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Martin Luther

Martin Luther OSA (/ˈlθər/;[1] German: [ˈmaʁtiːn ˈlʊtɐ] (listen); 10 November 1483[2] – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, professor, and Augustinian friar.[3] He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation whose followers became known as Lutherans.


Martin Luther

Martin Luther (1529) by Lucas Cranach the Elder
Born10 November 1483
Died18 February 1546(1546-02-18) (aged 62)
Eisleben, County of Mansfeld, Holy Roman Empire
EducationUniversity of Erfurt
University of Wittenberg
Occupations
Notable workNinety-five Theses (1517)
Spouse
(m. 1525)
Children
Theological work
EraRenaissance
Tradition or movementLutheranism (Protestantism)
Main interestsProlegomena
Notable ideasReformation
Five solae (Sola fide)
Law and Gospel
Theology of the Cross
Two kingdoms doctrine
Signature

Luther was ordained to the priesthood in 1507. He came to reject several teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church; in particular, he disputed the view on indulgences. Luther proposed an academic discussion of the practice and efficacy of indulgences in his Ninety-five Theses of 1517. His refusal to renounce all of his writings at the demand of Pope Leo X in 1520 and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms in 1521 resulted in his excommunication by the pope and condemnation as an outlaw by the Holy Roman Emperor.

Luther taught that salvation and, consequently, eternal life are not earned by good deeds but are received only as the free gift of God's grace through the believer's faith in Jesus Christ as redeemer from sin. His theology challenged the authority and office of the pope by teaching that the Bible is the only source of divinely revealed knowledge,[4] and opposed sacerdotalism by considering all baptized Christians to be a holy priesthood.[5] Those who identify with these, and all of Luther's wider teachings, are called Lutherans, though Luther insisted on Christian or Evangelical (German: evangelisch) as the only acceptable names for individuals who professed Christ.

His translation of the Bible into the German vernacular (instead of Latin) made it more accessible to the laity, an event that had a tremendous impact on both the church and German culture. It fostered the development of a standard version of the German language, added several principles to the art of translation,[6] and influenced the writing of an English translation, the Tyndale Bible.[7] His hymns influenced the development of singing in Protestant churches.[8] His marriage to Katharina von Bora, a former nun, set a model for the practice of clerical marriage, allowing Protestant clergy to marry.[9]

In two of his later works, Luther expressed antisemitic views, calling for the expulsion of Jews and burning of synagogues.[10] In addition, these works also targeted Roman Catholics, Anabaptists, and nontrinitarian Christians.[11] Based upon his significant anti-judaistic teachings,[12][13][14] the prevailing view among historians is that his rhetoric contributed significantly to the development of antisemitism in Germany and of the Nazi Party.[15][16][17] Luther died in 1546 with Pope Leo X's excommunication still in effect.

Early life

Birth and education

 
Portraits of Hans and Margarethe Luther by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1527
 
Former monks' dormitory, St Augustine's Monastery, Erfurt

Martin Luther was born to Hans Luder (or Ludher, later Luther)[18] and his wife Margarethe (née Lindemann) on 10 November 1483 in Eisleben, County of Mansfeld, in the Holy Roman Empire. Luther was baptized the next morning on the feast day of St. Martin of Tours. In 1484, his family moved to Mansfeld, where his father was a leaseholder of copper mines and smelters[19] and served as one of four citizen representatives on the local council; in 1492 he was elected as a town councilor.[20][18] The religious scholar Martin Marty describes Luther's mother as a hard-working woman of "trading-class stock and middling means", contrary to Luther's enemies, who labeled her a whore and bath attendant.[18]

He had several brothers and sisters and is known to have been close to one of them, Jacob.[21]

Hans Luther was ambitious for himself and his family, and he was determined to see Martin, his eldest son, become a lawyer. He sent Martin to Latin schools in Mansfeld, then Magdeburg in 1497, where he attended a school operated by a lay group called the Brethren of the Common Life, and Eisenach in 1498.[22] The three schools focused on the so-called "trivium": grammar, rhetoric, and logic. Luther later compared his education there to purgatory and hell.[23]

In 1501, at age 17, he entered the University of Erfurt, which he later described as a beerhouse and whorehouse.[24] He was made to wake at four every morning for what has been described as "a day of rote learning and often wearying spiritual exercises."[24] He received his master's degree in 1505.[25]

 
Luther as a friar, with tonsure
 
Luther's accommodation in Wittenberg

In accordance with his father's wishes, he enrolled in law but dropped out almost immediately, believing that law represented uncertainty.[25] Luther sought assurances about life and was drawn to theology and philosophy, expressing particular interest in Aristotle, William of Ockham, and Gabriel Biel.[25] He was deeply influenced by two tutors, Bartholomaeus Arnoldi von Usingen and Jodocus Trutfetter, who taught him to be suspicious of even the greatest thinkers[25] and to test everything himself by experience.[26]

Philosophy proved to be unsatisfying, offering assurance about the use of reason but none about loving God, which to Luther was more important. Reason could not lead men to God, he felt, and he thereafter developed a love-hate relationship with Aristotle over the latter's emphasis on reason.[26] For Luther, reason could be used to question men and institutions, but not God. Human beings could learn about God only through divine revelation, he believed, and Scripture therefore became increasingly important to him.[26]

On 2 July 1505, while Luther was returning to university on horseback after a trip home, a lightning bolt struck near him during a thunderstorm. Later telling his father he was terrified of death and divine judgment, he cried out, "Help! Saint Anna, I will become a monk!"[27][28] He came to view his cry for help as a vow he could never break. He left university, sold his books, and entered St. Augustine's Monastery in Erfurt on 17 July 1505.[29] One friend blamed the decision on Luther's sadness over the deaths of two friends. Luther himself seemed saddened by the move. Those who attended a farewell supper walked him to the door of the Black Cloister. "This day you see me, and then, not ever again," he said.[26] His father was furious over what he saw as a waste of Luther's education.[30]

Monastic life

 
A posthumous portrait of Luther as an Augustinian friar

Luther dedicated himself to the Augustinian order, devoting himself to fasting, long hours in prayer, pilgrimage, and frequent confession.[31] Luther described this period of his life as one of deep spiritual despair. He said, "I lost touch with Christ the Savior and Comforter, and made of him the jailer and hangman of my poor soul."[32]

Johann von Staupitz, his superior, concluded that Luther needed more work to distract him from excessive introspection and ordered him to pursue an academic career. On 3 April 1507, Jerome Schultz (lat. Hieronymus Scultetus), the Bishop of Brandenburg, ordained Luther in Erfurt Cathedral. In 1508, he began teaching theology at the University of Wittenberg.[33] He received a bachelor's degree in biblical studies on 9 March 1508 and another bachelor's degree in the Sentences by Peter Lombard in 1509.[34] On 19 October 1512, he was awarded his Doctor of Theology and, on 21 October 1512, was received into the senate of the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg,[35] having succeeded von Staupitz as chair of theology.[36] He spent the rest of his career in this position at the University of Wittenberg.

He was made provincial vicar of Saxony and Thuringia by his religious order in 1515. This meant he was to visit and oversee each of eleven monasteries in his province.[37]

Start of the Reformation

 
Luther's theses are engraved into the door of All Saints' Church, Wittenberg. The Latin inscription above informs the reader that the original door was destroyed by a fire, and that in 1857, King Frederick William IV of Prussia ordered a replacement be made.

In 1516, Johann Tetzel, a Dominican friar, was sent to Germany by the Roman Catholic Church to sell indulgences to raise money in order to rebuild St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.[38] Tetzel's experiences as a preacher of indulgences, especially between 1503 and 1510, led to his appointment as general commissioner by Albrecht von Brandenburg, Archbishop of Mainz, who, deeply in debt to pay for a large accumulation of benefices, had to contribute the considerable sum of ten thousand ducats[39] toward the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Albrecht obtained permission from Pope Leo X to conduct the sale of a special plenary indulgence (i.e., remission of the temporal punishment of sin), half of the proceeds of which Albrecht was to claim to pay the fees of his benefices.

On 31 October 1517, Luther wrote to his bishop, Albrecht von Brandenburg, protesting against the sale of indulgences. He enclosed in his letter a copy of his "Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences",[a] which came to be known as the Ninety-five Theses. Hans Hillerbrand writes that Luther had no intention of confronting the church but saw his disputation as a scholarly objection to church practices, and the tone of the writing is accordingly "searching, rather than doctrinaire."[41] Hillerbrand writes that there is nevertheless an undercurrent of challenge in several of the theses, particularly in Thesis 86, which asks: "Why does the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of St. Peter with the money of poor believers rather than with his own money?"[41]

 
The Catholic sale of indulgences shown in A Question to a Mintmaker, woodcut by Jörg Breu the Elder of Augsburg, c. 1530

Luther objected to a saying attributed to Tetzel that "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory (also attested as 'into heaven') springs."[42] He insisted that, since forgiveness was God's alone to grant, those who claimed that indulgences absolved buyers from all punishments and granted them salvation were in error. Christians, he said, must not slacken in following Christ on account of such false assurances.

According to one account, Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the door of All Saints' Church in Wittenberg on 31 October 1517. Scholars Walter Krämer, Götz Trenkler, Gerhard Ritter, and Gerhard Prause contend that the story of the posting on the door, although it has become one of the pillars of history, has little foundation in truth.[43][44][45][46] The story is based on comments made by Luther's collaborator Philip Melanchthon, though it is thought that he was not in Wittenberg at the time.[47] According to Roland Bainton, on the other hand, it is true.[48]

The Latin Theses were printed in several locations in Germany in 1517. In January 1518 friends of Luther translated the Ninety-five Theses from Latin into German.[49] Within two weeks, copies of the theses had spread throughout Germany. Luther's writings circulated widely, reaching France, England, and Italy as early as 1519. Students thronged to Wittenberg to hear Luther speak. He published a short commentary on Galatians and his Work on the Psalms. This early part of Luther's career was one of his most creative and productive.[50] Three of his best-known works were published in 1520: To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, and On the Freedom of a Christian.

Justification by faith alone

 
Luther at Erfurt, which depicts Martin Luther discovering the doctrine of sola fide (by faith alone). Painting by Joseph Noel Paton, 1861.

From 1510 to 1520, Luther lectured on the Psalms, and on the books of Hebrews, Romans, and Galatians. As he studied these portions of the Bible, he came to view the use of terms such as penance and righteousness by the Catholic Church in new ways. He became convinced that the church was corrupt in its ways and had lost sight of what he saw as several of the central truths of Christianity. The most important for Luther was the doctrine of justification—God's act of declaring a sinner righteous—by faith alone through God's grace. He began to teach that salvation or redemption is a gift of God's grace, attainable only through faith in Jesus as the Messiah.[51] "This one and firm rock, which we call the doctrine of justification", he writes, "is the chief article of the whole Christian doctrine, which comprehends the understanding of all godliness."[52]

Luther came to understand justification as entirely the work of God. This teaching by Luther was clearly expressed in his 1525 publication On the Bondage of the Will, which was written in response to On Free Will by Desiderius Erasmus (1524). Luther based his position on predestination on St. Paul's epistle to the Ephesians 2:8–10. Against the teaching of his day that the righteous acts of believers are performed in cooperation with God, Luther wrote that Christians receive such righteousness entirely from outside themselves; that righteousness not only comes from Christ but actually is the righteousness of Christ, imputed to Christians (rather than infused into them) through faith.[53]

"That is why faith alone makes someone just and fulfills the law," he writes. "Faith is that which brings the Holy Spirit through the merits of Christ."[54] Faith, for Luther, was a gift from God; the experience of being justified by faith was "as though I had been born again." His entry into Paradise, no less, was a discovery about "the righteousness of God"—a discovery that "the just person" of whom the Bible speaks (as in Romans 1:17) lives by faith.[55] He explains his concept of "justification" in the Smalcald Articles:

The first and chief article is this: Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, died for our sins and was raised again for our justification (Romans 3:24–25). He alone is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), and God has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6). All have sinned and are justified freely, without their own works and merits, by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, in His blood (Romans 3:23–25). This is necessary to believe. This cannot be otherwise acquired or grasped by any work, law or merit. Therefore, 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 (Mark 13:31).[56]

Breach with the papacy

 
Pope Leo X's Bull against the errors of Martin Luther, 1521, commonly known as Exsurge Domine

Archbishop Albrecht did not reply to Luther's letter containing the Ninety-five Theses. He had the theses checked for heresy and in December 1517 forwarded them to Rome.[57] He needed the revenue from the indulgences to pay off a papal dispensation for his tenure of more than one bishopric. As Luther later notes, "the pope had a finger in the pie as well, because one half was to go to the building of St. Peter's Church in Rome".[58]

Pope Leo X was used to reformers and heretics,[59] and he responded slowly, "with great care as is proper."[60] Over the next three years he deployed a series of papal theologians and envoys against Luther, which served only to harden the reformer's anti-papal theology. First, the Dominican theologian Sylvester Mazzolini drafted a heresy case against Luther, whom Leo then summoned to Rome. The Elector Frederick persuaded the pope to have Luther examined at Augsburg, where the Imperial Diet was held.[61] Over a three-day period in October 1518, Luther defended himself under questioning by papal legate Cardinal Cajetan. The pope's right to issue indulgences was at the centre of the dispute between the two men.[62][63] The hearings degenerated into a shouting match. More than writing his theses, Luther's confrontation with the church cast him as an enemy of the pope: "His Holiness abuses Scripture", retorted Luther. "I deny that he is above Scripture".[64][65] Cajetan's original instructions had been to arrest Luther if he failed to recant, but the legate desisted from doing so.[66] With help from the Carmelite monk Christoph Langenmantel, Luther slipped out of the city at night, unbeknownst to Cajetan.[67]

 
The meeting of Martin Luther (right) and Cardinal Cajetan (left, holding the book)

In January 1519, at Altenburg in Saxony, the papal nuncio Karl von Miltitz adopted a more conciliatory approach. Luther made certain concessions to the Saxon, who was a relative of the Elector and promised to remain silent if his opponents did.[68] The theologian Johann Eck, however, was determined to expose Luther's doctrine in a public forum. In June and July 1519, he staged a disputation with Luther's colleague Andreas Karlstadt at Leipzig and invited Luther to speak.[69] Luther's boldest assertion in the debate was that Matthew 16:18 does not confer on popes the exclusive right to interpret scripture, and that therefore neither popes nor church councils were infallible.[70] For this, Eck branded Luther a new Jan Hus, referring to the Czech reformer and heretic burned at the stake in 1415. From that moment, he devoted himself to Luther's defeat.[71]

Excommunication

On 15 June 1520, the Pope warned Luther with the papal bull (edict) Exsurge Domine that he risked excommunication unless he recanted 41 sentences drawn from his writings, including the Ninety-five Theses, within 60 days. That autumn, Eck proclaimed the bull in Meissen and other towns. Von Miltitz attempted to broker a solution, but Luther, who had 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 10 December 1520,[72] an act he defended in Why the Pope and his Recent Book are Burned and Assertions Concerning All Articles. As a consequence, Luther was excommunicated by Pope Leo X on 3 January 1521, in the bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.[73] And although the Lutheran World Federation, Methodists and the Catholic Church's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity agreed (in 1999 and 2006, respectively) on a "common understanding of justification by God's grace through faith in Christ," the Catholic Church has never lifted the 1520 excommunication.[74][75][76]

Diet of Worms

 
Luther Before the Diet of Worms by Anton von Werner (1843–1915)

The enforcement of the ban on the Ninety-five Theses fell to the secular authorities. On 18 April 1521, Luther appeared as ordered before the Diet of Worms. This was a general assembly of the estates of the Holy Roman Empire that took place in Worms, a town on the Rhine. It was conducted from 28 January to 25 May 1521, with Emperor Charles V presiding. Prince Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, obtained a safe conduct for Luther to and from the meeting.

Johann Eck, speaking on behalf of the empire as assistant of the Archbishop of Trier, presented Luther with copies of his writings laid out on a table and asked him if the books were his and whether he stood by their contents. Luther confirmed he was their author but requested time to think about the answer to the second question. He prayed, consulted friends, and gave his response the next day:

Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen.[77]

At the end of this speech, Luther raised his arm "in the traditional salute of a knight winning a bout." Michael Mullett considers this speech as a "world classic of epoch-making oratory."[78]

 
Luther Monument in Worms. His statue is surrounded by the figures of his lay protectors and earlier Church reformers including John Wycliffe, Jan Hus and Girolamo Savonarola.

Eck informed Luther that he was acting like a heretic, saying,

Martin, there is no one of the heresies which have torn the bosom of the church, which has not derived its origin from the various interpretation of the Scripture. The Bible itself is the arsenal whence each innovator has drawn his deceptive arguments. It was with Biblical texts that Pelagius and Arius maintained their doctrines. Arius, for instance, found the negation of the eternity of the Word—an eternity which you admit, in this verse of the New Testament—Joseph knew not his wife till she had brought forth her first-born son; and he said, in the same way that you say, that this passage enchained him. When the fathers of the Council of Constance condemned this proposition of Jan Hus—The church of Jesus Christ is only the community of the elect, they condemned an error; for the church, like a good mother, embraces within her arms all who bear the name of Christian, all who are called to enjoy the celestial beatitude.[79]

Luther refused to recant his writings. He is sometimes also quoted as saying: "Here I stand. I can do no other". Recent scholars consider the evidence for these words to be unreliable since they were inserted before "May God help me" only in later versions of the speech and not recorded in witness accounts of the proceedings.[80] However, Mullett suggests that given his nature, "we are free to believe that Luther would tend to select the more dramatic form of words."[78]

Over the next five days, private conferences were held to determine Luther's fate. The emperor presented the final draft of the Edict of Worms on 25 May 1521, declaring Luther an outlaw, banning his literature, and requiring his arrest: "We want him to be apprehended and punished as a notorious heretic."[81] It also made it a crime for anyone in Germany to give Luther food or shelter. It permitted anyone to kill Luther without legal consequence.

At Wartburg Castle

 
The Wartburg room where Luther translated the New Testament into German. An original first edition is kept in the case on the desk.

Luther's disappearance during his return to Wittenberg was planned. Frederick III had him intercepted on his way home in the forest near Wittenberg by masked horsemen impersonating highway robbers. They escorted Luther to the security of the Wartburg Castle at Eisenach.[82] During his stay at Wartburg, which he referred to as "my Patmos",[83] Luther translated the New Testament from Greek into German and poured out doctrinal and polemical writings. These included a renewed attack on Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz, whom he shamed into halting the sale of indulgences in his episcopates,[84] and a Refutation of the Argument of Latomus, in which he expounded the principle of justification to Jacobus Latomus, an orthodox theologian from Louvain.[85] In this work, one of his most emphatic statements on faith, he argued that every good work designed to attract God's favor is a sin.[86] All humans are sinners by nature, he explained, and God's grace alone (which cannot be earned) can make them just. On 1 August 1521, Luther wrote to Melanchthon on the same theme: "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."[87]

In the summer of 1521, Luther widened his target from individual pieties like indulgences and pilgrimages to doctrines at the heart of Church practice. In On the Abrogation of the Private Mass, he condemned as idolatry the idea that the mass is a sacrifice, asserting instead that it is a gift, to be received with thanksgiving by the whole congregation.[88] His essay On Confession, Whether the Pope has the Power to Require It rejected compulsory confession and encouraged private confession and absolution, since "every Christian is a confessor."[89] In November, Luther wrote The Judgement of Martin Luther on Monastic Vows. He assured monks and nuns that they could break their vows without sin, because vows were an illegitimate and vain attempt to win salvation.[90]

 
Luther disguised as "Junker Jörg", 1521

Luther made his pronouncements from Wartburg in the context of rapid developments at Wittenberg, of which he was kept fully informed. Andreas Karlstadt, supported by the ex-Augustinian Gabriel Zwilling, embarked on a radical programme of reform there in June 1521, exceeding anything envisaged by Luther. The reforms provoked disturbances, including a revolt by the Augustinian friars against their prior, the smashing of statues and images in churches, and denunciations of the magistracy. After secretly visiting Wittenberg in early December 1521, Luther wrote A Sincere Admonition by Martin Luther to All Christians to Guard Against Insurrection and Rebellion.[91] Wittenberg became even more volatile after Christmas when a band of visionary zealots, the so-called Zwickau prophets, arrived, preaching revolutionary doctrines such as the equality of man,[clarification needed] adult baptism, and Christ's imminent return.[92] When the town council asked Luther to return, he decided it was his duty to act.[93]

Return to Wittenberg and Peasants' War

 
Lutherhaus, Luther's residence in Wittenberg

Luther secretly returned to Wittenberg on 6 March 1522. He wrote to the Elector: "During my absence, Satan has entered my sheepfold, and committed ravages which I cannot repair by writing, but only by my personal presence and living word."[94] For eight days in Lent, beginning on Invocavit Sunday, 9 March, Luther preached eight sermons, which became known as the "Invocavit Sermons". In these sermons, he hammered home the primacy of core Christian values such as love, patience, charity, and freedom, and reminded the citizens to trust God's word rather than violence to bring about necessary change.[95]

Do you know what the Devil thinks when he sees men use violence to propagate the gospel? He sits with folded arms behind the fire of hell, and says with malignant looks and frightful grin: "Ah, how wise these madmen are to play my game! Let them go on; I shall reap the benefit. I delight in it." But when he sees the Word running and contending alone on the battle-field, then he shudders and shakes for fear.[96]

The effect of Luther's intervention was immediate. After the sixth sermon, the Wittenberg jurist Jerome Schurf wrote to the elector: "Oh, what joy has Dr. Martin's return spread among us! His words, through divine mercy, are bringing back every day misguided people into the way of the truth."[96]

Luther next set about reversing or modifying the new church practices. By working alongside the authorities to restore public order, he signalled his reinvention as a conservative force within the Reformation.[97] After banishing the Zwickau prophets, he faced a battle against both the established Church and the radical reformers who threatened the new order by fomenting social unrest and violence.[98]

 
The Twelve Articles, 1525

Despite his victory in Wittenberg, Luther was unable to stifle radicalism further afield. Preachers such as Thomas Müntzer and Zwickau prophet Nicholas Storch found support amongst poorer townspeople and peasants between 1521 and 1525. There had been revolts by the peasantry on smaller scales since the 15th century.[99] Luther's pamphlets against the Church and the hierarchy, often worded with "liberal" phraseology, led many peasants to believe he would support an attack on the upper classes in general.[100] Revolts broke out in Franconia, Swabia, and Thuringia in 1524, even drawing support from disaffected nobles, many of whom were in debt. Gaining momentum under the leadership of radicals such as Müntzer in Thuringia, and Hipler and Lotzer in the south-west, the revolts turned into war.[101]

Luther sympathised with some of the peasants' grievances, as he showed in his response to the Twelve Articles in May 1525, but he reminded the aggrieved to obey the temporal authorities.[102] During a tour of Thuringia, he became enraged at the widespread burning of convents, monasteries, bishops' palaces, and libraries. In Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants, written on his return to Wittenberg, he gave his interpretation of the Gospel teaching on wealth, condemned the violence as the devil's work, and called for the nobles to put down the rebels like mad dogs:

Therefore let everyone who can, smite, slay, and stab, secretly or openly, remembering that nothing can be more poisonous, hurtful, or devilish than a rebel ... For baptism does not make men free in body and property, but in soul; and the gospel does not make goods common, except in the case of those who, of their own free will, do what the apostles and disciples did in Acts 4 [:32–37]. They did not demand, as do our insane peasants in their raging, that the goods of others—of Pilate and Herod—should be common, but only their own goods. Our peasants, however, want to make the goods of other men common, and keep their own for themselves. Fine Christians they are! I think there is not a devil left in hell; they have all gone into the peasants. Their raving has gone beyond all measure.[103]

Luther justified his opposition to the rebels on three grounds. First, in choosing violence over lawful submission to the secular government, they were ignoring Christ's counsel to "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's"; St. Paul had written in his epistle to the Romans 13:1–7 that all authorities are appointed by God and therefore should not be resisted. This reference from the Bible forms the foundation for the doctrine known as the divine right of kings, or, in the German case, the divine right of the princes. Second, the violent actions of rebelling, robbing, and plundering placed the peasants "outside the law of God and Empire", so they deserved "death in body and soul, if only as highwaymen and murderers." Lastly, Luther charged the rebels with blasphemy for calling themselves "Christian brethren" and committing their sinful acts under the banner of the Gospel.[104] Only later in life did he develop the Beerwolf concept permitting some cases of resistance against the government.[105]

Without Luther's backing for the uprising, many rebels laid down their weapons; others felt betrayed. Their defeat by the Swabian League at the Battle of Frankenhausen on 15 May 1525, followed by Müntzer's execution, brought the revolutionary stage of the Reformation to a close.[106] Thereafter, radicalism found a refuge in the Anabaptist movement and other religious movements, while Luther's Reformation flourished under the wing of the secular powers.[107] In 1526 Luther wrote: "I, Martin Luther, have during the rebellion slain all the peasants, for it was I who ordered them to be struck dead."[108]

Marriage

 

Martin Luther married Katharina von Bora, one of 12 nuns he had helped escape from the Nimbschen Cistercian convent in April 1523, when he arranged for them to be smuggled out in herring barrels.[109] "Suddenly, and while I was occupied with far different thoughts," he wrote to Wenceslaus Link, "the Lord has plunged me into marriage."[110] At the time of their marriage, Katharina was 26 years old and Luther was 41 years old.

