by trusting to His promises. Thus after two years of in-describable mental conflicts Luther found See also:peace. The struggle marked him for life. His victory gave him a sense of freedom, and the feeling that life was given by God to be enjoyed. In all See also:external things he remained unchanged. He was a faithful son of the medieval church, with its doctrines, ceremonies and usages. Soon after he had attained inward peace, Luther was ordained. He continued his studies in theology, devoting himself to the more " experimental " portions of See also:Augustine, See also:Bernard and See also:Gerson. He showed himself a good man of business and was advanced in his order. In 1508 he was sent with some other monks to See also:Wittenberg to assist the small university which had been opened there in 1502 by See also:Frederick the See also:Wise, elector of Saxony. It was there that Luther began to preach, first in a small See also:chapel to the monks of his order; later taking the place of one of the town's clergy who was in See also:ill-See also:health. From See also:Witten-See also:berg he was sent by the chiefs of the German Augustinian Eremites to Rome on a See also:mission concerning the organization of the order. He went up with the feelings of the medieval See also:pilgrim rather than with the See also:intoxication of the ardent Humanist. On his return (1512) he was sent by Staupitz, his See also:vicar-See also:general, to Erfurt to take the necessary steps for higher See also:graduation in theology, in order to succeed Staupitz himself as See also:professor of theology in Wittenberg. He graduated as See also:Doctor of the See also:Holy Scripture, took the Wittenberg doctor's See also:oath to defend the evangelical truth vigorously (viriliter), became a member of the Wittenberg See also:Senate, and three See also:weeks later succeeded Staupitz as professor of theology. From the first Luther's lectures in theology differed from those ordinarily given at the time. He had no opinions on theological subjects at variance with the theology taught at Erfurt and elsewhere. No one attributed any heretical views to the young Wittenberg professor. He differed from others because he looked at theology in a more practical way. He thought it ought to be made useful to See also:guide men to the See also:grace of God and to tell them how to persevere in a life of joyous obedience to God and His commandments. His teaching was " experimental " from the beginning. Besides he believed that he had been specially set apart to lecture on the Holy Scriptures, and he began by commenting on the See also:Psalms and on the Epistles of St See also:Paul. He never knew much See also:Hebrew and was not specially strong in Greek; so he used the See also:Vulgate in his prelections. He had a huge widely printed See also:volume on his See also:desk, and wrote the notes for his lectures on the margins and between the lines. Some of the pages survive. They contain in the germ the leading thoughts of what became Lutheran theology. At first he ex-pressed himself in the phrases common to scholastic theology, when these were found to be inadequate in words borrowed from the mystical writers of the 14th and 15th centuries, and then in new phrases more appropriate to the circle of fresh thoughts. Those new thoughts at first simply pushed aside the ordinary theology taught in the See also:schools without staying to criticize it. Gradually, however, Luther began to find that there was some real opposition between what he was teaching and the theology he had been taught in the Erfurt convent. It appeared characteristically enough on the practical and not on the speculative See also:side of theology in a See also:sermon on Indulgences preached in See also:July 1516. Once begun the See also:breach widened, until Luther could contrast " our theology " with what was taught at Erfurt, and by See also:September he began to write against the scholastic theology, to declare that it was Pelagian at See also:heart, that it repudiated the Augustinian doctrines of grace, and neglected to See also:teach the supreme value of that faith " which throws itself upon God." These lectures and the teaching they contained soon made a great impression. Students began to See also:flock to the small obscure university of Wittenberg, and the elector grew proud of the teacher who was making his university famous. It was at this interesting See also:stage of his own religious career that he felt himself compelled to stand forth in opposition to what he believed to be a great religious See also:scandal, and almost unconsciously to become a Reformer. Luther began his work as a Reformer by proposing to discuss the true meaning of Indulgences. The occasion was an See also:Indulgence proclaimed by Pope See also:Leo X., farmed by the See also:archbishop of See also:Mainz, and preached by John See also:Tetzel, a Dominican monk and a famed seller of Indulgences. Many of the German princes had no great love for Indulgence sellers, and Frederick of Saxony had prohibited Tetzel from entering his territories. But it was easy to reach most parts of Electoral Saxony without actually See also:crossing the frontiers. The Red See also:Cross of the Indulgence seller had been set up at See also:Zerbst and at Jiiterbogk, and people had gone from Wittenberg to buy the Papal Tickets. Luther believed that the sales were injurious to the morals of the townsmen; he had heard reports of Tetzel's sermons; he had become wrathful on See also:reading the See also:letter of recommendation of the archbishop; and See also:friends had urged him to interfere. He protested with a characteristic See also:combination of caution and courage. The church of All See also:Saints (the See also:castle church) was closely connected with the university of Wittenberg. Its doors were commonly used for university proclamations. The Elector Frederick was a great See also:collector of See also:relics and had stored them in his church. He had procured an Indulgence for all who attended its services on All Saints' See also:Day, and crowds commonly gathered. Luther nailed ninety-five theses on the church See also:door on that day, the 1st of November 1517, when the See also:crowd