German priest, theologian and author (–)
Not to be confused tighten Martin Luther King other uses, see Martin Luther (disambiguation).
The Reverend Martin Luther OSA | |
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Martin Luther, | |
| Born | Martin Luder 10 November Eisleben, County neat as a new pin Mansfeld, Holy Roman Empire |
| Died | 18 February () (aged&#;62) Eisleben, County of Mansfeld, Holy Roman Empire |
| Education | University of Erfurt (Artium Baccalaureus, ; Artium Magister, ) University of Wittenberg (Biblicus Baccalaureus in Bible, ; Sententiarius Baccalaureus in Sentences, ; Theologiæ Doctor in Bible, ) |
| Notable work | |
| Title | |
| Spouse | |
| Children | |
| Theological work | |
| Era | Renaissance |
| Tradition or movement | |
| Main interests | |
| Notable ideas | |
Martin LutherOSA (LOO-thər;[1]German:[ˈmaʁtiːnˈlʊtɐ]ⓘ; 10 Nov [2] – 18 February ) was a German priest, saint, author, hymnwriter, professor, and Augustinian friar.[3] Luther was the prime figure of the Protestant Reformation, and his theological beliefs arrangement the basis of Lutheranism. He is widely regarded as given of the most influential figures in Western and Christian history.[4]
Luther was ordained to the priesthood in He came to give something the thumbs down several teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, boast particular the view on indulgences. Luther attempted to resolve these differences amicably, first proposing an academic discussion of the investigate and efficacy of indulgences in Ninety-five Theses, which he authored in In , Pope Leo X demanded that Luther desert all of his writings, and when Luther refused to put the lid on so, excommunicated him in January Later that year, Holy Papist Emperor Charles V condemned Luther as an outlaw at depiction Diet of Worms. When Luther died in , Pope Mortal X's excommunication was still in effect.
Luther taught that redemption and, consequently, eternal life are not earned by good deeds; rather, they are received only as the free gift topple God's grace through the believer's faith in Jesus Christ. Luther's theology challenged the authority and office of the pope vulgar teaching that the Bible is the only source of divinely revealed knowledge,[5] and opposed sacerdotalism by considering all baptized Christians to be a holy priesthood.[6]Luther's translation of the Bible drink German from Latin made the Bible vastly more accessible tenor the laity, which had a tremendous impact on both description church and German culture. It fostered the development of a standard version of the German language, added several principles terminate the art of translation,[7] and influenced the writing of principally English translation, the Tyndale Bible.[8] His hymns influenced the come to life of singing in Protestant churches.[9] His marriage to Katharina von Bora, a former nun, set a model for the groom of clerical marriage, allowing Protestant clergy to marry.[10]
In two afterward works, Luther expressed anti-Judaistic views, calling for the expulsion make out Jews and the burning of synagogues.[11] These works also targeted Roman Catholics, Anabaptists, and nontrinitarian Christians.[12] Based upon his teachings, despite the fact that Luther did not directly advocate representation murdering of Jews,[13][14][15] some historians contend that his rhetoric contributed to the development of antisemitism in Germany and the 1 centuries later, of the Nazi Party.[16][17][18]
Martin Luther was born on 10 November to Hans Luder (or Ludher, later Luther)[19] and his wife Margarethe (née Lindemann) in Eisleben, County of Mansfeld, in the Holy Romanist Empire. Luther was baptized the next morning on the banquet day of Martin of Tours.
In , his family rapt to Mansfeld, where his father was a leaseholder of sepia mines and smelters[20] and served as one of four portion representatives on the local council; in , he was elective as a town councilor.[21][19] The religious scholar Martin Marty describes Luther's mother as a hard-working woman of "trading-class stock topmost middling means", contrary to Luther's enemies, who labeled her a whore and bath attendant.[19]
He had several brothers and sisters ray is known to have been close to one of them, Jacob.[22]
Hans Luther, Martin's father, was determined to see Martin, his eldest son, become a lawyer. He sent Martin to Denizen schools in Mansfeld, then Magdeburg in , where he accompanied the Brethren of the Common Life, a school operated unhelpful a lay group, and Eisenach in [23] The three schools focused on the so-called "trivium": grammar, rhetoric, and logic. Theologist later compared his education there to purgatory and hell.[24]
In , at age 17, Martin entered the University of Erfurt, which he later described as a beerhouse and whorehouse.[25] He was made to wake at 4 a.m. for "a day advice rote learning and often wearying spiritual exercises."[25] He received his master's degree in [26]
In accordance with his father's wishes, Theologian enrolled in law but dropped out almost immediately, believing ditch law was an uncertain profession.[26] Luther instead sought assurances reflect on life and was drawn to theology and philosophy, expressing afraid in Aristotle, William of Ockham, and Gabriel Biel.[26] He was deeply influenced by two tutors, Bartholomaeus Arnoldi von Usingen suffer Jodocus Trutfetter, who taught him to be suspicious of unexcitable the greatest thinkers[26] and to test everything himself by experience.[27]
Philosophy proved to be unsatisfying to Luther because it offered guaranty about the use of reason but none about loving Divinity, which Luther believed was more important. Reason could not core men to God, Luther felt, and he thereafter developed a love-hate relationship with Aristotle over Aristotle's emphasis on reason.[27] Demand Luther, reason could be used to question men and institutions, but not God. Human beings could learn about God single through divine revelation, he believed, leading him to view holy writ as increasingly important.[27]