 
Martin Luther at his desk with family portraits (17th century)

On 13 June 1525, the couple was engaged, with Johannes Bugenhagen, Justus Jonas, Johannes Apel, Philipp Melanchthon and Lucas Cranach the Elder and his wife as witnesses.[111] On the evening of the same day, the couple was married by Bugenhagen.[111] The ceremonial walk to the church and the wedding banquet were left out and were made up two weeks later on 27 June.[111]

Some priests and former members of religious orders had already married, including Andreas Karlstadt and Justus Jonas, but Luther's wedding set the seal of approval on clerical marriage.[112] He had long condemned vows of celibacy on biblical grounds, but his decision to marry surprised many, not least Melanchthon, who called it reckless.[113] Luther had written to George Spalatin on 30 November 1524, "I shall never take a wife, as I feel at present. Not that I am insensible to my flesh or sex (for I am neither wood nor stone); but my mind is averse to wedlock because I daily expect the death of a heretic."[114] Before marrying, Luther had been living on the plainest food, and, as he admitted himself, his mildewed bed was not properly made for months at a time.[115]

Luther and his wife moved into a former monastery, "The Black Cloister," a wedding present from Elector John the Steadfast. They embarked on what appears to have been a happy and successful marriage, though money was often short.[116] Katharina bore six children: Hans – June 1526; Elisabeth – 10 December 1527, who died within a few months; Magdalene – 1529, who died in Luther's arms in 1542; Martin – 1531; Paul – January 1533; and Margaret – 1534; and she helped the couple earn a living by farming and taking in boarders.[117] Luther confided to Michael Stiefel on 11 August 1526: "My Katie is in all things so obliging and pleasing to me that I would not exchange my poverty for the riches of Croesus."[118]

Organising the church

 
Church orders, Mecklenburg 1650

By 1526, Luther found himself increasingly occupied in organising a new church. His biblical ideal of congregations choosing their own ministers had proved unworkable.[119] According to Bainton: "Luther's dilemma was that he wanted both a confessional church based on personal faith and experience and a territorial church including all in a given locality. If he were forced to choose, he would take his stand with the masses, and this was the direction in which he moved."[120]

From 1525 to 1529, he established a supervisory church body, laid down a new form of worship service, and wrote a clear summary of the new faith in the form of two catechisms.[121] To avoid confusing or upsetting the people, Luther avoided extreme change. He also did not wish to replace one controlling system with another. He concentrated on the church in the Electorate of Saxony, acting only as an adviser to churches in new territories, many of which followed his Saxon model. He worked closely with the new elector, John the Steadfast, to whom he turned for secular leadership and funds on behalf of a church largely shorn of its assets and income after the break with Rome.[122] For Luther's biographer Martin Brecht, this partnership "was the beginning of a questionable and originally unintended development towards a church government under the temporal sovereign".[123]

The elector authorised a visitation of the church, a power formerly exercised by bishops.[124] At times, Luther's practical reforms fell short of his earlier radical pronouncements. For example, the Instructions for the Visitors of Parish Pastors in Electoral Saxony (1528), drafted by Melanchthon with Luther's approval, stressed the role of repentance in the forgiveness of sins, despite Luther's position that faith alone ensures justification.[125] The Eisleben reformer Johannes Agricola challenged this compromise, and Luther condemned him for teaching that faith is separate from works.[126] The Instruction is a problematic document for those seeking a consistent evolution in Luther's thought and practice.[127]

 
Lutheran church liturgy and sacraments

In response to demands for a German liturgy, Luther wrote a German Mass, which he published in early 1526.[128] He did not intend it as a replacement for his 1523 adaptation of the Latin Mass but as an alternative for the "simple people", a "public stimulation for people to believe and become Christians."[129] Luther based his order on the Catholic service but omitted "everything that smacks of sacrifice", and the Mass became a celebration where everyone received the wine as well as the bread.[130] He retained the elevation of the host and chalice, while trappings such as the Mass vestments, altar, and candles were made optional, allowing freedom of ceremony.[131] Some reformers, including followers of Huldrych Zwingli, considered Luther's service too papistic, and modern scholars note the conservatism of his alternative to the Catholic Mass.[132] Luther's service, however, included congregational singing of hymns and psalms in German, as well as parts of the liturgy, including Luther's unison setting of the Creed.[133] To reach the simple people and the young, Luther incorporated religious instruction into the weekday services in the form of catechism.[134] He also provided simplified versions of the baptism and marriage services.[135]

Luther and his colleagues introduced the new order of worship during their visitation of the Electorate of Saxony, which began in 1527.[136] They also assessed the standard of pastoral care and Christian education in the territory. "Merciful God, what misery I have seen," Luther writes, "the common people knowing nothing at all of Christian doctrine ... and unfortunately many pastors are well-nigh unskilled and incapable of teaching."[137]

Catechisms

 
A stained glass portrayal of Luther

Luther devised the catechism as a method of imparting the basics of Christianity to the congregations. In 1529, he wrote the Large Catechism, a manual for pastors and teachers, as well as a synopsis, the Small Catechism, to be memorised by the people.[138] The catechisms provided easy-to-understand instructional and devotional material on the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, The Lord's Prayer, baptism, and the Lord's Supper.[139] Luther incorporated questions and answers in the catechism so that the basics of Christian faith would not just be learned by rote, "the way monkeys do it", but understood.[140]

The catechism is one of Luther's most personal works. "Regarding the plan to collect my writings in volumes," he wrote, "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 Bondage of the Will and the Catechism."[141] The Small Catechism has earned a reputation as a model of clear religious teaching.[142] It remains in use today, along with Luther's hymns and his translation of the Bible.

Luther's Small Catechism proved especially effective in helping parents teach their children; likewise the Large Catechism was effective for pastors.[143] Using the German vernacular, they expressed the Apostles' Creed in simpler, more personal, Trinitarian language. He rewrote each article of the Creed to express the character of the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit. Luther's goal was to enable the catechumens to see themselves as a personal object of the work of the three persons of the Trinity, each of which works in the catechumen's life.[144] That is, Luther depicts the Trinity not as a doctrine to be learned, but as persons to be known. The Father creates, the Son redeems, and the Spirit sanctifies, a divine unity with separate personalities. Salvation originates with the Father and draws the believer to the Father. Luther's treatment of the Apostles' Creed must be understood in the context of the Decalogue (the Ten Commandments) and The Lord's Prayer, which are also part of the Lutheran catechetical teaching.[144]

Translation of the Bible

 
Luther's 1534 Bible

Luther had published his German translation of the New Testament in 1522, and he and his collaborators completed the translation of the Old Testament in 1534, when the whole Bible was published. He continued to work on refining the translation until the end of his life.[145] Others had previously translated the Bible into German, but Luther tailored his translation to his own doctrine.[146] Two of the earlier translations were the Mentelin Bible (1456)[147] and the Koberger Bible (1484).[148] There were as many as fourteen in High German, four in Low German, four in Dutch, and various other translations in other languages before the Bible of Luther.[149]

Luther's translation used the variant of German spoken at the Saxon chancellery, intelligible to both northern and southern Germans.[150] He intended his vigorous, direct language to make the Bible accessible to everyday Germans, "for we are removing impediments and difficulties so that other people may read it without hindrance."[151] Published at a time of rising demand for German-language publications, Luther's version quickly became a popular and influential Bible translation. As such, it contributed a distinct flavor to the German language and literature.[152] Furnished with notes and prefaces by Luther, and with woodcuts by Lucas Cranach that contained anti-papal imagery, it played a major role in the spread of Luther's doctrine throughout Germany.[153] The Luther Bible influenced other vernacular translations, such as the Tyndale Bible (from 1525 forward), a precursor of the King James Bible.[154]

When he was criticised for inserting the word "alone" after "faith" in Romans 3:28,[155] he replied in part: "[T]he text itself and the meaning of St. Paul urgently require and demand it. For in that very passage he is dealing with the main point of Christian doctrine, namely, that we are justified by faith in Christ without any works of the Law. ... But when works are so completely cut away—and that must mean that faith alone justifies—whoever would speak plainly and clearly about this cutting away of works will have to say, 'Faith alone justifies us, and not works'."[156] Luther did not include First Epistle of John 5:7–8,[157] the Johannine Comma in his translation, rejecting it as a forgery. It was inserted into the text by other hands after Luther's death.[158][159]

Hymnodist

 
An early printing of Luther's hymn "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott"

Luther was a prolific hymnodist, authoring hymns such as "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" ("A Mighty Fortress Is Our God"), based on Psalm 46, and "Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her" ("From Heaven Above to Earth I Come"), based on Luke 2:11–12.[160] Luther connected high art and folk music, also all classes, clergy and laity, men, women and children. His tool of choice for this connection was the singing of German hymns in connection with worship, school, home, and the public arena.[161] He often accompanied the sung hymns with a lute, later recreated as the waldzither that became a national instrument of Germany in the 20th century.[162]

Luther's hymns were frequently evoked by particular events in his life and the unfolding Reformation. This behavior started with his learning of the execution of Jan van Essen and Hendrik Vos, the first individuals to be martyred by the Roman Catholic Church for Lutheran views, prompting Luther to write the hymn "Ein neues Lied wir heben an" ("A New Song We Raise"), which is generally known in English by John C. Messenger's translation by the title and first line "Flung to the Heedless Winds" and sung to the tune Ibstone composed in 1875 by Maria C. Tiddeman.[163]

Luther's 1524 creedal hymn "Wir glauben all an einen Gott" ("We All Believe in One True God") is a three-stanza confession of faith prefiguring Luther's 1529 three-part explanation of the Apostles' Creed in the Small Catechism. Luther's hymn, adapted and expanded from an earlier German creedal hymn, gained widespread use in vernacular Lutheran liturgies as early as 1525. Sixteenth-century Lutheran hymnals also included "Wir glauben all" among the catechetical hymns, although 18th-century hymnals tended to label the hymn as Trinitarian rather than catechetical, and 20th-century Lutherans rarely used the hymn because of the perceived difficulty of its tune.[161]

 
 
Autograph of "Vater unser im Himmelreich", with the only notes extant in Luther's handwriting

Luther's 1538 hymnic version of the Lord's Prayer, "Vater unser im Himmelreich", corresponds exactly to Luther's explanation of the prayer in the Small Catechism, with one stanza for each of the seven prayer petitions, plus opening and closing stanzas. The hymn functions both as a liturgical setting of the Lord's Prayer and as a means of examining candidates on specific catechism questions. The extant manuscript shows multiple revisions, demonstrating Luther's concern to clarify and strengthen the text and to provide an appropriately prayerful tune. Other 16th- and 20th-century versifications of the Lord's Prayer have adopted Luther's tune, although modern texts are considerably shorter.[164]

Luther wrote "Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir" ("From depths of woe I cry to You") in 1523 as a hymnic version of Psalm 130 and sent it as a sample to encourage his colleagues to write psalm-hymns for use in German worship. In a collaboration with Paul Speratus, this and seven other hymns were published in the Achtliederbuch, the first Lutheran hymnal. In 1524 Luther developed his original four-stanza psalm paraphrase into a five-stanza Reformation hymn that developed the theme of "grace alone" more fully. Because it expressed essential Reformation doctrine, this expanded version of "Aus tiefer Not" was designated as a regular component of several regional Lutheran liturgies and was widely used at funerals, including Luther's own. Along with Erhart Hegenwalt's hymnic version of Psalm 51, Luther's expanded hymn was also adopted for use with the fifth part of Luther's catechism, concerning confession.[165]

Luther wrote "Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein" ("Oh God, look down from heaven"). "Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland" (Now come, Savior of the gentiles), based on Veni redemptor gentium, became the main hymn (Hauptlied) for Advent. He transformed A solus ortus cardine to "Christum wir sollen loben schon" ("We should now praise Christ") and Veni Creator Spiritus to "Komm, Gott Schöpfer, Heiliger Geist" ("Come, Holy Spirit, Lord God").[166] He wrote two hymns on the Ten Commandments, "Dies sind die heilgen Zehn Gebot" and "Mensch, willst du leben seliglich". His "Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ" ("Praise be to You, Jesus Christ") became the main hymn for Christmas. He wrote for Pentecost "Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist", and adopted for Easter "Christ ist erstanden" (Christ is risen), based on Victimae paschali laudes. "Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin", a paraphrase of Nunc dimittis, was intended for Purification, but became also a funeral hymn. He paraphrased the Te Deum as "Herr Gott, dich loben wir" with a simplified form of the melody. It became known as the German Te Deum.

Luther's 1541 hymn "Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam" ("To Jordan came the Christ our Lord") reflects the structure and substance of his questions and answers concerning baptism in the Small Catechism. Luther adopted a preexisting Johann Walter tune associated with a hymnic setting of Psalm 67's prayer for grace; Wolf Heintz's four-part setting of the hymn was used to introduce the Lutheran Reformation in Halle in 1541. Preachers and composers of the 18th century, including J.S. Bach, used this rich hymn as a subject for their own work, although its objective baptismal theology was displaced by more subjective hymns under the influence of late-19th-century Lutheran pietism.[161]

Luther's hymns were included in early Lutheran hymnals and spread the ideas of the Reformation. He supplied four of eight songs of the First Lutheran hymnal Achtliederbuch, 18 of 26 songs of the Erfurt Enchiridion, and 24 of the 32 songs in the first choral hymnal with settings by Johann Walter, Eyn geystlich Gesangk Buchleyn, all published in 1524. Luther's hymns inspired composers to write music. Johann Sebastian Bach included several verses as chorales in his cantatas and based chorale cantatas entirely on them, namely Christ lag in Todes Banden, BWV 4, as early as possibly 1707, in his second annual cycle (1724 to 1725) Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein, BWV 2, Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam, BWV 7, Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 62, Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ, BWV 91, and Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir, BWV 38, later Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV 80, and in 1735 Wär Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit, BWV 14.

On the soul after death

 
Luther on the left with Lazarus being raised by Jesus from the dead, painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1558

In contrast to the views of John Calvin[167] and Philipp Melanchthon,[168] throughout his life Luther maintained that it was not false doctrine to believe that a Christian's soul sleeps after it is separated from the body in death.[169] Accordingly, he disputed traditional interpretations of some Bible passages, such as the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.[170] This also led Luther to reject the idea of torments for the saints: "It is enough for us to know that souls do not leave their bodies to be threatened by the torments and punishments of hell, but enter a prepared bedchamber in which they sleep in peace."[171] He also rejected the existence of purgatory, which involved Christian souls undergoing penitential suffering after death.[172] He affirmed the continuity of one's personal identity beyond death. In his Smalcald Articles, he described the saints as currently residing "in their graves and in heaven."[173]

The Lutheran theologian Franz Pieper observes that Luther's teaching about the state of the Christian's soul after death differed from the later Lutheran theologians such as Johann Gerhard.[174] Lessing (1755) had earlier reached the same conclusion in his analysis of Lutheran orthodoxy on this issue.[175]

Luther's Commentary on Genesis contains a passage which concludes that "the soul does not sleep (anima non sic dormit), but wakes (sed vigilat) and experiences visions".[176] Francis Blackburne argues that John Jortin misread this and other passages from Luther,[177] while Gottfried Fritschel points out that it actually refers to the soul of a man "in this life" (homo enim in hac vita) tired from his daily labour (defatigus diurno labore) who at night enters his bedchamber (sub noctem intrat in cubiculum suum) and whose sleep is interrupted by dreams.[178]

Henry Eyster Jacobs' English translation from 1898 reads:

"Nevertheless, the sleep of this life and that of the future life differ; for in this life, man, fatigued by his daily labour, at nightfall goes to his couch, as in peace, to sleep there, and enjoys rest; nor does he know anything of evil, whether of fire or of murder."[179]

Sacramentarian controversy and the Marburg Colloquy

 
The Marburg Colloquy, by August Noack

In October 1529, Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, convoked an assembly of German and Swiss theologians at the Marburg Colloquy, to establish doctrinal unity in the emerging Protestant states.[180] Agreement was achieved on fourteen points out of fifteen, the exception being the nature of the Eucharist—the sacrament of the Lord's Supper—an issue crucial to Luther.[181] The theologians, including Zwingli, Melanchthon, Martin Bucer, and Johannes Oecolampadius, differed on the significance of the words spoken by Jesus at the Last Supper: "This is my body which is for you" and "This cup is the new covenant in my blood" (1 Corinthians 11:23–26).[182] Luther insisted on the Real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the consecrated bread and wine, which he called the sacramental union,[183] while his opponents believed God to be only spiritually or symbolically present.[184]

Zwingli, for example, denied Jesus' ability to be in more than one place at a time. Luther stressed the omnipresence of Jesus' human nature.[185] According to transcripts, the debate sometimes became confrontational. Citing Jesus' words "The flesh profiteth nothing" (John 6.63), Zwingli said, "This passage breaks your neck". "Don't be too proud," Luther retorted, "German necks don't break that easily. This is Hesse, not Switzerland."[186] On his table Luther wrote the words "Hoc est corpus meum" ("This is my body") in chalk, to continually indicate his firm stance.[187]

Despite the 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 John of Saxony, Philip of Hesse, and George, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach. The Swiss cities, however, did not sign these agreements.[188]

Epistemology

Some scholars have asserted that Luther taught that faith and reason were antithetical in the sense that questions of faith could not be illuminated by reason. He wrote, "All the articles of our Christian faith, which God has revealed to us in His Word, are in presence of reason sheerly impossible, absurd, and false."[189] and "[That] Reason in no way contributes to faith. [...] For reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things."[190] However, though seemingly contradictorily, he also wrote in the latter work that human reason "strives not against faith, when enlightened, but rather furthers and advances it",[191] bringing claims he was a fideist into dispute. Contemporary Lutheran scholarship, however, has found a different reality in Luther. Luther rather seeks to separate faith and reason in order to honor the separate spheres of knowledge that each applies to.

On Islam

 
The battle between the Turks and the Christians, in the 16th century

At the time of the Marburg Colloquy, Suleiman the Magnificent was besieging Vienna with a vast Ottoman army.[192] Luther had argued against resisting the Turks in his 1518 Explanation of the Ninety-five Theses, provoking accusations of defeatism. He saw the Turks as a scourge sent by God to punish Christians, as agents of the biblical apocalypse that would destroy the Antichrist, whom Luther believed to be the papacy and the Roman Church.[193] He consistently rejected the idea of a Holy War, "as though our people were an army of Christians against the Turks, who were enemies of Christ. This is absolutely contrary to Christ's doctrine and name".[194] On the other hand, in keeping with his doctrine of the two kingdoms, Luther did support non-religious war against the Turks.[195] In 1526, he argued in Whether Soldiers can be in a State of Grace that national defence is reason for a just war.[196] By 1529, in On War against the Turk, he was actively urging Emperor Charles V and the German people to fight a secular war against the Turks.[197] He made clear, however, that the spiritual war against an alien faith was separate, to be waged through prayer and repentance.[198] Around the time of the Siege of Vienna, Luther wrote a prayer for national deliverance from the Turks, asking God to "give to our emperor perpetual victory over our enemies".[199]

In 1542, Luther read a Latin translation of the Qur'an.[200] He went on to produce several critical pamphlets on Islam, which he called "Mohammedanism" or "the Turk".[201] Though Luther saw the Muslim faith as a tool of the devil, he was indifferent to its practice: "Let the Turk believe and live as he will, just as one lets the papacy and other false Christians live."[202] He opposed banning the publication of the Qur'an, wanting it exposed to scrutiny.[203]

Antinomian controversy

 
Pulpit of St. Andreas Church, Eisleben, where Agricola and Luther preached

Early in 1537, Johannes Agricola—serving at the time as pastor in Luther's birthplace, Eisleben—preached a sermon in which he claimed that God's gospel, not God's moral law (the Ten Commandments), revealed God's wrath to Christians. Based on this sermon and others by Agricola, Luther suspected that Agricola was behind certain anonymous antinomian theses circulating in Wittenberg. These theses asserted that the law is no longer to be taught to Christians but belonged only to city hall.[204] Luther responded to these theses with six series of theses against Agricola and the antinomians, four of which became the basis for disputations between 1538 and 1540.[205] He also responded to these assertions in other writings, such as his 1539 open letter to C. Güttel Against the Antinomians,[206] and his book On the Councils and the Church from the same year.[207]

In his theses and disputations against the antinomians, Luther reviews and reaffirms, on the one hand, what has been called the "second use of the law," that is, the law as the Holy Spirit's tool to work sorrow over sin in man's heart, thus preparing him for Christ's fulfillment of the law offered in the gospel.[208] Luther states that everything that is used to work sorrow over sin is called the law, even if it is Christ's life, Christ's death for sin, or God's goodness experienced in creation.[209] Simply refusing to preach the Ten Commandments among Christians—thereby, as it were, removing the three letters l-a-w from the church—does not eliminate the accusing law.[210] Claiming that the law—in any form—should not be preached to Christians anymore would be tantamount to asserting that Christians are no longer sinners in themselves and that the church consists only of essentially holy people.[211]

Luther also points out that the Ten Commandments—when considered not as God's condemning judgment but as an expression of his eternal will, that is, of the natural law—positively teach how the Christian ought to live.[212] This has traditionally been called the "third use of the law."[213] For Luther, also Christ's life, when understood as an example, is nothing more than an illustration of the Ten Commandments, which a Christian should follow in his or her vocations on a daily basis.[214]

The Ten Commandments, and the beginnings of the renewed life of Christians accorded to them by the sacrament of baptism, are a present foreshadowing of the believers' future angel-like life in heaven in the midst of this life.[215] Luther's teaching of the Ten Commandments, therefore, has clear eschatological overtones, which, characteristically for Luther, do not encourage world-flight but direct the Christian to service to the neighbor in the common, daily vocations of this perishing world.

Bigamy of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse

From December 1539, Luther became involved in the designs of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse to marry a lady-in-waiting of his wife, Christine of Saxony. Philip solicited the approval of Luther, Melanchthon, and Bucer, citing as a precedent the polygamy of the patriarchs. The theologians were not prepared to make a general ruling, and they reluctantly advised the landgrave that if he was determined, he should marry secretly and keep quiet about the matter because divorce was worse than bigamy.[216] As a result, on 4 March 1540, Philip married a second wife, Margarethe von der Saale, with Melanchthon and Bucer among the witnesses. However, Philip's sister Elisabeth quickly made the scandal public, and Philip threatened to expose Luther's advice. Luther told him to "tell a good, strong lie" and deny the marriage completely, which Philip did.[217] Margarethe gave birth to nine children over a span of 17 years, giving Philip a total of 19 children. In the view of Luther's biographer Martin Brecht, "giving confessional advice for Philip of Hesse was one of the worst mistakes Luther made, and, next to the landgrave himself, who was directly responsible for it, history chiefly holds Luther accountable".[218] Brecht argues that Luther's mistake was not that he gave private pastoral advice, but that he miscalculated the political implications.[219] The affair caused lasting damage to Luther's reputation.[220]

Anti-Jewish polemics and antisemitism

 
The original title page of On the Jews and Their Lies, written by Martin Luther in 1543

Luther wrote negatively about the Jews throughout his career.[221] Though Luther rarely encountered Jews during his life, his attitudes reflected a theological and cultural tradition which saw Jews as a rejected people guilty of the murder of Christ, and he lived in a locality which had expelled Jews some ninety years earlier.[222] He considered the Jews blasphemers and liars because they rejected the divinity of Jesus.[223] In 1523, Luther advised kindness toward the Jews in That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew and also aimed to convert them to Christianity.[224] When his efforts at conversion failed, he grew increasingly bitter toward them.[225]

Luther's major works on the Jews were his 60,000-word treatise Von den Juden und Ihren Lügen (On the Jews and Their Lies), and Vom Schem Hamphoras und vom Geschlecht Christi (On the Holy Name and the Lineage of Christ), both published in 1543, three years before his death.[226] Luther argued that the Jews were no longer the chosen people but "the devil's people", and referred to them with violent language.[227][228] Citing Deuteronomy 13, wherein Moses commands the killing of idolaters and the burning of their cities and property as an offering to God, Luther called for a "scharfe Barmherzigkeit" ("sharp mercy") against the Jews "to see whether we might save at least a few from the glowing flames."[229] Luther advocated setting synagogues on fire, destroying Jewish prayerbooks, forbidding rabbis from preaching, seizing Jews' property and money, and smashing up their homes, so that these "envenomed worms" would be forced into labour or expelled "for all time".[230] In Robert Michael's view, Luther's words "We are at fault in not slaying them" amounted to a sanction for murder.[231] "God's anger with them is so intense," Luther concluded, "that gentle mercy will only tend to make them worse, while sharp mercy will reform them but little. Therefore, in any case, away with them!"[229]

Luther launched a polemic against vagrants in his 1510 preface to the Liber Vagatorum, attributing their Rotwelsch cryptolect to Hebrew. He warned Christians to stop giving them alms.[232][non-primary source needed]

Luther spoke out against the Jews in Saxony, Brandenburg, and Silesia.[233] Josel of Rosheim, the Jewish spokesman who tried to help the Jews of Saxony in 1537, later blamed their plight on "that priest whose name was Martin Luther—may his body and soul be bound up in hell!—who wrote and issued many heretical books in which he said that whoever would help the Jews was doomed to perdition."[234] Josel asked the city of Strasbourg to forbid the sale of Luther's anti-Jewish works: they refused initially but did so when a Lutheran pastor in Hochfelden used a sermon to urge his parishioners to murder Jews.[233] Luther's influence persisted after his death. Throughout the 1580s, riots led to the expulsion of Jews from several German Lutheran states.[235]

Tovia Singer, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, remarking about Luther's attitude toward Jews, put it thus: "Among all the Church Fathers and Reformers, there was no mouth more vile, no tongue that uttered more vulgar curses against the Children of Israel than this founder of the Reformation."[236]

Influence within Nazism

 
The statue outside the Frauenkirche in Dresden after the bombing of the city in World War II.

