Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation

Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation

Martin Luther, (November 10,1483-February 18 1546) was a German monk, priest, theology professor and most notably one of western history’s most significant figures of Protestant Reformation. Born in 1483 in Eisleben, Germany, formerly known as Saxony, to a successful minor and businessman Hans and his wife Magarete Lindemann Luther. Born into the Holy Roman Empire, Martin Luther started his education as a child learning reading, writing and Latin.

         As a teen Luther began his studies at the Common Life in Magdeburg, where the focus of his studies was on personal piety. Although Luther’s father stressed the importance of education and wanted his son to study to become a lawyer, Luther, however; yearned for something more spiritual, his passion was his interest in monastic life. It was in 1505 during a severe thunderstorm that Luther’s near death experience solidified his decision. Luther caught up in the storm and fearful that he would certainly die,  prayed for safety from the storm and vowed that if he received it he would become a monk. So in July of 1505 Luther enrolled in the Augustinian Monastery in Erfurt.

Most of Luther’s early years as a monk were spent in anonymity, until when in 1517 Luther created a document in which he attacked Catholicism and it’s practice of selling indulgences, he coined that document 95 Theses. In this document Luther focused on two very important beliefs, the first being that the Bible is the religious authority and that you can only be granted by salvation based on faith. This document would become the basis for which the protestant church was formed, and the Catholic Church was forever divided.

While traveling as part of his monastery living, and lecturing theology Luther who contrary to his life as a monk was still in search of assurances finally found what had evaded him for years. The revelation that transformed Luther’s life would also change the history Europe and the church. In the book of Romans, Paul writes the “the righteousness of God” Luther’s understanding of this was that God was a righteous judge that demanded human righteousness. Luther now understood righteousness as a gift of God’s grace, due in part to him finding the doctrine of justification by grace alone.  

It was after this revelation that Luther posted a piece of paper on the University’s chapel door for discussion referred to as the Ninety-Five theses. This theses outlined a destructive analysis of the church and the sales of indulgences. It further explained the principals of justification by grace alone. The Archbishop of Mainz, was also called upon to end the sale of indulgences, which angered him greatly. Luther’s theses, as imagined was viewed as an attack on papal authority. Luther, however, was starting to mature in his thought process and theological perspective.

Theology of the Cross, Luther’s assertion that the cross is the only source of understanding regarding who God is and how he saves, a striking contrast to the Roman Catholic church and its principles. It was this contradiction that led the Papal Legate, Thomas Cardinal Cajetan, to ask Martin Luther to renounce his earlier statements. Luther, ever defiant and strong in his beliefs however refused. Luther insisted that unless his theory could be proven unfounded by scripture he would not. Luther’s defiance would set in motion what would later become his excommunication.

For the next couple of years Luther resumed lecturing, writing and debating on the papacy and indulgences, that is until when in 1520 the Pope was fed up with Luther’s defiance. On the 15th June 1520, a bull was issued,

an Exsurge Domini-Arise O’Lord, a written document, that condemned Luther and his theses. Although the bull was written in June, it was not given to Luther until October of that year, and Luther burned the document publicly as yet another sign of defiance against the church and its practices.

In early 1521 having been summoned by the Emperor Charles V to Worms, to answer for speaking against the church, Luther still asserting his beliefs was later place under an Imperial Ban.

Although Luther was banned and considered by most a wanted man, his writing of the 95 theses would ultimately become the foundation of reformation of the Protestant Church. Despite the fact that the 95 theses upset almost all of the Catholic Church and its followers that was not Luther’s intent. Luther had in fact written and posted the theses as a means of sparking an educated debate with opposing view points, although throughout the theses there were points that highly criticized the church and its condoning of the acceptance of indulgences. The first points of the theses identified Luther’s central beliefs, one that the only way to salvation was by faith and not deeds, and that the bible was the central authority of religion, the rest of the theses supported these ideas.