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Martin Luther

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Religious figures and
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                                                        Martin Luther
                                                      Luther at age 46
                                                    Born November 10, 1483
                                                         Eisleben, Germany
                                                    Died February 18, 1546
                                                         Eisleben, Germany

   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.

   Martin Luther's life and work are closely tied to the closing of the
   Middle Ages and the beginning of the Modern Era in the West. His
   translation of the Bible furthered the development of a standard
   version of the German language and added several principles to the art
   of translation. His translation significantly influenced the English
   King James Version of the Bible. Due to the recently developed printing
   press, his writings were widely read, influencing many subsequent
   Reformers and thinkers, giving rise to diversifying Protestant
   traditions in Europe and elsewhere. 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. 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 also known for his writings about the Jews, the nature and
   consequences of which are the subject of much debate among scholars,
   many of whom have characterized them as anti-Semitic. His statements
   that Jews' homes should be destroyed, their synagogues and schools
   burned, money confiscated, and rights and liberties curtailed were
   revived and given widespread publicity by the Nazis in Germany in
   1933–45. As a result of this, coupled with his revolutionary
   theological views, his legacy remains controversial.
   Image:Luther timeline.png

Early life

   Looking out a window of the house where Luther was born to the church
   where he was baptized.
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   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 (Ziegler), on November
   10, 1483, in Eisleben, Germany. He was baptized the next morning, on
   the feast day of St. Martin of Tours. His family moved to Mansfeld in
   1484, where his father operated copper mines. Hans Luther was
   determined to see his eldest son become a lawyer. He sent his son
   Martin to schools in Mansfeld and in 1497, Magdeburg. Martin attended a
   school there operated 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 out of
   seventeen candidates. In accordance with his father's wishes, Luther
   enrolled in the law school at the same university.

   According to Luther, the course of his life changed during a
   thunderstorm in the summer of 1505. A lightning bolt struck near him as
   he was returning to school. Terrified, he cried out, "Help! Saint Anna,
   I'll become a monk!" He left law school, sold his books, and entered
   the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt on July 17, 1505.

Monastic and academic life

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

   Luther dedicated himself to monastic life. He devoted himself to fasts,
   long hours in prayer and pilgrimage, and constant confession. Luther
   tried to please God through this dedication; instead however, it
   increased his awareness of his own sinfulness. He would later remark,
   "If anyone could have gained heaven as a monk, then I would indeed have
   been among them." Luther described this period of his life as one of
   deep spiritual despair. He said, "I lost hold of Christ the Savior and
   Comforter and made of him a stock-master and hangman over my poor
   soul."

   Johann von Staupitz, Luther's superior, concluded that the young monk
   needed more work to distract him from excessive rumination and 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 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.

Justification by faith

   The Luther seal.
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   The Luther seal.

   From 1510 to 1520, Luther lectured on the Psalms, the books of Hebrews,
   Romans and Galatians. As he studied these portions of the Bible, he
   came to understand terms such as penance and righteousness in new ways.
   He began to teach that salvation is a gift of God's grace through
   Christ received by faith alone. The first and chief article is this,
   Luther wrote, "Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, died for our sins and
   was raised again for our justification… herefore, it is clear and
   certain that this faith alone justifies us… Nothing of this article can
   be yielded or surrendered, even though heaven and earth and everything
   else falls."

   Another essential aspect of his theology was his emphasis on the
   "proper distinction" between Law and Gospel. He believed that this
   principle of interpretation was an essential starting point in the
   study of the scriptures and that failing to distinguish properly
   between Law and Gospel was at the root of many fundamental theological
   errors.

The 95 Theses

   On 31 October 1517 Luther wrote to Albert, Archbishop of Mainz and
   Magdeburg, protesting the sale of indulgences in his episcopal
   territories and inviting him to a disputation on the matter. He
   enclosed the 95 Theses, a copy of which, according to tradition, he
   posted the same day on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg.
   Pulpit of St. Mary's Church from which Luther preached
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   Pulpit of St. Mary's Church from which Luther preached

   Luther had already preached against indulgences, but he wrote the 95
   Theses partly in reaction to the promotion of indulgences by Johann
   Tetzel, papal commissioner for indulgences in Germany, to raise funds
   for the renovation of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. In thesis 28 Luther
   objected to a saying attributed to Tetzel: "As soon as the coin in the
   coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs". The 95 Theses not only
   denounced such transactions as worldly but denied the pope's right to
   grant pardons on God's behalf in the first place: the only thing
   indulgences guaranteed, Luther said, was an increase in profit and
   greed, because the pardon of the Church was in God's power alone.