could see and read them. The proceeding was strictly See also:academic. The See also:matter discussed, to judge by the writings of theologians, was somewhat obscure; and Luther offered his theses as an See also:attempt to make it clearer. No one was supposed to be committed to every See also:opinion he advanced in such a way. But the theses posted somehow touched heart and See also:conscience in a way unusual in the common subjects of academic disputation. Every one wanted to read them. The University See also:Press could not See also:supply copies fast enough. They were translated into German, and were known throughout Germany in less than a fortnight. Within a See also:month they had been heard of all over western and See also:southern Europe. Luther himself was staggered at the way they were received. He said he had never meant to determine, but to debate. The thescs were singularly unlike what might have been expected from a professor of theology. They made no attempt at theological See also:definition, no pretence at logical arrangement; they were anything but a brief See also:programme of See also:reformation. They were simply ninety-five sledge-See also:hammer blows directed against the most flagrant ecclesiastical abuse of the See also:age. They were addressed to the " common " man and appealed to his common sense of spiritual things. The practice of offering, selling and buying Indulgences (see INDULGENCE) was everywhere common in the beginning of the 16th century. The beginnings go back more than a thousand years before the time of Luther. In the earliest church life, when Christians See also:fell into sin, they were required to make public See also:confession before the See also:congregation, to declare their sorrow, and to See also:vow to perform certain acts which were regarded as See also:evidence of the sincerity of their repentance. When the See also:custom of public confession before the congregation had changed to private confession to the clergy, it became the See also:confessor's See also:duty to impose these satisfactions. It was thought only right that there should be some uniformity in dealing with repentantsinners, and books appeared giving lists of sins and what were supposed to be suitable satisfactions. When the sins confessed were very heinous the satisfactions were correspondingly severe and sometimes lasted over many years. About the 7th century arose a custom of commuting or relaxing these imposed satisfactions. A penance of several years See also:fasting might be commuted into saying so many prayers, or giving an arranged amount in See also:alms, or even into a See also:money-fine. In the last See also:case the See also:analogy of the Wergeld of the German tribal codes was commonly followed. The usage generally took the See also:form that any one who visited a church, to which the Indulgence had been attached, on a day named, and gave a contribution to its funds, had his penance shortened by one-seventh, one-third or one-half, as might be arranged. This was the origin of Indulgences properly so-called. They were always mitigations of satisfactions or penances which had been imposed by the church as outward signs of inward sorrow, tests of fitness for pardon, and the needful precedents of See also:absolution. Luther uttered no protest against Indulgences of this kind. He held that what the church had imposed the church could remit. This old and simple conception of Indulgences had been greatly altered since the beginning of the 13th century. The institution of penance had been raised to the dignity of a sacrament, and this had changed both the place and the See also:character of satisfactions. Under the older conception the order had been Sorrow (Contritio), Confession, See also:Satisfaction (or due manifestation of sorrow in ways prescribed) and Absolution. Under the newer theory the order was Sorrow, Confession, Absolution, Satisfaction, and both satisfaction and sorrow took new meanings. It was held that Absolution removed See also:guilt and freed from eternal punishment, but that something had to be done to free the penitent from temporal punishment whether in this life or in purgatory. Satisfactions took the new meaning of the temporal punishments due in this life and the substitute for the pains of purgatory. The new thought of a See also:treasury of merits (See also:thesaurus meritorum) introduced further changes. It was held that the good deeds over and above what were needed for their own salvation by the living or by the saints in heaven, together with the inexhaustible merits of Christ, were all deposited in a treasury out of w 4h they could be taken by the pope and given by him to the f fi11. They could be added to the satisfactions actually done by penitents. Thus Satisfactions became not merely signs of sorrow but actual merits, which freed men from the need to undergo the temporal pains here and in purgatory which their sins had rendered them liable to. By an Indulgence merits could be transferred from the storehouse to those who required them. The See also:change made in the character of Sorrow made Indulgences all the more necessary for the indifferent penitent. On the older theory Sorrow (Contritio) had for its one basis love to God; but on the newer theory the starting-point might be a less worthy See also: The one thing which satisfied his conscience was the burdensome thing he had to do, and that was to procure an Indulgence—a matter made increasingly easy for him as time went on.
This See also:doctrine of Attrition had not the undivided support of the theologians of the later medieval church; but it was taught by the Scotists and was naturally a favourite theme with the sellers of Indulgences. Nor were all theologians at one upon the whole theory of Indulgences. The See also:majority of the best theologians held that Indulgences had nothing to do with the pardoning of guilt, but only with freeing from temporal penalties in this life or in purgatory. But the common people did not discriminate, and believed that when they bought an Indulgence they were purchasing pardon from sin ; and Luther placed himself in the position of the ordinary Christian uninstructed in the niceties of theological distinctions.