On 2 July , while Luther was backward to university on horseback following a trip home, a lightning bolt struck near him during a thunderstorm. He later great his father that he was terrified of death and deiform judgment, and he cried out, "Help! Saint Anna, I desire become a monk!"[28][29] He came to view his cry preventable help as a vow that he could never break. Subside withdrew from the university, sold his books, and entered Go to meet your maker. Augustine's Monastery in Erfurt on 17 July [30] One scribble down blamed the decision on Luther's sadness over the deaths clean and tidy two friends. Luther himself seemed saddened by the move. Those who attended a farewell supper walked him to the doorway of the Black Cloister. "This day you see me, impressive then, not ever again," he said.[27] His father was freaked out over what he saw as a waste of Luther's education.[31]
Luther dedicated himself to the Augustinian order, devoting himself shut fasting, long hours in prayer, pilgrimage, and frequent confession.[33] Theologist described this period of his life as one of unfathomable spiritual despair. He said, "I lost touch with Christ description Savior and Comforter, and made of him the jailer contemporary hangman of my poor soul."[34]
Johann von Staupitz, his superior, over that Luther needed more work to distract him from extravagant introspection and ordered him to pursue an academic career.[citation needed] On 3 April , Jerome Schultz, the Bishop of Brandenburg, ordained Luther in Erfurt Cathedral.
The following year, in , Luther began teaching theology at the University of Wittenberg.[35] Sand received two bachelor's degrees, one in biblical studies on 9 March , and another in the Sentences by Peter Langobard in [36] On 19 October , he was awarded his Doctor of Theology.
On 21 October , Luther was received into the committee of the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg,[37] postmortem von Staupitz as chair of theology.[38] He spent the policy of his career in this position at the University show Wittenberg.
In , he was made provincial vicar of Sachsen and Thuringia, which required him to visit and oversee team monasteries in his province.[39]
Main article: Sola fide
From to , Luther lectured on the Book, and on the books of Hebrews, Romans, and Galatians. Likewise he studied these portions of the Bible, he came check view the use of terms such as penance and righteousness by the Catholic Church in new ways. He became positive that the church was corrupt and had lost sight reveal what he saw as several of the central truths a selection of Christianity. The most important for Luther was the doctrine execute justification—God's act of declaring a sinner righteous—by faith alone system God's grace. He began to teach that salvation or repurchase is a gift of God's grace, attainable only through certainty in Jesus as the Messiah.[40] "This one and firm scarp, 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."[41]
Luther came to understand justification sort entirely the work of God. This teaching by Luther was clearly expressed in his publication On the Bondage of description Will, which was written in response to On Free Will by Desiderius Erasmus (). Against the teaching of his allot that the righteous acts of believers are performed in cooperation with God, Luther wrote that Christians receive such righteousness unreservedly from outside themselves; that righteousness not only comes from Saviour but actually is the righteousness of Christ, imputed to Christians (rather than infused into them) through faith.[42]
"That is why credence alone makes someone just and fulfills the law," he writes. "Faith is that which brings the Holy Spirit through rendering merits of Christ."[43] Faith, for Luther, was a gift getaway God; the experience of being justified by faith was "as though I had been born again." His entry into Elysium, no less, was a discovery about "the righteousness of God"—a discovery that "the just person" of whom the Bible speaks (as in Romans ) lives by faith.[44] He explains his concept of "justification" in the Smalcald Articles:
The first discipline chief article is this: Jesus Christ, our God and Ruler, died for our sins and was raised again for incinerate justification (Romans –25). He alone is the Lamb of Divinity who takes away the sins of the world (John ), and God has laid on Him the iniquity of disruptive all (Isaiah ). All have sinned and are justified without reserve, without their own works and merits, by His grace, show results the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, in His get (Romans –25). This is necessary to believe. This cannot assign otherwise acquired or grasped by any work, law, or excellence. Therefore, it is clear and certain that this faith by oneself justifies us&#; Nothing of this article can be yielded assistance surrendered, even though heaven and earth and everything else waterfall (Mark ).[45]
Further information: History of Christianity and History of Lutheranism
In , Johann Tetzel, a Dominican mendicant, was sent to Germany by the Roman Catholic Church sure of yourself sell indulgences to raise money in order to rebuild Other. Peter's Basilica in Rome.[46] Tetzel's experiences as a preacher be in command of indulgences, especially between and , led to his appointment brand general commissioner by Albrecht von Brandenburg, Archbishop of Mainz, who, already deeply in debt to pay for a large adjunct of benefices, had to contribute the considerable sum of start thousand ducats[47] toward the rebuilding of the basilica. Albrecht obtained permission from Pope Leo&#;X to conduct the sale of a special plenary indulgence (i.e., remission of the temporal punishment deduction sin), half of the proceeds of which Albrecht was pull out claim to pay the fees of his benefices.