   While Luther did not deny the pope’s right to grant pardons for penance
   imposed by the Church, he made it clear that preachers who claimed
   indulgences absolved buyers from all punishments and granted them
   salvation were in error. The final two theses exhorted Christians not
   to slacken in following Christ, but to be confident of entering heaven
   through many tribulations rather than through an assurance of peace.

   Others had attacked abuses in the Church, but Luther's approach
   unleashed a doctrinal revolution in the reform movement. By rejecting
   papal and ecclesiastical practices that Luther deemed were in conflict
   with Scripture, he asserted the primacy of scriptural authority over
   the Church; and by dismissing the scriptural mandate for papal
   authority, the power of the keys ( Matt:16:18–19), “which he [the Pope]
   does not possess”, he took, possibly unintentionally, a step towards
   the break with Rome.

   The 95 Theses were quickly translated into German, printed, and widely
   copied, making the controversy one of the first in history to be fanned
   by the printing press. Within two weeks, the theses had spread
   throughout Germany; within two months throughout Europe. In contrast,
   the response of the papacy was painstakingly slow.

Response of the papacy

   Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg, Albert, who with the pope’s consent
   was using part of the indulgence income to pay his bribery debts, did
   not reply to Luther’s letter; instead, he had the theses checked for
   heresy and forwarded to Rome.
   Leo X by Titian.
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   Leo X by Titian.

   But heretics and reformers were nothing new to Leo X, whose brother’s
   government had once been ousted from Florence in thrall to the rebel
   monk Savonarola, and he responded over the next three years, “with
   great care as is proper”, by deploying a series of papal theologians
   and envoys against Luther. Perhaps he hoped the matter would die down
   of its own accord, because in 1518 he dismissed Luther as "a drunken
   German" who "when sober will change his mind".

   That year, the Dominican theologian Sylvester Mazzolini wrote a
   refutation of Luther’s theses as heretical; and the subsequent
   controversy served only to enlarge Luther's doctrinal assault on the
   papacy. Leo summoned Luther to Rome; but the Elector Frederick
   persuaded him to accept a submission from Luther at Augsburg instead,
   where cardinal legate Cajetan, in October 1518, was obliged to listen
   to an unrepentant Luther inform him that the papacy was not in fact
   part of the original and immutable essence of the Church. Luther
   appealed first “from the pope not well informed to the pope who should
   be better informed” and then, in November, to a general council.

   The Saxon papal nuncio Karl von Miltitz fared better, winning
   concessions from Luther at Altenburg in January 1519 and a promise to
   remain silent as long as his opponents did. One opponent, however, was
   the theologian Johann Eck, who clashed with Luther later that year in a
   debate at Leipzig ( June 27 – July 18, 1519) during which Luther
   insisted that the power of the keys belonged not to popes but to the
   whole Church, defined as the congregation of the faithful. Eck
   afterwards called Luther "the Saxon Hus" and from that moment devoted
   himself to his downfall.

Widening breach

   Luther as Monk, 1520.
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   Luther as Monk, 1520.

   The disputation at Leipzig (1519) brought Luther into contact with the
   humanists, particularly Melanchthon, Reuchlin and Erasmus. Luther's
   writings circulated widely, soon reaching France, England, and Italy as
   early as 1519. Students thronged to Wittenberg to hear Luther. He
   published a short commentary on Galatians and his Work on the Psalms.
   At the same time, he received deputations from Italy and from the
   Utraquists of Bohemia. Ulrich von Hutten and knight Franz von Sickingen
   offered to place Luther under their protection.

   This period of Luther's life was unparalleled in his career both by way
   of creativity and productivity. Three of Luther's best known works were
   published in 1520: To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation,
   Prelude on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church and Freedom of a
   Christian.

   Luther issued his To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation in
   August of 1520. In this work, he urged the laity, as members of the
   priesthood of all believers to reform the church. In this work, Luther
   first refers to the Pope as the Antichrist.

