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MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546)
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After three happy years at Eisenach, Luther entered the university of See also:Erfurt (15oi), then the most famous in See also:Germany
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Hans Luther had been prospering, and was more than ever resolved to make his son a lawyer
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Young Luther entered his name on the matriculation See also:book in letters which can still be read " Martinus Ludher ex Mansfelt," a free student, no longer embarrassed by great poverty
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In Luther's time Erfurt was the intellectual centre of Germany and its students were exposed to a variety of influences which could not fail to stimulate young men of See also:mental ability
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Its See also:theology was, of course, scholastic, but of what was then called the See also:modern type, the Scotist; its See also:philosophy was the nominalist See also:system of See also:
The young Humanists would have gladly welcomed him into their select See also:band
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They dubbed him the " philosopher," the " musician," recalled in after days his See also:fine social disposition, his skill in playing the See also:lute, and his ready See also:power in debate
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He took the various degrees in an unusually brief time
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He was See also:bachelor in 1502 and See also:master in 1505
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His father, proud of his son's steady application and success, sent him the costly See also:present of a Corpus See also:Juris
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He may have begun to study law
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Suddenly he plunged into the Erfurt See also:Convent of the Augustinian Eremites and after due noviciate became a See also:
He was driven to do what he did by the pressure of a practical religious need, the See also:desire to See also:save his soul
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The fires of See also:hell and the shades of See also:purgatory, which are the See also:constant
background of See also:Dante's " Paradiso," were present to Luther from childhood
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Luther was the greatest religious See also:genius which the 16th See also:century produced, and the roots of the See also:movement in which he was the central figure must be sought for in the popular religious life of the last decades of the 15th and opening decades of the 16th centuries—a See also:
He records how it was burnt into him by pictures which filled his boyish See also:imagination
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Jesus in the painted window of Mansfeld church, stern of See also:face, See also:sword in See also:hand, sitting on a See also:rainbow, coming to judge; an altarpiece at Magdeburg, in which a See also:ship with its See also:crew was sailing on to See also:heaven, carrying no layman on See also:board; the deeds of St See also: The older theology declared that such sorrow must be based on love to God . Had he this love ? God MARTIN always appeared to him as an implacable judge, threatening See also:punishment for breaking a law which it was impossible to keep . He confessed to himself that he often hated this arbitrary Will which Scotist theology called God . The later theology, taught in the convent by John of Palz and John Nathin, said that sorrow might be based on a meaner See also:motive provided the Sacrament of Penance was continually resorted to . Luther wearied his superiors with his attendance at the See also:confessional . He was looked upon as a young See also:saint, and his reputation extended throughout the convents of his order . The young saint felt himself to be no nearer the pardon of God; he thought that he was " gallows-ripe." At last his superiors seemed to discover his real difficulties . Partly by their help, partly by study of the scriptures, he came to understand that God's pardon was to be won by trusting to His promises . Thus after two years of in-describable mental conflicts Luther found See also:peace . The struggle marked him for life . His victory gave him a sense of freedom, and the feeling that life was given by God to be enjoyed . In all See also:external things he remained unchanged . He was a faithful son of the medieval church, with its doctrines, ceremonies and usages . Soon after he had attained inward peace, Luther was ordained . He continued his studies in theology, devoting himself to the more " experimental " portions of See also:Augustine, See also:Bernard and See also:Gerson . He showed himself a good man of business and was advanced in his order . In 1508 he was sent with some other monks to See also:Wittenberg to assist the small university which had been opened there in 1502 by See also:Frederick the See also:Wise, elector of Saxony . It was there that Luther began to preach, first in a small See also:chapel to the monks of his order; later taking the place of one of the town's clergy who was in See also:ill-See also:health . From See also:Witten-See also:berg he was sent by the chiefs of the German Augustinian Eremites to Rome on a See also:mission concerning the organization of the order . He went up with the feelings of the medieval See also:pilgrim rather than with the See also:intoxication of the ardent Humanist . On his return (1512) he was sent by Staupitz, his See also:vicar-See also:general, to Erfurt to take the necessary steps for higher See also:graduation in theology, in order to succeed Staupitz himself as See also:professor of theology in Wittenberg . He graduated as See also:Doctor of the See also:Holy Scripture, took the Wittenberg doctor's See also:oath to defend the evangelical truth vigorously (viriliter), became a member of the Wittenberg See also:Senate, and three See also:weeks later succeeded Staupitz as professor of theology . From the first Luther's lectures in theology differed from those ordinarily given at the time . He had no opinions on theological subjects at variance with the theology taught at Erfurt and elsewhere . No one attributed any heretical views to the young Wittenberg professor . He differed from others because he looked at theology in a more practical way . He thought it ought to be made useful to See also:guide men to the See also:grace of God and to tell them how to persevere in a life of joyous obedience to God and His commandments . His teaching was " experimental " from the beginning . Besides he believed that he had been specially set apart to lecture on the Holy Scriptures, and he began by commenting on the See also:Psalms and on the Epistles of St See also:Paul . He never knew much See also:Hebrew and was not specially strong in Greek; so he used the See also:Vulgate in his prelections . He had a huge widely printed See also:volume on his See also:desk, and wrote the notes for his lectures