Martin Luther Revolutionary or Reformer?. Before Martin Luther.

Martin LutherMartin LutherRevolutionary or Reformer?Revolutionary or Reformer?

Before Martin Luther

Before Martin LutherIn Medieval Times

Fear of Authority and Fear of God

Catholic Church was the only church in Western Europe

The Bible was only to be read by priests or Bishops

Before Martin LutherIf you died with a dirty soul you would either go straight to hell or to Purgatory

You had to go to church to get your soul clean

If you died with a clean soul you would go to heaven

On the eve of the Reformation....

Church and Religion on the Eve of the Reformation

• Belief that the clergy was corrupt and incompetent.

• Focus on finances.

• Church offices purchased by wealthy

• Sale of indulgences.

• Poor quality of parish priests

Before Martin Luther

On the eve of the Reformation....

Pope(s) seemed more concerned with politics rather than spirituality

Julius II, the “warrior pope” in Italy even led armies against his enemies

Things were changing....

People, not just priests, were learning to read

People started reading the Bible on their own

People stared to think on their own, and not listen to the priests

People started reading the ancient non-Christian Greeks – Homer, Aristotle, and Plato – once again

New ideas of science and mathematics from the Muslim intellectuals were being read

New scientific ideas by Copernicus and others questioned the thinking of the Church

Things were changing....Humanists turned their back on medieval scholasticism which they believed was composed of irrelevant theological debates.

Scholastics celebrated the authority of the Church texts and revered the saint, the monk, and the knight.

Petrarch mocked the scholastics remarking they can tell you...”how many hairs there are in the loin’s mane...with how many arms the squid binds the shipwrecked sailor...What is the use, I pray you, of knowing the nature of beasts, birds, fishes, and serpents, and not knowing or spurning the nature of man...?”

Things were changing....Erasmus and other thinkers were quietly pushing the church for reform

The new printing press rapidly spread revolutionary ideas

The rulers and priests in Germany were angry at seeing money earned in their states being sent to Rome to build rich palaces and churches.

The Muslims now controlled the Byzantine Empire and cut of Italy from the spices and silks of India and China

The Portuguese now sailed directly to India around Africa, bypassing the Italian middlemen and thereby offering cheaper prices for spices and silk

Before Martin Luther

On the eve of the Reformation....

People (Hus, Wycliff, Erasmus) were calling for reform because of the corruption within the Catholic Church

People like Thomas More wanted a better society here on earth (not in heaven) - a Utopia

He also called the popes as anti-Christs. That did not help his cause...

Erasmus commented

• “ The world is coming to is senses as if awakening out of a deep Sleep”

Erasmus

Most influential of the Christian humanists. Wrote

• In Praise of Folly—• Criticized the Catholic Clergy and their corrupt ways using humor

• He attacked those who believed in the curing powers of relics saying it denigrated the dignity of the individual - a very Renaissance idea

• Did he want to divide the church?

• How did he feel about Luther?

no- just a reformed churchthought Luther was too radical

The Roots of Reformation

In principle, the pope governed the Church in all of Western Christendom but in reality, the emergence of the monarchical states of France, England, and the kingdom of Spain eroded the papal authority

Gradually those rulers assumed more prerogatives over the Church in their states.

This expansion provided the impetus to the development of churches that take on a more national character as monarchs 1. bargained for authority over religious appointments2. worked to bring ecclesiastical property under their fiscal control by imposing taxation

Of course the papal condoned corruption didn’t help

Nor did the Great Schism with its multiple popes

Martin Luther

The Roots of Reformation

•So who was Martin Luther?

What Martin Luther DidLuther was a German monk who wanted to reform (not break away) from the Catholic Church

Whilst comparing the Latin Catholic Bible with the original Greek & Hebrew he found that certain parts were incorrectly translated.

Let’s face it; he was a geek/nerd.

Luther hung his 95 theses (complaints) from his research on the local Church door in Wittenburg in 1517.

He disagreed with the Pope and began the Protestant religion.

What Martin Luther Did

He was wracked with his own sense of personal unworthiness. Was he not a sinner?

He had been saved from a storm but would he be saved from damnation on Judgement Day?

Was there any connection b/w good works effected on earth and salvation?

If mankind was so corrupted by sin, who could charity, fasting, or self-flagellation earn one entry into heaven?