   Luther redefined the term sacrament in his work, Prelude on the
   Babylonian Captivity of the Church. For Luther, a sacrament was a Means
   of Grace instituted by Christ Himself and made up of a visible element
   combined with the Word of God. Luther concluded that only Baptism and
   the Lord's Supper could be called sacraments by this definition at that
   even these sacraments were "taken captivity" by the Pope through
   doctrines such as the sacrifice of the Mass and withholding the cup in
   the Lord's Supper.

   In his devotional work, On the Freedom of a Christian Luther's theology
   of grace is stated fully for the first time. "A Christian is perfectly
   free, subject to none" and "A Christian is the most dutiful slave,
   subject to all." Luther argued that Christians are fully redeemed by
   God's grace. When they act according to God's will, they are bound by
   no law. Yet as God's children, they are compelled to spend their whole
   lives in service of God and their neighbors.

Excommunication and Diet of Worms

   First printed edition of Exsurge Domine.
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                  First printed edition of Exsurge Domine.

   On June 15, 1520, the Pope warned Martin Luther with the papal bull
   Exsurge Domine that he risked excommunication unless he recanted 41
   sentences drawn from his writings within 60 days. On July 10, Luther
   responded:

     As for me, the die is cast; I despise alike the favour and fury of
     Rome; I do not wish to be reconciled with her; or even to hold any
     communication with her. Let her condemn and burn my books; I, in
     turn, unless I can find no fire, will condemn and publicly burn the
     whole pontifical law, that swamp of heresies.

   That autumn, Johann Eck proclaimed the bull in Meißen and other towns.
   Miltitz attempted to broker a solution; but Luther, who sent the pope a
   copy of On the Freedom of a Christian in October, publicly set fire to
   the bull and decretals at Wittenberg on December 10, 1520, an act he
   defended in Why the Pope and his Recent Book are Burned and Assertions
   Concerning All Articles. Luther was finally excommunicated by Leo X on
   January 3, 1521, in the bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.

   Enforcement of the ban now fell to the secular authorities. Luther duly
   appeared on April 17, 1521, before the Diet of Worms, which Emperor
   Charles V had opened on January 22. Johann Eck, speaking on behalf of
   the empire as assistant of the Archbishop of Trier, presented Luther
   with a table filled with copies of his writings and asked him if the
   books were his and if he still believed in what they taught. Luther
   requested time to think about his answer, which was granted. Luther
   prayed, consulted with friends and mediators and gave his response to
   the diet the next day. Eck asked him once more would he repudiate, in
   whole or in part, the words he had written. Luther replied that his
   criticism of the abuses of, and in, the Church was, thanks to common
   knowledge of these abuses, fully justified.

   The Emperor cut him off with an explosive, "NO!" To which Luther
   sharply replied that should he recant at this point he would surely
   open the door to even more tyranny and impiety.

   Speaking for the Church, Eck, in Latin, now spoke:

     "Your plea to be heard from Scripture is the one always made by
     heretics...How can you assume you are the only one who can
     understand the sense of Scripture? Would you put your judgement
     above that of so many famous men and claim that you know more than
     all of them?...to call into question the most holy orthodox,
     instituted by Christ the perfect Lawgiver...and which we are
     forbidden by the Pope and by the Emperor to discuss, least there be
     no end of debate? I ask you, Martin -- answer candidly and without
     distinctions -- do you or do you not repudiate your books and the
     errors which they contain?

   To which Luther replied in German:

     "Since your Majesty and lordships desire a simple reply, I shall
     answer without distinctions....Unless I shall be convinced by the
     testimonies of the Scriptures or by clear 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 neither can
     nor will make any retraction, since it is neither safe nor
     honourable to act against conscience. God help me. Amen."

   Over the next days, private conferences were held to determine the fate
   of Luther, who left Worms on 26 April. The emperor presented the final
   draft of the Edict of Worms on May 25, 1521, declaring Martin Luther an
   outlaw, banning his literature, and requiring his arrest: "We want him
   to be apprehended and punished as a notorious heretic".

Exile at the Wartburg Castle

   Wartburg Castle Eisenach.
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   Wartburg Castle Eisenach.

   Luther was protected on his return journey to Wittenberg by the
   safe-conduct secured in advance of the diet by Frederick the Wise, who,
   careful to avoid openly protecting Luther, now arranged for him to be
   taken into safe custody on his way home by a company of masked horsemen
   and carried 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 (Nobleman George).

