Martin Luther


	FOR I AM NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL. IT IS THE POWER OF GOD FOR THE SALVATION OF EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES...FOR IT IS REVEALED THE RIGHTEOUS- NESS OF GOD FROM FAITH TO FAITH--AS IT IS WRITTEN THE ONE WHO IS RIGHTEOUS BY FAITH WILL LIVE.

In an age when one could indeed change history, Martin Luther stands as a giant. Willing to risk the wrath of the church, his "here I stand" pointed the way to reformation and reform. Whether it be the financial abuses Chaucer had recognized some 90 years earlier when creating the Pardoner, purgatory, the bible in the venacular, or papal infallibility, Luther demanded moral accountability. Undoubtedly, his own inner demons impelled him forward as an examination of The Council of Trent had to recognize.

An outline of Luther's life: click here for "The Life of Martin Luther, The Reformer."

II. Great spiritual crisis: caused him to become an Augustine monk:

A. July 2, 1505--nearly struck by lightning in a violent storm
B. “Help me! Help me! If you help me St. Anne, I will become a monk”!
C. God apparently did, and so he did...
D. His theology focused on sin, guilt, man's helplessness before God.

III. Visited Rome in 1511-shocked by abuses (Pardoner)

A. Pope Leo X: Rebuilding of St. Peters-- granted indulgences--church got only 45%
B. A theory holds the money was for an arch-bishop friend of the Pope (Albrecht) to buy his office
C. The archbishop’s agent was one John Tetzel whose debate with Luther prompted the 95 Theses (October 23, 1517) posted on the door of The Cathedral at Wittenburg- (This act may be a legend)-
D. 1515--controlled 11 monasteries
E. “I suffer in spirit...I was tossed about in death and hell, so that I shall tremble...despair and blasphemy assailed me, and I had lost Christ almost completely.”

IV. Turning Point: St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans

A. “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith.”
B. Concluded that man as man could never be saved by works unless GOD willed it. One therefore must have faith in God’s saving power per se.
C. God ‘justifies’ us by our faith in Him
D. No man (Pope) can dictate therefore our salvation- only God can do that.

D. Excommunicated by Emperor Charles V on papal orders: the Diet of Worms (1521): Emperor: “...all pious and God fearing persons abominate and abhor him as one mad or possessed by a demon, we have declared...Martin Luther...as a limb cut off from the church of God, an obstinate schemer and manifest heretic.”

VI. Personality:

A. friendly and kindly of rare intelligence, but ruthless and intolerant
B. religious melancholia and very anti-semetic
C. kind to his friends, ruthless to his enemies; he
said” “...born to fight innumerable monsters...to cut down thorns and clear the woods...”
D. managed to alienate most of his supporters:

1--peasants; condemned their revolt as anti-religious and inimical to good order
“...there is nothing more pernicious and devilish than a rebellious man...”
2--nobility: condemned for trying to profit from the revolution

VII. Legacy

a--natural reason (God’s gift to us)
b--presumptuous reason (over faith, and this is the ‘devil’s whore” / can lead to the worship of false gods-- science, scholastic philosophy etc.)
c--regenerate reason (serving faith-- needed when dealing with the role of good works & salvation)

VIII. Notable quotations:

A-- ‘FORGIVENESS OF SINS IS NOT SOMETHING WHICH WE EARN FOR OURSELVES BY OUR GOOD DEEDS...RATHER IT IS A FREE GIFT WHICH GOD GIVES TO US AS A RESULT OF ALL THAT JESUS DID FOR US AS OUR SAVIOR. SALVATION, THEREFORE, IS COMPLETELY AND ONLY BY FAITH IN JESUS.”

B--FAITH IS NOT WHAT SOME PEOPLE THINK IT IS. THEIR HUMAN DREAM IS A DELUSION...FAITH IS NOT ENOUGH, THEY SAY, YOU MUST DO GOOD WORKS--YOU MUST BE PIOUS TO BE SAVED. THEY THINK WHEN YOU HEAR THE GOSPEL, YOU START WORKING...INSTEAD, FAITH IS GOD’S WORK IN US THAT CHANGES US AND GIVES US NEW BIRTH FROM GOD.

C--CHRISTIANS ARE TO BE TAUGHT THAT HE WHO SEES A NEEDY MAN AND PASSES HIM BY, YET GIVES HIS MONEY FOR INDULGENCES DOES NOT BUY PAPAL INDULGENCES BUT THE WRATH OF GOD.

D--THOSE WHO BELIEVE THAT THEY CAN BE CERTAIN OF THEIR SALVATION BECAUSE THEY HAVE INDULGENCES WILL BE ETERNALLY DAMNED, TOGETHER WITH THEIR TEACHERS.

THE RESPONSE OF THE CHURCH THE COUNCIL OF TRENT (1545-1563)

1--man is able by his own free will and without the grace of God to move himself to justice in God’s sight

2--no one relying on his own judgment shall in matters of faith and morals pertaining to the edification of Christian doctrine, distorting the holy Scriptures in accordance with his own conceptions, presume to interpret them...

3--if anyone says that in the catholic Church there is not instituted a hierarchy by divine ordnance, which consists of bishops, priests, and ministers, let him be anathema.

5. ...no one is to dare, or presume to reject it [Books of the Bible held Divinely inspired by the church] under any pretext whatsoever. Furthermore, in order to restrain petulant spirits, it decrees, that on one, relying on his own skill, shall--in matters of faith, and morals pertaining to the edification of Christian doctrine--wrestling the sacred Scriptures to his own senses, presumes to interpret the said Sacred Scripture contrary to that sense which holy mother church--whose it is to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the holy Scriptures, --hath held and doth hold; or even contrary to the unanimous consent of the Fathers; even though such interpretations were never (intended) to be at any time published.

{This last, decreeing that the Bible was literally true and could not be privately interpreted in any sense contrary to the Church's teaching was ultimately doomed to failure...
1. Why?
2. What were the implications for the rise of science and astronomers like Galileo?}
3. What probably prompted the decree other than to answer Luther?

4--other measures:

A. Purgatory reaffirmed
B. Clergy required to be educated
C. Pardoners abolished
D. Good works and free will needed for salvation seven sacraments affirmed

Shakespeare of course knew the controversy as Hamlet reminds Claudius:

King: "Now Hamlet, where is Polonius?"

Hamlet: "At Supper."

King: "At supper. Where?"

Hamlet: "Not where he eats but where he is eaten. A certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet..."

1--the existence of the ghost is central to the meaning of the play, and that is contingent on the existence of Purgatory. Click here for details.

2--See also my book: Hamlet and the Daemons--click here-which examines the ghost controversy in light of the purgatory issue.

THE FOLLOWING RESOURCES ARE OF USE FOR STUDYING LUTHER.

1-THE NINETY-FIVE THESES from THE HISTORY GUIDE--click here

2- A SUMMARY OF THE DECREES OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT--click here

3--THE DOCUMENTS OF TRENT INCLUDING THE DECREES ON PURGATORY--click here

4--PURGATORY FROM A CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVE--click here

5--PURGATORY FROM A PROTESTANT PERSPECTIVE--click here

6-LUTHER'S ADDRESS AT THE DIET OF WORMS: click here