on the margins and between the lines . Some of the pages survive . They contain in the germ the leading thoughts of what became Lutheran theology . At first he ex-pressed himself in the phrases common to scholastic theology, when these were found to be inadequate in words borrowed from the mystical writers of the 14th and 15th centuries, and then in new phrases more appropriate to the circle of fresh thoughts . Those new thoughts at first simply pushed aside the ordinary theology taught in the See also:schools without staying to criticize it . Gradually, however, Luther began to find that there was some real opposition between what he was teaching and the theology he had been taught in the Erfurt convent . It appeared characteristically enough on the practical and not on the speculative See also:side of theology in a See also:sermon on Indulgences preached in See also:July 1516 . Once begun the See also:breach widened, until Luther could contrast " our theology " with what was taught at Erfurt, and by See also:September he began to write against the scholastic theology, to declare that it was Pelagian at See also:heart, that it repudiated the Augustinian doctrines of grace, and neglected to See also:teach the supreme value of that faith " which throws itself upon God." These lectures and the teaching they contained soon made a great impression . Students began to See also:flock to the small obscure university of Wittenberg, and the elector grew proud of the teacher who was making his university famous . It was at this interesting See also:stage of his own religious career that he felt himself compelled to stand forth in opposition to what he believed to be a great religious See also:scandal, and almost unconsciously to become a Reformer . Luther began his work as a Reformer by proposing to discuss the true meaning of Indulgences . The occasion was an See also:Indulgence proclaimed by Pope See also:Leo X., farmed by the See also:archbishop of See also:Mainz, and preached by John See also:Tetzel, a Dominican monk and a famed seller of Indulgences . Many of the German princes had no great love for Indulgence sellers, and Frederick of Saxony had prohibited Tetzel from entering his territories . But it was easy to reach most parts of Electoral Saxony without actually See also:crossing the frontiers . The Red See also:Cross of the Indulgence seller had been set up at See also:Zerbst and at Jiiterbogk, and people had gone from Wittenberg to buy the Papal Tickets . Luther believed that the sales were injurious to the morals of the townsmen; he had heard reports of Tetzel's sermons; he had become wrathful on See also:reading the See also:letter of recommendation of the archbishop; and See also:friends had urged him to interfere . He protested with a characteristic See also:combination of caution and courage . The church of All See also:Saints (the See also:castle church) was closely connected with the university of Wittenberg . Its doors were commonly used for university proclamations . The Elector Frederick was a great See also:collector of See also:relics and had stored them in his church . He had procured an Indulgence for all who attended its services on All Saints' See also:Day, and crowds commonly gathered . Luther nailed ninety-five theses on the church See also:door on that day, the 1st of November 1517, when the See also:crowd could see and read them . The proceeding was strictly See also:academic . The See also:matter discussed, to judge by the writings of theologians, was somewhat obscure; and Luther offered his theses as an See also:attempt to make it clearer . No one was supposed to be committed to every See also:opinion he advanced in such a way . But the theses posted somehow touched heart and See also:conscience in a way unusual in the common subjects of academic disputation . Every one wanted to read them . The University See also:Press could not See also:supply copies fast enough . They were translated into German, and were known throughout Germany in less than a fortnight . Within a See also:month they had been heard of all over western and See also:southern Europe . Luther himself was staggered at the way they were received . He said he had never meant to determine, but to debate . The thescs were singularly unlike what might have been expected from a professor of theology . They made no attempt at theological See also:definition, no pretence at logical arrangement; they were anything but a brief See also:programme of See also:reformation . They were simply ninety-five sledge-See also:hammer blows directed against the most flagrant ecclesiastical abuse of the See also:age . They were addressed to the " common " man and appealed to his common sense of spiritual things . The practice of offering, selling and buying Indulgences (see INDULGENCE) was everywhere common in the beginning of the 16th century . The beginnings go back more than a thousand years before the time of Luther . In the earliest church life, when Christians See also:fell into sin, they were required to make public See also:confession before the See also:congregation, to declare their sorrow, and to See also:vow to perform certain acts which were regarded as See also:evidence of the sincerity of their repentance . When the See also:custom of public confession before the congregation had changed to private confession to the clergy, it became the See also:confessor's See also:duty to impose these satisfactions . It was thought only right that there should be some uniformity in dealing with repentantsinners, and books appeared giving lists of sins and what were supposed to be suitable satisfactions . When the sins confessed were very heinous the satisfactions were correspondingly severe and sometimes lasted over many years . About the 7th century arose a custom of commuting or relaxing these imposed satisfactions . A penance of several years See also:fasting might be commuted into saying so many prayers, or giving an arranged amount in See also:alms, or even into a See also:money-fine . In the last See also:case the See also:analogy of the Wergeld of the German tribal codes was commonly followed . The usage generally took the See also:form that any one who visited a church, to which the Indulgence had been attached, on a day named, and gave a contribution to its funds, had his penance shortened by one-seventh, one-third or one-half, as might be arranged . This was the origin of Indulgences properly so-called . They were always mitigations of satisfactions or penances which had been imposed by the church as outward signs of inward sorrow, tests of fitness for pardon, and the needful precedents of See also:absolution . Luther uttered no protest against Indulgences of this kind . He held that what the church had imposed the church could remit . This old and simple conception of Indulgences had been greatly altered since the beginning of the 13th century . The institution of penance had been raised to the dignity of a sacrament, and this had changed both the place and the See also:character of satisfactions . Under the older conception the order had been Sorrow (Contritio), Confession, See also:Satisfaction (or due manifestation of sorrow in ways prescribed) and Absolution .
