Martin Luther

Martin Luther

For images related to Martin Luther, his life and times, see also the Images of Martin Luther category.
For other people named Martin Luther, see Martin Luther (disambiguation).

Martin Luther (November 10, 1483 – February 18, 1546) was a German monk, 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 emphasized that a person is saved by the merciful kindness of God through the merits of Jesus alone, received through trusting faith in Jesus, not by human efforts to earn God's favor. As he put it in his Small Catechism, "I believe that Jesus Christ . . . has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil . . . with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death. . . . I believe that I can not by my own reason or strength, believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to Him, but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith."

Luther's hymns, including his best-known "A Mighty Fortress is Our God", inspired the development of congregational singing within Christianity. His marriage on June 13, 1525, to Katharina von Bora reintroduced the practice of clerical marriage within many Christian traditions (see Marriage and family below).

His contributions to Western civilization include his translation of the Bible, which provided a standard version of the German language and added several principles to the art of translation. His translation significantly influenced the English King James Bible (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. Today nearly seventy million Christians belong to Lutheran churches worldwide, with some four hundred million Protestant Christians tracing their history back to Luther's reforming work.

Luther is 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. These writings were given "full publicity" by the National Socialists in Germany in 1933–45. (See Luther and the Jews below.)

Early life

File:Birthhousewindow.jpg

Looking out a window of the house where Luther was born to the church where he was baptized.

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. 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.

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. 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! St. Anna, I'll become a monk!" 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.

Monastic and academic life

The Luther seal

Luther dedicated himself to monastic life in an effort to do good works to please God, and to serve others through prayer for their souls. 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. He would later remark, "If anyone could have gained heaven as a monk, then I would indeed have been among them." 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." Even years after he had left the monastery in Erfurt, contemporaries described Luther as gaunt in appearance, as the Cranach engraving to the right proves.

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. 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. 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. He spent the rest of his career in this position at the University of Wittenberg.

Theology of grace

One of the monastic cells where Luther lived at the Augustinian Cloister in Erfurt, Germany

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. An essential aspect of his theology was his emphasis on the proper distinction between God's law and God's gospel. He believed that this principle of interpretation was an essential starting point in the study of the scriptures. Luther believed that the failure to distinguish what is known as Law and Gospel was the primary reason why the gospel had been obscured in the church of his day, which in turn was at the root of many fundamental theological errors.

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. Thee 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." By 1520 the Elector's collection of relics has 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.

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."

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. 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.

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. As a Doctor of Holy Scripture it was 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, detectd severe criticism of the pope in his theses, and this was considered heretical."

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, 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," 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" 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). 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.

Widening breach

Luther as Monk, 1520

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, 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, a reply to the attack of the Franciscan Augustin von Alveld at Leipzig (June 1520); while in his Sermon on Good Works, 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. 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.

The Babylonian captivity

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.

Luther's excommunication

First printed edition of Exurge Domine

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.

Diet of Worms

Main article: 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."

At this, the meeting hall erupted in pandemonium. An eyewitness reported, "There was a great noise.". 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. Luther's supporters began cheering Luther, while the Emperor's Spanish supporters started jeering and shouting, "To the fire with him!". 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!"

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.

Exile at the Wartburg Castle

Wartburg Castle Eisenach

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, 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."

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

Martin Luther's mother Margarethe Luther

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

Portrait of Katharina von Bora, wife of Martin Luther, by Lucas Cranach the Elder. 1526. Oil on panel. Warburg-Stiftung, Eisenach, Germany.

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

Main article: Luther Bible

Luther's 1534 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 edition 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 edition 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. In turn, Tyndale's translation was foundational for the King James Bible; thus, Luther's Bible influenced the most widely used English Bible translation, the King James Version.

Liturgy and Church government

Rare early printing of "A Mighty Fortress."

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

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, 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." 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".

The Stadtkirche in Wittenberg, Germany. St. Mary's Church. Where Luther served as preacher and assistant pastor

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, and also set forth his views in his Sermon on the Sacrament ... Against the Fanatical Spirits and That These Words ... Still Stand Firm, (spring 1527), and, more exhaustively, in his Confession on Christ's Supper, 1528.

In view of the perils to Protestantism in the measures of the 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. 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?

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.

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. 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

First Edition of the Augsburg Confession and its Apology

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.

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 Prayer; Baptism; Confession and Absolution; and the Lord's Supper. The Small Catechism was supposed to be read by the people themselves, the Large Catechism by the pastors. Luther, who was modest about the publishing of his collected works, thought his catechisms were one of two works he would not be embarrassed to call his own:

Regarding [the plan] to collect my writings in volumes, I am quite cool and not at all eager about it because, roused by a Saturnian hunger, I would rather see them all devoured. For I acknowledge none of them to be really a book of mine, except perhaps the one On the Bound Will and the Catechism.