His Ninety-five Theses made six different assertions about Indulgences and their efficacy:—
I An Indulgence is and can only be the remission of a merely defend the man who had made his university so famous. His action compelled the Roman See also:Curia to pause. Germany was on the See also:eve, it was believed, of an See also:election of a king of the See also:Romans; it was possible that an imperial election was not far distant; Frederick was too, important a personage to offend. So the condemnation by the See also:Cardinal-See also:Legate was withdrawn for the time, and the pope resolved to See also:deal with the matter otherwise. He selected one of his chamberlains, See also: He resolved to meet with Tetzel and with Luther privately before he produced his See also:credentials. Tetzel he could not see; the man was afraid to leave his convent; but he had lengthy interviews with Luther in the house of See also:Spalatin the See also:chaplain and private secretary of the elector Frederick. There he disowned the sermons of the pardon-sellers, let it be seen that he did not approve of the action of the Legate, and so prevailed with Luther that the latter promised to write a submissive letter to the pope, to exhort people to reverence the Roman See, to say that Indulgences were useful to remit canonical penances, and to promise to write no more on the matter unless he happened to be attacked. Luther did all this. A reconciliation might have taken place had the Roman Curia supported Miltitz. But the Curia did not support Miltitz, and placed more faith in See also:Eck, who was eager to extinguish Luther in a public discussion. Luther had been spending the time between his interview with the Legate at See also:Augsburg (Oct. 1518) and the See also:Leipzig Disputation (See also:June 1519) in severe and disquieting studies. He had found that all his opponents had pursued one See also:line of See also:argument: the power to issue an Indulgence is simply one case of the universal papal See also:jurisdiction; Indulgences are what the pope proclaims them to be, and to attack them is to attack the power of the pope; the pope represents the Roman church, which is actually the universal church, and to oppose the pope is to defy the whole church of Christ; whoever attacks such a long-established system as that of Indulgences is a heretic. Such was the argument. Luther felt himself confronted with the pope's See also:absolute supremacy in all ecclesiastical matters. It was a plea whose full force he felt. The papal supremacy was one of his See also:oldest inherited beliefs. He re-examined his convictions about justifying faith and whether they did lead to his declarations about Indulgences. He could come to no other conclusion. It then became necessary to examine the papal claims. He set himself to study the See also:Decretals, and to his amazement and indignation he found that they were full of frauds. It is hard to say whether the See also:discovery brought him more joy or more grief. His letters show him half-exultant and half-terrified. While he was in this See also:state of mind he received Eck's See also:challenge to dispute with him at Leipzig on the papal supremacy. This Leipzig Disputation was perhaps the most important point in Luther's career. He met Eck in June r51g. It soon appeared that the intention of that practised debater was to force Luther into some See also:admission which would justify opponents in accusing him of holding the opinions of See also:Huss, who had been condemned by the great German Council of See also:Constance. In this he was eminently successful. Eck left Leipzig triumphant, and Luther returned to Wittenberg much depressed. As usual he wrote out and published an See also:account of the Disputation, which was an See also:appeal to his See also:fellow Germans. The result surpassed his expectations. The Disputation made him see that his protest against the abuses of Indulgences was no criticism of an excrescence on the medieval ecclesiastical system, but an attack on its centre of existence. He saw that he stood for the spiritual ecclesiastical See also:penalty; the church can remit what the church has imposed; it cannot remit what God has imposed. . ii. An Indulgence can never remit guilt; the pope himself cannot do such a thing; God has kept that in His own hand. iii. It cannot remit the divine punishment for sin; that also is in the hands of God alone. iv. It can have no efficacy for souls in Purgatory; penalties imposed by the church can only refer to the living; death dissolves them; what the pope can do for souls in Purgatory is by prayer, not by jurisdiction or the power of the keys. v. The Christian who has true repentance has already received pardon from God altogether apart from an Indulgence, and does not need one; Christ demands this true repentance from every one. vi. The Treasury of Merits has never been properly defined; it is hard to say what it is, and it is not properly understood by the people; it cannot be the merits of Christ and of His saints, because these See also:act of themselves and quite apart from the intervention of the pope; it can mean nothing more than that the pope, having the power of the keys, can remit ecclesiastical penalties imposed by the church; the true Treasure-house of merits is the Holy See also:Ghost of the grace and See also:glory of God. The unexpected effect of the Theses was that the See also:sale of Indulgences began to decline rapidly, and the archbishop of Mainz, disappointed in his hopes of See also:revenue, sent a copy to Rome. The pope thinking that the whole dispute was a monkish See also:quarrel, contented himself with asking the general of the Augustinian Eremites to keep his monks quiet. This was not easy. Tetzel, in See also:conjunction with a friend, See also:Conrad Wimpina, had published a set of See also:counter-theses. John Mayr of Eck, a noted controversialist and professor of theology in the university of See