   His time at the Wartburg was a very productive period in his career.
   During this period of exile, Luther translated the New Testament from
   Greek into German. It was printed in September 1522. 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 wrote a polemic against Archbishop Albert of Mainz for
   attempting to continue the sale of indulgences, bringing such pressure
   against him that he stopped the sale. In a polemical treatise against
   Jacobus Latomus, Luther discussed the relationship between the law and
   grace in Christ emphasizing 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
   than 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, Andreas Karlstadt 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.
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   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.
   Enlarge
   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, 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.

Catechisms

   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.

Luther's German Bible

   Luther's 1534 bible.
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   Luther's 1534 bible.

   Luther translated the Bible into German to make it more accessible to
   the common people, a task he began alone in 1521 during his stay in the
   Wartburg castle, publishing The New Testament in September 1522 and, in
   collaboration with Johannes Bugenhagen, Justus Jonas, Caspar Creuziger,
   Philipp Melanchthon, Matthäus Aurogallus, and George Rörer, the whole
   Bible in 1534. He worked on refining the translation for the rest of
   his life. The Luther Bible contributed to the emergence of the modern
   German language and is regarded as a landmark in German literature. The
   1534 edition was also profoundly influential on William Tyndale's
   translation, a precursor of the King James Bible.

Liturgy and Church government

   Rare early printing of “A Mighty Fortress”.
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   Rare early printing of “A Mighty Fortress”.

   Martin Luther’s German Mass of 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 favour 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. Therefore Luther, while eliminating and
   condemning those parts of the mass indicating the Eucharist was a
   propitiatory sacrifice and the Body and Blood of Christ by
   transubstantiation, retained the use of an eastward altar, stole,
   chasuble and alb. However, Luther is reported to have said, that later
   on, more changes would have to be made to the liturgy, which during his
   lifetime would still have offended the faithful people.

   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 long since
   rejected the Roman Catholic sacrament of ordination, and had replaced
   it by a simple calling to the service of preaching and the
   administration of the sacraments. The laying-on of hands with prayer in
   a solemn congregational service was considered a fitting human rite.”

   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 necessity-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 Instruction for the Visitors of Parish Pastors,
   facilitated the Saxon visitation. The visitation accordingly took place
   in 1527–29, "Luther [wrote] the preface to Melanchthon's Unterricht der
   Visitatoren an die Pfarrherrn, and [acted] as a visitor in one of the
   districts after Oct., 1528, while, as a result of his observations, he
   wrote both his catechisms in 1529. At the same time he took the keenest
   interest in education, conferring with Georg 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.

Eucharist controversy

   Statue of Martin Luther outside the Marienkirche in central Berlin
   Enlarge
   Statue of Martin Luther outside the Marienkirche in central Berlin
   The Stadtkirche in Wittenberg, Germany. St. Mary's Church. Where Luther
   served as preacher and assistant pastor.
   Enlarge
   The Stadtkirche in Wittenberg, Germany. St. Mary's Church. Where Luther
   served as preacher and assistant pastor.

   Martin Luther's views on the Eucharist, the sacrament of the Last
   Supper, were put to the test in October 1529 at the Marburg Colloquy,
   an assembly of Protestant theologians gathered by Philip I, Landgrave
   of Hesse, to establish doctrinal consistency in the emerging Protestant
   states. Agreement was achieved on most points, the exception being the
   nature of the Eucharist, an issue crucial to Luther.

   The theologians, including Zwingli, Karlstadt, Jud, and Œcolampadius,
   differed among themselves on the significance of the words of
   institution spoken by Jesus at the Last Supper: "This is my body which
   is for you", "This cup is the new covenant in my blood" ( 1 Corinthians
   11:23–26). Whereas Luther insisted on the Real Presence of Jesus at the
   Eucharist, other theologians believed God to be only symbolically
   present: Zwingli, for example, denied Jesus's ability to be in more
   than one place at a time. But Luther, who affirmed the doctrine of
   Hypostatic Union, that Jesus is one and the same as God, was clear:

     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?

   In taking the words of institution at face value, Luther saw no reason
   to define the mystery of the Eucharist in terms such as
   consubstantiation, the notion that the substance of Christ's body and
   blood are present alongside that of the bread and the wine, or
   impanation, that God was literally made bread. Although his doctrine
   has been described as both of those, he simply taught that the body and
   blood of Christ are present, essence unchanged, in, with, and under the
   forms of bread and wine. He used "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 process which he called the " Sacramental
   Union".

