When did Luther nail the proclamations to the church door?
Great Apostasy
The identification of the Roman Catholic church as the apostate power written of in scripture became evident to Martin Luther while he was a Roman Catholic Priest. Martin Luther wanted the Catholic Church to reform itself and return to the teachings of the early church and the Bible and rid itself of the traditions and corruptions of the Papacy, which he believed to have strayed from the original teachings. Luther declared his intolerance for the Roman Church’s corruption in 1517, by nailing his 95 Theses of Contention to the Wittenberg Church door. The Pope as the antichrist was so ingrained in the Reformation era, that Luther stated it repeatedly. For example: “This teaching [of the supremacy of the pope] shows forcefully that the Pope is the very Antichrist, who has exalted himself above, and opposed himself against Christ, because he will not permit Christians to be saved without his power, which, nevertheless, is nothing, and is neither ordained nor commanded by God” (Smalcald Articles, II).
Sabbath in Christianity
Lutheran founder Martin Luther stated "I wonder exceedingly how it came to be imputed to me that I should reject the law of Ten Commandments...Whosoever abrogates the law must of necessity abrogate sin also." The Lutheran Augsburg Confession, speaking of changes made by Roman Catholic pontiffs, states: "They refer to the Sabbath-day as having been changed into the Lord's Day, contrary to the Decalog, as it seems. Neither is there any example whereof they make more than concerning the changing of the Sabbath-day. Great, say they, is the power of the Church, since it has dispensed with one of the Ten Commandments!" Lutheran church historian Augustus Neander states "The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance".
Ninety-five Theses
31 October 1517, the day Luther sent the "Theses" to Albert, was commemorated as the beginning of the Reformation as early as 1527, when Luther and his friends raised a glass of beer to commemorate the "trampling out of indulgences". The posting of the "Theses" was established in the historiography of the Reformation as the beginning of the movement by Philip Melanchthon in his 1548 "Historia de vita et actis Lutheri". During the 1617 Reformation Jubilee, the centenary of 31 October was celebrated by a procession to the Wittenberg Church where Luther was believed to have posted the "Theses". An engraving was made showing Luther writing the "Theses" on the door of the church with a gigantic quill. The quill penetrates the head of a lion symbolizing Pope Leo X. In 1668, 31 October was made Reformation Day, an annual holiday in Electoral Saxony, which spread to other Lutheran lands. 31 October 2017, the 500th Anniversary of Reformation Day, was celebrated with a national public holiday throughout Germany.
Martin Luther (1953 film)
The time frame of the film is 1505-1530: Luther's entrance into St. Augustine's Monastery in Erfurt to the presentation of the Augsburg Confession. It recounts Martin Luther's struggle to find God's mercy: his discovery of the gospel in Romans 1:17, the posting of the Ninety-five theses, and the subsequent controversy, which led to Luther's being separated from the church of Rome. It shows Luther's resistance to the forces of radicalism, and his work to establish and maintain the evangelical movement of his day. The dramatic climax of the film is Luther's "Here I Stand" speech before the 1521 Diet of Worms, and the grand finale is the singing of "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" by Luther's congregation.
Aarhus Cathedral
The Reformation changed life in and around the cathedral in many significant ways. In 1524 Hans Tausen (1494–1561), the Danish Luther, taught a Good Friday sermon at Antvarskov Abbey proclaiming the doctrines of Luther. His superior ordered him imprisoned in the Hospitallers monastery in Viborg, Jutland. Tausen taught from his cell and ordinary people responded with enthusiasm. His superior tried to silence Tausen, but a near riot forced his release. In the beginning, he was allowed to preach in the open air but his supporters broke open a Franciscan church, and soon Tausen had more followers than the church could accommodate. Within a year, he was the king's own chaplain. Luther's ideas quickly spread to Aarhus and soon the townspeople demanded the right to hear the liturgy in Danish. The bishop and canons attempted to stop the spread of the Lutheran doctrine in their diocese, but Tausen had caught the imagination of the people and they would not be cowed by anything the bishop might threaten. Most nobles were staunchly Catholic, and that brought even more support from common people. By 1528 most of the cities had begun the process of reforming their churches. Tausen taught that tearing apart ancient churches was wrong and that orderly change should be used to reform the church.