Luther was the most widely read author of his generation, and within Germany he acquired the status of a prophet.[237] According to the prevailing opinion among historians,[238] his anti-Jewish rhetoric contributed significantly to the development of antisemitism in Germany,[239] and in the 1930s and 1940s provided an "ideal underpinning" for the Nazis' attacks on Jews.[240] Reinhold Lewin writes that anybody who "wrote against the Jews for whatever reason believed he had the right to justify himself by triumphantly referring to Luther." According to Michael, just about every anti-Jewish book printed in Nazi Germany contained references to and quotations from Luther. Heinrich Himmler (albeit never a Lutheran, having been brought up Catholic) wrote admiringly of his writings and sermons on the Jews in 1940.[241] The city of Nuremberg presented a first edition of On the Jews and their Lies to Julius Streicher, editor of the Nazi newspaper Der Stürmer, on his birthday in 1937; the newspaper described it as the most radically antisemitic tract ever published.[242] It was publicly exhibited in a glass case at the Nuremberg rallies and quoted in a 54-page explanation of the Aryan Law by E.H. Schulz and R. Frercks.[243]

On 17 December 1941, seven Protestant regional church confederations issued a statement agreeing with the policy of forcing Jews to wear the yellow badge, "since after his bitter experience Luther had already suggested preventive measures against the Jews and their expulsion from German territory." According to Daniel Goldhagen, Bishop Martin Sasse, a leading Protestant churchman, published a compendium of Luther's writings shortly after Kristallnacht, for which Diarmaid MacCulloch, professor of the history of the church at the University of Oxford argued that Luther's writing was a "blueprint."[244] Sasse applauded the burning of the synagogues and the coincidence of the day, writing in the introduction, "On 10 November 1938, on Luther's birthday, the synagogues are burning in Germany." The German people, he urged, ought to heed these words "of the greatest antisemite of his time, the warner of his people against the Jews."[245]

"There is a world of difference between his belief in salvation and a racial ideology. Nevertheless, his misguided agitation had the evil result that Luther fatefully became one of the 'church fathers' of anti-Semitism and thus provided material for the modern hatred of the Jews, cloaking it with the authority of the Reformer."

Martin Brecht[246]

At the heart of scholarly debate about Luther's influence is whether it is anachronistic to view his work as a precursor of the racial antisemitism of the Nazis. Some scholars see Luther's influence as limited, and the Nazis' use of his work as opportunistic. Johannes Wallmann argues that Luther's writings against the Jews were largely ignored in the 18th and 19th centuries, and that there was no continuity between Luther's thought and Nazi ideology.[247] Uwe Siemon-Netto agreed, arguing that it was because the Nazis were already antisemites that they revived Luther's work.[248][249] Hans J. Hillerbrand agreed that to focus on Luther was to adopt an essentially ahistorical perspective of Nazi antisemitism that ignored other contributory factors in German history.[250] Similarly, Roland Bainton, noted church historian and Luther biographer, wrote "One could wish that Luther had died before ever [On the Jews and Their Lies] was written. His position was entirely religious and in no respect racial."[251][252] However, Christopher J. Probst, in his book Demonizing the Jews: Luther and the Protestant Church in Nazi Germany (2012), shows that a large number of German Protestant clergy and theologians during the Nazi era used Luther's hostile publications towards the Jews and their Jewish religion to justify at least in part the anti-Semitic policies of the National Socialists.[253] The pro-Nazi Christian group Deutsche Christen drew parallels between Martin Luther and the "Führer" Adolf Hitler.[254]

Some scholars, such as Mark U. Edwards in his book Luther's Last Battles: Politics and Polemics 1531–46 (1983), suggest that since Luther's increasingly antisemitic views developed during the years his health deteriorated, it is possible they were at least partly the product of a state of mind. Edwards also comments that Luther often deliberately used "vulgarity and violence" for effect, both in his writings condemning the Jews and in diatribes against "Turks" (Muslims) and Catholics.[255]

Since the 1980s, Lutheran denominations have repudiated Martin Luther's statements against the Jews[citation needed] and have rejected the use of them to incite hatred against Lutherans.[citation needed][256][257] Strommen et al.'s 1970 survey of 4,745 North American Lutherans aged 15–65 found that, compared to the other minority groups under consideration, Lutherans were the least prejudiced toward Jews.[258] Nevertheless, Professor Richard Geary, former professor of modern history at the University of Nottingham and the author of Hitler and Nazism (Routledge 1993), published an article in the magazine History Today examining electoral trends in Weimar Germany between 1928 and 1933. Geary notes that, based on his research, the Nazi Party received disproportionately more votes from Protestant than Catholic areas of Germany.[259][260]

Final years, illness and death

 
Luther on his deathbed, painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder
 
Martin Luther's grave, Schlosskirche, Wittenberg

Luther had been suffering from ill health for years, including Ménière's disease, vertigo, fainting, tinnitus, and a cataract in one eye.[261] From 1531 to 1546 his health deteriorated further. In 1536, he began to suffer from kidney and bladder stones, arthritis, and an ear infection ruptured an ear drum. In December 1544, he began to feel the effects of angina.[262]

His poor physical health made him short-tempered and even harsher in his writings and comments. His wife Katharina was overheard saying, "Dear husband, you are too rude," and he responded, "They are teaching me to be rude."[263] In 1545 and 1546 Luther preached three times in the Market Church in Halle, staying with his friend Justus Jonas during Christmas.[264]

His last sermon was delivered at Eisleben, his place of birth, on 15 February 1546, three days before his death.[265] It was "entirely devoted to the obdurate Jews, whom it was a matter of great urgency to expel from all German territory," according to Léon Poliakov.[266] James Mackinnon writes that it concluded with a "fiery summons to drive the Jews bag and baggage from their midst, unless they desisted from their calumny and their usury and became Christians."[267] Luther said, "we want to practice Christian love toward them and pray that they convert," but also that they are "our public enemies ... and if they could kill us all, they would gladly do so. And so often they do."[268]

Luther's final journey, to Mansfeld, was taken because of 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.

The negotiations were successfully concluded on 17 February 1546. After 8 p.m., he 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 a.m. on 18 February, he awoke with more chest pain and was warmed with hot towels. 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.[269]

An apoplectic stroke deprived him of his speech, and he died shortly afterwards at 2:45 a.m. on 18 February 1546, aged 62, in Eisleben, the city of his birth. He was buried in the Schlosskirche in Wittenberg, in front of the pulpit.[270] The funeral was held by his friends Johannes Bugenhagen and Philipp Melanchthon.[271] A year later, troops of Luther's adversary Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor entered the town but were ordered by Charles not to disturb the grave.[271]

A piece of paper was later found on which Luther had written his last statement. The statement was in Latin, apart from "We are beggars," which was in German. The statement reads:

  1. No one can understand Virgil's Bucolics unless he has been a shepherd for five years. No one can understand Virgil's Georgics, unless he has been a farmer for five years.
  2. No one can understand Cicero's Letters (or so I teach), unless he has busied himself in the affairs of some prominent state for twenty years.
  3. Know that no one can have indulged in the Holy Writers sufficiently, unless he has governed churches for a hundred years with the prophets, such as Elijah and Elisha, John the Baptist, Christ and the apostles.


Do not assail this divine Aeneid; nay, rather prostrate revere the ground that it treads.

We are beggars: this is true.[272][273]

The tomb of Philipp Melanchthon, Luther's contemporary and fellow reformer, is also located in the All Saints' Church.[274][275][276][277][278]

Legacy and commemoration

 
Worldwide Protestantism in 2010

Luther made effective use of Johannes Gutenberg's printing press to spread his views. He switched from Latin to German in his writing to appeal to a broader audience. Between 1500 and 1530, Luther's works represented one fifth of all materials printed in Germany.[281]

In the 1530s and 1540s, printed images of Luther that emphasized his monumental size were crucial to the spread of Protestantism. In contrast to images of frail Catholic saints, Luther was presented as a stout man with a "double chin, strong mouth, piercing deep-set eyes, fleshy face, and squat neck." He was shown to be physically imposing, an equal in stature to the secular German princes with whom he would join forces to spread Lutheranism. His large body also let the viewer know that he did not shun earthly pleasures like drinking—behavior that was a stark contrast to the ascetic life of the medieval religious orders. Images from this period include the woodcuts by Hans Brosamer (1530) and Lucas Cranach the Elder and Lucas Cranach the Younger (1546).[282]

 

Luther is honoured on 18 February with a commemoration in the Lutheran Calendar of Saints and in the Episcopal (United States) Calendar of Saints. In the Church of England's Calendar of Saints he is commemorated on 31 October.[283] Luther is honored in various ways by Christian traditions coming out directly from the Protestant Reformation, i.e. Lutheranism, the Reformed tradition, and Anglicanism. Branches of Protestantism that emerged afterwards vary in their remembrance and veneration of Luther, ranging from a complete lack of a single mention of him to a commemoration almost comparable to the way Lutherans commemorate and remember his persona. There is no known condemnation of Luther by Protestants themselves.

 
Martin Luther College in New Ulm, Minnesota, United States

Various sites both inside and outside Germany (supposedly) visited by Martin Luther throughout his lifetime commemorate it with local memorials. Saxony-Anhalt has two towns officially named after Luther, Lutherstadt Eisleben and Lutherstadt Wittenberg. Mansfeld is sometimes called Mansfeld-Lutherstadt, although the state government has not decided to put the Lutherstadt suffix in its official name.

Reformation Day commemorates the publication of the Ninety-five Theses in 1517 by Martin Luther; it has been historically important in the following European entities. It is a civic holiday in the German states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg. Two further states (Lower Saxony and Bremen) are pending a vote on introducing it. Slovenia celebrates it because of the profound contribution of the Reformation to its culture. Austria allows Protestant children not to go to school that day, and Protestant workers have a right to leave work in order to participate in a church service. Switzerland celebrates the holiday on the first Sunday after 31 October. It is also celebrated elsewhere around the world.

Luther and the swan

Luther is often depicted with a swan as his attribute, and Lutheran churches often have a swan for a weather vane. This association with the swan arises out of a prophecy reportedly made by the earlier reformer Jan Hus from Bohemia and endorsed by Luther. In the Bohemian language (now Czech), Hus's name meant "grey goose". In 1414, while imprisoned by the Council of Constance and anticipating his execution by burning for heresy, Hus prophesied, "Now they will roast a goose, but in a hundred years' time they'll hear a swan sing. They'd better listen to him." Luther published his Ninety-five Theses some 103 years later.[284][285][286]

Works and editions

 
Various books of the Weimar Edition of Luther's works
  • The Erlangen Edition (Erlangener Ausgabe: "EA"), comprising the Exegetica opera latina – Latin exegetical works of Luther.
  • The Weimar Edition (Weimarer Ausgabe) is the exhaustive, standard German edition of Luther's Latin and German works, indicated by the abbreviation "WA". This is continued into "WA Br" Weimarer Ausgabe, Briefwechsel (correspondence), "WA Tr" Weimarer Ausgabe, Tischreden (tabletalk) and "WA DB" Weimarer Ausgabe, Deutsche Bibel (German Bible).
  • The American Edition (Luther's Works) is the most extensive English translation of Luther's writings, indicated either by the abbreviation "LW" or "AE". The first 55 volumes were published 1955–1986, and a twenty volume extension (vols. 56–75) is planned of which volumes 58, 60, and 68 have appeared thus far.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Latin: "Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum" – The first printings of the Theses use an incipit rather than a title which summarizes the content. Luther usually called them "meine Propositiones" (my propositions).[40]