also:Ingolstadt, scented the Hussite See also:heresy in the Theses, and denounced them in a See also:tract entitled Obelisks. Luther at once answered in his Asterisks. A controversy raged in Germany. Meanwhile, at Rome, See also:Silvester Mazzolini of Prierio, a Dominican monk and Inquisitor, had been studying the Theses, was profoundly dissatisfied with them, and wrote a See also:Dialogue about the Power of the Pope, against the presumptuous conclusions of Martin Luther. This book reached Germany about the middle of See also:January 1518, and increased the tumult. Luther's friends had been provokingly silent about the Theses; but in See also:April 1518, at the See also:annual See also:chapter of the Augustinian Eremites held at See also:Heidelberg, Luther heard his positions temperately discussed, and found somewhat to his astonishment that his views were not acceptable to all his fellow monks. On his return to Wittenberg he began an See also:answer to his opponents. He care-fully considered his positions, found them unassailable, and published his Resolutions, the most carefully written of all his See also:works. The book practically discarded all the ideas and practices concerning Indulgences which had come into the medieval church since the beginning of the 13th century, and all the ingenious explanations of the scholastic theologians from See also:Bonaventura and See also: True to his See also:habit of taking the German people into his confidence, he wrote an account of his interview with the Legate, and published it under the See also:title of the Acta Augustana. The publication greatly increased the sympathy of almost all classes in Germany for Luther. They saw in him a pious man, an esteemed professor, who had done nothing but propose a discussion on the notoriously intricate subject of Indulgences, peremptorily ordered to recant and to remain silent. The elector Frederick shared the common feelings and resolved to priesthood of all believers and that medievalism in religion after the safe-conduct had been despatched the emperor revised meant that man cannot approach God without a priestly mediator. The people also saw his position and rallied See also:round him; and the Humanists discerned in him a See also:champion against the old intolerance against which they had been revolting in vain. Luther's depression fled. Sermons, See also:pamphlets, letters from his tireless See also:pen flooded the See also:land, and Luther began to be the See also:leader of a German revolt against Rome. The See also:year 1520 saw the publication of his three most important works, all written at a time when he was fully convinced that he had broken for ever with Rome. They were, On the See also:Liberty of a Christian Man, An Address to the See also:Nobility of the German Nation, and On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church of God—the three See also:primary See also:treatises, as they have been called. Meanwhile at Rome the pope had entrusted Eck and Prierias with the preparation of a See also:bull (Exurge Domine) against Luther—a bull which followed the line of Eck's charges at Leipzig. The reformer had been expecting it ever since the Disputation at Leipzig, and had resolved to answer it by one striking act which would impress the imagination of every man. He posted up a notice inviting the Wittenberg students to witness the burning of the bull (loth of See also:December 1520). Rome had shot its last ecclesiastical See also:bolt. Nothing remained but an appeal to the secular power, and this was at once prepared. The emperor Maximilian had died suddenly (12th January 1519), and for long Germany was disturbed with intrigues about the succession—the papal policy being specially tortuous. The widely expressed desire for a German emperor secured the unanimous election of Charles, the See also:grandson of Maximilian and the king of See also:Spain. Never were a people more mistaken and disappointed. The See also:veins of Charles were full of German See also:blood, but he was his mother's son. It was the Spaniard, not the German, who faced Luther at See also:Worms. Charles was crowned at Aachen, 23rd of See also:October 1520, and opened his first German diet at Worms, 22nd of January 1521. The pope had selected two envoys to wait on the young emperor, one of them, See also:Jerome Aleander, being specially appointed to secure the See also:outlawry of Luther. The agenda of the diet contained many things seriously affecting all Germany, but the one problem which every one was thinking about was how Luther would be dealt with. The Electoral College was divided. The archbishop of See also:Cologne, the elector of Brandenburg and his See also:brother the archbishop of Mainz were for instant outlawry, while the elector of Saxony, who was resolved to protect Luther, had great See also:influence with the archbishop of See also:Trier and the See also:Count See also:Palatine of the See also:Rhine. Aleander had no difficulty in persuading Charles, while both were still in the See also:Netherlands, to put Luther under the See also:ban within his hereditary dominions, and the papal See also:nuncio expected that the See also:decree would be extended to the whole German See also:empire. But Charles at first refused to deal summarily with Luther so far as Germany was concerned. The emperor even wrote to the elector of Saxony, asking him to bring Luther with him to the diet for examination. Gradually he came to think that Luther might be condemned without appearing. The members of the diet were slow to come to any conclusion. At last they made up their minds, and presented a memorial to the emperor (19th of See also:February -1521) in which they reminded him that no imperial See also:edict could be published against Luther without their See also:sanction, and proposed that he should be invited to Worms under a safe-conduct and be there examined. They also suggested that Luther should be heard upon the papal claims, and ended by asking the emperor to deliver Germany from the papal tyranny. The emperor agreed to summon Luther under a safe-conduct, and that he should be heard; but he refused to mix his case with that of grievances against Rome. He had no sooner made the promise than he seems to have repented it. He saw no need for Luther's See also:appearance. He tried to get him condemned unheard. An edict against Luther had been drafted (15th of February) which the diet refused to sanction. A few days later a second edict was drafted which ordered the burning of Luther's books. The diet again objected. Finally four days