In 1533 Frederik I died and his son, Christian III was proclaimed King of Denmark at the Viborg Assembly (Danish: "Landsting"), but the State Council denominated by the Catholic bishops refused to accept the election and called upon count Christopher of Oldenburg to assist in restoring Catholic Christian II to the throne. This resulted in a two-year war called the Count's Feud. Despite the odds, Christian III prevailed and in the summer of 1536 arrested several of the bishops and threw them into prison. The last Roman Catholic Bishop of Aarhus, Ove Bille (d. 1555) was imprisoned in the summer of 1536 when Denmark officially became a Lutheran nation.
The tower is the tallest in Denmark at 96 meters. It received its present form in 1931.
In 1642 lightning struck the tower and set it ablaze, destroying some of the historic bells, but damage to the interior of the church was minimal.
List of book-burning incidents
At the instruction of Reformer Martin Luther, a public burning of books was held in the public square outside Wittenberg's Elster Gate on December 10, 1520. Together with the Papal Bull of Excommunication "Exsurge Domine", issued against Luther himself, were burned works which Luther considered as symbols of Catholic orthodoxy – including the "Code of Canon Law", the "Summa Theologica" of St. Thomas Aquinas and the "Summa Angelica", Angelo Carletti's work on Scotist theology.
Liturgical colours
Both the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) use a similar system, but with purple being the primary colour for both Advent and Lent (with blue being the alternate colour for Advent only), and the use of gold in place of white for both Christmas and Easter (in similar practice to the Catholic Church). In the WELS, the use of red is also done during the "Period of End Times", a period of the Church regarding the teachings of the Book of Revelation, culminating in the creation of the New Jerusalem (corresponding to Christ the King in the ELCA). In all three churches, including the ELCA, red is also worn on the last Sunday of October, in celebration of the Reformation on October 31, when Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses onto the door of Wittenberg Castle Church.
Luther League
The Luther League is a Lutheran religious association for young people in the United States of America. It began with a local society founded by delegates of six Lutheran church societies in New York City in 1888. The first national convention was held at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on the 30th and 31 October 1895. The basis of the league is the Augsburg Confession. Its membership is open to any society of whatever name connected with a Lutheran congregation or a Lutheran institution of learning. According to the constitution its objects are to encourage the formation of the young peoples societies in all Lutheran congregations in America, to urge their affiliation with their respective state or territorial leagues, and with this league to stimulate the various young peoples societies to greater Christian activity and to foster the spirit of loyalty to the church. The league publishes a monthly paper, "The Luther League Review", in Washington. According to its official report it had 70,000 members in 1906, which had increased to more than 100,000 in 1910.
History of Lutheranism
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.
Exsurge Domine
The breach between Luther and the papacy was finalized on 3 January 1521, when on account of Luther's failure to comply, the Pope issued the bull "Decet Romanum Pontificem" to declare that he had been formally excommunicated.
Martin Luther
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. 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".
Laudianism
In the 1630s, Laud declared that "the altar is the greatest place of God's residence upon earth, greater than the pulpit for there 'tis "Hoc est corpus meum", This is my body; but in the other it is at most but "Hoc est verbum meum", This is my word." In November 1633, by act of Privy Council King Charles I established the precedent that all parochial churches should follow the by then general cathedral practice of placing communion tables altar-wise at the east end of chancels. This was highly significant. One of the main points of the Reformation had been the replacement of the Catholic teaching that salvation necessarily came from the Church through the sacraments of communion, baptism and confession. These rites were also maintained in the Protestant churches. The visual emphasis that this placed on the act of communion directly contradicted the Calvinist doctrine of salvation through faith alone, the knowledge of which was communicated through preaching, although the practice was similar to the contemporary Lutheran use of intact medieval altars and pieces of art. Similarly, a few years later, Bishops Overall and Andrewes could be seen advocating the practice of confession before receiving Holy Communion. Confession, like good works, implied that man had the chance to improve his chances of obtaining salvation and, again, was irreconcilable with the past fifty years and more of Calvinist, predestinarian teaching.