References

  1. ^ "Luther" 27 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
  2. ^ Luther himself, however, believed that he had been born in 1484. Hendrix, Scott H. (2015). Martin Luther: Visionary Reformer. Yale University Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-300-16669-9. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
  3. ^ Luther consistently referred to himself as a former monk. For example: "Thus formerly, when I was a monk, I used to hope that I would be able to pacify my conscience with the fastings, the praying, and the vigils with which I used to afflict my body in a way to excite pity. But the more I sweat, the less quiet and peace I felt; for the true light had been removed from my eyes." Martin Luther, Lectures on Genesis: Chapters 45–50, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 8 Luther’s Works. (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999), 5:326.
  4. ^ Ewald M. Plass, What Luther Says, 3 vols., (St. Louis: CPH, 1959), 88, no. 269; M. Reu, Luther and the Scriptures, (Columbus, Ohio: Wartburg Press, 1944), 23.
  5. ^ Luther, Martin. Concerning the Ministry (1523), tr. Conrad Bergendoff, in Bergendoff, Conrad (ed.) Luther's Works. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1958, 40:18 ff.
  6. ^ Fahlbusch, Erwin and Bromiley, Geoffrey William. The Encyclopedia of Christianity. Grand Rapids, MI: Leiden, Netherlands: Wm. B. Eerdmans; Brill, 1999–2003, 1:244.
  7. ^ Tyndale's New Testament, trans. from the Greek by William Tyndale in 1534 in a modern-spelling edition and with an introduction by David Daniell. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989, ix–x.
  8. ^ Bainton, Roland. Here I Stand: a Life of Martin Luther. New York: Penguin, 1995, 269.
  9. ^ Bainton, Roland. Here I Stand: a Life of Martin Luther. New York: Penguin, 1995, p. 223.
  10. ^ Hendrix, Scott H. "The Controversial Luther" 2 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Word & World 3/4 (1983), Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. Also see Hillerbrand, Hans. "The legacy of Martin Luther" 16 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, in Hillerbrand, Hans & McKim, Donald K. (eds.) The Cambridge Companion to Luther. Cambridge University Press, 2003. In 1523, Luther wrote that Jesus Christ was born a Jew which discouraged mistreatment of the Jews and advocated their conversion by proving that the Old Testament could be shown to speak of Jesus Christ. However, as the Reformation grew, Luther began to lose hope in large-scale Jewish conversion to Christianity, and in the years his health deteriorated he grew more acerbic toward the Jews, writing against them with the kind of venom he had already unleashed on the Anabaptists, Zwingli, and the pope.
  11. ^ Schaff, Philip: History of the Christian Church, Vol. VIII: Modern Christianity: The Swiss Reformation, William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, 1910, page 706.
  12. ^ Martin Brecht, Martin Luther (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1985–1993), 3:336.
  13. ^ Luther's letter to Rabbi Josel as cited by Gordon Rupp, Martin Luther and the Jews (London: The Council of Christians and Jews, 1972), 14. According to . Archived from the original on 4 November 2005. Retrieved 21 March 2017., this paragraph is not available in the English edition of Luther's works.
  14. ^ Sydow, Michael (1 December 1999). (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2008. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
  15. ^ "The assertion that Luther's expressions of anti-Jewish sentiment have been of major and persistent influence in the centuries after the Reformation, and that there exists a continuity between Protestant anti-Judaism and modern racially oriented antisemitism, is at present wide-spread in the literature; since the Second World War it has understandably become the prevailing opinion." Johannes Wallmann, "The Reception of Luther's Writings on the Jews from the Reformation to the End of the 19th century", Lutheran Quarterly, n.s. 1 (Spring 1987) 1:72–97.
  16. ^ For similar views, see:
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    • Rose, Paul Lawrence. "Revolutionary Antisemitism in Germany from Kant to Wagner," (Princeton University Press, 1990), quoted in Berger, 28;
    • Shirer, William. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1960).
    • Johnson, Paul. A History of the Jews (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1987), 242.
    • Poliakov, Leon. History of Anti-Semitism: From the Time of Christ to the Court Jews. (N.P.: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003), 216.
    • Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1993, 2000), 8–9.
  17. ^ Grunberger, Richard. The 12-Year Reich: A Social History of Nazi German 1933–1945 (NP:Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971), 465.
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  23. ^ Marty, Martin. Martin Luther. Viking Penguin, 2004, pp. 2–3.
  24. ^ a b Marty, Martin. Martin Luther. Viking Penguin, 2004, p. 4.
  25. ^ a b c d Marty, Martin. Martin Luther. Viking Penguin, 2004, p. 5.
  26. ^ a b c d Marty, Martin. Martin Luther. Viking Penguin, 2004, p. 6.
  27. ^ Brecht, Martin. Martin Luther. tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 1:48.
  28. ^ Brecht, Martin (1985). Google Books Archive of Martin Luther: His road to Reformation, 1483–1521 (By Martin Brecht). Martin Luther: His road to Reformation, 1483–1521 (By Martin Brecht). ISBN 978-1-4514-1414-1. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
  29. ^ Schwiebert, E.G. Luther and His Times. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1950, 136.
  30. ^ Marty, Martin. Martin Luther. Viking Penguin, 2004, p. 7.
  31. ^ Bainton, Roland. Here I Stand: a Life of Martin Luther. New York: Penguin, 1995, 40–42.
  32. ^ Kittelson, James. Luther The Reformer. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Publishing House, 1986, 79.
  33. ^ Bainton, Roland. Here I Stand: a Life of Martin Luther. New York: Penguin, 1995, 44–45.
  34. ^ Brecht, Martin. Martin Luther. tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 1:93.
  35. ^ Brecht, Martin. Martin Luther. tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 1:112–27.
  36. ^ Hendrix, Scott H. (2015). Martin Luther: Visionary Reformer. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-300-16669-9.
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  39. ^ At first, "the pope demanded twelve thousand ducats for the twelve apostles. Albert offered seven thousand ducats for the seven deadly sins. They compromised on ten thousand, presumably not for the Ten Commandments". Bainton, Roland. Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1950), p. 75, online
  40. ^ Cummings 2002, p. 32.
  41. ^ a b Hillerbrand, Hans J. "Martin Luther: Indulgences and salvation," Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007.
  42. ^ Thesis 55 of Tetzel's One Hundred and Six Theses. These "Anti-theses" were a reply to Luther's Ninety-five Theses and were drawn up by Tetzel's friend and former professor, Konrad Wimpina. Theses 55 & 56 (responding to Luther's 27th Theses) read: "For a soul to fly out, is for it to obtain the vision of God, which can be hindered by no interruption, therefore he errs who says that the soul cannot fly out before the coin can jingle in the bottom of the chest." In, The reformation in Germany, Henry Clay Vedder, 1914, Macmillan Company, p. 405. [1] Animam purgatam evolare, est eam visione dei potiri, quod nulla potest intercapedine impediri. Quisquis ergo dicit, non citius posse animam volare, quam in fundo cistae denarius possit tinnire, errat. In: D. Martini Lutheri, Opera Latina: Varii Argumenti, 1865, Henricus Schmidt, ed., Heyder and Zimmer, Frankfurt am Main & Erlangen, vol. 1, p. 300. (Print on demand edition: Nabu Press, 2010, ISBN 978-1-142-40551-9). [2] See also: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Johann Tetzel" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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  147. ^ "Mentelin Bible". The Library of Congress. 1466. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  148. ^ "Koberger Bible". World Digital Library. 1483. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  149. ^ Gow, Andrew C. (2009). "The Contested History of a Book: The German Bible of the Later Middle Ages and Reformation in Legend, Ideology, and Scholarship". Journal of Hebrew Scriptures. 9. doi:10.5508/jhs.2009.v9.a13. ISSN 1203-1542.
  150. ^ Wilson, 183; Brecht, 2:48–49.
  151. ^ Mullett, 149; Wilson, 302.
  152. ^ Marius, 162.
  153. ^ Lohse, 112–17; Wilson, 183; Bainton, Mentor edition, 258.
  154. ^ Daniel Weissbort and Astradur Eysteinsson (eds.), Translation – Theory and Practice: A Historical Reader, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-19-871200-6, 68.
  155. ^ Mullett, 148; Wilson, 185; Bainton, Mentor edition, 261. Luther inserted the word "alone" (allein) after the word "faith" in his translation of St Paul's Epistle to the Romans, 3:28. The clause is rendered in the English Authorised Version as "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law".
  156. ^ Lindberg, Carter. "The European Reformations: Sourcebook". Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2000. p. 49. Original sourcebook excerpt taken from Luther's Works. St. Louis: Concordia/Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1955–86. ed. Jaroslav Pelikan and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 35. pp. 182, 187–89, 195.
  157. ^ Metzger, Bruce M. (1994). A textual commentary on the Greek New Testament: a companion volume to the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament (fourth revised edition) (2 ed.). Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft. pp. 647–49. ISBN 978-3-438-06010-5.
  158. ^ Criticus, (Rev. William Orme) (1830). Memoir of The Controversy respecting the Three Heavenly Witnesses, I John V.7. London: (1872, Boston, "a new edition, with notes and an appendix by Ezra Abbot"). p. 42.
  159. ^ White, Andrew Dickson (1896). A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology, Vol. 2. New York: Appleton. p. 304.
  160. ^ For a short collection see online hymns 16 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine
  161. ^ a b c Christopher Boyd Brown, Singing the Gospel: Lutheran Hymns and the Success of the Reformation. (2005)
  162. ^ "Waldzither – Bibliography of the 19th century". Studia Instrumentorum. Retrieved 23 March 2014. Es ist eine unbedingte Notwendigkeit, dass der Deutsche zu seinen Liedern auch ein echt deutsches Begleitinstrument besitzt. Wie der Spanier seine Gitarre (fälschlich Laute genannt), der Italiener seine Mandoline, der Engländer das Banjo, der Russe die Balalaika usw. sein Nationalinstrument nennt, so sollte der Deutsche seine Laute, die Waldzither, welche schon von Dr. Martin Luther auf der Wartburg im Thüringer Walde (daher der Name Waldzither) gepflegt wurde, zu seinem Nationalinstrument machen. Liederheft von C.H. Böhm (Hamburg, March 1919)
  163. ^ . Hymntime. Archived from the original on 14 October 2013. Retrieved 7 October 2012.
  164. ^ Robin A. Leaver, "Luther's Catechism Hymns." Lutheran Quarterly 1998 12(1): 79–88, 89–98.
  165. ^ Robin A. Leaver, "Luther's Catechism Hymns: 5. Baptism." Lutheran Quarterly 1998 12(2): 160–69, 170–80.
  166. ^ Christoph Markschies, Michael Trowitzsch: Luther zwischen den Zeiten – Eine Jenaer Ringvorlesung; Mohr Siebeck, 1999; pp. 215–19 (in German).
  167. ^ Psychopannychia (the night banquet of the soul), manuscript Orléans 1534, Latin Strasbourg 1542, 2nd.ed. 1545, French, Geneva 1558, English 1581.
  168. ^ Liber de Anima 1562
  169. ^ D. Franz Pieper Christliche Dogmatik, 3 vols., (Saint Louis: CPH, 1920), 3:575: "Hieraus geht sicher so viel hervor, daß die abgeschiedenen Seelen der Gläubigen in einem Zustande des seligen Genießens Gottes sich befinden .... Ein Seelenschlaf, der ein Genießen Gottes einschließt (so Luther), ist nicht als irrige Lehre zu bezeichnen"; English translation: Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., (Saint Louis: CPH, 1953), 3:512: "These texts surely make it evident that the departed souls of the believers are in a state of blessed enjoyment of God .... A sleep of the soul which includes enjoyment of God (says Luther) cannot be called a false doctrine."
  170. ^ Sermons of Martin Luther: the House Postils, Eugene F.A. Klug, ed. and trans., 3 vols., (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1996), 2:240.
  171. ^ Weimarer Ausgabe 43, 360, 21–23 (to Genesis 25:7–10): also Exegetica opera latina Vol 5–6 1833 p. 120 and the English translation: Luther's Works, American Edition, 55 vols. (St. Louis: CPH), 4:313; "Sufficit igitur nobis haec cognitio, non egredi animas ex corporibus in periculum cruciatum et paenarum inferni, sed esse eis paratum cubiculum, in quo dormiant in pace."
  172. ^ . Bookofconcord.org. Archived from the original on 10 October 2008. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
  173. ^ . Bookofconcord.org. Archived from the original on 10 October 2008. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
  174. ^ Gerhard Loci Theologici, Locus de Morte, § 293 ff. Pieper writes: "Luther speaks more guardedly of the state of the soul between death and resurrection than do Gerhard and the later theologians, who transfer some things to the state between death and resurrection which can be said with certainty only of the state after the resurrection" (Christian Dogmatics, 3:512, footnote 21).
  175. ^ Article in the Berlinischer Zeitung 1755 in Complete Works ed. Karl Friedrich Theodor Lachmann – 1838 p. 59 "Was die Gegner auf alle diese Stellen antworten werden, ist leicht zu errathen. Sie werden sagen, daß Luther mit dem Worte Schlaf gar die Begriffe nicht verbinde, welche Herr R. damit verbindet. Wenn Luther sage, daß die Seele IS nach dem Tode schlafe, so denke er nichts mehr dabey, als was alle Leute denken, wenn sie den Tod des Schlafes Bruder nennen. Tode ruhe, leugneten auch die nicht, welche ihr Wachen behaupteten :c. Ueberhaupt ist mit Luthers Ansehen bey der ganzen Streitigkeit nichts zu gewinnen."
  176. ^ Exegetica opera Latina, Volumes 5–6 Martin Luther, ed. Christopf Stephan Elsperger (Gottlieb) p. 120 "Differunt tamen somnus sive quies hujus vitae et futurae. Homo enim in hac vita defatigatus diurno labore, sub noctem intrat in cubiculum suum tanquam in pace, ut ibi dormiat, et ea nocte fruitur quiete, neque quicquam scit de ullo malo sive incendii, sive caedis. Anima autem non sic dormit, sed vigilat, et patitur visiones loquelas Angelorum et Dei. Ideo somnus in futura vita profundior est quam in hac vita et tamen anima coram Deo vivit. Hac similitudine, quam habeo a somno viventia." (Commentary on Genesis – Enarrationes in Genesin, XXV, 1535–1545)"
  177. ^ Blackburne A short historical view of the controversy concerning an intermediate state (1765) p121
  178. ^ Gottfried Fritschel. Zeitschrift für die gesammte lutherische Theologie und Kirche p. 657 "Denn dass Luther mit den Worten "anima non sic dormit, sed vigilat et patitur visiones, loquelas Angelorum et Dei" nicht dasjenige leugnen will, was er an allen andern Stellen seiner Schriften vortragt"
  179. ^ Henry Eyster Jacobs Martin Luther the Hero of the Reformation 1483 to 1546 (1898). Emphasis added.
  180. ^ Mullett, 194–95.
  181. ^ Brecht, 2:325–34; Mullett, 197.
  182. ^ Wilson, 259.
  183. ^ Weimar Ausgabe 26, 442; Luther's Works 37, 299–300.
  184. ^ Oberman, 237.
  185. ^ Marty, 140–41; Lohse, 74–75.
  186. ^ Quoted by Oberman, 237.
  187. ^ Brecht 2:329.
  188. ^ Oberman, 238.
  189. ^ Martin Luther, Werke, VIII
  190. ^ Martin Luther, Table Talk.
  191. ^ Martin Luther, "On Justification CCXCIV", Table Talk
  192. ^ Mallett, 198; Marius, 220. The siege was lifted on 14 October 1529, which Luther saw as a divine miracle.
  193. ^ Andrew Cunningham, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Religion, War, Famine and Death in Reformation Europe 22 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-521-46701-2, 141; Mullett, 239–40; Marty, 164.
  194. ^ From On War against the Turk, 1529, quoted in William P. Brown, The Ten Commandments: The Reciprocity of Faithfulness, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, ISBN 0-664-22323-0, 258; Lohse, 61; Marty, 166.
  195. ^ Marty, 166; Marius, 219; Brecht, 2:365, 368.
  196. ^ Mullett, 238–39; Lohse, 59–61.
  197. ^ Brecht, 2:364.
  198. ^ Wilson, 257; Brecht, 2:364–65.
  199. ^ Brecht, 2:365; Mullett, 239.
  200. ^ Brecht, 3:354.
  201. ^ Daniel Goffman, The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe 22 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-521-45908-7, 109; Mullett, 241; Marty, 163.
  202. ^ From On war against the Turk, 1529, quoted in Roland E. Miller, Muslims and the Gospel 22 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine, Minneapolis: Kirk House Publishers, 2006, ISBN 1-932688-07-2, 208.
  203. ^ Brecht, 3:355.
  204. ^ Cf. Luther, Only the Decalogue Is Eternal: Martin Luther's Complete Antinomian Theses and Disputations, ed. and tr. H. Sonntag, Minneapolis: Lutheran Press, 2008, 23–27. ISBN 978-0-9748529-6-6
  205. ^ Cf. Luther, Only the Decalogue Is Eternal: Martin Luther's Complete Antinomian Theses and Disputations, ed. and tr. H. Sonntag, Minneapolis: Lutheran Press, 2008, 11–15. ISBN 978-0-9748529-6-6
  206. ^ Cf. Luther's Works 47:107–19. There he writes: "Dear God, should it be unbearable that the holy church confesses itself a sinner, believes in the forgiveness of sins, and asks for remission of sin in the Lord's Prayer? How can one know what sin is without the law and conscience? And how will we learn what Christ is, what he did for us, if we do not know what the law is that he fulfilled for us and what sin is, for which he made satisfaction?" (112–13).
  207. ^ Cf. Luther's Works 41, 113–14, 143–44, 146–47. There he said about the antinomians: "They may be fine Easter preachers, but they are very poor Pentecost preachers, for they do not preach de sanctificatione et vivificatione Spiritus Sancti, "about the sanctification by the Holy Spirit," but solely about the redemption of Jesus Christ" (114). "Having rejected and being unable to understand the Ten Commandments, ... they see and yet they let the people go on in their public sins, without any renewal or reformation of their lives" (147).
  208. ^ Cf. Luther, Only the Decalogue Is Eternal, 33–36.
  209. ^ Cf. Luther, Only the Decalogue Is Eternal, 170–72
  210. ^ Cf. Luther, Only the Decalogue Is Eternal, 76, 105–07.
  211. ^ Cf. Luther, Only the Decalogue Is Eternal, 140, 157.
  212. ^ Cf. Luther, Only the Decalogue Is Eternal, 75, 104–05, 172–73.
  213. ^ The "first use of the law," accordingly, would be the law used as an external means of order and coercion in the political realm by means of bodily rewards and punishments.
  214. ^ Cf. Luther, Only the Decalogue Is Eternal, 110.
  215. ^ Cf. Luther, Only the Decalogue Is Eternal, 35: "The law, therefore, cannot be eliminated, but remains, prior to Christ as not fulfilled, after Christ as to be fulfilled, although this does not happen perfectly in this life even by the justified. ... This will happen perfectly first in the coming life." Cf. Luther, Only the Decalogue Is Eternal,, 43–44, 91–93.
  216. ^ Brecht, Martin, Martin Luther, tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 3: 206. For a more extensive list of quotes from Luther on the topic of polygamy, see page 11 and following of Luther's Authentic Voice on Polygamy 20 January 2019 at the Wayback Machine Nathan R. Jastram, Concordia Theological Journal, Fall 2015/Spring 2016, Volume 3
  217. ^ Brecht, Martin, Martin Luther, tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 3:212.
  218. ^ Brecht, Martin, Martin Luther, tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 3:214.
  219. ^ Brecht, Martin, Martin Luther, tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 3:205–15.
  220. ^ Oberman, Heiko, Luther: Man Between God and the Devil, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006, 294.
  221. ^ Michael, Robert. Holy Hatred: Christianity, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, 109; Mullett, 242.
  222. ^ Edwards, Mark. Luther's Last Battles. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983, 121.
  223. ^ Brecht, 3:341–43; Mullett, 241; Marty, 172.
  224. ^ Brecht, 3:334; Marty, 169; Marius, 235.
  225. ^ Noble, Graham. "Martin Luther and German anti-Semitism," History Review (2002) No. 42:1–2; Mullett, 246.
  226. ^ Brecht, 3:341–47.
  227. ^ Luther, On the Jews and their Lies, quoted in Michael, 112.
  228. ^ Luther, Vom Schem Hamphoras, quoted in Michael, 113.
  229. ^ a b Gritsch, Eric W. (2012). Martin Luther's Anti-Semitism: Against His Better Judgment. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-8028-6676-9. pp. 86–87.
  230. ^ Luther, On the Jews and Their Lies, Luthers Werke. 47:268–71.
  231. ^ Luther, On the Jews and Their Lies, quoted in Robert Michael, "Luther, Luther Scholars, and the Jews," Encounter 46 (Autumn 1985) No. 4:343–44.
  232. ^ "The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Book of Vagabonds And Beggars edited by Martin Luther translated by John Camden Hotten". www.gutenberg.org. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  233. ^ a b Michael, 117.
  234. ^ Quoted by Michael, 110.
  235. ^ Michael, 117–18.
  236. ^ Singer, Tovia (30 April 2014). "A Closer Look at the "Crucifixion Psalm"". Outreach Judaism. Outreach Judaism. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
  237. ^ Gritsch, 113–14; Michael, 117.
  238. ^ "The assertion that Luther's expressions of anti-Jewish sentiment have been of major and persistent influence in the centuries after the Reformation, and that there exists a continuity between Protestant anti-Judaism and modern racially oriented antisemitism, is at present wide-spread in the literature; since the Second World War it has understandably become the prevailing opinion." Johannes Wallmann, "The Reception of Luther's Writings on the Jews from the Reformation to the End of the 19th century", Lutheran Quarterly, n.s. 1 (Spring 1987) 1:72–97.
  239. ^ Berger, Ronald. Fathoming the Holocaust: A Social Problems Approach (New York: Aldine De Gruyter, 2002), 28; Johnson, Paul. A History of the Jews (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1987), 242; Shirer, William. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1960).
  240. ^ Grunberger, Richard. The 12-Year Reich: A Social History of Nazi German 1933–1945 (NP:Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971), 465.
  241. ^ Himmler wrote: "what Luther said and wrote about the Jews. No judgment could be sharper."
  242. ^ Ellis, Marc H. Hitler and the Holocaust, Christian Anti-Semitism" 10 July 2007 at the Wayback Machine, (NP: Baylor University Center for American and Jewish Studies, Spring 2004), Slide 14. . Baylor University. Archived from the original on 22 April 2006. Retrieved 22 April 2006..
  243. ^ See Noble, Graham. "Martin Luther and German anti-Semitism," History Review (2002) No. 42:1–2.
  244. ^ Diarmaid MacCulloch, Reformation: Europe's House Divided, 1490–1700. New York: Penguin Books Ltd, 2004, pp. 666–67.
  245. ^ Bernd Nellessen, "Die schweigende Kirche: Katholiken und Judenverfolgung," in Buttner (ed), Die Deutschen und die Jugendverfolg im Dritten Reich, p. 265, cited in Daniel Goldhagen, Hitler's Willing Executioners (Vintage, 1997)
  246. ^ Brecht 3:351.
  247. ^ Wallmann, 72–97.
  248. ^ Siemon-Netto, The Fabricated Luther, 17–20.
  249. ^ Siemon-Netto, "Luther and the Jews," Lutheran Witness 123 (2004) No. 4:19, 21.
  250. ^ Hillerbrand, Hans J. "Martin Luther," Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007. Hillerbrand writes: "His strident pronouncements against the Jews, especially toward the end of his life, have raised the question of whether Luther significantly encouraged the development of German anti-Semitism. Although many scholars have taken this view, this perspective puts far too much emphasis on Luther and not enough on the larger peculiarities of German history."
  251. ^ Bainton, Roland: Here I Stand, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, New American Library, 1983), p. 297
  252. ^ For similar views, see:
    • Briese, Russell. "Martin Luther and the Jews," Lutheran Forum (Summer 2000):32;
    • Brecht, Martin Luther, 3:351;
    • Edwards, Mark U. Jr. Luther's Last Battles: Politics and Polemics 1531–46. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983, 139;
    • Gritsch, Eric. "Was Luther Anti-Semitic?", Christian History, No. 3:39, 12.;
    • Kittelson, James M., Luther the Reformer, 274;
    • Oberman, Heiko. The Roots of Anti-Semitism: In the Age of Renaissance and Reformation. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984, 102;
    • Rupp, Gordon. Martin Luther, 75;
    • Siemon-Netto, Uwe. Lutheran Witness, 19.
  253. ^ Christopher J. Probst, Demonizing the Jews: Luther and the Protestant Church in Nazi Germany 11 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Indiana University Press in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2012, ISBN 978-0-253-00100-9
  254. ^ "Der Deutsche Luthertag 1933 und die Deutschen Christen" by Hansjörg Buss. In: Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte Vol. 26, No. 2
  255. ^ Dr. Christopher Probst. "Martin Luther and "The Jews" A Reappraisal". The Theologian. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
  256. ^ Synod deplores and disassociates itself from Luther's negative statements about the Jewish people and the use of these statements to incite anti-Lutheran sentiment, from a summary of Official Missouri Synod Doctrinal Statements 25 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  257. ^ Lull, Timothy Martin Luther's Basic Theological Writings, Second Edition (2005), p. 25
  258. ^ See Merton P. Strommen et al., A Study of Generations (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing, 1972), p. 206. P. 208 also states "The clergy [ALC, LCA, or LCMS] are less likely to indicate anti-Semitic or racially prejudiced attitudes [compared to the laity]."
  259. ^ Richard (Dick) Geary, "Who voted for the Nazis? (electoral history of the National Socialist German Workers' Party)", in History Today, 1 October 1998, Vol. 48, Issue 10, pp. 8–14
  260. ^ "Special Interests at the Ballot Box? Religion and the Electoral Success of the Nazis" (PDF).
  261. ^ Iversen OH (1996). "Martin Luther's somatic diseases. A short life-history 450 years after his death". Tidsskr. Nor. Legeforen. (in Norwegian). 116 (30): 3643–46. PMID 9019884.
  262. ^ Edwards, 9.
  263. ^ Spitz, 354.
  264. ^ Die Beziehungen des Reformators Martin Luther zu Halle 7 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine buergerstiftung-halle.de (in German)
  265. ^ Luther, Martin. Sermon No. 8, "Predigt über Mat. 11:25, Eisleben gehalten," 15 February 1546, Luthers Werke, Weimar 1914, 51:196–97.
  266. ^ Poliakov, Léon. From the Time of Christ to the Court Jews, Vanguard Press, p. 220.
  267. ^ Mackinnon, James. Luther and the Reformation. Vol. IV, (New York): Russell & Russell, 1962, p. 204.
  268. ^ Luther, Martin. Admonition against the Jews, added to his final sermon, cited in Oberman, Heiko. Luther: Man Between God and the Devil, New York: Image Books, 1989, p. 294. A complete translation of Luther's Admonition can be found in Wikisource. s:Warning Against the Jews (1546)
  269. ^ Reeves, Michael. "The Unquenchable Flame". Nottingham: IVP, 2009, p. 60.
  270. ^ Brecht, Martin. Martin Luther. tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 3:369–79.
  271. ^ a b McKim, Donald K. (2003). The Cambridge companion to Martin Luther. Cambridge companions to religion. Cambridge University Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-521-01673-5.
  272. ^ Kellermann, James A. (translator) "The Last Written Words of Luther: Holy Ponderings of the Reverend Father Doctor Martin Luther" 4 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine. 16 February 1546.
  273. ^ Original German and Latin of Luther's last written words is: "Wir sein pettler. Hoc est verum." Heinrich Bornkamm [de], Luther's World of Thought, tr. Martin H. Bertram (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1958), 291.
  274. ^ . Archived from the original on 9 February 2012. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  275. ^ Fairchild, Mary. "Martin Luther's Great Accomplishments". Learn Religions.
  276. ^ . Archived from the original on 22 November 2003.
  277. ^ McKim, Donald K (10 July 2003). The Cambridge Companion to Martin Luther. ISBN 978-0-521-01673-5.
  278. ^ SignatureToursInternational.com 1 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  279. ^ Dorfpredigten: Biblische Einsichten aus Deutschlands 'wildem Süden'. Ausgewählte Predigten aus den Jahren 1998 bis 2007 Teil II 2002–2007 by Thomas O.H. Kaiser, p. 354
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  281. ^ Wall Street Journal, "The Monk Who Shook the World", Richard J. Evans, 31 March 2017
  282. ^ Roper, Lyndal (April 2010). "Martin Luther's Body: The 'Stout Doctor' and His Biographers". American Historical Review. 115 (2): 351–62. doi:10.1086/ahr.115.2.351. PMID 20509226.
  283. ^ "The Calendar". The Church of England. Retrieved 9 April 2021.
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Sources

  • Cummings, Brian (2002). The Literary Culture of the Reformation: Grammar and Grace. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198187356.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-818735-6 – via Oxford Scholarship Online.
  • Brecht, Martin; tr. James L. Schaaf (1985). Martin Luther. Vol. 1: His Road to Reformation, 1483–1521. Philadelphia: Fortress Press.
  • Brecht, Martin; tr. James L. Schaaf (1994). Martin Luther. Vol. 2: Shaping and Defining the Reformation, 1521–1532. Philadelphia: Fortress Press.
  • Brecht, Martin; tr. James L. Schaaf (1999). Martin Luther. Vol. 3: The Preservation of the Church, 1532–1546. Philadelphia: Fortress Press.
  • Mullett, Michael A. (2004). Martin Luther. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-26168-5.
  • Michael A. Mullett (1986) (1986). Luther. Methuen & Co (Lancashire Pamphlets). ISBN 978-0-415-10932-1.
  • Wilson, Derek (2007). Out of the Storm: The Life and Legacy of Martin Luther. London: Hutchinson. ISBN 978-0-09-180001-7.

Further reading

For works by and about Luther, see Martin Luther (resources) or Luther's works at Wikisource.

  • Atkinson, James (1968). Martin Luther and the Birth of Protestantism, in series, Pelican Book[s]. Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin Books. 352 pp.
  • Bainton, Roland. Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1950), online
  • Brecht, Martin. Martin Luther: His Road to Reformation 1483–1521 (vol 1, 1985); Martin Luther 1521–1532: Shaping and Defining the Reformation (vol 2, 1994); Martin Luther The Preservation of the Church Vol 3 1532–1546 (1999), a standard scholarly biography excerpts
  • Erikson, Erik H. (1958). Young Man Luther: A Study in Psychoanalysis and History. New York: W.W. Norton.
  • Dillenberger, John (1961). Martin Luther: Selections from his Writings. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. OCLC 165808.
  • Fife, Robert Herndon. (1928). Young Luther: The Intellectual and Religious Development of Martin Luther to 1518. New York: Macmillan.
  • Fife, Robert Herndon. (1957). The Revolt of Martin Luther. New York NY: Columbia University Press.
  • Friedenthal, Richard (1970). Luther, His Life and Times. Trans. from the German by John Nowell. First American ed. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. viii, 566 p. N.B.: Trans. of the author's Luther, sein Leben und seine Zeit.
  • Lull, Timothy (1989). Martin Luther: Selections from his Writings. Minneapolis: Fortress. ISBN 978-0-8006-3680-7.
  • Lull, Timothy F.; Nelson, Derek R. (2015). Resilient Reformer: The Life and Thought of Martin Luther. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress. ISBN 978-1-4514-9415-0 – via Project MUSE.
  • Kolb, Robert; Dingel, Irene; Batka, Ľubomír (eds.): The Oxford Handbook of Martin Luther's Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. ISBN 978-0-19-960470-8.
  • Luther, M. The Bondage of the Will. Eds. J.I. Packer and O.R. Johnson. Old Tappan, NJ: Revell, 1957. OCLC 22724565.
  • Luther, Martin (1974). Selected Political Writings, ed. and with an introd. by J.M. Porter. Philadelphia: Fortress Press. ISBN 0-8006-1079-2
  • Luther's Works, 55 vols. Eds. H.T. Lehman and J. Pelikan. St Louis, Missouri, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1955–86. Also on CD-ROM. Minneapolis and St Louis: Fortress Press and Concordia Publishing House, 2002.
  • Maritain, Jacques (1941). Three Reformers: Luther, Descartes, Rousseau. New York: C. Scribner's Sons. N.B.: Reprint of the ed. published by Muhlenberg Press.
  • Nettl, Paul (1948). Luther and Music, trans. by Frida Best and Ralph Wood. New York: Russell & Russell, 1967, cop. 1948. vii, 174 p.
  • Reu, Johann Michael (1917). Thirty-five Years of Luther Research. Chicago: Wartburg Publishing House.
  • Schalk, Carl F. (1988). Luther on Music: Paradigms of Praise. Saint Louis, Mo.: Concordia Publishing House. ISBN 0-570-01337-2
  • Stang, William (1883). The Life of Martin Luther. Eighth ed. New York: Pustet & Co. N.B.: This is a work of Roman Catholic polemical nature.
  • Warren Washburn Florer, Ph.D. (1912, 2012). Luther's Use of the Pre-Lutheran Versions of the Bible: Article 1, George Wahr, The Ann Arbor Press, Ann Arbor, Mich. Reprint 2012: Nabu Press, ISBN 978-1-278-81819-1