this second edict, limited it to the seizure of Luther's books, and published it on his own authority without consulting the diet (loth See also: The Germans ringed him round, and, with their hands raised high in the fashion of a See also:landsknecht who had struck a successful See also:blow, passed out into the See also:street and escorted him to his lodgings. Next day (April 19th) the emperor proposed to place Luther under the ban of the empire and read to the See also:assembly a brief statement of his own views. The diet objected, and asked for a See also:conference between Luther and some selected members. Conferences were held, but came to nothing. No See also:compromise was possible between the See also:declaration that man's conscience could only be bound by the Word of God and the emperor's belief in the See also:infallibility of a general council. The See also:commission had to See also:report that its efforts had failed. Luther was ordered to leave Worms and to return to Wittenberg. His safe-conduct was to expire twenty-one days after the 16th of April. Then he was liable to be seized and put to death as a pestilent heretic. There only remained to draft and publish the edict containing the ban. Days passed and it did not appear. Suddenly the startling See also:news reached Worms that Luther had disappeared, no one knew where. It was reported that his See also:body had been found in a See also:silver-mine pierced with a See also:dagger. The news flew over Germany and beyond it that he had been slain by papal emissaries. At Worms the indignation of the populace was intense. The public buildings were placarded during the See also:night with an intimation that four See also:hundred knights had sworn not to leave Luther unavenged, and See also:tile ominous words Bundschuh, Bundschuh, Bundschuh (the watchword of peasant revolts) were written at the See also:foot. The combination suggested an See also:alliance between the lesser knights and the peasants, dreaded by all the ruling classes. The true See also:story of Luther's disappearance was not known until long after-wards. After the failure of the conference the elector of Saxony had commissioned two of the councillors to convey Luther to a place of safety without telling him where it was. Many weeks elapsed before Frederick himself learned that Luther was safe in his own castle of the See also:Wartburg. The disappearance did not mean that Luther had ceased to be a leader of men; but it marked the beginning of an organized See also:national opposition to Rome. It was not till the 25th of May that the edict against Luther was presented to a small number of members of the diet, after the elector of Saxony and many important members had left Worms. It threatened all Luther's sympathisers with extermination, and practically proclaimed an Albigensian See also:war in Germany. But few public documents prepared with so much care have proved so futile. The latter half of 1521 saw the silent spread of Lutheran opinions all over Germany. This was not unaccompanied with dangers. Every movement for reform carries within it the seeds of revolution, and Luther's was no exception to the rule. The revolution began in Wittenberg during Luther's seclusion in the Wartburg. See also:Andrew Boden of See also:Carlstadt, a colleague of Luther's in the university of Wittenberg, was strongly impressed with the See also:contradiction which he believed to exist between evangelical teaching and the usages of medieval ecclesiastical life. He denounced monastic vows, a distinctive See also:dress for the During the See also:storm of the Peasants' War (13th of June 1525) clergy, the thought of a propitiatory See also:mass, and the presence of Luther married See also:Catherine von See also:Bora, the daughter of a See also:noble images and pictures in the churches. Zwilling, a young Augus- but impoverished See also:family belonging to See also:Meissen. She had been tinian Eremite, added his fiery denunciations. His See also:preaching a Cistercian nun in the convent of Nimtzch near See also:Grimma—a stirred the commonalty. Turbulent crowds invaded two of the convent reserved for ladies of noble See also:birth. Luther's writings, churches and rioted inside. The excitement of the people was circulating through Saxony, had penetrated the convent walls increased by the arrival of three men known in See also:history as the and had convinced most of the inmates of the unlawfulness of See also:Zwickau prophets. See also:Melanchthon felt himself powerless to restrain monastic vows. Catherine and eight companions resolved to the tumult. The magistrates of the town were won over and See also:escape. Their relatives refused to aid them, and they applied issued an See also:ordinance which attempted to See also:express in legislation to Luther. He entrusted the business to Leonhard Koppe of the new evangelical ideas. See also:Duke George of Saxony, a resolute See also:Torgau, and the See also:rescue was safely carried out( 4th of April 1523). opponent of the Reformation, threatened to make the diet The rescued nuns found places of See also:refuge in the families of interfere. Luther became alarmed, and, not without a private Wittenberg burghers. The elector John of Saxony (who had hint from the elector of Saxony,' left his See also:retreat and appeared succeeded his brother