The two catechisms are still popular instructional materials among Lutherans.

Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, convened an Imperial Diet in Augsburg in 1530, with the expressed goal of uniting the Empire against the common enemy: the armies of the Turkish Empire. To achieve unity, the Emperor said that he wanted a resolution to the religious controversies in his realm. Luther, despised by emperor and empire, remained at the Coburg fortress while his Elector and colleagues from Wittenberg went on to Augsburg. The Augsburg Confession was authored by Philipp Melanchthon, but based in large part on Luther's writings. It is regarded as the principle confession of the Lutheran Church, and was the first specifically Lutheran confession included in the Book of Concord of 1580.

Luther and the Jews

See Martin Luther and the Jews and On the Jews and Their Lies

Earlier in his career, Luther argued that the Jews had been prevented from believing in Jesus by the actions of Christians, and the proclamation of what he believed to be an impure Gospel. He suggested that they would respond favorably to the evangelical message if it were presented to them gently. When they did not, he furiously attacked them. Luther's treatise, On the Jews and their Lies, published in 1543, "is one of the most notorious antisemitic tracts ever written" in the opinion of Richard Steigmann-Gall. In it Luther wrote that Jewish synagogues should be set on fire, their prayerbooks destroyed, their rabbis forbidden to preach, their homes "smashed and destroyed," property seized, money confiscated, and that these "poisonous envenomed worms" be drafted into forced labor or expelled "for all time". Four centuries after it was written, the Nazis cited Luther's treatise to justify the Final Solution, their systematic effort to exterminate the Jewish population in lands under their control. .

Luther's views on the Jews have been described as racial or religious anti-Semitism, or as anti-Judaism. Franklin Sherman, editor of volume 47 of Luther's Works claims that Luther's writings against the Jews are not "merely a set of cool, calm and collected theological judgments. His writings are full of rage, and indeed hatred, against an identifiable human group, not just against a religious point of view; it is against that group that his action proposals are directed." Sherman continues: "Luther cannot be distanced completely from modern antisemites. Regarding Luther's treatise, On the Jews and Their Lies, Karl Jaspers wrote, "There you already have the whole Nazi program,"

While some scholars attribute the Final Solution directly to Luther, other scholars argue that Nazism had its origins in 19th century Romanticism and 20th century Darwinism. Richard Marius, a Reformation historian who was a professor at Harvard University, states: "Luther never organized any campaign against the Jews, and, as Heiko Oberman has said, despite the ferocity of his tirades against them he never truly renounced the notion of coexistence between Jews and Christians."

Since the 1980s Lutheran church bodies and organizations have formally denounced Luther's anti-Jewish writings.

Luther's last days and death

File:Lutherunderpulpit.jpg

Luther's tombstone in the Castle Church in Wittenberg

Luther's face and hands cast at his death.

Luther's final journey, to Mansfeld, was taken due to his concern for his siblings' families continuing in their father Hans Luther's copper mining trade. Their livelihood was threatened by Count Albrecht of Mansfeld bringing the industry under his own control. The controversy that ensued involved all four Mansfeld counts: Albrecht, Philip, John George, and Gerhard. Luther journeyed to Mansfeld twice in late 1545 to participate in the negotiations for a settlement, and a third visit was needed in early 1546 for their completion.

Accompanied by his three sons, Luther left Wittenberg on January 23. The negotiations were successfully concluded on February 17. After 8:00 p.m. that day, Luther experienced chest pains. When he went to his bed, he prayed, "Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God" (Ps. 31:5), the common prayer of the dying. At 1:00 a.m. he awoke with more chest pain and was warmed with hot towels. Knowing his death was imminent, he thanked God for revealing His Son to him in Whom he had believed. His companions, Justus Jonas and Michael Coelius, shouted loudly, "Reverend father, are you ready to die trusting in your Lord Jesus Christ and to confess the doctrine which you have taught in His name?" A distinct "Yes" was Luther's reply. He died 2:45 a.m., February 18, 1546, in Eisleben, the city of his birth. Luther was buried in the Castle Church in Wittenberg, underneath the pulpit.

A piece of paper was found in Luther's pocket with his last known written statement: "Know that no one can have indulged in the Holy Writers sufficiently, unless he has governed churches for a hundred years with the prophets, such as Elijah and Elisha, John the Baptist, Christ, and the apostles . . . We are beggars: this is true."