External links

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Not to be confused with Martin Luther King Jr For other uses see Martin Luther disambiguation Martin Luther OSA ˈ l uː 8 er 1 German ˈmaʁtiːn ˈlʊtɐ listen 10 November 1483 2 18 February 1546 was a German priest theologian author hymnwriter professor and Augustinian friar 3 He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation whose followers became known as Lutherans The ReverendMartin LutherOSAMartin Luther 1529 by Lucas Cranach the ElderBorn10 November 1483Eisleben County of Mansfeld Holy Roman EmpireDied18 February 1546 1546 02 18 aged 62 Eisleben County of Mansfeld Holy Roman EmpireEducationUniversity of ErfurtUniversity of WittenbergOccupationsPriestTheologianAuthorHymnwriterNotable workNinety five Theses 1517 SpouseKatharina von Bora m 1525 wbr ChildrenHans Johannes ElisabethMagdalenaMartinPaulMargaretheTheological workEraRenaissanceTradition or movementLutheranism Protestantism Main interestsProlegomenaNotable ideasReformationFive solae Sola fide Law and GospelTheology of the CrossTwo kingdoms doctrineSignatureLuther was ordained to the priesthood in 1507 He came to reject several teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church in particular he disputed the view on indulgences Luther proposed an academic discussion of the practice and efficacy of indulgences in his Ninety five Theses of 1517 His refusal to renounce all of his writings at the demand of Pope Leo X in 1520 and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms in 1521 resulted in his excommunication by the pope and condemnation as an outlaw by the Holy Roman Emperor Luther taught that salvation and consequently eternal life are not earned by good deeds but are received only as the free gift of God s grace through the believer s faith in Jesus Christ as redeemer from sin His theology challenged the authority and office of the pope by teaching that the Bible is the only source of divinely revealed knowledge 4 and opposed sacerdotalism by considering all baptized Christians to be a holy priesthood 5 Those who identify with these and all of Luther s wider teachings are called Lutherans though Luther insisted on Christian or Evangelical German evangelisch as the only acceptable names for individuals who professed Christ His translation of the Bible into the German vernacular instead of Latin made it more accessible to the laity an event that had a tremendous impact on both the church and German culture It fostered the development of a standard version of the German language added several principles to the art of translation 6 and influenced the writing of an English translation the Tyndale Bible 7 His hymns influenced the development of singing in Protestant churches 8 His marriage to Katharina von Bora a former nun set a model for the practice of clerical marriage allowing Protestant clergy to marry 9 In two of his later works Luther expressed antisemitic views calling for the expulsion of Jews and burning of synagogues 10 In addition these works also targeted Roman Catholics Anabaptists and nontrinitarian Christians 11 Based upon his significant anti judaistic teachings 12 13 14 the prevailing view among historians is that his rhetoric contributed significantly to the development of antisemitism in Germany and of the Nazi Party 15 16 17 Luther died in 1546 with Pope Leo X s excommunication still in effect Contents 1 Early life 1 1 Birth and education 1 2 Monastic life 2 Start of the Reformation 2 1 Justification by faith alone 2 2 Breach with the papacy 2 3 Excommunication 3 Diet of Worms 4 At Wartburg Castle 5 Return to Wittenberg and Peasants War 6 Marriage 7 Organising the church 7 1 Catechisms 8 Translation of the Bible 9 Hymnodist 10 On the soul after death 11 Sacramentarian controversy and the Marburg Colloquy 12 Epistemology 13 On Islam 14 Antinomian controversy 15 Bigamy of Philip I Landgrave of Hesse 16 Anti Jewish polemics and antisemitism 16 1 Influence within Nazism 17 Final years illness and death 18 Legacy and commemoration 19 Luther and the swan 20 Works and editions 21 See also 22 Notes 23 References 24 Sources 25 Further reading 26 External linksEarly lifeBirth and education Portraits of Hans and Margarethe Luther by Lucas Cranach the Elder 1527 Former monks dormitory St Augustine s Monastery Erfurt Martin Luther was born to Hans Luder or Ludher later Luther 18 and his wife Margarethe nee Lindemann on 10 November 1483 in Eisleben County of Mansfeld in the Holy Roman Empire Luther was baptized the next morning on the feast day of St Martin of Tours In 1484 his family moved to Mansfeld where his father was a leaseholder of copper mines and smelters 19 and served as one of four citizen representatives on the local council in 1492 he was elected as a town councilor 20 18 The religious scholar Martin Marty describes Luther s mother as a hard working woman of trading class stock and middling means contrary to Luther s enemies who labeled her a whore and bath attendant 18 He had several brothers and sisters and is known to have been close to one of them Jacob 21 Hans Luther was ambitious for himself and his family and he was determined to see Martin his eldest son become a lawyer He sent Martin to Latin schools in Mansfeld then Magdeburg in 1497 where he attended a school operated by a lay group called the Brethren of the Common Life and Eisenach in 1498 22 The three schools focused on the so called trivium grammar rhetoric and logic Luther later compared his education there to purgatory and hell 23 In 1501 at age 17 he entered the University of Erfurt which he later described as a beerhouse and whorehouse 24 He was made to wake at four every morning for what has been described as a day of rote learning and often wearying spiritual exercises 24 He received his master s degree in 1505 25 Luther as a friar with tonsure Luther s accommodation in Wittenberg In accordance with his father s wishes he enrolled in law but dropped out almost immediately believing that law represented uncertainty 25 Luther sought assurances about life and was drawn to theology and philosophy expressing particular interest in Aristotle William of Ockham and Gabriel Biel 25 He was deeply influenced by two tutors Bartholomaeus Arnoldi von Usingen and Jodocus Trutfetter who taught him to be suspicious of even the greatest thinkers 25 and to test everything himself by experience 26 Philosophy proved to be unsatisfying offering assurance about the use of reason but none about loving God which to Luther was more important Reason could not lead men to God he felt and he thereafter developed a love hate relationship with Aristotle over the latter s emphasis on reason 26 For Luther reason could be used to question men and institutions but not God Human beings could learn about God only through divine revelation he believed and Scripture therefore became increasingly important to him 26 On 2 July 1505 while Luther was returning to university on horseback after a trip home a lightning bolt struck near him during a thunderstorm Later telling his father he was terrified of death and divine judgment he cried out Help Saint Anna I will become a monk 27 28 He came to view his cry for help as a vow he could never break He left university sold his books and entered St Augustine s Monastery in Erfurt on 17 July 1505 29 One friend blamed the decision on Luther s sadness over the deaths of two friends Luther himself seemed saddened by the move Those who attended a farewell supper walked him to the door of the Black Cloister This day you see me and then not ever again he said 26 His father was furious over what he saw as a waste of Luther s education 30 Monastic life A posthumous portrait of Luther as an Augustinian friar Luther dedicated himself to the Augustinian order devoting himself to fasting long hours in prayer pilgrimage and frequent confession 31 Luther described this period of his life as one of deep spiritual despair He said I lost touch with Christ the Savior and Comforter and made of him the jailer and hangman of my poor soul 32 Johann von Staupitz his superior concluded that Luther needed more work to distract him from excessive introspection and ordered him to pursue an academic career On 3 April 1507 Jerome Schultz lat Hieronymus Scultetus the Bishop of Brandenburg ordained Luther in Erfurt Cathedral In 1508 he began teaching theology at the University of Wittenberg 33 He received a bachelor s degree in biblical studies on 9 March 1508 and another bachelor s degree in the Sentences by Peter Lombard in 1509 34 On 19 October 1512 he was awarded his Doctor of Theology and on 21 October 1512 was received into the senate of the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg 35 having succeeded von Staupitz as chair of theology 36 He spent the rest of his career in this position at the University of Wittenberg He was made provincial vicar of Saxony and Thuringia by his religious order in 1515 This meant he was to visit and oversee each of eleven monasteries in his province 37 Start of the ReformationFurther information History of Protestantism and History of Lutheranism Luther s theses are engraved into the door of All Saints Church Wittenberg The Latin inscription above informs the reader that the original door was destroyed by a fire and that in 1857 King Frederick William IV of Prussia ordered a replacement be made In 1516 Johann Tetzel a Dominican friar was sent to Germany by the Roman Catholic Church to sell indulgences to raise money in order to rebuild St Peter s Basilica in Rome 38 Tetzel s experiences as a preacher of indulgences especially between 1503 and 1510 led to his appointment as general commissioner by Albrecht von Brandenburg Archbishop of Mainz who deeply in debt to pay for a large accumulation of benefices had to contribute the considerable sum of ten thousand ducats 39 toward the rebuilding of St Peter s Basilica in Rome Albrecht obtained permission from Pope Leo X to conduct the sale of a special plenary indulgence i e remission of the temporal punishment of sin half of the proceeds of which Albrecht was to claim to pay the fees of his benefices On 31 October 1517 Luther wrote to his bishop Albrecht von Brandenburg protesting against the sale of indulgences He enclosed in his letter a copy of his Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences a which came to be known as the Ninety five Theses Hans Hillerbrand writes that Luther had no intention of confronting the church but saw his disputation as a scholarly objection to church practices and the tone of the writing is accordingly searching rather than doctrinaire 41 Hillerbrand writes that there is nevertheless an undercurrent of challenge in several of the theses particularly in Thesis 86 which asks Why does the pope whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus build the basilica of St Peter with the money of poor believers rather than with his own money 41 The Catholic sale of indulgences shown in A Question to a Mintmaker woodcut by Jorg Breu the Elder of Augsburg c 1530 Luther objected to a saying attributed to Tetzel that As soon as the coin in the coffer rings the soul from purgatory also attested as into heaven springs 42 He insisted that since forgiveness was God s alone to grant those who claimed that indulgences absolved buyers from all punishments and granted them salvation were in error Christians he said must not slacken in following Christ on account of such false assurances According to one account Luther nailed his Ninety five Theses to the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg on 31 October 1517 Scholars Walter Kramer Gotz Trenkler Gerhard Ritter and Gerhard Prause contend that the story of the posting on the door although it has become one of the pillars of history has little foundation in truth 43 44 45 46 The story is based on comments made by Luther s collaborator Philip Melanchthon though it is thought that he was not in Wittenberg at the time 47 According to Roland Bainton on the other hand it is true 48 The Latin Theses were printed in several locations in Germany in 1517 In January 1518 friends of Luther translated the Ninety five Theses from Latin into German 49 Within two weeks copies of the theses had spread throughout Germany Luther s writings circulated widely reaching France England and Italy as early as 1519 Students thronged to Wittenberg to hear Luther speak He published a short commentary on Galatians and his Work on the Psalms This early part of Luther s career was one of his most creative and productive 50 Three of his best known works were published in 1520 To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church and On the Freedom of a Christian Justification by faith alone Main article Sola fide Luther at Erfurt which depicts Martin Luther discovering the doctrine of sola fide by faith alone Painting by Joseph Noel Paton 1861 From 1510 to 1520 Luther lectured on the Psalms and on the books of Hebrews Romans and Galatians As he studied these portions of the Bible he came to view the use of terms such as penance and righteousness by the Catholic Church in new ways He became convinced that the church was corrupt in its ways and had lost sight of what he saw as several of the central truths of Christianity The most important for Luther was the doctrine of justification God s act of declaring a sinner righteous by faith alone through God s grace He began to teach that salvation or redemption is a gift of God s grace attainable only through faith in Jesus as the Messiah 51 This one and firm rock which we call the doctrine of justification he writes is the chief article of the whole Christian doctrine which comprehends the understanding of all godliness 52 Luther came to understand justification as entirely the work of God This teaching by Luther was clearly expressed in his 1525 publication On the Bondage of the Will which was written in response to On Free Will by Desiderius Erasmus 1524 Luther based his position on predestination on St Paul s epistle to the Ephesians 2 8 10 Against the teaching of his day that the righteous acts of believers are performed in cooperation with God Luther wrote that Christians receive such righteousness entirely from outside themselves that righteousness not only comes from Christ but actually is the righteousness of Christ imputed to Christians rather than infused into them through faith 53 That is why faith alone makes someone just and fulfills the law he writes Faith is that which brings the Holy Spirit through the merits of Christ 54 Faith for Luther was a gift from God the experience of being justified by faith was as though I had been born again His entry into Paradise no less was a discovery about the righteousness of God a discovery that the just person of whom the Bible speaks as in Romans 1 17 lives by faith 55 He explains his concept of justification in the Smalcald Articles The first and chief article is this Jesus Christ our God and Lord died for our sins and was raised again for our justification Romans 3 24 25 He alone is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world John 1 29 and God has laid on Him the iniquity of us all Isaiah 53 6 All have sinned and are justified freely without their own works and merits by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus in His blood Romans 3 23 25 This is necessary to believe This cannot be otherwise acquired or grasped by any work law or merit Therefore 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 Mark 13 31 56 Breach with the papacy Pope Leo X s Bull against the errors of Martin Luther 1521 commonly known as Exsurge Domine Archbishop Albrecht did not reply to Luther s letter containing the Ninety five Theses He had the theses checked for heresy and in December 1517 forwarded them to Rome 57 He needed the revenue from the indulgences to pay off a papal dispensation for his tenure of more than one bishopric As Luther later notes the pope had a finger in the pie as well because one half was to go to the building of St Peter s Church in Rome 58 Pope Leo X was used to reformers and heretics 59 and he responded slowly with great care as is proper 60 Over the next three years he deployed a series of papal theologians and envoys against Luther which served only to harden the reformer s anti papal theology First the Dominican theologian Sylvester Mazzolini drafted a heresy case against Luther whom Leo then summoned to Rome The Elector Frederick persuaded the pope to have Luther examined at Augsburg where the Imperial Diet was held 61 Over a three day period in October 1518 Luther defended himself under questioning by papal legate Cardinal Cajetan The pope s right to issue indulgences was at the centre of the dispute between the two men 62 63 The hearings degenerated into a shouting match More than writing his theses Luther s confrontation with the church cast him as an enemy of the pope His Holiness abuses Scripture retorted Luther I deny that he is above Scripture 64 65 Cajetan s original instructions had been to arrest Luther if he failed to recant but the legate desisted from doing so 66 With help from the Carmelite monk Christoph Langenmantel Luther slipped out of the city at night unbeknownst to Cajetan 67 The meeting of Martin Luther right and Cardinal Cajetan left holding the book In January 1519 at Altenburg in Saxony the papal nuncio Karl von Miltitz adopted a more conciliatory approach Luther made certain concessions to the Saxon who was a relative of the Elector and promised to remain silent if his opponents did 68 The theologian Johann Eck however was determined to expose Luther s doctrine in a public forum In June and July 1519 he staged a disputation with Luther s colleague Andreas Karlstadt at Leipzig and invited Luther to speak 69 Luther s boldest assertion in the debate was that Matthew 16 18 does not confer on popes the exclusive right to interpret scripture and that therefore neither popes nor church councils were infallible 70 For this Eck branded Luther a new Jan Hus referring to the Czech reformer and heretic burned at the stake in 1415 From that moment he devoted himself to Luther s defeat 71 Excommunication On 15 June 1520 the Pope warned Luther with the papal bull edict Exsurge Domine that he risked excommunication unless he recanted 41 sentences drawn from his writings including the Ninety five Theses within 60 days That autumn Eck proclaimed the bull in Meissen and other towns Von Miltitz attempted to broker a solution but Luther who had 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 10 December 1520 72 an act he defended in Why the Pope and his Recent Book are Burned and Assertions Concerning All Articles As a consequence Luther was excommunicated by Pope Leo X on 3 January 1521 in the bull Decet Romanum Pontificem 73 And although the Lutheran World Federation Methodists and the Catholic Church s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity agreed in 1999 and 2006 respectively on a common understanding of justification by God s grace through faith in Christ the Catholic Church has never lifted the 1520 excommunication 74 75 76 Diet of WormsMain article Diet of Worms Luther Before the Diet of Worms by Anton von Werner 1843 1915 The enforcement of the ban on the Ninety five Theses fell to the secular authorities On 18 April 1521 Luther appeared as ordered before the Diet of Worms This was a general assembly of the estates of the Holy Roman Empire that took place in Worms a town on the Rhine It was conducted from 28 January to 25 May 1521 with Emperor Charles V presiding Prince Frederick III Elector of Saxony obtained a safe conduct for Luther to and from the meeting Johann Eck speaking on behalf of the empire as assistant of the Archbishop of Trier presented Luther with copies of his writings laid out on a table and asked him if the books were his and whether he stood by their contents Luther confirmed he was their author but requested time to think about the answer to the second question He prayed consulted friends and gave his response the next day Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God I cannot and will not recant anything since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience May God help me Amen 77 At the end of this speech Luther raised his arm in the traditional salute of a knight winning a bout Michael Mullett considers this speech as a world classic of epoch making oratory 78 Luther Monument in Worms His statue is surrounded by the figures of his lay protectors and earlier Church reformers including John Wycliffe Jan Hus and Girolamo Savonarola Eck informed Luther that he was acting like a heretic saying Martin there is no one of the heresies which have torn the bosom of the church which has not derived its origin from the various interpretation of the Scripture The Bible itself is the arsenal whence each innovator has drawn his deceptive arguments It was with Biblical texts that Pelagius and Arius maintained their doctrines Arius for instance found the negation of the eternity of the Word an eternity which you admit in this verse of the New Testament Joseph knew not his wife till she had brought forth her first born son and he said in the same way that you say that this passage enchained him When the fathers of the Council of Constance condemned this proposition of Jan Hus The church of Jesus Christ is only the community of the elect they condemned an error for the church like a good mother embraces within her arms all who bear the name of Christian all who are called to enjoy the celestial beatitude 79 Luther refused to recant his writings He is sometimes also quoted as saying Here I stand I can do no other Recent scholars consider the evidence for these words to be unreliable since they were inserted before May God help me only in later versions of the speech and not recorded in witness accounts of the proceedings 80 However Mullett suggests that given his nature we are free to believe that Luther would tend to select the more dramatic form of words 78 Over the next five days private conferences were held to determine Luther s fate The emperor presented the final draft of the Edict of Worms on 25 May 1521 declaring Luther an outlaw banning his literature and requiring his arrest We want him to be apprehended and punished as a notorious heretic 81 It also made it a crime for anyone in Germany to give Luther food or shelter It permitted anyone to kill Luther without legal consequence At Wartburg Castle Wartburg Castle Eisenach The Wartburg room where Luther translated the New Testament into German An original first edition is kept in the case on the desk Luther s disappearance during his return to Wittenberg was planned Frederick III had him intercepted on his way home in the forest near Wittenberg by masked horsemen impersonating highway robbers They escorted Luther to the security of the Wartburg Castle at Eisenach 82 During his stay at Wartburg which he referred to as my Patmos 83 Luther translated the New Testament from Greek into German and poured out doctrinal and polemical writings These included a renewed attack on Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz whom he shamed into halting the sale of indulgences in his episcopates 84 and a Refutation of the Argument of Latomus in which he expounded the principle of justification to Jacobus Latomus an orthodox theologian from Louvain 85 In this work one of his most emphatic statements on faith he argued that every good work designed to attract God s favor is a sin 86 All humans are sinners by nature he explained and God s grace alone which cannot be earned can make them just On 1 August 1521 Luther wrote to Melanchthon on the same theme 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 87 In the summer of 1521 Luther widened his target from individual pieties like indulgences and pilgrimages to doctrines at the heart of Church practice In On the Abrogation of the Private Mass he condemned as idolatry the idea that the mass is a sacrifice asserting instead that it is a gift to be received with thanksgiving by the whole congregation 88 His essay On Confession Whether the Pope has the Power to Require It rejected compulsory confession and encouraged private confession and absolution since every Christian is a confessor 89 In November Luther wrote The Judgement of Martin Luther on Monastic Vows He assured monks and nuns that they could break their vows without sin because vows were an illegitimate and vain attempt to win salvation 90 Luther disguised as Junker Jorg 1521 Luther made his pronouncements from Wartburg in the context of rapid developments at Wittenberg of which he was kept fully informed Andreas Karlstadt supported by the ex Augustinian Gabriel Zwilling embarked on a radical programme of reform there in June 1521 exceeding anything envisaged by Luther The reforms provoked disturbances including a revolt by the Augustinian friars against their prior the smashing of statues and images in churches and denunciations of the magistracy After secretly visiting Wittenberg in early December 1521 Luther wrote A Sincere Admonition by Martin Luther to All Christians to Guard Against Insurrection and Rebellion 91 Wittenberg became even more volatile after Christmas when a band of visionary zealots the so called Zwickau prophets arrived preaching revolutionary doctrines such as the equality of man clarification needed adult baptism and Christ s imminent return 92 When the town council asked Luther to return he decided it was his duty to act 93 Return to Wittenberg and Peasants WarSee also Radical Reformation and German Peasants War Lutherhaus Luther s residence in Wittenberg Luther secretly returned to Wittenberg on 6 March 1522 He wrote to the Elector During my absence Satan has entered my sheepfold and committed ravages which I cannot repair by writing but only by my personal presence and living word 94 For eight days in Lent beginning on Invocavit Sunday 9 March Luther preached eight sermons which became known as the Invocavit Sermons In these sermons he hammered home the primacy of core Christian values such as love patience charity and freedom and reminded the citizens to trust God s word rather than violence to bring about necessary change 95 Do you know what the Devil thinks when he sees men use violence to propagate the gospel He sits with folded arms behind the fire of hell and says with malignant looks and frightful grin Ah how wise these madmen are to play my game Let them go on I shall reap the benefit I delight in it But when he sees the Word running and contending alone on the battle field then he shudders and shakes for fear 96 The effect of Luther s intervention was immediate After the sixth sermon the Wittenberg jurist Jerome Schurf wrote to the elector Oh what joy has Dr Martin s return spread among us His words through divine mercy are bringing back every day misguided people into the way of the truth 96 Luther next set about reversing or modifying the new church practices By working alongside the authorities to restore public order he signalled his reinvention as a conservative force within the Reformation 97 After banishing the Zwickau prophets he faced a battle against both the established Church and the radical reformers who threatened the new order by fomenting social unrest and violence 98 The Twelve Articles 1525 Despite his victory in Wittenberg Luther was unable to stifle radicalism further afield Preachers such as Thomas Muntzer and Zwickau prophet Nicholas Storch found support amongst poorer townspeople and peasants between 1521 and 1525 There had been revolts by the peasantry on smaller scales since the 15th century 99 Luther s pamphlets against the Church and the hierarchy often worded with liberal phraseology led many peasants to believe he would support an attack on the upper classes in general 100 Revolts broke out in Franconia Swabia and Thuringia in 1524 even drawing support from disaffected nobles many of whom were in debt Gaining momentum under the leadership of radicals such as Muntzer in Thuringia and Hipler and Lotzer in the south west the revolts turned into war 101 Luther sympathised with some of the peasants grievances as he showed in his response to the Twelve Articles in May 1525 but he reminded the aggrieved to obey the temporal authorities 102 During a tour of Thuringia he became enraged at the widespread burning of convents monasteries bishops palaces and libraries In Against the Murderous Thieving Hordes of Peasants written on his return to Wittenberg he gave his interpretation of the Gospel teaching on wealth condemned the violence as the devil s work and called for the nobles to put down the rebels like mad dogs Therefore let everyone who can smite slay and stab secretly or openly remembering that nothing can be more poisonous hurtful or devilish than a rebel For baptism does not make men free in body and property but in soul and the gospel does not make goods common except in the case of those who of their own free will do what the apostles and disciples did in Acts 4 32 37 They did not demand as do our insane peasants in their raging that the goods of others of Pilate and Herod should be common but only their own goods Our peasants however want to make the goods of other men common and keep their own for themselves