Frederick) gave Luther the house which among his townsmen. His presence and exertions restored had served as the Augustinian Convent. The family gathered order, and the conservative reformation resumed its quiet course. in this three-storeyed building, with its back windows looking From this time onwards to the outbreak of the Peasants' War over the See also:Elbe and its front door opening on a great See also:garden, was (1525) Luther was the real leader of the German nation, and every- latterly Luther and his wife, their three sons and two daughters, thing seemed to promise a See also:gradual reformation without tumult. Magdelena von Bora, Catherine's aunt, two See also:orphan nieces and a The Peasants' War ended this anticipation. From one point grandniece. At the beginning of his married life Luther must of view this insurrection was simply the last, the most wide- have been in straitened circumstances. He married a portionless spreading and the most disastrous of these revolts, which had nun. On to 1532 his See also:salary was two hundred gulden annually been almost chronic in Germany during the later decades of the (about £16o in present money); after 1532 the See also:stipend was 15th and earlier years of the 16th century and which had been increased to £240 with various payments in kind—See also:corn, See also:wood, almost continuous between 1503 and 1517. All the social and See also:malt, See also:wine, &c.—which meant a great deal more. The town economic causes which produced them were increasingly active added occasional gifts to enable Luther to entertain the great in 1524 and 1525. But it is undoubted that the religious revolt personages who came to consult him frequently. Princes made intensified the See also:rebellion of the See also:lower classes. Luther's See also:voice him presents in money. This enabled Luther to See also:purchase from awoke echoes he never dreamt of. The times were ripe for his wife's brother the small See also:estate of Zulsdorf. Catherine, too, revolution, and the See also:message which spoke of a religious See also:democracy was an excellent house-wife. She made the long-neglected could not fail to suggest the social democracy also. In his garden profitable; kept pigs and poultry; rented other gardens; appeal to the Nobility of the German Nation he had stated with stocked a fishpond; farmed in a small way; and had her house severe precision the causes of social discontent. Himself a full of boarders. Luther had a high opinion of her intelligence; peasant's son and acquainted with the grievances under which she took See also:rank among those consulted on all important occasions; the peasant lived, he had at various times formulated most in one letter to her, seldom quoted, he gives the fairest statement of the demands which afterwards figured conspicuously in the he ever made about the views of See also:Zwingli on the Sacrament of Twelve Articles. The insurgents had good cause to regard him the Supper. as a sympathiser. But Luther, rightly or wrongly, believed The diet of Speyer (1526) saw Germany divided into a See also:Pro-that of the two ways in which wrongs can be set right—the testant and a Romanist party. After much debate a compromise way of war and the path of peace—the latter is the only sure was arrived at, which foreshadowed the religious peace of road in the long run. He did his best therefore to prevent the Augsburg of 1555. It was resolved that the Word of God should rising and risked his life among the infuriated peasants as be preached without disturbance, that See also:indemnity should be readily as when he stood before the emperor and the diet. given for past offences against the edict of Worms, and that When the rebellion was at its height and Thomas Miinzer had meanwhile each state should live religiously as it hoped to sent forth fiery proclamations urging the peasantry " not to let answer for its conduct to God and the emperor. The See also:Lutherans the blood cool on their swords," Luther issued the pamphlet, interpreted this to mean the right to See also:frame ecclesiastical regulawhich casts a stain on his whole life, in which he hounds on the tions for various principalities and to make changes in public ruling classes to suppress the insurgents with all violence. In See also:worship. Luther busied himself in simplifying the service, in the end the rebellion, formidable as it seemed for a few months, giving See also:advice, anxiously sought for, about the best modes of was crushed, and a heavier yoke was laid on the shoulders of the organising ecclesiastical affairs. In the diet held at Speyer unfortunate peasants. in 1529 a compact Roman See also:Catholic majority faced a weak This year, 1525, saw the parting of the ways in the movement Lutheran minority. The emperor declared through his comfor reform. It ceased to be national and became ecclesiastical. missioners that he abolished " by his imperial and absolute It divided into three See also:separate parts. One, guided by Luther authority " the clause in the ordinance of 1526 on which the himself, ended, after a long struggle with pope and emperor, Lutherans had relied when they began to organize their territorial in the See also:establishment of evangelical churches under the rule of churches. The majority of the diet supported the emperor the secular authorities of the territories which adopted the in this, and further proceeded to decree that no ecclesiastical Lutheran Reformation. Another, remaining true to the prin- body was to be deprived of its revenues or authority. This meant ciples, doctrines, usages and See also:hierarchy of the medieval church, that throughout all Germany medieval ecclesiastical rule was dreamt only of a See also:purification of moral life, and saw its end to be upheld, and that none of the revues of the medieval realised in the reforms of the council of See also:Trent. The third, church could be appropriated for See also:Protestant uses. On this gathering together the more revolutionary impulses, See also:expanded a portion of the Protestant minority drafted a legal protest, in into that complex movement called Anabaptism — which which the signers declared that they meant to abide by the spread over western Europe from See also:England to See also:Poland and decision of the diet of 1526 and refused to be bound by that of from Scandinavia to See also:northern See also:Italy, and endured a long and 1529. From this protest came the name Protestant. sanguinary persecution at the hands of the See also:civil authorities A minority in such a case could only maintain their protest in most See also:European countries. Its strength and popularity, if they were prepared to defend each other by force in case of an especially among the artizan classes, have been very much attack. Three days after the protest had been read, many