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
On October 31, 1999, in Augsburg, Germany, the Lutheran World Federation – of which the ELCA is a member – signed the "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification" with the Roman Catholic Church. The statement is an attempt to reconcile a historical theological divide between the two faiths. The "Declaration" also states that the mutual condemnations between 16th century Lutherans and the Roman Catholic Church no longer apply to those that have signed onto the document. This was part of a series of "Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogues" have been taking place on an official basis every few years with statements and booklets on various theological topics published since 1966.
Ninety-five Theses
The indulgence controversy set off by the "Theses" was the beginning of the Reformation, a schism in the Roman Catholic Church which initiated profound and lasting social and political change in Europe. Luther later stated that the issue of indulgences was insignificant relative to controversies which he would enter into later, such as his debate with Erasmus over the bondage of the will, nor did he see the controversy as important to his intellectual breakthrough regarding the gospel. Luther later wrote that at the time he wrote the "Theses" he remained a "papist", and he did not seem to think the "Theses" represented a break with established Roman Catholic doctrine. But it was out of the indulgences controversy that the movement which would be called the Reformation began, and the controversy propelled Luther to the leadership position he would hold in that movement. The "Theses" also made evident that Luther believed the church was not preaching properly and that this put the laity in serious danger. Further, the "Theses" contradicted the decree of Pope Clement VI, that indulgences are the treasury of the church. This disregard for papal authority presaged later conflicts.
Schmalkaldic League
The members of the League agreed to provide 10,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry for their mutual protection. They rarely provoked Charles directly, but confiscated church land, expelled bishops and Catholic princes, and helped spread Lutheranism throughout northern Germany. Martin Luther planned to present to the League the Smalcald Articles, a stricter Protestant confession, during a meeting in 1537. Luther attended the critical meeting in 1537, but spent most of his time suffering from kidney stones. The rulers and princes even met in the home where Luther was staying. Though Luther was asked to prepare the articles of faith that came to be known as the "Smalcald Articles", they were not formally adopted at the time of the meeting, though in 1580 they were included in the "Book of Concord".
Christoph Langenmantel
After the Diet of Augsburg Martin Luther had to appear at the Fuggerhäuser in 1518 before cardinal Thomas Cajetan to answer for his 95 theses. He arrived in the city on 7 October and left on 20 October - during his stay he lived in the same abbey as Langenmantel, who took care of him and gave him advice. On 12–14 October negotiations took place between Luther and Cajetan, but he refused to revoke his theses, putting him in real danger of arrest. Christoph's father Georg was then serving as mayor and on the night of 19–20 October Christoph led Luther through a secret gate in the city wall to escape. According to tradition, Christoph said "Da hinab" ("Down there") when they reached the gate - it is still named after that phrase, as recorded in an inscription there. Luther sent him a letter of thanks from Wittenberg on 25 November 1518.
Christian denomination
The Protestant Reformation began with the posting of Martin Luther's "Ninety-Five Theses" in Saxony on October 31, 1517, written as a set of grievances to reform the pre-Reformation Western Church. Luther's writings, combined with the work of Swiss theologian Huldrych Zwingli and French theologian and politician John Calvin sought to reform existing problems in doctrine and practice. Due to the reactions of ecclesiastical office holders at the time of the reformers, these reformers separated from the Roman Catholic Church, instigating a rift in Western Christianity.
Ninety-five Theses
On 31 October 1517, Luther sent a letter to the Archbishop of Mainz, Albert of Brandenburg, under whose authority the indulgences were being sold. In the letter, Luther addresses the archbishop out of a loyal desire to alert him to the pastoral problems created by the indulgence sermons. He assumes that Albert is unaware of what is being preached under his authority, and speaks out of concern that the people are being led away from the gospel, and that the indulgence preaching may bring shame to Albert's name. Luther does not condemn indulgences or the current doctrine regarding them, nor even the sermons which had been preached themselves, as he had not seen them firsthand. Instead he states his concern regarding the misunderstandings of the people about indulgences which have been fostered by the preaching, such as the belief that any sin could be forgiven by indulgences or that the guilt as well as the punishment for sin could be forgiven by an indulgence. In a postscript, Luther wrote that Albert could find some theses on the matter enclosed with his letter, so that he could see the uncertainty surrounding the doctrine of indulgences in contrast to the preachers who spoke so confidently of the benefits of indulgences.