   While recognising the commemorative element of "do this, as often as
   you drink it, in remembrance of me", Luther also took issue with
   Zwingli's view that the Eucharist is merely memorial. And he disagreed
   that the benefit of the sacrament is conditional on good works,
   asserting rather that it is conditional on faith alone, laying stress
   on the words "given for you" and therefore on the atonement and
   forgiveness through the death of Jesus.

   Luther was convinced that God had blinded Zwingli's eyes so that he
   could not see the true significance of the Lord's Supper, denouncing
   Zwingli and his followers as "fanatics" and "devils" and refusing to
   call his opponents brethren, though he wished them peace and love.

   Despite these disagreements on the Eucharist, the Marburg Colloquy
   paved the way for the signing in 1530 of the Augsburg Confession and
   for the formation of the Schmalkaldic League the following year by
   leading Protestant nobles such as Philip of Hesse, John Frederick of
   Saxony, and George, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach. Nevertheless,
   interpretations of the Eucharist differ among Protestants to this day.

Augsburg Confession

   The Augsburg Confession.
   Enlarge
   The Augsburg Confession.
   Part of a series on
   Lutheranism
   Luther's Seal
                    Beginnings

   Christianity
   Protestant Reformation
   Roman Catholicism
                      People

   Martin Luther
   Philipp Melanchthon
   Frederick the Wise
   Martin Chemnitz
   Johann Sebastian Bach
   Henry Melchior Muhlenberg
   C. F. W. Walther
                  Book of Concord

   Augsburg Confession
   Apology of the Augsburg Confession
   Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope
   Luther's Large Catechism
   Luther's Small Catechism
   95 Theses
              Theology and Sacraments

   Sacramental Union
   Law and Gospel
   Sola scriptura
   Sola gratia
   Sola fide
   The Eucharist
   Holy Baptism
                Liturgy and Worship

   Divine Service
   Lutheran Calendar of Saints
   Lutheran Book of Worship
   Lutheran Service Book
                   Organizations

   Lutheran World Federation
   International Lutheran Council
   Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference
   others

   Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, convened an Imperial Diet in
   Augsburg in 1530 with the goal of uniting the empire against the
   Ottoman Turks, who had besieged Vienna the previous autumn.

   To achieve unity, Charles required a resolution of the religious
   controversies in his realm. Luther, despised by emperor and empire, was
   left behind at the Coburg fortress while his elector and colleagues
   from Wittenberg attended the diet. The Augsburg Confession, a summary
   of the Lutheran faith authored by Philipp Melanchthon but influenced by
   Luther, was read aloud to the emperor. It was the first specifically
   Lutheran confession included in the Book of Concord of 1580, and is
   regarded as the principal confession of the Lutheran Church.

Luther and antisemitism

   In his 60,000-word pamphlet On the Jews and Their Lies, published in
   1543 as Von den Juden und ihren Lügen, Luther spoke of the need to set
   synagogues on fire, destroy Jewish prayerbooks, forbid rabbis from
   preaching, seize Jews' property and money, smash and destroy their
   homes, and ensure that these "poisonous envenomed worms" be forced into
   labor or expelled "for all time." Four centuries later, a first edition
   of the pamphlet was given to Julius Streicher, editor of the Nazi
   newspaper Der Stürmer, by the city of Nuremberg in honour of his
   birthday in 1937. The newspaper later described the pamphlet as the
   most radically anti-Semitic tract ever published, a view that is shared
   by contemporary scholars. The German philosopher Karl Jaspers said of
   it: "There you already have the whole Nazi program."
   The original title page of On the Jews and their Lies, written by
   Martin Luther in 1543.
   Enlarge
   The original title page of On the Jews and their Lies, written by
   Martin Luther in 1543.

   British historian Paul Johnson writes that, even before On the Jews and
   their Lies, Luther "got the Jews expelled from Saxony in 1537, and in
   the 1540s he drove them from many German towns; he tried unsuccessfully
   to get the elector to expel them from Brandenburg in 1543. His
   followers continued to agitate against the Jews there: they sacked the
   Berlin synagogue in 1572 and the following year finally got their way,
   the Jews being banned from the entire country."