underrated by most historians. of the protesting cities and states concluded " a See also:secret and
' Enders, Dr Martin Luther's Briefwechsel, ill. 292-295; von particular treaty," and See also: Zwingli attacked the weakest part of Luther's theory—the ubiquity of the body of Christ; and Luther attacked Zwingli's exegesis of the words of the institution. Neither sought to bring out their points of agreement. Yet the conference did good; it showed that the Protestants were agreed on all doctrinal points but one. If union was for the present impossible, there were hopes for it in the future. In 1530 the emperor Charles, resolved to crush the Reformation, himself presided at the diet. The Protestant divisions were See also:manifest. Three separate confessions were presented to the emperor—one from Zwingli, one by the theologians of the four cities of Strassbourg, Constance, See also:Lindau and Memmingen (Confessio Tetrapolitana), and the Augsburg Confession, the future See also:symbol of the Lutheran church. The third was the most important, and the emperor seriously set himself to see whether it might not be made the basis of a compromise. He found that reconciliation was hopeless. Thereupon the diet resolved that the edict of Worms was to be enforced against Luther and his partizans; that the ecclesiastical jurisdictions were to be pre-served; and that all the church See also:property taken possession of by the Lutheran princes was to be restored; and that in all cases of dispute the last See also:court of appeal was to be the Imperial Court of Appeals. The last See also:provision meant that the growing Protestant-ism was to be fought by harrassing litigation—nicht fechten sondern rechten was the phrase. Luther was not present at the diet nor at the negotiations. He was still an outlaw according to imperial ideas. Melanchthon took his place as leader. The decision of the diet compelled the Protestant princes to face the new and alarming situation. They met in conference in See also:mid-See also:winter at the little town of Schmalkald, and laid the See also:foundations of what became the powerful Schmalkald See also:League, which effectually protected the Protestants of Germany until it was broken up by the intrigues of the imperial party. From the time of the formation of this league, Luther retired gradually from the forefront of a reformation movement which had become largely See also:political, and busied himself with reforms in public worship and suggestions for an organization of the polity of the Evangelical church. In this work his natural conservatism is apparent, and he contented himself with such changes as would make See also:room for the action of evangelical principles. He disclaimed the right of suggesting a common order of worship or a See also:uniform ecclesiastical polity; and Lutheran See also:ritual and polity, while presenting common features, did not follow one common use. It may be said generally that while Luther insisted on a service in the See also:vernacular, including the singing of German hymns, he considered it best to retain most of the ceremonies, the See also:vestments and the uses of See also:lights on the See also:altar, which had existed in the unreformed church, while he was careful to explain that their retention might be dispensed with if thought necessary. To the popular mind the great distinction between the Lutheran and the medieval church service, besides the use of the vernacular and the supreme place assigned to preaching, was that the people partook of the See also:cup in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper; and the Lutheran service became popularly distinguished from the Reformed because it retained, while the Reformed did away with, most of the medieval ceremonies and vestments (see LUTHERANS). The See also:variations in the details of the polity of the Lutheran churches were very numerous, but they all preserved the same distinctive principles. Two conceptions See also:lay at the basis—the thought of the spiritual priesthood of all believers and the belief that the state was a divine ordinance, that the magistracy might represent the whole body of believers and that discipline and See also:administration might be exercised through courts constituted somewhat like the consistorial courts of the medieval bishops, their members being appointed by the magistracy. The last years of Luther's life were spent in incessant labour disturbed by almost continuous ill-health. He was occupied in trying to unite firmly together the whole evangelical movement; he laboured to give his countrymen a good system of schools; he was on the See also:watch to defeat any attempt of the Roman Curia to regain its hold over Germany; and he was the confidential adviser of a large number of the evangelical princes. Luther's intimacy with his own elector, first John, then John Frederick, helped to give him the place accorded to him by the princes. The chiefs of the Houses of See also:Anhalt and See also:Luneburg, Duke See also: Such a bigamous marriage is a true marriage in the sight of God (the See