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Martin
Luther
On a
mission to Rome in 1510-11 he was appalled by the corruption he found
there. Money was greatly needed at the time for the rebuilding of St
Peter's, and papal emissaries sought everywhere to raise funds by the sale
of indulgences. The system was grossly abused, and Luther's indignation at
the shameless traffic, carried on in particular by the Dominican Johann
Tetzel, became irrepressible. Luther issued a public call for theological
debate on the sale of indulgences by posting ninety-five theses on the
door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on the eve of All Saints' Day,
October 31, 1517. Printers distributed copies without Luther's knowledge
and permission. Within a few weeks, Martin Luther was known everywhere as
the voice of renewal. The
reform movement, nicknamed "Lutheran" by opponents, found broad
support in Germany and abroad. The nickname bothered Luther, whose
intention had been to retain the Catholic tradition of 1500 years, while
reforming the distortions of the faith. A
papal bull containing 41 theses was issued against him. He burned it
before a multitude of doctors, students, and citizens in Wittenberg. He
was excommunicated, and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, convened the first
Diet at Worms in 1521, before which Luther was called to retract his
teachings. Luther refused to relent; standing before empire and church he
said, "Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me." An
order was issued for the destruction of his books, and he was put under
the ban of the Empire. On his return from Worms he was seized, at the
instigation of the elector of Saxony, and lodged (for his own protection)
in the Wartburg, the elector's fortress. During the year he spent there,
he translated the Scriptures and composed his cogent controversial
treatise, "Refutation of the Argument of Latomus'. A
divergence had gradually taken place also between the views of the
Humanist scholar Erasmus and Luther. There was an open breach in 1525,
when Erasmus published De libero arbitrio (1524, Discourse on Free
Will), and Luther followed with De Servo arbitrio (Concerning the
Bondage of Will). In the same year he married Katherine von Bora, a nun
who had withdrawn from convent life. German
Lutheran territories submitted their proposals for reform at the imperial
assembly at Augsburg in 1530. The Augsburg Confession affirmed the
reformers' adherence to the historic teachings of the one, Holy, Catholic,
and Apostolic faith. Luther shepherded the reform movement in Germany,
often with a critical eye on other movements that did not retain the
Catholic substance of the faith expressed in the historic creeds and
confessions, or that he judged were not sufficiently shaped by faith in
Christ alone. All of Scandinavia had become Lutheran by the 1530s. Even
war did not stop the reform movement. Emperor Charles V agreed to the
Peace of Augsburg in 1555, which recognized Lutheran lands by the
principle that "whoever rules a region is in charge of its
religion." Rome attempted to stem the tide of Lutheranism by creating
a "counter-reformation" based on the decisions of the Council of
Trent (1545-1563). The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) changed the map of
Europe by granting freedom for Lutheran and protestant territories. Acknowledgements:
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Martin
Luther was born in Eisleben, Germany, the son of Hans Luther, who worked
in the copper mines, and his wife Margarethe.