Peter Manns, a Roman Catholic Reformation scholar, writes: "Anyone who follows Luther will live well and die even better, for at the end of the dark tunnel stands someone who loves us and to whom we can look forward. That is Luther's ecumenical legacy for which we should give him thanks."

See also

• "A Mighty Fortress is Our God"
• Christianity
• Christianity and anti-Semitism
• Consubstantiation
• Erasmus' Correspondents
• Huldrych Zwingli
• Jan Hus
• Jesus
• John Calvin
• Luther's Seal
• Lutheranism
• Real Presence
• Protestant Reformation
• Sacramental Union
• Theology of the Cross
• Theology of Glory

References

Bibliography

Books and articles

• Bainton, Roland H. Here I Stand: a Life of Martin Luther. New York: Penguin, 1995 (1950). ISBN 0452011469.
• Bente, F. et al., trans. and eds. Triglot Concordia. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921.
• Bornkamm, Heinrich. Luther in Mid-Career 1521-1530. E. Theodore Bachmann, trans. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983. ISBN 0800606922.
• Bornkamm, Heinrich. Luther's World of Thought. Martin H. Bertram, trans. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1958. ISBN 0758608322
• Brecht, Martin. Martin Luther. 3 Volumes. James L. Schaaf, trans. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985-1993. ISBN 0800628136, ISBN 0800628144, ISBN 0800628152.
• Currie, Margaret, A. The Letters of Martin Luther, London: MacMillian, 1908. from Google Books.
• Dickens, A.G. Martin Luther and the Reformation. New York: Harper & Row, 1967. ASIN: B0007DY59M.
• Haile, H.G. Luther: An Experiment in Biography. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co., 1980. ISBN 0385159609.
• Hillerbrand, Hans J., ed. The Reformation: A Narrative History Related by Contemporary Observers and Participants. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1979. ISBN 0801041856.
• Iserloh, Erwin, The Theses Were Not Posted: Luther Between Reform and Reformation. Jared Wicks, trans. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1968.
• Karant-Nunn, Susan C. and Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E., eds. and trans. Luther on Women: A Sourcebook. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. ISBN 0521658845
• Kittelson, James M. Luther the Reformer: The Story of the Man and His Career. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1986. ISBN 0806622407.
• Kolb, Robert. Martin Luther As Prophet, Teacher, Hero: Images of the Reformer, 1520-1620. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 2000. ISBN 0801022142.
• Lueker, Erwin L., Luther Poellot, and Paul Jackson, eds. Christian Cyclopedia. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2000. [2]
• Luther, Martin. D. Martin Luthers Werke, Kritische Gesamtausgabe. 65 vols. Weimar: Verlag Hermann Böhlausn Nochfolger, 1883- . (abbreviated as WA above).
• Luther, Martin. D. Martin Luthers Werke, Kritische Gesamtausgabe. Briefwechsel. 18 vols. Weimar: Verlag Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1930-85. (abbreviated as WABr above).
• Luther, Martin. D. Martin Luthers Werke, Kritische Gesamtausgabe. Die Deutsche Bibel. 12 vols. Weimar: Verlag Hermann Böhlaus Nochfolger, 1906-61. (abbreviated as WADB above).
• Luther, Martin. D. Martin Luthers Werke, Kritische Gesamtausgabe. Tischreden. 6 vols. Weimar: Verlag Hermann Böhlaus Nochfolger, 1912-21. (abbreviated as WATr above).
• Luther, Martin, "Luther: Hymns, Ballads, Chants, Truth". 4 CD recording. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2005.
• Luther, Martin. Luther's Works. 55 Volumes. Various translators. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House; Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1957-1986. CD-ROM edition, 2001. (abbreviated as LW above).
• Luther, Martin. Dr. Martin luthers Sämmtliche Werke. Briefwechsel (Correspondence). Ed. by Ernst Ludwig Enders. Calw and Stuttgart. Online from Google Books. cf. The Luther Literature
• Luther, Martin. Luther's Correspondence and Other Contemporary Letters, vol.I (1507-1521) vol.2 (1521-1530) tr.and ed. by Preserved Smith, Charles Michael Jacobs, The Lutheran Publication Society, Philadelphia, Pa. 1913. from Google Books.
• Luther, Martin. Luther's table talk; or, Some choice fragments from the familiar discourse of that godly man 1832, from Google Books
• MacCulloch, Diarmaid. The Reformation: Europe's House Divided 1490-1700. London: BBC Books, 2003. ISBN 0713993707
• Manns, Peter. Martin Luther: An Illustrated Biography. New York: Crossroad Publishing Co., 1982. ISBN 0824505107
• Marty, Martin. Martin Luther: A Penguin Life. New York: Penguin, 2004. ISBN 0670032727
• Nohl, Frederick. Luther: Biography of a Reformer. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2003. ISBN 0758606516
• Oberman, Heiko A. Luther: Man Between God and the Devil. New York: Doubleday, 1989. ISBN 0385422784
• Oberman, Heiko A. The Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Age of Renaissance and Reformation. James I. Porter, trans. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984. ISBN 0800607090
• Plass, Ewald M. This Is Luther: A Character Study. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1948 [Reprint, 1984]. ISBN 0570039428.
• Polack, W.G. The Story of Luther. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1931.
• Reu, [John] M[ichael]. Luther and the Scriptures. Columbus, Ohio: The Wartburg Press, 1944. [Reprint: St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1980].
• Reu, [John] M[ichael]. Luther's German Bible: An Historical Presentation Together with a Collection of Sources. Columbus, Ohio: The Lutheran Book Concern, 1934. [Reprint: St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1984].
• Ritter, Gerhard. Luther: His Life and Work. John Riches, trans. New York: Harper & Row, 1963. ISBN 0313203474.
• Schaff, Philip. History of the Christian Church. 8 vols. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1910.
• Schwiebert, E.G. Luther and His Times. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1950. ISBN 0570032466.
• Siemon-Netto, Uwe. "Luther and the Jews." Lutheran Witness 123.4 (2004), 16-19. [3]
• Siemon-Netto, Uwe. The Fabricated Luther: the Rise and Fall of the Shirer Myth. Peter L. Berger, Foreward. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1995. ISBN 0570048001.
• Smith, Preserved. Luther's Table Talk: A Critical Study. New York: Columbia University Press, 1907. ISBN 0790538652 from Google Books
• Tjernagel, Neelak S. Martin Luther and the Jewish People. Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1985. ISBN 0810002132
• Todd, John M. Luther: A Life. New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1982. ISBN 0824504798 (Also at [4])
• Westerholm, Stephen. Israel's Law and the Church's Faith. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1988. ISBN 0802802885