also:necessity being proved), but it is not a true marriage in the See also:eye of public law and custom. Such a marriage and the See also:dispensation for it ought to be kept secret; if it is made known, the dispensation becomes eo ipso invalid and the marriage is See also:mere See also:concubinage. The principle which underlies this extraordinary paper is probably the conception that the Protestant church has the same dispensing power which the medieval church claimed, but that it was to be exercised altogether apart from fees of any kind. In his later years Luther became more tolerant on the sacra-mental question which divided him from the South German cities, although he never departed from his strong opposition to the supposed views of Zwingli himself. He consented to a conference, which, as he was too ill to leave home, met at Witten-berg (May–June 1536). After prolonged discussion the See also:differences were narrowed to one point—the presence of the body of Christ extended in space in the sacrament of the Supper. It was agreed in the Wittenberg See also:Concord to leave this an open question. Thus See also:North and South Germany were See also:united. It is possible that had Luther lived longer his followers might have been united with the Swiss. He repeatedly expressed an admiration for See also:Calvin's writings on the subject of the sacrament; and Melanchthon believed that if the Swiss accepted Calvin's theory of the Supper, the Wittenberg Concord could be extended to include them. But the Consensus Tigurinus, which See also:dates the See also:adhesion of the Swiss to the views of Calvin, was not signed until 1549, when Luther was already dead. Year by year Luther had been growing weaker, his attacks of illness more frequent and his bodily pains more continuous. Despite the entreaties of wife and elector he resolved to do what he could to end„ some trifling dispute about See also:inheritance which threatened the peace of the House of Mansfeld. He left Wittenberg in bitterly See also:cold See also:weather on the 23rd of January 1546, and the journey was tedious and hazardous. He was accepted as arbiter and his decision brought an end to the strife. He preached in Eisleben (February 14) with all his old fervour; but suddenly said quietly: " This and much more is to be said about the Gospel; but I am too weak and we will close here." These were his last words in the See also:pulpit. On the 16th and 17th the deeds of reconciliation were signed and Luther's work was done. The end came swiftly. He was very ill on the evening of the 17th; he died on the early See also:morning of the 18th of February 1546 in his sixty-third year. The elector of Saxony and Luther's family resolved that he must be buried at Wittenberg, and on the 20th the funeral pro-cession began its long march. The counts of Mansfeld, the magistrates of the See also:city and all the burghers of Eisleben accompanied the See also:coffin to the See also:gates of their town. A See also:company of fifty See also:light-armed troops commanded by the young counts of Mansfeld headed the procession and went with it all the way to Witten-berg. The following was temporarily swelled as it passed through villages and towns. Delegates from the elector of Saxony met it as it crossed the boundaries of the principality. Luther was laid to See also:rest in the Castle church on whose door he had nailed the theses which had kindled the great conflagration. Historia de vita et actis Lutheri " (Wittenberg, 1545), in the Corpus Reformatorum, vi.; Mathesius, Historien von . . See also:Martini Lutheri, Anfang, Lehre, Leben and Sterben (See also:Prague, 1896) ; See also:Myconius, Historia Reformationis 1517–1$42 (Leipzig, I718); Ratzeberger, Geschichte uber Luther and See also:seine Zeit (See also:Jena, 185o); Wrampelmeyer, Tagebuch uber Dr Martin Luther gefiihrt von Dr Conrad Cordatus, 1537 (See also:Halle, 1885) ; Forstemann, Neues Urkundenbuch zur Geschichte der evangelischen Kirchenreformation (See also:Hamburg, 1842) ; Kolde, Analecta Lutherana (See also:Gotha, 1883) ; G. Losche, Analecta Lutherana et Melanchthoniana (Gotha, 1892); G. Losche, Vollstdndige Reformations-Acta and Documenta (Leipzig, 1720–1729) ; Enders, Dr Martin Luther's Briefwechsel (5 vols., Frankfurt, 1884–1893); J. See also:Cochlaeus (Rom. Cath.), Commentarius de actis et scripptis M. Lutheri, &c. (St See also:Victor prope Moguntium). See also J. Kostlin, Martin Luther, sein Leben and seine Schriften (2 vols., See also:Berlin, 1889) ; Th. Kolde, Martin Luther, Eine Biographie (2 vols., Gotha, 1884–1893) ; A. See also:Hausrath, Luther's Leben (2 vols., Berlin, 1904) ; See also:Lindsay, Luther and the German Reformation (See also:Edinburgh, 1900) ; See also:Cambridge Modern History, ii. (Cambridge, 1903) ; History of the Reformation, i. (Edinburgh, 1906). (b) For See also:special incidents: The Theses and their publication: W. Kohler, Luthers 95 Theses sammt seinen Resolutsonen, den Gegenschriften von Wimpina-Tetzel, Eck and Prierias, and den Antworten Luthers darauf (Leipzig, 1903); Emil Reich, Select Documents illustrating Medieval and Modern History (See also:London, 19o5); The Leipzig Disputation: Seidemann, See also:Die Leipziger Disputation See also:im Jahre 1519 (See also:Dresden, 1843); Luther before the Diet of Worms: Deutsche Reichstagsakten unter Kaiser Karl V. (Gotha, 1893–1901), ii. ; The Marburg Colloquy; Schirrmacher, Briefe and Acten zu der Geschichte See also:des Religionsgesprdches zu Marburg, 1529, and des Reichstages zu Augsburg 1530 (Gotha, 1876) ; Hospinian, Historia Sacramentaria, ii. 123b-126b; Ehrard, Das See also:Dogma vom heiligen Abendmahl and seine Geschichte, ii. (Frankfurt a M., 1846); The Augsburg Confession: See also:Schaff, The See also:Creeds of the Evangelical Protestant Churches (London, 1877), History of the Creeds of Christendom (London, 1877). (T. M. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] LUTHER LEAGUE |
[next] LUTHERANS |