   There is little doubt among historians that Luther's rhetoric may have
   contributed to, or at the very least foreshadowed, the actions of the
   Nazis when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, although the
   extent to which it played a direct role in the events leading to the
   Holocaust is debated. At the heart of the debate is whether it is
   anachronistic to view Luther's sentiments as an example, or early
   precursor, of racial anti-Semitism — hatred toward the Jews as a people
   — rather than anti-Judaism — contempt for Judaism as a religion.

   In The World Must Know, the official publication of the United States
   Holocaust Memorial Museum, the museum's project director Michael
   Berenbaum writes that Luther's reliance on the Bible as the sole source
   of Christian authority fed his fury toward Jews over their rejection of
   Jesus as the messiah. For Luther, salvation depended on the belief that
   Jesus was the son of God, a belief that Jews do not share. Earlier in
   his life, Luther had argued that the Jews had been prevented from
   converting to Christianity by the proclamation of what he believed to
   be an impure gospel by Christians, and he believed they would respond
   favorably to the evangelical message if it were presented to them
   gently. He expressed concern for the poor conditions in which they were
   forced to live, and insisted that anyone denying that Jesus was born a
   Jew was committing heresy. Graham Noble writes that he wanted to save
   Jews, in his own terms, not exterminate them, but beneath his apparent
   reasonableness toward them, there was a "biting intolerance," which
   produced "ever more furious demands for their conversion to his own
   brand of Christianity." When they failed to convert, he turned on them.
   Berenbaum quotes Luther’s apparent support for the idea that Christians
   may be justified in killing Jews: “We are at fault in not slaying them.
   Rather we allow them to live freely in our midst despite their murder,
   cursing, blaspheming, lying and defaming.”

   Scholars argue that the violence of Luther's views lent a new element
   to the standard Christian suspicion of Judaism. Sociologist Ronald
   Berger has written that Luther is credited with “Germanizing the
   Christian critique of Judaism and establishing anti-Semitism as a key
   element of German culture and national identity.” Historian Paul Rose
   concurs, arguing that Luther caused a “hysterical and demonizing
   mentality” about Jews to enter German thought and discourse, a
   mentality that might otherwise have been absent. The coarseness of the
   language made his material particularly attractive to Nazism. In Mein
   Kampf, Hitler named Luther as one of the great historical
   “protagonists” he most admired. On the Jews and Their Lies was publicly
   exhibited in a glass case at the Nuremberg rallies and was quoted in a
   54-page explanation of the Aryan Law by Dr. E.H. Schulz and Dr. R.
   Frercks. The Nazi Bishop Martin Sasse of Thuringia hailed Luther as
   “the greatest anti-Semite of his time,” and said that it was a happy
   coincidence that Kristallnacht fell on Luther’s birthday.

   A minority viewpoint disagrees with the attempt to link Luther's work
   causally to the rise of Nazi anti-Semitism, arguing that it is too
   simplistic an analysis. Writing in Lutheran Quarterly, Johannes
   Wallmann, professor of church history at the Humboldt University of
   Berlin, writes that Luther's writings against the Jews were largely
   ignored in the 18th and 19th centuries, and journalist and lay Lutheran
   theologian Uwe Siemon-Netto argues that it was because the Nazis were
   already anti-Semites that they revived Luther's work on the Jews. For
   Siemon-Netto, Nazism had its origins, not in Luther, but in 19th
   century Romanticism and 20th century Darwinism: "To suggest that
   Lutheran theology turned Germans into Nazis is a false charge that
   simply cannot be substantiated by the facts." Luther and Reformation
   historian Martin Brecht concurs that there is a "world of difference"
   between Luther's belief in salvation, which depended on a faith in
   Jesus being the messiah, and a racial ideology of anti-Semitism," and
   Graham Noble agrees that, although Luther offered a "historical and
   intellectual justification for the Holocaust," he had "no notion of the
   pseudo-scientific eugenics which underpinned Nazi anti-Semitism."
   Reformation historian Richard Marius writes that, far from hating the
   Jewish people, and despite the ferocity of his attacks, Luther "never
   truly renounced the notion of coexistence between Jews and Christians."

   Lutheran church bodies have distanced themselves from this aspect of
   Luther's work. In 1983, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, denounced
   Luther's "hostile attitude" toward the Jews. In 1994, the Church
   Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America announced: "As
   did many of Luther's own companions in the sixteenth century, we reject
   this violent invective, and yet more do we express our deep and abiding
   sorrow over its tragic effects on subsequent generations."