What Martin Luther Did

• “I tried hard...to be contrite, and make a list of my sins. I confessed them again and again. I scrupulously carried out he penances that were allotted to me. And yet my conscience kept telling me: ‘You fell short there. You were not sorry enough there. You left that sin off your list.’

• I was trying to cure the doubts and scruples of the conscience with human remedies.... The more I tried these remedies, the more troubled and uneasy my conscience grew”

What Martin Luther Did

• “The just shall live by faith.”

• Such a conclusion broke with the teachings of the Catholic Church as defined by medieval scholasticism.

What Martin Luther BelievedYou don’t have to go to Church to get your soul into heaven.. This is

“Justification of Faith” - his belief that salvation is personal and not linked to the rituals of the Catholic Church. The basis of Luther’s beliefs can be found in The Bible,in Romans, Chapter 10.Read the Bible in your own language and not Latin.

Its wrong to make an image of God.

The Church is too rich.

What Martin Luther Did

• “The just shall live by faith.”

• But for Luther is wasn’t just about faith, he was also troubled by the abuse of the ecclesiastical sale of indulgences

What Martin Luther DidSo what were Martin Luther’s complaints?

Well, one was about the selling of indulgences. He felt the Bible translated to the church granting indulgences.

He thought the Pope didn’t know what his minions were doing by selling the indulgences. He thought he was doing the Pope a favor by snitching on those selling indulgences.

He was so naive. The pope knew all about it. He had gotten a loan from a powerful family in exchange for giving that family an important church position to their son. Now he had to pay back the loan. He was selling indulgences to pay back the loan and to finance his new grand cathedral.

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What Martin Luther DidAngered by corrupt church practices, in 1517 Luther sent a list of Ninety-five Theses to his church superiors.

They attacked abuses in selling indulgences.

Thousands of copies were printed. Thanks to the new invention of a printing press

What Martin Luther Did

In 1518, Pope Leo X demanded that Luther’s monastic superior order him to cease his small crusade. Luther refused, citing his right as a professor of theology to formally dispute the charges now leveled against him.He found a protector in Frederick III, elector of Saxony.

Luther’s Beliefs and Arguments

1. Faith alone can bring salvation, that good works follow faith but do not in themselves save the soul. Nor does the absence of good works condemn a man to eternal damnation.

Erasmus, read this and said, “the breach is irreparable....”

2. “Freedom of a Christian” His goal was to free German communities from the strictures of religious beliefs which increasingly seemed foreign to their beliefs.

He called on the Princes to reform the church within their own states

3. He rejected the “unnatural” demands of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

Luther’s Trail

So What Happened to Martin Luther?In 1520, Luther called for the German princes to overthrow

the papacy (pope power) and establish a reformed German church.

The Church excommunicated Luther in 1521.

He was summoned to appear before the imperial Diet (legislative assembly) of the Holy Roman Empire in the city of Worms.

The emperor Charles V thought he could get Luther to change his ideas.

Luther refused, which outraged the emperor.

So What Happened to Martin Luther?The Edict of Worms made Luther an outlaw in the empire.

His books were to be burned and Luther delivered to the emperor.

• Luther’s local ruler, however, protected him.

Why Luther Is Such A Big Deal

• Why is this a big deal?

• By declaring Luther an outlaw and forbidding any changes in religion in the Holy Roman Empire (HRE), the Edict of Worms made religious reform an issue of the state.

• Why is this a big deal?

• Because this radically different idea of faith will lead to:

massive change in the all-powerful Catholic Church

new forms of state sovereignty

new ideas about individualism

years of bloody wars fought in the name of religions

And then what happened?• Luther’s religious movement soon became a

revolution.

• It gained support from many German rulers, who took control of Catholic churches and formed state churches supervised by the government.

• Luther set up new services to replace the Mass, featuring Bible readings, preaching the word of God, and song.

• His doctrine became known as Lutheranism, the first Protestant faith.

What about the politics of this religion?

• From the beginning Luther’s movement was tied to politics.

• He believed the state was called by God to maintain the peace and order necessary to spread the gospel.

• The Holy Roman Emperor (not the Pope but leader of this geographical area of Germany) Charles V ruled an empire consisting of Spain, the Austrian lands, Bohemia, Hungary, the Low Countries, Milan, Naples, and Spanish territories in the New World.Luther’s preachings threatened his power!