Fine Christians they are I think there is not a devil left in hell they have all gone into the peasants Their raving has gone beyond all measure 103 Luther justified his opposition to the rebels on three grounds First in choosing violence over lawful submission to the secular government they were ignoring Christ s counsel to Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar s St Paul had written in his epistle to the Romans 13 1 7 that all authorities are appointed by God and therefore should not be resisted This reference from the Bible forms the foundation for the doctrine known as the divine right of kings or in the German case the divine right of the princes Second the violent actions of rebelling robbing and plundering placed the peasants outside the law of God and Empire so they deserved death in body and soul if only as highwaymen and murderers Lastly Luther charged the rebels with blasphemy for calling themselves Christian brethren and committing their sinful acts under the banner of the Gospel 104 Only later in life did he develop the Beerwolf concept permitting some cases of resistance against the government 105 Without Luther s backing for the uprising many rebels laid down their weapons others felt betrayed Their defeat by the Swabian League at the Battle of Frankenhausen on 15 May 1525 followed by Muntzer s execution brought the revolutionary stage of the Reformation to a close 106 Thereafter radicalism found a refuge in the Anabaptist movement and other religious movements while Luther s Reformation flourished under the wing of the secular powers 107 In 1526 Luther wrote I Martin Luther have during the rebellion slain all the peasants for it was I who ordered them to be struck dead 108 Marriage Katharina von Bora Luther s wife by Lucas Cranach the Elder 1526 Martin Luther married Katharina von Bora one of 12 nuns he had helped escape from the Nimbschen Cistercian convent in April 1523 when he arranged for them to be smuggled out in herring barrels 109 Suddenly and while I was occupied with far different thoughts he wrote to Wenceslaus Link the Lord has plunged me into marriage 110 At the time of their marriage Katharina was 26 years old and Luther was 41 years old Martin Luther at his desk with family portraits 17th century On 13 June 1525 the couple was engaged with Johannes Bugenhagen Justus Jonas Johannes Apel Philipp Melanchthon and Lucas Cranach the Elder and his wife as witnesses 111 On the evening of the same day the couple was married by Bugenhagen 111 The ceremonial walk to the church and the wedding banquet were left out and were made up two weeks later on 27 June 111 Some priests and former members of religious orders had already married including Andreas Karlstadt and Justus Jonas but Luther s wedding set the seal of approval on clerical marriage 112 He had long condemned vows of celibacy on biblical grounds but his decision to marry surprised many not least Melanchthon who called it reckless 113 Luther had written to George Spalatin on 30 November 1524 I shall never take a wife as I feel at present Not that I am insensible to my flesh or sex for I am neither wood nor stone but my mind is averse to wedlock because I daily expect the death of a heretic 114 Before marrying Luther had been living on the plainest food and as he admitted himself his mildewed bed was not properly made for months at a time 115 Luther and his wife moved into a former monastery The Black Cloister a wedding present from Elector John the Steadfast They embarked on what appears to have been a happy and successful marriage though money was often short 116 Katharina bore six children Hans June 1526 Elisabeth 10 December 1527 who died within a few months Magdalene 1529 who died in Luther s arms in 1542 Martin 1531 Paul January 1533 and Margaret 1534 and she helped the couple earn a living by farming and taking in boarders 117 Luther confided to Michael Stiefel on 11 August 1526 My Katie is in all things so obliging and pleasing to me that I would not exchange my poverty for the riches of Croesus 118 Organising the church Church orders Mecklenburg 1650 By 1526 Luther found himself increasingly occupied in organising a new church His biblical ideal of congregations choosing their own ministers had proved unworkable 119 According to Bainton Luther s dilemma was that he wanted both a confessional church based on personal faith and experience and a territorial church including all in a given locality If he were forced to choose he would take his stand with the masses and this was the direction in which he moved 120 From 1525 to 1529 he established a supervisory church body laid down a new form of worship service and wrote a clear summary of the new faith in the form of two catechisms 121 To avoid confusing or upsetting the people Luther avoided extreme change He also did not wish to replace one controlling system with another He concentrated on the church in the Electorate of Saxony acting only as an adviser to churches in new territories many of which followed his Saxon model He worked closely with the new elector John the Steadfast to whom he turned for secular leadership and funds on behalf of a church largely shorn of its assets and income after the break with Rome 122 For Luther s biographer Martin Brecht this partnership was the beginning of a questionable and originally unintended development towards a church government under the temporal sovereign 123 The elector authorised a visitation of the church a power formerly exercised by bishops 124 At times Luther s practical reforms fell short of his earlier radical pronouncements For example the Instructions for the Visitors of Parish Pastors in Electoral Saxony 1528 drafted by Melanchthon with Luther s approval stressed the role of repentance in the forgiveness of sins despite Luther s position that faith alone ensures justification 125 The Eisleben reformer Johannes Agricola challenged this compromise and Luther condemned him for teaching that faith is separate from works 126 The Instruction is a problematic document for those seeking a consistent evolution in Luther s thought and practice 127 Lutheran church liturgy and sacraments In response to demands for a German liturgy Luther wrote a German Mass which he published in early 1526 128 He did not intend it as a replacement for his 1523 adaptation of the Latin Mass but as an alternative for the simple people a public stimulation for people to believe and become Christians 129 Luther based his order on the Catholic service but omitted everything that smacks of sacrifice and the Mass became a celebration where everyone received the wine as well as the bread 130 He retained the elevation of the host and chalice while trappings such as the Mass vestments altar and candles were made optional allowing freedom of ceremony 131 Some reformers including followers of Huldrych Zwingli considered Luther s service too papistic and modern scholars note the conservatism of his alternative to the Catholic Mass 132 Luther s service however included congregational singing of hymns and psalms in German as well as parts of the liturgy including Luther s unison setting of the Creed 133 To reach the simple people and the young Luther incorporated religious instruction into the weekday services in the form of catechism 134 He also provided simplified versions of the baptism and marriage services 135 Luther and his colleagues introduced the new order of worship during their visitation of the Electorate of Saxony which began in 1527 136 They also assessed the standard of pastoral care and Christian education in the territory Merciful God what misery I have seen Luther writes the common people knowing nothing at all of Christian doctrine and unfortunately many pastors are well nigh unskilled and incapable of teaching 137 Catechisms A stained glass portrayal of Luther Luther devised the catechism as a method of imparting the basics of Christianity to the congregations In 1529 he wrote the Large Catechism a manual for pastors and teachers as well as a synopsis the Small Catechism to be memorised by the people 138 The catechisms provided easy to understand instructional and devotional material on the Ten Commandments the Apostles Creed The Lord s Prayer baptism and the Lord s Supper 139 Luther incorporated questions and answers in the catechism so that the basics of Christian faith would not just be learned by rote the way monkeys do it but understood 140 The catechism is one of Luther s most personal works Regarding the plan to collect my writings in volumes he wrote 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 Bondage of the Will and the Catechism 141 The Small Catechism has earned a reputation as a model of clear religious teaching 142 It remains in use today along with Luther s hymns and his translation of the Bible Luther s Small Catechism proved especially effective in helping parents teach their children likewise the Large Catechism was effective for pastors 143 Using the German vernacular they expressed the Apostles Creed in simpler more personal Trinitarian language He rewrote each article of the Creed to express the character of the Father the Son or the Holy Spirit Luther s goal was to enable the catechumens to see themselves as a personal object of the work of the three persons of the Trinity each of which works in the catechumen s life 144 That is Luther depicts the Trinity not as a doctrine to be learned but as persons to be known The Father creates the Son redeems and the Spirit sanctifies a divine unity with separate personalities Salvation originates with the Father and draws the believer to the Father Luther s treatment of the Apostles Creed must be understood in the context of the Decalogue the Ten Commandments and The Lord s Prayer which are also part of the Lutheran catechetical teaching 144 Translation of the BibleMain article Luther Bible Luther s 1534 Bible Luther had published his German translation of the New Testament in 1522 and he and his collaborators completed the translation of the Old Testament in 1534 when the whole Bible was published He continued to work on refining the translation until the end of his life 145 Others had previously translated the Bible into German but Luther tailored his translation to his own doctrine 146 Two of the earlier translations were the Mentelin Bible 1456 147 and the Koberger Bible 1484 148 There were as many as fourteen in High German four in Low German four in Dutch and various other translations in other languages before the Bible of Luther 149 Luther s translation used the variant of German spoken at the Saxon chancellery intelligible to both northern and southern Germans 150 He intended his vigorous direct language to make the Bible accessible to everyday Germans for we are removing impediments and difficulties so that other people may read it without hindrance 151 Published at a time of rising demand for German language publications Luther s version quickly became a popular and influential Bible translation As such it contributed a distinct flavor to the German language and literature 152 Furnished with notes and prefaces by Luther and with woodcuts by Lucas Cranach that contained anti papal imagery it played a major role in the spread of Luther s doctrine throughout Germany 153 The Luther Bible influenced other vernacular translations such as the Tyndale Bible from 1525 forward a precursor of the King James Bible 154 When he was criticised for inserting the word alone after faith in Romans 3 28 155 he replied in part T he text itself and the meaning of St Paul urgently require and demand it For in that very passage he is dealing with the main point of Christian doctrine namely that we are justified by faith in Christ without any works of the Law But when works are so completely cut away and that must mean that faith alone justifies whoever would speak plainly and clearly about this cutting away of works will have to say Faith alone justifies us and not works 156 Luther did not include First Epistle of John 5 7 8 157 the Johannine Comma in his translation rejecting it as a forgery It was inserted into the text by other hands after Luther s death 158 159 HymnodistMain article List of hymns by Martin Luther An early printing of Luther s hymn Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott Ein feste Burg sung in German source source The German text of Ein feste Burg A Mighty Fortress sung to the isometric more widely known arrangement of its traditional melody Problems playing this file See media help Luther was a prolific hymnodist authoring hymns such as Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott A Mighty Fortress Is Our God based on Psalm 46 and Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her From Heaven Above to Earth I Come based on Luke 2 11 12 160 Luther connected high art and folk music also all classes clergy and laity men women and children His tool of choice for this connection was the singing of German hymns in connection with worship school home and the public arena 161 He often accompanied the sung hymns with a lute later recreated as the waldzither that became a national instrument of Germany in the 20th century 162 Luther s hymns were frequently evoked by particular events in his life and the unfolding Reformation This behavior started with his learning of the execution of Jan van Essen and Hendrik Vos the first individuals to be martyred by the Roman Catholic Church for Lutheran views prompting Luther to write the hymn Ein neues Lied wir heben an A New Song We Raise which is generally known in English by John C Messenger s translation by the title and first line Flung to the Heedless Winds and sung to the tune Ibstone composed in 1875 by Maria C Tiddeman 163 Luther s 1524 creedal hymn Wir glauben all an einen Gott We All Believe in One True God is a three stanza confession of faith prefiguring Luther s 1529 three part explanation of the Apostles Creed in the Small Catechism Luther s hymn adapted and expanded from an earlier German creedal hymn gained widespread use in vernacular Lutheran liturgies as early as 1525 Sixteenth century Lutheran hymnals also included Wir glauben all among the catechetical hymns although 18th century hymnals tended to label the hymn as Trinitarian rather than catechetical and 20th century Lutherans rarely used the hymn because of the perceived difficulty of its tune 161 Autograph of Vater unser im Himmelreich with the only notes extant in Luther s handwriting Luther s 1538 hymnic version of the Lord s Prayer Vater unser im Himmelreich corresponds exactly to Luther s explanation of the prayer in the Small Catechism with one stanza for each of the seven prayer petitions plus opening and closing stanzas The hymn functions both as a liturgical setting of the Lord s Prayer and as a means of examining candidates on specific catechism questions The extant manuscript shows multiple revisions demonstrating Luther s concern to clarify and strengthen the text and to provide an appropriately prayerful tune Other 16th and 20th century versifications of the Lord s Prayer have adopted Luther s tune although modern texts are considerably shorter 164 Luther wrote Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir From depths of woe I cry to You in 1523 as a hymnic version of Psalm 130 and sent it as a sample to encourage his colleagues to write psalm hymns for use in German worship In a collaboration with Paul Speratus this and seven other hymns were published in the Achtliederbuch the first Lutheran hymnal In 1524 Luther developed his original four stanza psalm paraphrase into a five stanza Reformation hymn that developed the theme of grace alone more fully Because it expressed essential Reformation doctrine this expanded version of Aus tiefer Not was designated as a regular component of several regional Lutheran liturgies and was widely used at funerals including Luther s own Along with Erhart Hegenwalt s hymnic version of Psalm 51 Luther s expanded hymn was also adopted for use with the fifth part of Luther s catechism concerning confession 165 Luther wrote Ach Gott vom Himmel sieh darein Oh God look down from heaven Nun komm der Heiden Heiland Now come Savior of the gentiles based on Veni redemptor gentium became the main hymn Hauptlied for Advent He transformed A solus ortus cardine to Christum wir sollen loben schon We should now praise Christ and Veni Creator Spiritus to Komm Gott Schopfer Heiliger Geist Come Holy Spirit Lord God 166 He wrote two hymns on the Ten Commandments Dies sind die heilgen Zehn Gebot and Mensch willst du leben seliglich His Gelobet seist du Jesu Christ Praise be to You Jesus Christ became the main hymn for Christmas He wrote for Pentecost Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist and adopted for Easter Christ ist erstanden Christ is risen based on Victimae paschali laudes Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin a paraphrase of Nunc dimittis was intended for Purification but became also a funeral hymn He paraphrased the Te Deum as Herr Gott dich loben wir with a simplified form of the melody It became known as the German Te Deum Luther s 1541 hymn Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam To Jordan came the Christ our Lord reflects the structure and substance of his questions and answers concerning baptism in the Small Catechism Luther adopted a preexisting Johann Walter tune associated with a hymnic setting of Psalm 67 s prayer for grace Wolf Heintz s four part setting of the hymn was used to introduce the Lutheran Reformation in Halle in 1541 Preachers and composers of the 18th century including J S Bach used this rich hymn as a subject for their own work although its objective baptismal theology was displaced by more subjective hymns under the influence of late 19th century Lutheran pietism 161 Luther s hymns were included in early Lutheran hymnals and spread the ideas of the Reformation He supplied four of eight songs of the First Lutheran hymnal Achtliederbuch 18 of 26 songs of the Erfurt Enchiridion and 24 of the 32 songs in the first choral hymnal with settings by Johann Walter Eyn geystlich Gesangk Buchleyn all published in 1524 Luther s hymns inspired composers to write music Johann Sebastian Bach included several verses as chorales in his cantatas and based chorale cantatas entirely on them namely Christ lag in Todes Banden BWV 4 as early as possibly 1707 in his second annual cycle 1724 to 1725 Ach Gott vom Himmel sieh darein BWV 2 Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam BWV 7 Nun komm der Heiden Heiland BWV 62 Gelobet seist du Jesu Christ BWV 91 and Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir BWV 38 later Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott BWV 80 and in 1735 War Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit BWV 14 On the soul after death Luther on the left with Lazarus being raised by Jesus from the dead painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder 1558 In contrast to the views of John Calvin 167 and Philipp Melanchthon 168 throughout his life Luther maintained that it was not false doctrine to believe that a Christian s soul sleeps after it is separated from the body in death 169 Accordingly he disputed traditional interpretations of some Bible passages such as the parable of the rich man and Lazarus 170 This also led Luther to reject the idea of torments for the saints It is enough for us to know that souls do not leave their bodies to be threatened by the torments and punishments of hell but enter a prepared bedchamber in which they sleep in peace 171 He also rejected the existence of purgatory which involved Christian souls undergoing penitential suffering after death 172 He affirmed the continuity of one s personal identity beyond death In his Smalcald Articles he described the saints as currently residing in their graves and in heaven 173 The Lutheran theologian Franz Pieper observes that Luther s teaching about the state of the Christian s soul after death differed from the later Lutheran theologians such as Johann Gerhard 174 Lessing 1755 had earlier reached the same conclusion in his analysis of Lutheran orthodoxy on this issue 175 Luther s Commentary on Genesis contains a passage which concludes that the soul does not sleep anima non sic dormit but wakes sed vigilat and experiences visions 176 Francis Blackburne argues that John Jortin misread this and other passages from Luther 177 while Gottfried Fritschel points out that it actually refers to the soul of a man in this life homo enim in hac vita tired from his daily labour defatigus diurno labore who at night enters his bedchamber sub noctem intrat in cubiculum suum and whose sleep is interrupted by dreams 178 Henry Eyster Jacobs English translation from 1898 reads Nevertheless the sleep of this life and that of the future life differ for in this life man fatigued by his daily labour at nightfall goes to his couch as in peace to sleep there and enjoys rest nor does he know anything of evil whether of fire or of murder 179 Sacramentarian controversy and the Marburg ColloquySee also The Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ Against the Fanatics The Marburg Colloquy by August Noack In October 1529 Philip I Landgrave of Hesse convoked an assembly of German and Swiss theologians at the Marburg Colloquy to establish doctrinal unity in the emerging Protestant states 180 Agreement was achieved on fourteen points out of fifteen the exception being the nature of the Eucharist the sacrament of the Lord s Supper an issue crucial to Luther 181 The theologians including Zwingli Melanchthon Martin Bucer and Johannes Oecolampadius differed on the significance of the words spoken by Jesus at the Last Supper This is my body which is for you and This cup is the new covenant in my blood 1 Corinthians 11 23 26 182 Luther insisted on the Real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the consecrated bread and wine which he called the sacramental union 183 while his opponents believed God to be only spiritually or symbolically present 184 Zwingli for example denied Jesus ability to be in more than one place at a time Luther stressed the omnipresence of Jesus human nature 185 According to transcripts the debate sometimes became confrontational Citing Jesus words The flesh profiteth nothing John 6 63 Zwingli said This passage breaks your neck Don t be too proud Luther retorted German necks don t break that easily This is Hesse not Switzerland 186 On his table Luther wrote the words Hoc est corpus meum This is my body in chalk to continually indicate his firm stance 187 Despite the 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 John of Saxony Philip of Hesse and George Margrave of Brandenburg Ansbach The Swiss cities however did not sign these agreements 188 EpistemologySome scholars have asserted that Luther taught that faith and reason were antithetical in the sense that questions of faith could not be illuminated by reason He wrote All the articles of our Christian faith which God has revealed to us in His Word are in presence of reason sheerly impossible absurd and false 189 and That Reason in no way contributes to faith For reason is the greatest enemy that faith has it never comes to the aid of spiritual things 190 However though seemingly contradictorily he also wrote in the latter work that human reason strives not against faith when enlightened but rather furthers and advances it 191 bringing claims he was a fideist into dispute Contemporary Lutheran scholarship however has found a different reality in Luther Luther rather seeks to separate faith and reason in order to honor the separate spheres of knowledge that each applies to On IslamFurther information Protestantism and Islam The battle between the Turks and the Christians in the 16th century At the time of the Marburg Colloquy Suleiman the Magnificent was besieging Vienna with a vast Ottoman army 192 Luther had argued against resisting the Turks in his 1518 Explanation of the Ninety five Theses provoking accusations of defeatism He saw the Turks as a scourge sent by God to punish Christians as agents of the biblical apocalypse that would destroy the Antichrist whom Luther believed to be the papacy and the Roman Church 193 He consistently rejected the idea of a Holy War as though our people were an army of Christians against the Turks who were enemies of Christ This is absolutely contrary to Christ s doctrine and name 194 On the other hand in keeping with his doctrine of the two kingdoms Luther did support non religious war against the Turks 195 In 1526 he argued in Whether Soldiers can be in a State of Grace that national defence is reason for a just war 196 By 1529 in On War against the Turk he was actively urging Emperor Charles V and the German people to fight a secular war against the Turks 197 He made clear however that the spiritual war against an alien faith was separate to be waged through prayer and repentance 198 Around the time of the Siege of Vienna Luther wrote a prayer for national deliverance from the Turks asking God to give to our emperor perpetual victory over our enemies 199 In 1542 Luther read a Latin translation of the Qur an 200 He went on to produce several critical pamphlets on Islam which he called Mohammedanism or the Turk 201 Though Luther saw the Muslim faith as a tool of the devil he was indifferent to its practice Let the Turk believe and live as he will just as one lets the papacy and other false Christians live 202 He opposed banning the publication of the Qur an wanting it exposed to scrutiny 203 Antinomian controversy Pulpit of St Andreas Church Eisleben where Agricola and Luther preached Early in 1537 Johannes Agricola serving at the time as pastor in Luther s birthplace Eisleben preached a sermon in which he claimed that God s gospel not God s moral law the Ten Commandments revealed God s wrath to Christians Based on this sermon and others by Agricola Luther suspected that Agricola was behind certain anonymous antinomian theses circulating in Wittenberg These theses asserted that the law is no longer to be taught to Christians but belonged only to city hall 204 Luther responded to these theses with six series of theses against Agricola and the antinomians four of which became the basis for disputations between 1538 and 1540 205 He also responded to these assertions in other writings such as his 1539 open letter to C Guttel Against the Antinomians 206 and his book On the Councils and the Church from the same year 207 In his theses and disputations against the antinomians Luther reviews and reaffirms on the one hand what has been called the second use of the law that is the law as the Holy Spirit s tool to work sorrow over sin in man s heart thus preparing him for Christ s fulfillment of the law offered in the gospel 208 Luther states that everything that is used to work sorrow over sin is called the law even if it is Christ s life Christ s death for sin or God s goodness experienced in creation 209 Simply refusing to preach the Ten Commandments among Christians thereby as it were removing the three letters l a w from the church does not eliminate the accusing law 210 Claiming that the law in any form should not be preached to Christians anymore would be tantamount to asserting that Christians are no longer sinners in themselves and that the church consists only of essentially holy people 211 Luther also points out that the Ten Commandments when considered not as God s condemning judgment but as an expression of his eternal will that is of the natural law positively teach how the Christian ought to live 212 This has traditionally been called the third use of the law 213 For Luther also Christ s life when understood as an example is nothing more than an illustration of the Ten Commandments which a Christian should follow in his or her vocations on a daily basis 214 The Ten Commandments and the beginnings of the renewed life of Christians accorded to them by the sacrament of baptism are a present foreshadowing of the believers future angel like life in heaven in the midst of this life 215 Luther s teaching of the Ten Commandments therefore has clear eschatological overtones which characteristically for Luther do not encourage world flight but direct the Christian to service to the neighbor in the common daily vocations of this perishing world Bigamy of Philip I Landgrave of HesseFrom December 1539 Luther became involved in the designs of Philip I Landgrave of Hesse to marry a lady in waiting of his wife Christine of Saxony Philip solicited the approval of Luther Melanchthon and Bucer citing as a precedent the polygamy of the patriarchs The theologians were not prepared to make a general ruling and they reluctantly advised the landgrave that if he was determined he should marry secretly and keep quiet about the matter because divorce was worse than bigamy 216 As a result on 4 March 1540 Philip married a second wife Margarethe von der Saale with Melanchthon and Bucer among the witnesses However Philip s sister Elisabeth quickly made the scandal public and Philip threatened to expose Luther s advice Luther told him to tell a good strong lie and deny the marriage completely which Philip did 217 Margarethe gave birth to nine children over a span of 17 years giving Philip a total of 19 