Luther on witchcraft and magic

   Luther shared the belief that witchcraft existed and was inimical to
   Christianity. While Luther did not specifically write about witchcraft,
   his ideas of it are available through discussions of Biblical
   references to witchcraft and in table talk. His ideas were similar to
   those of late medieval Christian thinkers. Luther shared some of the
   superstitions about witchcraft that were common in his time. When
   interpreting Exodus 22:18, Luther stated that witches with the help of
   the devil could steal milk simply by thinking of a cow.

   In his Small Catechism, Luther taught that witchcraft was a sin against
   the second commandment and prescribed the Biblical penalty for it in a
   "table talk":

     On 25 August 1538 there was much discussion about witches and
     sorceresses who steal chicken eggs out of nests, or steal milk and
     butter. Doctor Luther said: "One should show no mercy to these
     [women]; I would burn them myself, for we read in the Law that the
     priests were the ones to begin the stoning of criminals."

Final years

   Luther's rhetoric became more severe in his final years concerning Jews
   and Christians alike. In the context of the opening of the Council of
   Trent in 1545, Luther wrote a pamphlet entitled, Against the Roman
   Papacy an Institution of the Devil. It was his bitterest attack against
   the institution of the papacy. In some of his later writings, popes,
   bishops, and cardinals were referred to as "Roman sodom." He once
   blessed a group of followers, saying: "May the Lord fill you with His
   blessings and with hatred of the Pope."

   Luther's health declined in the years before his death. Throughout his
   years as a reformer, Luther had suffered from a variety of ailments,
   including constipation, hemorrhoids, heart congestion, fainting spells,
   dizziness and roaring in the ears. From 1531–1546 Luther experienced a
   series of more severe health problems, including ringing in the ears,
   and, in 1536–1537, Luther began to experience kidney and bladder
   stones, which caused him particular agony during the rest of his life.
   He also suffered from arthritis, and experienced a ruptured ear drum
   due to an inner ear infection. In December 1544, he suffered from
   severe angina and finally suffered a heart attack which led to his
   death in February 1546.
   Luther's tombstone in the Castle Church in Wittenberg.
   Enlarge

           Luther's tombstone in the Castle Church in Wittenberg.

   During the later years of his life, Luther remained busy and active,
   with lecturing at the university on the Biblical book of Genesis,
   serving as dean of the theological faculty, making many visitations to
   churches. During the final nine years of his life Luther wrote 165
   treatises and nearly ten letters a day, examined many candidates for
   doctoral degrees in theology, hosting doctoral feats for the successful
   candidates. His later years were marked by continuing illnesses and
   physical problems, making him short-tempered and even more pointed and
   harsh in his writings and comments. His wife Katie was overheard
   saying, "Dear husband, you are too rude," and he responded, "They teach
   me to be rude."
   Luther's face and hands cast at his death.
   Enlarge

                 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. On
   Febuary 1st he send a tender letter to his wife:

     "I wish you peace and love in Christ, and send you my poor, old,
     infirm love. Dear Katie, I was weak on the road to Eisleben, but
     that was my own fault...Such a cold wind blew from behind through my
     cap on my head that it was like to turn my brain to ice. This may
     have helped my vertigo [to get worse], but now, thank God, I am so
     well that I am sorely tempted by lovely women and care not how
     gallent I am...God bless you."

   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 that 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. An
   apoplectic stroke deprived him of his speech, and shortly thereafter of
   his life. He died 2:45 a.m., February 18, 1546, aged 62, in Eisleben,
   the city of his birth. Luther was buried in the Castle Church in
   Wittenberg, beneath the pulpit.

   A piece of paper was found in Luther's pocket with his last known
   written statement:

     No one who was not a shepherd or a peasant for five years can
     understand Virgil in his Bucolica and Georgica. I maintain that no
     one can undersand Cicero in his letters unless he was active in
     important affairs of state for twenty years. Let no one who had not
     guided the congregations with the prophets for one hundred years
     believe that he has tasted Holy Scripture thoroughly. For this
     reason the miracle is stupendous (1) in John the Baptist, (2) in
     Christ, (3) in the Apostles. Do not try to fathom this divine
     Aeneid, but humbly worship its footprints. We are beggars. That is
     true.

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