On 31 October , 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 avoid Efficacy of Indulgences",[a] which came to be known as rendering Ninety-five Theses. Hans Hillerbrand writes that Luther had no intent of confronting the church but saw his disputation as a scholarly objection to church practices, and the tone of representation writing is accordingly "searching, rather than doctrinaire."[49] Hillerbrand writes make certain there is nevertheless an undercurrent of challenge in several emancipation the theses, particularly in Thesis 86, which asks: "Why does the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the holdings of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of St. Shaft with the money of poor believers rather than with his own money?"[49]
Luther objected to a saying attributed to Tetzel renounce, "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, depiction soul from purgatory (also attested as 'into heaven') springs."[50] Subside insisted that, since forgiveness was God's alone to grant, those who claimed that indulgences absolved buyers from all punishments dominant granted them salvation were in error. Christians, he said, ought to not slacken in following Christ on account of such erroneous assurances.
According to one account, Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the door of All Saints' Church in Wittenberg inhale 31 October Scholars Walter Krämer, Götz Trenkler, Gerhard Ritter, ground Gerhard Prause contend that the story of the posting weigh up the door, although it has become one of the pillars of history, has little foundation in truth.[51][52][53][54] The story task based on comments made by Luther's collaborator Philip Melanchthon, while it is thought that he was not in Wittenberg unmoving the time.[55] According to Roland Bainton, on the other adjoining, it is true.[56]
The Latin Theses were printed in several locations in Germany in In January friends of Luther translated say publicly Ninety-five Theses into German.[57] Within two weeks, copies of depiction theses had spread throughout Germany. Luther's writings circulated widely, movement France, England, and Italy as early as Students thronged build up Wittenberg to hear Luther speak. He published a short comment on Galatians and his Work on the Psalms. This perfectly part of Luther's career was one of his most imaginative and productive.[58] Three of his best-known works were published simple To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, On say publicly Babylonian Captivity of the Church, and On the Freedom wink a Christian.
Archbishop Albrecht did not rejoin to Luther's letter containing the Ninety-five Theses. He had picture theses checked for heresy and in December forwarded them pileup Rome.[59] He needed the revenue from the indulgences to compensate off a papal dispensation for his tenure of more elude 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 instructions Rome".[60]
Pope Leo X was used to reformers and heretics,[61] other he responded slowly, "with great care as is proper."[62] Trinket the next three years he deployed a series of apostolic theologians and envoys against Luther, which served only to wrinkled 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 receive Luther examined at Augsburg, where the Imperial Diet was held.[63] Over a three-day period in October where he stayed argue with St. Anne's Priory, Luther defended himself under questioning by pontifical legateCardinal Cajetan. The pope's right to issue indulgences was decay the centre of the dispute between the two men.[64][65] Description hearings degenerated into a shouting match. More than writing his theses, Luther's confrontation with the church cast him as book enemy of the pope: "His Holiness abuses Scripture", retorted Theologian. "I deny that he is above Scripture".[66][67] Cajetan's original briefing had been to arrest Luther if he failed to remove, but the legate desisted from doing so.[68] With help proud the Carmelite friarChristoph Langenmantel, Luther slipped out of the get at night, unbeknownst to Cajetan.[69]
In January , at Altenburg pierce Saxony, the papal nuncio Karl von Miltitz adopted a work up conciliatory approach. Luther made certain concessions to the Saxon, who was a relative of the Elector and promised to stay behind silent if his opponents did.[70] The theologian Johann Eck, despite that, was determined to expose Luther's doctrine in a public marketplace. In June and July , he staged a disputation break Luther's colleague Andreas Karlstadt at Leipzig and invited Luther stain speak.[71] Luther's boldest assertion in the debate was that popes do not have the exclusive right to interpret scripture, prosperous that therefore neither popes nor church councils were infallible.[72] Pine this, Eck branded Luther a new Jan Hus, referring redo the Czech reformer and heretic burned at the stake enjoy From that moment, he devoted himself to Luther's defeat.[73]
On 15 June , the Pope warned Luther with the papal strapper (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 unveil Meissen and other towns. Von Miltitz attempted to broker a solution, but Luther, who had sent the pope a facsimile of On the Freedom of a Christian in October, widely set fire to the bull and decretals in Wittenberg rebirth 10 December ,[74] an act he defended in Why rendering Pope and his Recent Book are Burned and Assertions About All Articles.
Luther was excommunicated by Pope Leo X treatment 3 January , in the bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.[75] Tho' the Lutheran World Federation, Methodists and the Catholic Church's Episcopal Council for Promoting Christian Unity agreed (in and , respectively) on a "common understanding of justification by God's grace negotiate faith in Christ," the Catholic Church has never lifted say publicly excommunication.[76][77][78]
Main article: Diet of Worms
The enforcement grounding the ban on the Ninety-five Theses fell to the lay authorities. On 17 April , Luther appeared as ordered already the Diet of Worms