children In the view of Luther s biographer Martin Brecht giving confessional advice for Philip of Hesse was one of the worst mistakes Luther made and next to the landgrave himself who was directly responsible for it history chiefly holds Luther accountable 218 Brecht argues that Luther s mistake was not that he gave private pastoral advice but that he miscalculated the political implications 219 The affair caused lasting damage to Luther s reputation 220 Anti Jewish polemics and antisemitismMain article Martin Luther and antisemitism See also Christianity and antisemitism The original title page of On the Jews and Their Lies written by Martin Luther in 1543 Luther wrote negatively about the Jews throughout his career 221 Though Luther rarely encountered Jews during his life his attitudes reflected a theological and cultural tradition which saw Jews as a rejected people guilty of the murder of Christ and he lived in a locality which had expelled Jews some ninety years earlier 222 He considered the Jews blasphemers and liars because they rejected the divinity of Jesus 223 In 1523 Luther advised kindness toward the Jews in That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew and also aimed to convert them to Christianity 224 When his efforts at conversion failed he grew increasingly bitter toward them 225 Luther s major works on the Jews were his 60 000 word treatise Von den Juden und Ihren Lugen On the Jews and Their Lies and Vom Schem Hamphoras und vom Geschlecht Christi On the Holy Name and the Lineage of Christ both published in 1543 three years before his death 226 Luther argued that the Jews were no longer the chosen people but the devil s people and referred to them with violent language 227 228 Citing Deuteronomy 13 wherein Moses commands the killing of idolaters and the burning of their cities and property as an offering to God Luther called for a scharfe Barmherzigkeit sharp mercy against the Jews to see whether we might save at least a few from the glowing flames 229 Luther advocated setting synagogues on fire destroying Jewish prayerbooks forbidding rabbis from preaching seizing Jews property and money and smashing up their homes so that these envenomed worms would be forced into labour or expelled for all time 230 In Robert Michael s view Luther s words We are at fault in not slaying them amounted to a sanction for murder 231 God s anger with them is so intense Luther concluded that gentle mercy will only tend to make them worse while sharp mercy will reform them but little Therefore in any case away with them 229 Luther launched a polemic against vagrants in his 1510 preface to the Liber Vagatorum attributing their Rotwelsch cryptolect to Hebrew He warned Christians to stop giving them alms 232 non primary source needed Luther spoke out against the Jews in Saxony Brandenburg and Silesia 233 Josel of Rosheim the Jewish spokesman who tried to help the Jews of Saxony in 1537 later blamed their plight on that priest whose name was Martin Luther may his body and soul be bound up in hell who wrote and issued many heretical books in which he said that whoever would help the Jews was doomed to perdition 234 Josel asked the city of Strasbourg to forbid the sale of Luther s anti Jewish works they refused initially but did so when a Lutheran pastor in Hochfelden used a sermon to urge his parishioners to murder Jews 233 Luther s influence persisted after his death Throughout the 1580s riots led to the expulsion of Jews from several German Lutheran states 235 Tovia Singer an Orthodox Jewish rabbi remarking about Luther s attitude toward Jews put it thus Among all the Church Fathers and Reformers there was no mouth more vile no tongue that uttered more vulgar curses against the Children of Israel than this founder of the Reformation 236 Influence within Nazism The statue outside the Frauenkirche in Dresden after the bombing of the city in World War II Luther was the most widely read author of his generation and within Germany he acquired the status of a prophet 237 According to the prevailing opinion among historians 238 his anti Jewish rhetoric contributed significantly to the development of antisemitism in Germany 239 and in the 1930s and 1940s provided an ideal underpinning for the Nazis attacks on Jews 240 Reinhold Lewin writes that anybody who wrote against the Jews for whatever reason believed he had the right to justify himself by triumphantly referring to Luther According to Michael just about every anti Jewish book printed in Nazi Germany contained references to and quotations from Luther Heinrich Himmler albeit never a Lutheran having been brought up Catholic wrote admiringly of his writings and sermons on the Jews in 1940 241 The city of Nuremberg presented a first edition of On the Jews and their Lies to Julius Streicher editor of the Nazi newspaper Der Sturmer on his birthday in 1937 the newspaper described it as the most radically antisemitic tract ever published 242 It was publicly exhibited in a glass case at the Nuremberg rallies and quoted in a 54 page explanation of the Aryan Law by E H Schulz and R Frercks 243 On 17 December 1941 seven Protestant regional church confederations issued a statement agreeing with the policy of forcing Jews to wear the yellow badge since after his bitter experience Luther had already suggested preventive measures against the Jews and their expulsion from German territory According to Daniel Goldhagen Bishop Martin Sasse a leading Protestant churchman published a compendium of Luther s writings shortly after Kristallnacht for which Diarmaid MacCulloch professor of the history of the church at the University of Oxford argued that Luther s writing was a blueprint 244 Sasse applauded the burning of the synagogues and the coincidence of the day writing in the introduction On 10 November 1938 on Luther s birthday the synagogues are burning in Germany The German people he urged ought to heed these words of the greatest antisemite of his time the warner of his people against the Jews 245 There is a world of difference between his belief in salvation and a racial ideology Nevertheless his misguided agitation had the evil result that Luther fatefully became one of the church fathers of anti Semitism and thus provided material for the modern hatred of the Jews cloaking it with the authority of the Reformer Martin Brecht 246 At the heart of scholarly debate about Luther s influence is whether it is anachronistic to view his work as a precursor of the racial antisemitism of the Nazis Some scholars see Luther s influence as limited and the Nazis use of his work as opportunistic Johannes Wallmann argues that Luther s writings against the Jews were largely ignored in the 18th and 19th centuries and that there was no continuity between Luther s thought and Nazi ideology 247 Uwe Siemon Netto agreed arguing that it was because the Nazis were already antisemites that they revived Luther s work 248 249 Hans J Hillerbrand agreed that to focus on Luther was to adopt an essentially ahistorical perspective of Nazi antisemitism that ignored other contributory factors in German history 250 Similarly Roland Bainton noted church historian and Luther biographer wrote One could wish that Luther had died before ever On the Jews and Their Lies was written His position was entirely religious and in no respect racial 251 252 However Christopher J Probst in his book Demonizing the Jews Luther and the Protestant Church in Nazi Germany 2012 shows that a large number of German Protestant clergy and theologians during the Nazi era used Luther s hostile publications towards the Jews and their Jewish religion to justify at least in part the anti Semitic policies of the National Socialists 253 The pro Nazi Christian group Deutsche Christen drew parallels between Martin Luther and the Fuhrer Adolf Hitler 254 Some scholars such as Mark U Edwards in his book Luther s Last Battles Politics and Polemics 1531 46 1983 suggest that since Luther s increasingly antisemitic views developed during the years his health deteriorated it is possible they were at least partly the product of a state of mind Edwards also comments that Luther often deliberately used vulgarity and violence for effect both in his writings condemning the Jews and in diatribes against Turks Muslims and Catholics 255 Since the 1980s Lutheran denominations have repudiated Martin Luther s statements against the Jews citation needed and have rejected the use of them to incite hatred against Lutherans citation needed 256 257 Strommen et al s 1970 survey of 4 745 North American Lutherans aged 15 65 found that compared to the other minority groups under consideration Lutherans were the least prejudiced toward Jews 258 Nevertheless Professor Richard Geary former professor of modern history at the University of Nottingham and the author of Hitler and Nazism Routledge 1993 published an article in the magazine History Today examining electoral trends in Weimar Germany between 1928 and 1933 Geary notes that based on his research the Nazi Party received disproportionately more votes from Protestant than Catholic areas of Germany 259 260 Final years illness and death Luther on his deathbed painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder Martin Luther s grave Schlosskirche Wittenberg Luther had been suffering from ill health for years including Meniere s disease vertigo fainting tinnitus and a cataract in one eye 261 From 1531 to 1546 his health deteriorated further In 1536 he began to suffer from kidney and bladder stones arthritis and an ear infection ruptured an ear drum In December 1544 he began to feel the effects of angina 262 His poor physical health made him short tempered and even harsher in his writings and comments His wife Katharina was overheard saying Dear husband you are too rude and he responded They are teaching me to be rude 263 In 1545 and 1546 Luther preached three times in the Market Church in Halle staying with his friend Justus Jonas during Christmas 264 His last sermon was delivered at Eisleben his place of birth on 15 February 1546 three days before his death 265 It was entirely devoted to the obdurate Jews whom it was a matter of great urgency to expel from all German territory according to Leon Poliakov 266 James Mackinnon writes that it concluded with a fiery summons to drive the Jews bag and baggage from their midst unless they desisted from their calumny and their usury and became Christians 267 Luther said we want to practice Christian love toward them and pray that they convert but also that they are our public enemies and if they could kill us all they would gladly do so And so often they do 268 Luther s final journey to Mansfeld was taken because of 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 The negotiations were successfully concluded on 17 February 1546 After 8 p m he 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 a m on 18 February he awoke with more chest pain and was warmed with hot towels 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 269 An apoplectic stroke deprived him of his speech and he died shortly afterwards at 2 45 a m on 18 February 1546 aged 62 in Eisleben the city of his birth He was buried in the Schlosskirche in Wittenberg in front of the pulpit 270 The funeral was held by his friends Johannes Bugenhagen and Philipp Melanchthon 271 A year later troops of Luther s adversary Charles V Holy Roman Emperor entered the town but were ordered by Charles not to disturb the grave 271 A piece of paper was later found on which Luther had written his last statement The statement was in Latin apart from We are beggars which was in German The statement reads No one can understand Virgil s Bucolics unless he has been a shepherd for five years No one can understand Virgil s Georgics unless he has been a farmer for five years No one can understand Cicero s Letters or so I teach unless he has busied himself in the affairs of some prominent state for twenty years Know that no one can have indulged in the Holy Writers sufficiently unless he has governed churches for a hundred years with the prophets such as Elijah and Elisha John the Baptist Christ and the apostles Do not assail this divine Aeneid nay rather prostrate revere the ground that it treads We are beggars this is true 272 273 The tomb of Philipp Melanchthon Luther s contemporary and fellow reformer is also located in the All Saints Church 274 275 276 277 278 Martin Luther s Death House considered the site of Luther s death since 1726 However the building where Luther actually died at Markt 56 now the site of Hotel Graf von Mansfeld was torn down in 1570 279 Casts of Luther s face and hands at his death in the Market Church in Halle 280 Schlosskirche in Wittenberg where Luther posted his Ninety five Theses is also his gravesite Luther s tombstone beneath the pulpit in the Castle Church in Wittenberg Close up of the grave with inscription in LatinLegacy and commemoration Worldwide Protestantism in 2010 Luther made effective use of Johannes Gutenberg s printing press to spread his views He switched from Latin to German in his writing to appeal to a broader audience Between 1500 and 1530 Luther s works represented one fifth of all materials printed in Germany 281 In the 1530s and 1540s printed images of Luther that emphasized his monumental size were crucial to the spread of Protestantism In contrast to images of frail Catholic saints Luther was presented as a stout man with a double chin strong mouth piercing deep set eyes fleshy face and squat neck He was shown to be physically imposing an equal in stature to the secular German princes with whom he would join forces to spread Lutheranism His large body also let the viewer know that he did not shun earthly pleasures like drinking behavior that was a stark contrast to the ascetic life of the medieval religious orders Images from this period include the woodcuts by Hans Brosamer 1530 and Lucas Cranach the Elder and Lucas Cranach the Younger 1546 282 Luther Monument in Eisenach Germany Luther is honoured on 18 February with a commemoration in the Lutheran Calendar of Saints and in the Episcopal United States Calendar of Saints In the Church of England s Calendar of Saints he is commemorated on 31 October 283 Luther is honored in various ways by Christian traditions coming out directly from the Protestant Reformation i e Lutheranism the Reformed tradition and Anglicanism Branches of Protestantism that emerged afterwards vary in their remembrance and veneration of Luther ranging from a complete lack of a single mention of him to a commemoration almost comparable to the way Lutherans commemorate and remember his persona There is no known condemnation of Luther by Protestants themselves Martin Luther College in New Ulm Minnesota United States Various sites both inside and outside Germany supposedly visited by Martin Luther throughout his lifetime commemorate it with local memorials Saxony Anhalt has two towns officially named after Luther Lutherstadt Eisleben and Lutherstadt Wittenberg Mansfeld is sometimes called Mansfeld Lutherstadt although the state government has not decided to put the Lutherstadt suffix in its official name Reformation Day commemorates the publication of the Ninety five Theses in 1517 by Martin Luther it has been historically important in the following European entities It is a civic holiday in the German states of Brandenburg Mecklenburg Vorpommern Saxony Saxony Anhalt Thuringia Schleswig Holstein and Hamburg Two further states Lower Saxony and Bremen are pending a vote on introducing it Slovenia celebrates it because of the profound contribution of the Reformation to its culture Austria allows Protestant children not to go to school that day and Protestant workers have a right to leave work in order to participate in a church service Switzerland celebrates the holiday on the first Sunday after 31 October It is also celebrated elsewhere around the world Luther and the swan Luther with a swan painting in the church at Strumpfelbach im Remstal Weinstadt Germany by J A List Swan weather vane Round Lutheran Church Amsterdam Altar in St Martin s Church Halberstadt Germany Luther and the swan are toward the top on the right Coin commemorating Luther engraving by Georg Wilhelm Gobel Saxony 1706 Luther is often depicted with a swan as his attribute and Lutheran churches often have a swan for a weather vane This association with the swan arises out of a prophecy reportedly made by the earlier reformer Jan Hus from Bohemia and endorsed by Luther In the Bohemian language now Czech Hus s name meant grey goose In 1414 while imprisoned by the Council of Constance and anticipating his execution by burning for heresy Hus prophesied Now they will roast a goose but in a hundred years time they ll hear a swan sing They d better listen to him Luther published his Ninety five Theses some 103 years later 284 285 286 Works and editionsMain article Martin Luther bibliography Various books of the Weimar Edition of Luther s works The Erlangen Edition Erlangener Ausgabe EA comprising the Exegetica opera latina Latin exegetical works of Luther The Weimar Edition Weimarer Ausgabe is the exhaustive standard German edition of Luther s Latin and German works indicated by the abbreviation WA This is continued into WA Br Weimarer Ausgabe Briefwechsel correspondence WA Tr Weimarer Ausgabe Tischreden tabletalk and WA DB Weimarer Ausgabe Deutsche Bibel German Bible The American Edition Luther s Works is the most extensive English translation of Luther s writings indicated either by the abbreviation LW or AE The first 55 volumes were published 1955 1986 and a twenty volume extension vols 56 75 is planned of which volumes 58 60 and 68 have appeared thus far See also Christianity portalAntilegomena George of Hungary Luther s canon Luther s Marian theology Lutherhaus Eisenach Martin Luther s Birth House Propaganda during the Reformation Protestantism in Germany Resources about Martin Luther Theology of Martin Luther Bruder Martin Hochstratus Ovans Theologia GermanicaNotes Latin Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum The first printings of the Theses use an incipit rather than a title which summarizes the content Luther usually called them meine Propositiones my propositions 40 References Luther Archived 27 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine Random House Webster s Unabridged Dictionary Luther himself however believed that he had been born in 1484 Hendrix Scott H 2015 Martin Luther Visionary Reformer Yale University Press p 17 ISBN 978 0 300 16669 9 Retrieved 12 November 2017 Luther consistently referred to himself as a former monk For example Thus formerly when I was a monk I used to hope that I would be able to pacify my conscience with the fastings the praying and the vigils with which I used to afflict my body in a way to excite pity But the more I sweat the less quiet and peace I felt for the true light had been removed from my eyes Martin Luther Lectures on Genesis Chapters 45 50 ed Jaroslav Jan Pelikan Hilton C Oswald and Helmut T Lehmann vol 8 Luther s Works Saint Louis Concordia Publishing House 1999 5 326 Ewald M Plass What Luther Says 3 vols St Louis CPH 1959 88 no 269 M Reu Luther and the Scriptures Columbus Ohio Wartburg Press 1944 23 Luther Martin Concerning the Ministry 1523 tr Conrad Bergendoff in Bergendoff Conrad ed Luther s Works Philadelphia Fortress Press 1958 40 18 ff Fahlbusch Erwin and Bromiley Geoffrey William The Encyclopedia of Christianity Grand Rapids MI Leiden Netherlands Wm B Eerdmans Brill 1999 2003 1 244 Tyndale s New Testament trans from the Greek by William Tyndale in 1534 in a modern spelling edition and with an introduction by David Daniell New Haven CT Yale University Press 1989 ix x Bainton Roland Here I Stand a Life of Martin Luther New York Penguin 1995 269 Bainton Roland Here I Stand a Life of Martin Luther New York Penguin 1995 p 223 Hendrix Scott H The Controversial Luther Archived 2 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine Word amp World 3 4 1983 Luther Seminary St Paul MN Also see Hillerbrand Hans The legacy of Martin Luther Archived 16 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine in Hillerbrand Hans amp McKim Donald K eds The Cambridge Companion to Luther Cambridge University Press 2003 In 1523 Luther wrote that Jesus Christ was born a Jew which discouraged mistreatment of the Jews and advocated their conversion by proving that the Old Testament could be shown to speak of Jesus Christ However as the Reformation grew Luther began to lose hope in large scale Jewish conversion to Christianity and in the years his health deteriorated he grew more acerbic toward the Jews writing against them with the kind of venom he had already unleashed on the Anabaptists Zwingli and the pope Schaff Philip History of the Christian Church Vol VIII Modern Christianity The Swiss Reformation William B Eerdmans Pub Co Grand Rapids Michigan USA 1910 page 706 Martin Brecht Martin Luther Minneapolis Fortress Press 1985 1993 3 336 Luther s letter to Rabbi Josel as cited by Gordon Rupp Martin Luther and the Jews London The Council of Christians and Jews 1972 14 According to Luther and the Jews Archived from the original on 4 November 2005 Retrieved 21 March 2017 this paragraph is not available in the English edition of Luther s works Sydow Michael 1 December 1999 JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY Martin Luther Reformation Theologian and Educator PDF Archived from the original PDF on 28 September 2008 Retrieved 17 May 2022 The assertion that Luther s expressions of anti Jewish sentiment have been of major and persistent influence in the centuries after the Reformation and that there exists a continuity between Protestant anti Judaism and modern racially oriented antisemitism is at present wide spread in the literature since the Second World War it has understandably become the prevailing opinion Johannes Wallmann The Reception of Luther s Writings on the Jews from the Reformation to the End of the 19th century Lutheran Quarterly n s 1 Spring 1987 1 72 97 For similar views see Berger Ronald Fathoming the Holocaust A Social Problems Approach New York Aldine De Gruyter 2002 28 Rose Paul Lawrence Revolutionary Antisemitism in Germany from Kant to Wagner Princeton University Press 1990 quoted in Berger 28 Shirer William The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich New York Simon amp Schuster 1960 Johnson Paul A History of the Jews New York HarperCollins Publishers 1987 242 Poliakov Leon History of Anti Semitism From the Time of Christ to the Court Jews N P University of Pennsylvania Press 2003 216 Berenbaum Michael The World Must Know Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 1993 2000 8 9 Grunberger Richard The 12 Year Reich A Social History of Nazi German 1933 1945 NP Holt Rinehart and Winston 1971 465 a b c Marty Martin Martin Luther Viking Penguin 2004 p 1 Brecht Martin Martin Luther tr James L Schaaf Philadelphia Fortress Press 1985 93 1 3 5 Martin Luther Biography Reformation Works amp Facts Marty Martin Martin Luther Viking Penguin 2004 p 3 Rupp Ernst Gordon Martin Luther Encyclopaedia Britannica accessed 2006 Marty Martin Martin Luther Viking Penguin 2004 pp 2 3 a b Marty Martin Martin Luther Viking Penguin 2004 p 4 a b c d Marty Martin Martin Luther Viking Penguin 2004 p 5 a b c d Marty Martin Martin Luther Viking Penguin 2004 p 6 Brecht Martin Martin Luther tr James L Schaaf Philadelphia Fortress Press 1985 93 1 48 Brecht Martin 1985 Google Books Archive of Martin Luther His road to Reformation 1483 1521 By Martin Brecht Martin Luther His road to Reformation 1483 1521 By Martin Brecht ISBN 978 1 4514 1414 1 Retrieved 14 May 2015 Schwiebert E G Luther and His Times St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1950 136 Marty Martin Martin Luther Viking Penguin 2004 p 7 Bainton Roland Here I Stand a Life of Martin Luther New York Penguin 1995 40 42 Kittelson James Luther The Reformer Minneapolis Augsburg Fortress Publishing House 1986 79 Bainton Roland Here I Stand a Life of Martin Luther New York Penguin 1995 44 45 Brecht Martin Martin Luther tr James L Schaaf Philadelphia Fortress Press 1985 93 1 93 Brecht Martin Martin Luther tr James L Schaaf Philadelphia Fortress Press 1985 93 1 112 27 Hendrix Scott H 2015 Martin Luther Visionary Reformer New Haven CT Yale University Press p 44 ISBN 978 0 300 16669 9 Hendrix Scott H 2015 Martin Luther Visionary Reformer New Haven CT Yale University Press p 45 ISBN 978 0 300 16669 9 Johann Tetzel Encyclopaedia Britannica 2007 At first the pope demanded twelve thousand ducats for the twelve apostles Albert offered seven thousand ducats for the seven deadly sins They compromised on ten thousand presumably not for the Ten Commandments Bainton Roland Here I Stand A Life of Martin Luther Nashville Abingdon Press 1950 p 75 online Cummings 2002 p 32 a b Hillerbrand Hans J Martin Luther Indulgences and salvation Encyclopaedia Britannica 2007 Thesis 55 of Tetzel s One Hundred and Six Theses These Anti theses were a reply to Luther s Ninety five Theses and were drawn up by Tetzel s friend and former professor Konrad Wimpina Theses 55 amp 56 responding to Luther s 27th Theses read For a soul to fly out is for it to obtain the vision of God which can be hindered by no interruption therefore he errs who says that the soul cannot fly out before the coin can jingle in the bottom of the chest In The reformation in Germany Henry Clay Vedder 1914 Macmillan Company p 405 1 Animam purgatam evolare est eam visione dei potiri quod nulla potest intercapedine impediri Quisquis ergo dicit non citius posse animam volare quam in fundo cistae denarius possit tinnire errat In D Martini Lutheri Opera Latina Varii Argumenti 1865 Henricus Schmidt ed Heyder and Zimmer Frankfurt am Main amp Erlangen vol 1 p 300 Print on demand edition Nabu Press 2010 ISBN 978 1 142 40551 9 2 See also Herbermann Charles ed 1913 Johann Tetzel Catholic Encyclopedia New York Robert Appleton Company Kramer Walter and Trenkler Gotz Luther in Lexicon van Hardnekkige Misverstanden Uitgeverij Bert Bakker 1997 214 216 Ritter Gerhard Luther Frankfurt 1985 Gerhard Prause Luthers Thesanschlag ist eine Legende in Niemand hat Kolumbus ausgelacht Dusseldorf 1986 Marshall Peter 1517 Martin Luther and the Invention of the Reformation Oxford University Press 2017 ISBN 978 0 19 968201 0 Bekker Henrik 2010 Dresden Leipzig amp Saxony Adventure Guide Hunter Publishing Inc p 125 ISBN 978 1 58843 950 5 Retrieved 7 February 2012 Bainton Roland Here I Stand A Life of Martin Luther Nashville Abingdon Press 1950 p 79 online Brecht Martin Martin Luther tr James L Schaaf Philadelphia Fortress Press 1985 93 1 204 05 Spitz Lewis W The Renaissance and Reformation Movements St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1987 338 Wriedt Markus Luther s Theology in The Cambridge Companion to Luther New York Cambridge University Press 2003 88 94 Bouman Herbert J A The Doctrine of Justification in the Lutheran Confessions Concordia Theological Monthly 26 November 1955 No 11 801 Dorman Ted M Justification as Healing The Little Known Luther Quodlibet Journal Volume 2 Number 3 Summer 2000 Retrieved 13 July 2007 Luther s Definition of Faith Justification by Faith The Lutheran Catholic Convergence Archived from the original on 15 June 2010 Luther Martin The Smalcald Articles in Concordia The Lutheran Confessions Saint Louis Concordia Publishing House 2005 289 Part two Article 1 Michael A Mullett Martin Luther London Routledge 2004 ISBN 978 0 415 26168 5 78 Oberman Heiko Luther Man Between God and the Devil New Haven Yale University Press 2006 ISBN 0 300 10313 1 192 93 Mullett 68 69 Oberman 189 Richard Marius Luther London Quartet 1975 ISBN 0 7043 3192 6 85 Papal Bull Exsurge Domine 15 June 1520 Mullett 81 82 Luther meets with Cajetan at Augsburg Reformation 500 Concordia Seminary St Louis 11 January 2012 Retrieved 28 March 2016 The Acts and Monuments of the Church Martin Luther exclassics com Retrieved 28 March 2016 Bainton Roland Here I Stand A Life of Martin Luther Nashville Abingdon Press 1950 Chapter V p 96 online Mullett 82 Mullett 83 Oberman 197 Mullett 92 95 Roland H Bainton Here I Stand A Life of Martin Luther New York Mentor 1955 OCLC 220064892 81 Marius 87 89 Bainton Mentor edition 82 Marius 93 Bainton Mentor edition 90 G R Elton Reformation Europe 1517 1559 London Collins 1963 OCLC 222872115 177 Brecht Martin tr Wolfgang Katenz Luther Martin in Hillerbrand Hans J ed Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation New York Oxford University Press 1996 2 463 Becking Bob Cannegieter Alex van er Poll Wilfred 2016 From Babylon to Eternity The Exile Remembered and Constructed in Text and Tradition Routledge p 91 ISBN 978 1 134 90386 3 Wooden Cindy Methodists adapt Catholic Lutheran declaration on justification 24 July 2006 David Van Biema A Half Millennium Rift TIME 6 July 1998 80 Cindy Wooden Lutheran World Council OKs joint declaration on justification The Pilot 19 June 1998 20 Brecht 1 460 a b Mullett 1986 p 25 Luther Martin Life of Luther Luther by Martin Luther Wilson 153 170 Marius 155 Bratcher Dennis The Diet of Worms 1521 Archived 3 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine in The Voice Biblical and Theological Resources for Growing Christians Retrieved 13 July 2007 Reformation