Under the newer theory the order was Sorrow, Confession, Absolution, Satisfaction, and both satisfaction and sorrow took new meanings
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It was held that Absolution removed See also:guilt and freed from eternal punishment, but that something had to be done to free the penitent from temporal punishment whether in this life or in purgatory
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Satisfactions took the new meaning of the temporal punishments due in this life and the substitute for the pains of purgatory
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The new thought of a See also:treasury of merits (See also:thesaurus meritorum) introduced further changes
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It was held that the good deeds over and above what were needed for their own salvation by the living or by the saints in heaven, together with the inexhaustible merits of Christ, were all deposited in a treasury out of w 4h they could be taken by the pope and given by him to the f fi11
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They could be added to the satisfactions actually done by penitents
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Thus Satisfactions became not merely signs of sorrow but actual merits, which freed men from the need to undergo the temporal pains here and in purgatory which their sins had rendered them liable to
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By an Indulgence merits could be transferred from the storehouse to those who required them
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The See also:change made in the character of Sorrow made Indulgences all the more necessary for the indifferent penitent
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On the older theory Sorrow (Contritio) had for its one basis love to God; but on the newer theory the starting-point might be a less worthy See also:
The one thing which satisfied his conscience was the burdensome thing he had to do, and that was to procure an Indulgence—a matter made increasingly easy for him as time went on
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This See also:doctrine of Attrition had not the undivided support of the theologians of the later medieval church; but it was taught by the Scotists and was naturally a favourite theme with the sellers of Indulgences
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Nor were all theologians at one upon the whole theory of Indulgences
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The See also:majority of the best theologians held that Indulgences had nothing to do with the pardoning of guilt, but only with freeing from temporal penalties in this life or in purgatory
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But the common people did not discriminate, and believed that when they bought an Indulgence they were purchasing pardon from sin ; and Luther placed himself in the position of the ordinary Christian uninstructed in the niceties of theological distinctions
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His Ninety-five Theses made six different assertions about Indulgences and their efficacy:—
I An Indulgence is and can only be the remission of a merely defend the man who had made his university so famous
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His action compelled the Roman See also:Curia to pause
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Germany was on the See also:eve, it was believed, of an See also:election of a king of the See also:Romans; it was possible that an imperial election was not far distant; Frederick was too, important a personage to offend
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So the condemnation by the See also:Cardinal-See also:Legate was withdrawn for the time, and the pope resolved to See also:deal with the matter otherwise
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He selected one of his chamberlains, See also: He resolved to meet with Tetzel and with Luther privately before he produced his See also:credentials . Tetzel he could not see; the man was afraid to leave his convent; but he had lengthy interviews with Luther in the house of See also:Spalatin the See also:chaplain and private secretary of the elector Frederick . There he disowned the sermons of the pardon-sellers, let it be seen that he did not approve of the action of the Legate, and so prevailed with Luther that the latter promised to write a submissive letter to the pope, to exhort people to reverence the Roman See, to say that Indulgences were useful to remit canonical penances, and to promise to write no more on the matter unless he happened to be attacked . Luther did all this . A reconciliation might have taken place had the Roman Curia supported Miltitz . But the Curia did not support Miltitz, and placed more faith in See also:Eck, who was eager to extinguish Luther in a public discussion . Luther had been spending the time between his interview with the Legate at See also:Augsburg (Oct . 1518) and the See also:Leipzig Disputation (See also:June 1519) in severe and disquieting studies . He had found that all his opponents had pursued one See also:line of See also:argument: the power to issue an Indulgence is simply one case of the universal papal See also:jurisdiction; Indulgences are what the pope proclaims them to be, and to attack them is to attack the power of the pope; the pope represents the Roman church, which is actually the universal church, and to oppose the pope is to defy the whole church of Christ; whoever attacks such a long-established system as that of Indulgences is a heretic . Such was the argument . Luther felt himself confronted with the pope's See also:absolute supremacy in all ecclesiastical matters . It was a plea whose full force he felt . The papal supremacy was one of his See also:oldest inherited beliefs . He re-examined his convictions about justifying faith and whether they did lead to his declarations about Indulgences . He could come to no other conclusion . It then became necessary to examine the papal claims . He set himself to study the See also:Decretals, and to his amazement and indignation he found that they were full of frauds . It is hard to say whether the See also:discovery brought him more joy or more grief . His letters show him half-exultant and half-terrified . While he was in this See also: |