Audio recordings

• Martin Luther: Hymns, Ballads, Chants, Truth

Filmography

• 1953: Martin Luther, theatrical film, with Niall MacGinnis as Luther; directed by Irving Pichel. Academy Award nominations for black & white cinematography and art/set direction. Rereleased in 2002 on DVD in 4 languages.
• 1974: Luther, theatrical film (MPAA rating: PG), with Stacy Keach as Luther. Adapted from John Osborne's play.
• 1981: Where Luther Walked, documentary featuring the late Roland Bainton as guide and narrator, directed by Ray Christensen (VHS released in 1992), ISBN 1563640120
• 1983: Martin Luther: Heretic, TV presentation with Jonathan Pryce as Luther, directed by Norman Stone.
• 1983: Martin Luther: An Eye on Augsburg, a film funded by the Northern Illinois District of the LCMS with Rev. Robert Clausen as Luther.
• 2001: Opening the Door to Luther, travelogue hosted by Rick Steves. Sponsored by the ELCA.
• 2002: Martin Luther, a historical film from the Lion TV/PBS Empires series, with Timothy West as Luther, narrated by Liam Neeson and directed by Cassian Harrison.
• 2003: Luther, theatrical release (MPAA rating: PG-13), with Joseph Fiennes as Luther and directed by Eric Till. Partially funded by American and German Lutheran groups.

External links

Original writings of Luther and contemporaries

• Project Wittenberg, an archive of Lutheran documents
• Full text of the 95 Theses
• Full text of the Smalcald Articles
• Full text of the Small Catechism
• Full text of the Large Catechism
• Excerpts from Against the Murderous, Thieving Peasants
• Prelude On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church
• Commentary on The Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55), 1521 [5] [6]

Online information on Luther and his work

• The Musical Reforms of Martin Luther
• KDG Wittenberg's Luther site (7 languages)
• Martin Luther – ReligionFacts.com
• Memorial Foundation of Saxony Anhalt (German/English)
• Martin Luther – PBS movie
• Luther – theatrical release
• Martin Luther: The Reformer Travelling Exhibition
• New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge article on "Luther, Martin"
• Martin Luther - Eine Bibliographie (German)
• Works by Martin Luther at Project Gutenberg
• Martin Luther
• The "seat" of the Reformation - (BBC News)
• Catholic Encyclopedia: Martin Luther
• Jewish Encyclopedia: Martin Luther
• Luther, Martin in the 1911 Encyclopedia Brittanica
• Martin Luther and the German Reformation

Template:Link FA