Europe 1517 1559 London Fontana 1963 53 Diarmaid MacCulloch Reformation Europe s House Divided 1490 1700 London Allen Lane 2003 132 Luther Martin Letter 82 in Luther s Works Jaroslav Jan Pelikan Hilton C Oswald and Helmut T Lehmann eds Vol 48 Letters I Philadelphia Fortress Press 1999 c1963 48 246 Mullett 133 John author of Revelation had been exiled on the island of Patmos Brecht 2 12 14 Mullett 132 134 Wilson 182 Brecht 2 7 9 Marius 161 62 Marty 77 79 Martin Luther Let Your Sins Be Strong a Letter From Luther to Melanchthon Archived 28 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine August 1521 Project Wittenberg retrieved 1 October 2006 Brecht 2 27 29 Mullett 133 Brecht 2 18 21 Marius 163 64 Mullett 135 36 Wilson 192 202 Brecht 2 34 38 Bainton Mentor edition 164 65 Letter of 7 March 1522 Schaff Philip History of the Christian Church Vol VII Ch IV Archived 23 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine Brecht 2 57 Brecht 2 60 Bainton Mentor edition 165 Marius 168 69 a b Schaff Philip History of the Christian Church Vol VII Ch IV Archived 23 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine Marius 169 Mullett 141 43 Michael Hughes Early Modern Germany 1477 1806 London Macmillan 1992 ISBN 0 333 53774 2 45 A G Dickens The German Nation and Martin Luther London Edward Arnold 1974 ISBN 0 7131 5700 3 132 33 Dickens cites as an example of Luther s liberal phraseology Therefore I declare that neither pope nor bishop nor any other person has the right to impose a syllable of law upon a Christian man without his own consent Hughes 45 47 Hughes 50 Jaroslav J Pelikan Hilton C Oswald Luther s Works 55 vols St Louis and Philadelphia Concordia Pub House and Fortress Press 1955 1986 46 50 51 Mullett 166 Whitford David Tyranny and Resistance The Magdeburg Confession and the Lutheran Tradition 2001 144 pages Hughes 51 Andrew Pettegree Europe in the Sixteenth Century Oxford Blackwell ISBN 0 631 20704 X 102 03 Erlangen Edition of Luther s Works Vol 59 p 284 Wilson 232 Schaff Philip History of the Christian Church Vol VII Ch V Archived 23 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine rpt Christian Classics Ethereal Library Retrieved 17 May 2009 Bainton Mentor edition 226 a b c Scheible Heinz 1997 Melanchthon Eine Biographie in German Munich C H Beck p 147 ISBN 978 3 406 42223 2 Lohse Bernhard Martin Luther An Introduction to his Life and Work translated by Robert C Schultz Edinburgh T amp T Clark 1987 ISBN 0 567 09357 3 32 Brecht 2 196 97 Brecht 2 199 Wilson 234 Lohse 32 Schaff Philip Luther s Marriage 1525 Archived 7 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine History of the Christian Church Volume VII Modern Christianity The German Reformation 77 rpt Christian Classics Ethereal Library Retrieved 17 May 2009 Mullett 180 81 Marty 109 Bainton Mentor edition 226 Brecht 2 202 Mullett 182 Oberman 278 80 Wilson 237 Marty 110 Bainton Mentor edition 228 Schaff Luther s Marriage 1525 Archived 7 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine Brecht 2 204 MacCulloch 164 Bainton Mentor edition 243 Schroeder Steven 2000 Between Freedom and Necessity An Essay on the Place of Value Rodopi p 104 ISBN 978 90 420 1302 5 Brecht 2 260 63 67 Mullett 184 86 Brecht 2 267 Bainton Mentor edition 244 Brecht 2 267 MacCulloch 165 On one occasion Luther referred to the elector as an emergency bishop Notbischof Mullett 186 87 Brecht 2 264 65 267 Brecht 2 264 65 Brecht 2 268 Brecht 2 251 54 Bainton Mentor edition 266 Brecht 2 255 Mullett 183 Eric W Gritsch A History of Lutheranism Minneapolis Fortress Press 2002 ISBN 0 8006 3472 1 37 Brecht 2 256 Mullett 183 Brecht 2 256 Bainton Mentor edition 265 66 Brecht 2 256 Bainton Mentor edition 269 70 Brecht 2 256 57 Brecht 2 258 Brecht 2 263 Mullett 186 Quoted from Luther s preface to the Small Catechism 1529 MacCulloch 165 Marty 123 Brecht 2 273 Bainton Mentor edition 263 Marty 123 Wilson 278 Luther Martin Luther s Works Philadelphia Fortress Press 1971 50 172 73 Bainton Mentor edition 263 Brecht 2 277 280 See texts at English translation Archived 16 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine a b Charles P Arand Luther on the Creed Lutheran Quarterly 2006 20 1 1 25 ISSN 0024 7499 James Arne Nestingen Luther s Catechisms The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation Ed Hans J Hillerbrand 1996 Mullett 145 Lohse 119 Mullett 148 50 Mentelin Bible The Library of Congress 1466 Retrieved 2 June 2018 Koberger Bible World Digital Library 1483 Retrieved 2 June 2018 Gow Andrew C 2009 The Contested History of a Book The German Bible of the Later Middle Ages and Reformation in Legend Ideology and Scholarship Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 9 doi 10 5508 jhs 2009 v9 a13 ISSN 1203 1542 Wilson 183 Brecht 2 48 49 Mullett 149 Wilson 302 Marius 162 Lohse 112 17 Wilson 183 Bainton Mentor edition 258 Daniel Weissbort and Astradur Eysteinsson eds Translation Theory and Practice A Historical Reader Oxford Oxford University Press 2002 ISBN 0 19 871200 6 68 Mullett 148 Wilson 185 Bainton Mentor edition 261 Luther inserted the word alone allein after the word faith in his translation of St Paul s Epistle to the Romans 3 28 The clause is rendered in the English Authorised Version as Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law Lindberg Carter The European Reformations Sourcebook Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2000 p 49 Original sourcebook excerpt taken from Luther s Works St Louis Concordia Philadelphia Fortress Press 1955 86 ed Jaroslav Pelikan and Helmut T Lehmann vol 35 pp 182 187 89 195 Metzger Bruce M 1994 A textual commentary on the Greek New Testament a companion volume to the United Bible Societies Greek New Testament fourth revised edition 2 ed Stuttgart Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft pp 647 49 ISBN 978 3 438 06010 5 Criticus Rev William Orme 1830 Memoir of The Controversy respecting the Three Heavenly Witnesses I John V 7 London 1872 Boston a new edition with notes and an appendix by Ezra Abbot p 42 White Andrew Dickson 1896 A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology Vol 2 New York Appleton p 304 For a short collection see online hymns Archived 16 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine a b c Christopher Boyd Brown Singing the Gospel Lutheran Hymns and the Success of the Reformation 2005 Waldzither Bibliography of the 19th century Studia Instrumentorum Retrieved 23 March 2014 Es ist eine unbedingte Notwendigkeit dass der Deutsche zu seinen Liedern auch ein echt deutsches Begleitinstrument besitzt Wie der Spanier seine Gitarre falschlich Laute genannt der Italiener seine Mandoline der Englander das Banjo der Russe die Balalaika usw sein Nationalinstrument nennt so sollte der Deutsche seine Laute die Waldzither welche schon von Dr Martin Luther auf der Wartburg im Thuringer Walde daher der Name Waldzither gepflegt wurde zu seinem Nationalinstrument machen Liederheft von C H Bohm Hamburg March 1919 Flung to the heedless winds Hymntime Archived from the original on 14 October 2013 Retrieved 7 October 2012 Robin A Leaver Luther s Catechism Hymns Lutheran Quarterly 1998 12 1 79 88 89 98 Robin A Leaver Luther s Catechism Hymns 5 Baptism Lutheran Quarterly 1998 12 2 160 69 170 80 Christoph Markschies Michael Trowitzsch Luther zwischen den Zeiten Eine Jenaer Ringvorlesung Mohr Siebeck 1999 pp 215 19 in German Psychopannychia the night banquet of the soul manuscript Orleans 1534 Latin Strasbourg 1542 2nd ed 1545 French Geneva 1558 English 1581 Liber de Anima 1562 D Franz Pieper Christliche Dogmatik 3 vols Saint Louis CPH 1920 3 575 Hieraus geht sicher so viel hervor dass die abgeschiedenen Seelen der Glaubigen in einem Zustande des seligen Geniessens Gottes sich befinden Ein Seelenschlaf der ein Geniessen Gottes einschliesst so Luther ist nicht als irrige Lehre zu bezeichnen English translation Francis Pieper Christian Dogmatics 3 vols Saint Louis CPH 1953 3 512 These texts surely make it evident that the departed souls of the believers are in a state of blessed enjoyment of God A sleep of the soul which includes enjoyment of God says Luther cannot be called a false doctrine Sermons of Martin Luther the House Postils Eugene F A Klug ed and trans 3 vols Grand Rapids Michigan Baker Book House 1996 2 240 Weimarer Ausgabe 43 360 21 23 to Genesis 25 7 10 also Exegetica opera latina Vol 5 6 1833 p 120 and the English translation Luther s Works American Edition 55 vols St Louis CPH 4 313 Sufficit igitur nobis haec cognitio non egredi animas ex corporibus in periculum cruciatum et paenarum inferni sed esse eis paratum cubiculum in quo dormiant in pace Smalcald Articles Part II Article II paragraph 12 Bookofconcord org Archived from the original on 10 October 2008 Retrieved 15 August 2012 Smalcald Articles Part II Article II paragraph 28 Bookofconcord org Archived from the original on 10 October 2008 Retrieved 15 August 2012 Gerhard Loci Theologici Locus de Morte 293 ff Pieper writes Luther speaks more guardedly of the state of the soul between death and resurrection than do Gerhard and the later theologians who transfer some things to the state between death and resurrection which can be said with certainty only of the state after the resurrection Christian Dogmatics 3 512 footnote 21 Article in the Berlinischer Zeitung 1755 in Complete Works ed Karl Friedrich Theodor Lachmann 1838 p 59 Was die Gegner auf alle diese Stellen antworten werden ist leicht zu errathen Sie werden sagen dass Luther mit dem Worte Schlaf gar die Begriffe nicht verbinde welche Herr R damit verbindet Wenn Luther sage dass die Seele IS nach dem Tode schlafe so denke er nichts mehr dabey als was alle Leute denken wenn sie den Tod des Schlafes Bruder nennen Tode ruhe leugneten auch die nicht welche ihr Wachen behaupteten c Ueberhaupt ist mit Luthers Ansehen bey der ganzen Streitigkeit nichts zu gewinnen Exegetica opera Latina Volumes 5 6 Martin Luther ed Christopf Stephan Elsperger Gottlieb p 120 Differunt tamen somnus sive quies hujus vitae et futurae Homo enim in hac vita defatigatus diurno labore sub noctem intrat in cubiculum suum tanquam in pace ut ibi dormiat et ea nocte fruitur quiete neque quicquam scit de ullo malo sive incendii sive caedis Anima autem non sic dormit sed vigilat et patitur visiones loquelas Angelorum et Dei Ideo somnus in futura vita profundior est quam in hac vita et tamen anima coram Deo vivit Hac similitudine quam habeo a somno viventia Commentary on Genesis Enarrationes in Genesin XXV 1535 1545 Blackburne A short historical view of the controversy concerning an intermediate state 1765 p121 Gottfried Fritschel Zeitschrift fur die gesammte lutherische Theologie und Kirche p 657 Denn dass Luther mit den Worten anima non sic dormit sed vigilat et patitur visiones loquelas Angelorum et Dei nicht dasjenige leugnen will was er an allen andern Stellen seiner Schriften vortragt Henry Eyster Jacobs Martin Luther the Hero of the Reformation 1483 to 1546 1898 Emphasis added Mullett 194 95 Brecht 2 325 34 Mullett 197 Wilson 259 Weimar Ausgabe 26 442 Luther s Works 37 299 300 Oberman 237 Marty 140 41 Lohse 74 75 Quoted by Oberman 237 Brecht 2 329 Oberman 238 Martin Luther Werke VIII Martin Luther Table Talk Martin Luther On Justification CCXCIV Table Talk Mallett 198 Marius 220 The siege was lifted on 14 October 1529 which Luther saw as a divine miracle Andrew Cunningham The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Religion War Famine and Death in Reformation Europe Archived 22 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine Cambridge Cambridge University Press 2000 ISBN 0 521 46701 2 141 Mullett 239 40 Marty 164 From On War against the Turk 1529 quoted in William P Brown The Ten Commandments The Reciprocity of Faithfulness Louisville KY Westminster John Knox Press 2004 ISBN 0 664 22323 0 258 Lohse 61 Marty 166 Marty 166 Marius 219 Brecht 2 365 368 Mullett 238 39 Lohse 59 61 Brecht 2 364 Wilson 257 Brecht 2 364 65 Brecht 2 365 Mullett 239 Brecht 3 354 Daniel Goffman The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe Archived 22 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine Cambridge Cambridge University Press 2002 ISBN 0 521 45908 7 109 Mullett 241 Marty 163 From On war against the Turk 1529 quoted in Roland E Miller Muslims and the Gospel Archived 22 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine Minneapolis Kirk House Publishers 2006 ISBN 1 932688 07 2 208 Brecht 3 355 Cf Luther Only the Decalogue Is Eternal Martin Luther s Complete Antinomian Theses and Disputations ed and tr H Sonntag Minneapolis Lutheran Press 2008 23 27 ISBN 978 0 9748529 6 6 Cf Luther Only the Decalogue Is Eternal Martin Luther s Complete Antinomian Theses and Disputations ed and tr H Sonntag Minneapolis Lutheran Press 2008 11 15 ISBN 978 0 9748529 6 6 Cf Luther s Works 47 107 19 There he writes Dear God should it be unbearable that the holy church confesses itself a sinner believes in the forgiveness of sins and asks for remission of sin in the Lord s Prayer How can one know what sin is without the law and conscience And how will we learn what Christ is what he did for us if we do not know what the law is that he fulfilled for us and what sin is for which he made satisfaction 112 13 Cf Luther s Works 41 113 14 143 44 146 47 There he said about the antinomians They may be fine Easter preachers but they are very poor Pentecost preachers for they do not preach de sanctificatione et vivificatione Spiritus Sancti about the sanctification by the Holy Spirit but solely about the redemption of Jesus Christ 114 Having rejected and being unable to understand the Ten Commandments they see and yet they let the people go on in their public sins without any renewal or reformation of their lives 147 Cf Luther Only the Decalogue Is Eternal 33 36 Cf Luther Only the Decalogue Is Eternal 170 72 Cf Luther Only the Decalogue Is Eternal 76 105 07 Cf Luther Only the Decalogue Is Eternal 140 157 Cf Luther Only the Decalogue Is Eternal 75 104 05 172 73 The first use of the law accordingly would be the law used as an external means of order and coercion in the political realm by means of bodily rewards and punishments Cf Luther Only the Decalogue Is Eternal 110 Cf Luther Only the Decalogue Is Eternal 35 The law therefore cannot be eliminated but remains prior to Christ as not fulfilled after Christ as to be fulfilled although this does not happen perfectly in this life even by the justified This will happen perfectly first in the coming life Cf Luther Only the Decalogue Is Eternal 43 44 91 93 Brecht Martin Martin Luther tr James L Schaaf Philadelphia Fortress Press 1985 93 3 206 For a more extensive list of quotes from Luther on the topic of polygamy see page 11 and following of Luther s Authentic Voice on Polygamy Archived 20 January 2019 at the Wayback Machine Nathan R Jastram Concordia Theological Journal Fall 2015 Spring 2016 Volume 3 Brecht Martin Martin Luther tr James L Schaaf Philadelphia Fortress Press 1985 93 3 212 Brecht Martin Martin Luther tr James L Schaaf Philadelphia Fortress Press 1985 93 3 214 Brecht Martin Martin Luther tr James L Schaaf Philadelphia Fortress Press 1985 93 3 205 15 Oberman Heiko Luther Man Between God and the Devil New Haven Yale University Press 2006 294 Michael Robert Holy Hatred Christianity Antisemitism and the Holocaust New York Palgrave Macmillan 2006 109 Mullett 242 Edwards Mark Luther s Last Battles Ithaca Cornell University Press 1983 121 Brecht 3 341 43 Mullett 241 Marty 172 Brecht 3 334 Marty 169 Marius 235 Noble Graham Martin Luther and German anti Semitism History Review 2002 No 42 1 2 Mullett 246 Brecht 3 341 47 Luther On the Jews and their Lies quoted in Michael 112 Luther Vom Schem Hamphoras quoted in Michael 113 a b Gritsch Eric W 2012 Martin Luther s Anti Semitism Against His Better Judgment Grand Rapids Michigan William B Eerdmans Publishing Company ISBN 978 0 8028 6676 9 pp 86 87 Luther On the Jews and Their Lies Luthers Werke 47 268 71 Luther On the Jews and Their Lies quoted in Robert Michael Luther Luther Scholars and the Jews Encounter 46 Autumn 1985 No 4 343 44 The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Book of Vagabonds And Beggars edited by Martin Luther translated by John Camden Hotten www gutenberg org Retrieved 6 January 2023 a b Michael 117 Quoted by Michael 110 Michael 117 18 Singer Tovia 30 April 2014 A Closer Look at the Crucifixion Psalm Outreach Judaism Outreach Judaism Retrieved 20 July 2019 Gritsch 113 14 Michael 117 The assertion that Luther s expressions of anti Jewish sentiment have been of major and persistent influence in the centuries after the Reformation and that there exists a continuity between Protestant anti Judaism and modern racially oriented antisemitism is at present wide spread in the literature since the Second World War it has understandably become the prevailing opinion Johannes Wallmann The Reception of Luther s Writings on the Jews from the Reformation to the End of the 19th century Lutheran Quarterly n s 1 Spring 1987 1 72 97 Berger Ronald Fathoming the Holocaust A Social Problems Approach New York Aldine De Gruyter 2002 28 Johnson Paul A History of the Jews New York HarperCollins Publishers 1987 242 Shirer William The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich New York Simon amp Schuster 1960 Grunberger Richard The 12 Year Reich A Social History of Nazi German 1933 1945 NP Holt Rinehart and Winston 1971 465 Himmler wrote what Luther said and wrote about the Jews No judgment could be sharper Ellis Marc H Hitler and the Holocaust Christian Anti Semitism Archived 10 July 2007 at the Wayback Machine NP Baylor University Center for American and Jewish Studies Spring 2004 Slide 14 Hitler and the Holocaust Baylor University Archived from the original on 22 April 2006 Retrieved 22 April 2006 See Noble Graham Martin Luther and German anti Semitism History Review 2002 No 42 1 2 Diarmaid MacCulloch Reformation Europe s House Divided 1490 1700 New York Penguin Books Ltd 2004 pp 666 67 Bernd Nellessen Die schweigende Kirche Katholiken und Judenverfolgung in Buttner ed Die Deutschen und die Jugendverfolg im Dritten Reich p 265 cited in Daniel Goldhagen Hitler s Willing Executioners Vintage 1997 Brecht 3 351 Wallmann 72 97 Siemon Netto The Fabricated Luther 17 20 Siemon Netto Luther and the Jews Lutheran Witness 123 2004 No 4 19 21 Hillerbrand Hans J Martin Luther Encyclopaedia Britannica 2007 Hillerbrand writes His strident pronouncements against the Jews especially toward the end of his life have raised the question of whether Luther significantly encouraged the development of German anti Semitism Although many scholars have taken this view this perspective puts far too much emphasis on Luther and not enough on the larger peculiarities of German history Bainton Roland Here I Stand Nashville Abingdon Press New American Library 1983 p 297 For similar views see Briese Russell Martin Luther and the Jews Lutheran Forum Summer 2000 32 Brecht Martin Luther 3 351 Edwards Mark U Jr Luther s Last Battles Politics and Polemics 1531 46 Ithaca NY Cornell University Press 1983 139 Gritsch Eric Was Luther Anti Semitic Christian History No 3 39 12 Kittelson James M Luther the Reformer 274 Oberman Heiko The Roots of Anti Semitism In the Age of Renaissance and Reformation Philadelphia Fortress 1984 102 Rupp Gordon Martin Luther 75 Siemon Netto Uwe Lutheran Witness 19 Christopher J Probst Demonizing the Jews Luther and the Protestant Church in Nazi Germany Archived 11 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine Indiana University Press in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 2012 ISBN 978 0 253 00100 9 Der Deutsche Luthertag 1933 und die Deutschen Christen by Hansjorg Buss In Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte Vol 26 No 2 Dr Christopher Probst Martin Luther and The Jews A Reappraisal The Theologian Retrieved 20 March 2014 Synod deplores and disassociates itself from Luther s negative statements about the Jewish people and the use of these statements to incite anti Lutheran sentiment from a summary of Official Missouri Synod Doctrinal Statements Archived 25 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine Lull Timothy Martin Luther s Basic Theological Writings Second Edition 2005 p 25 See Merton P Strommen et al A Study of Generations Minneapolis Augsburg Publishing 1972 p 206 P 208 also states The clergy ALC LCA or LCMS are less likely to indicate anti Semitic or racially prejudiced attitudes compared to the laity Richard Dick Geary Who voted for the Nazis electoral history of the National Socialist German Workers Party in History Today 1 October 1998 Vol 48 Issue 10 pp 8 14 Special Interests at the Ballot Box Religion and the Electoral Success of the Nazis PDF Iversen OH 1996 Martin Luther s somatic diseases A short life history 450 years after his death Tidsskr Nor Legeforen in Norwegian 116 30 3643 46 PMID 9019884 Edwards 9 Spitz 354 Die Beziehungen des Reformators Martin Luther zu Halle Archived 7 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine buergerstiftung halle de in German Luther Martin Sermon No 8 Predigt uber Mat 11 25 Eisleben gehalten 15 February 1546 Luthers Werke Weimar 1914 51 196 97 Poliakov Leon From the Time of Christ to the Court Jews Vanguard Press p 220 Mackinnon James Luther and the Reformation Vol IV New York Russell amp Russell 1962 p 204 Luther Martin Admonition against the Jews added to his final sermon cited in Oberman Heiko Luther Man Between God and the Devil New York Image Books 1989 p 294 A complete translation of Luther s Admonition can be found in Wikisource s Warning Against the Jews 1546 Reeves Michael The Unquenchable Flame Nottingham IVP 2009 p 60 Brecht Martin Martin Luther tr James L Schaaf Philadelphia Fortress Press 1985 93 3 369 79 a b McKim Donald K 2003 The Cambridge companion to Martin Luther Cambridge companions to religion Cambridge University Press p 19 ISBN 978 0 521 01673 5 Kellermann James A translator The Last Written Words of Luther Holy Ponderings of the Reverend Father Doctor Martin Luther Archived 4 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine 16 February 1546 Original German and Latin of Luther s last written words is Wir sein pettler Hoc est verum Heinrich Bornkamm de Luther s World of Thought tr Martin H Bertram St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1958 291 Slide Collection Archived from the original on 9 February 2012 Retrieved 24 February 2017 Fairchild Mary Martin Luther s Great Accomplishments Learn Religions OurRedeermLCMS org Archived from the original on 22 November 2003 McKim Donald K 10 July 2003 The Cambridge Companion to Martin Luther ISBN 978 0 521 01673 5 SignatureToursInternational comArchived 1 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine Dorfpredigten Biblische Einsichten aus Deutschlands wildem Suden Ausgewahlte Predigten aus den Jahren 1998 bis 2007 Teil II 2002 2007 by Thomas O H Kaiser p 354 Martin Luther s Death Mask on View at Museum in Halle Germany Archived 29 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine artdaily com Wall Street Journal The Monk Who Shook the World Richard J Evans 31 March 2017 Roper Lyndal April 2010 Martin Luther s Body The Stout Doctor and His Biographers American Historical Review 115 2 351 62 doi 10 1086 ahr 115 2 351 PMID 20509226 The Calendar The Church of England Retrieved 9 April 2021 Luther und der Schwan Archived 19 October 2019 at the Wayback Machine hamburger reformation de retrieved 19 October 2019 The Swan Archived 6 July 2020 at the Wayback Machine Lutheran Press retrieved 6 July 2020 The Lutheran Identity of Josquin s Missa Pange Lingua reference note 94 Archived 6 July 2020 at the Wayback Machine Early Music History vol 36 October 2017 pp 193 249 CUP retrieved 6 July 2020SourcesCummings Brian 2002 The Literary Culture of the Reformation Grammar and Grace Oxford Oxford University Press doi 10 1093 acprof oso 9780198187356 001 0001 ISBN 978 0 19 818735 6 via Oxford Scholarship Online Brecht Martin tr James L Schaaf 1985 Martin Luther Vol 1 His Road to Reformation 1483 1521 Philadelphia Fortress Press Brecht Martin tr James L Schaaf 1994 Martin Luther Vol 2 Shaping and Defining the Reformation 1521 1532 Philadelphia Fortress Press Brecht Martin tr James L Schaaf 1999 Martin Luther Vol 3 The Preservation of the Church 1532 1546 Philadelphia Fortress Press Mullett Michael A 2004 Martin Luther London Routledge ISBN 978 0 415 26168 5 Michael A Mullett 1986 1986 Luther Methuen amp Co Lancashire Pamphlets ISBN 978 0 415 10932 1 Wilson Derek 2007 Out of the Storm The Life and Legacy of Martin Luther London Hutchinson ISBN 978 0 09 180001 7 Further readingFor works by and about Luther see Martin Luther resources or Luther s works at Wikisource Atkinson James 1968 Martin Luther and the Birth of Protestantism in series Pelican Book s Harmondsworth Eng Penguin Books 352 pp Bainton Roland Here I Stand A Life of Martin Luther Nashville Abingdon Press 1950 online Brecht Martin Martin Luther His Road to Reformation 1483 1521 vol 1 1985 Martin Luther 1521 1532 Shaping and Defining the Reformation vol 2 1994 Martin Luther The Preservation of the Church Vol 3 1532 1546 1999 a standard scholarly biography excerpts Erikson Erik H 1958 Young Man Luther A Study in Psychoanalysis and History New York W W Norton Dillenberger John 1961 Martin Luther Selections from his Writings Garden City NY Doubleday OCLC 165808 Fife Robert Herndon 1928 Young Luther The Intellectual and Religious Development of Martin Luther to 1518 New York Macmillan Fife Robert Herndon 1957 The Revolt of Martin Luther New York NY Columbia University Press Friedenthal Richard 1970 Luther His Life and Times Trans from the German by John Nowell First American ed New York Harcourt Brace Jovanovich viii 566 p N B Trans of the author s Luther sein Leben und seine Zeit Lull Timothy 1989 Martin Luther Selections from his Writings Minneapolis Fortress ISBN 978 0 8006 3680 7 Lull Timothy F Nelson Derek R 2015 Resilient Reformer The Life and Thought of Martin Luther Minneapolis MN Fortress ISBN 978 1 4514 9415 0 via Project MUSE Kolb Robert Dingel Irene Batka Ľubomir eds The Oxford Handbook of Martin Luther s Theology Oxford Oxford University Press 2014 ISBN 978 0 19 960470 8 Luther M The Bondage of the Will Eds J I Packer and O R Johnson Old Tappan NJ Revell 1957 OCLC 22724565 Luther Martin 1974 Selected Political Writings ed and with an introd by J M Porter Philadelphia Fortress Press ISBN 0 8006 1079 2 Luther s Works 55 vols Eds H T Lehman and J Pelikan St Louis Missouri and Philadelphia Pennsylvania 1955 86 Also on CD ROM Minneapolis and St Louis Fortress Press and Concordia Publishing House 2002 Maritain Jacques 1941 Three Reformers Luther Descartes Rousseau New York C Scribner s Sons N B Reprint of the ed published by Muhlenberg Press Nettl Paul 1948 Luther and Music trans by Frida Best and Ralph Wood New York Russell amp Russell 1967 cop 1948 vii 174 p Reu Johann Michael 1917 Thirty five Years of Luther Research Chicago Wartburg Publishing House Schalk Carl F 1988 Luther on Music Paradigms of Praise Saint Louis Mo Concordia Publishing House ISBN 0 570 01337 2 Stang William 1883 The Life of Martin Luther Eighth ed New York Pustet amp Co N B This is a work of Roman Catholic polemical nature Warren Washburn Florer Ph D 1912 2012 Luther s Use of the Pre Lutheran Versions of the Bible Article 1 George Wahr The Ann Arbor Press Ann Arbor Mich Reprint 2012 Nabu Press ISBN 978 1 278 81819 1External linksThis article s use of external links may not follow Wikipedia s policies or guidelines Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references November 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message Listen to this article 1 hour and 32 minutes source source This audio file was created from a revision of this article dated 17 July 2011 2011 07 17 and does not reflect subsequent edits Audio help More spoken articles Martin Luther at Wikipedia s sister projects Media from Commons Quotations from Wikiquote Texts from Wikisource Works by Martin Luther at Project Gutenberg Robert Stern Martin Luther In Zalta Edward N ed Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Robert Stern Luther s Influence on Philosophy In Zalta Edward N ed Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Works by or about Martin Luther at Internet Archive Maarten Luther Werke Digitized 1543 edition of Von den Juden und ihren Luegen by Martin Luther at the Leo Baeck Institute New York Works by Martin Luther at LibriVox public domain audiobooks Works by Martin Luther at Post Reformation Digital Library The Mutopia Project has compositions by Martin Luther Website about Martin Luther Commentarius in psalmos Davidis Manuscript of Luther s first lecture as Professor of Theology at the University of Wittenberg digital version at the Saxon State and University Library Dresden SLUB Martin Luther Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Martin Luther Collection Early works attributed to Martin Luther 285 titles From the Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress Robin Leaver Luther s Liturgical Music Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Martin Luther amp oldid 1135589088, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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