It was customary when proposing a disputation to have the theses printed by the university press and publicly posted. No copies of a Wittenberg printing of the "Ninety-five Theses" have survived, but this is not surprising as Luther was not famous and the importance of the document was not recognized. In Wittenberg, the university statutes demand that theses be posted on every church door in the city, but Philip Melanchthon, who first mentioned the posting of the "Theses", only mentioned the door of All Saints' Church. Melanchthon also claimed that Luther posted the "Theses" on 31 October, but this conflicts with several of Luther's statements about the course of events, and Luther always claimed that he brought his objections through proper channels rather than inciting a public controversy. It is possible that while Luther later saw the 31 October letter to Albert as the beginning of the Reformation, he did not post the "Theses" to the church door until mid-November, but he may not have posted them on the door at all. Regardless, the "Theses" were well-known among the Wittenberg intellectual elite soon after Luther sent them to Albert.
Martin Luther
The negotiations were successfully concluded on 17 February 1546. After 8 a.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. 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.
Protestantism
On 31 October 1517 (All Hallows' Eve) Martin Luther allegedly nailed his Ninety-five Theses (Disputation on the Power of Indulgences) on the door of the All Saints' Church in Wittenberg, Germany, detailing doctrinal and practical abuses of the Roman Catholic Church, especially the selling of indulgences. The theses debated and criticized many aspects of the Church and the papacy, including the practice of purgatory, particular judgment, and the authority of the pope. Luther would later write works against the Catholic devotion to Virgin Mary, the intercession of and devotion to the saints, mandatory clerical celibacy, monasticism, the authority of the pope, the ecclesiastical law, censure and excommunication, the role of secular rulers in religious matters, the relationship between Christianity and the law, good works, and the sacraments.
Luther (2003 film)
In 1513, Pope Leo X becomes the new Pope of the Church, and commissions Johann Tetzel to go throughout several communities, including Luther's town, where he scares people into buying indulgences, which would be used to rebuild and renovate St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, and to recover the Hohenzollern bribes to the Holy See, advanced by Fugger, for the investiture of Archbishop Albert of Mainz and Magdeburg). In his church, Luther denounces the indulgences, calling them "just a piece of paper". He then posts his 95 theses on the door of the church, calling for an open debate regarding the indulgences. For this act, Luther is called to Augsburg, where he is questioned by church officials.
The Wittenburg Door
The Wittenburg Door, sometimes known as simply The Door, was a Christian satire and humor magazine, published bimonthly by the non-profit Trinity Foundation based in Dallas, Texas. The magazine started publication in 1971 and ceased publication in 2008. The title was a reference to the Ninety-Five Theses written by Martin Luther in 1517 that he is believed to have posted on the door of the All Saints' Church in Wittenberg.
Reformation Day
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. 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".
Luther Monument
Monuments for Luther were mainly erected in the second half of the 19th century. In several German towns, the served as memorials for the Reformation which Luther initiate. They often connect to events to events in the reformer's life, sometimes a visit in the town. The oldest full-size monument is the , which was at the same time the first public full-size monument for a person who was not noble. It was designed by Johann Gottfried Schadow and unveiled in 1821 enthüllt.
Reformation
It is usually considered to have started with the publication of the "Ninety-five Theses" by Martin Luther in 1517 and lasted until the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648. It led to the division of Western Christianity into different confessions (Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, Anabaptist, Unitarian, etc.). By the time of its arrival, Western Christianity was only compromised in the Lands of the Bohemian Crown, where Utraquist Hussitism was officially acknowledged by both the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor; in addition, various movements (including Lollards in England and Waldensians in Italy and France) were still being actively suppressed.
History of Lutheranism
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. He confirmed he was the 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 shall be convinced by the testimonies of the Scriptures or by clear reason ... I neither can nor will make any retraction, since it is neither safe nor honourable to act against conscience." He is also famously said to have added: ""Hier stehe ich. Ich kann nicht anders. Gott helfe mir. Amen."" ("Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen."). This description of the declaration may be apocryphal, as only the last four words appear in contemporaneous accounts.
Versus populum
In the Lutheran German Mass (Deutsche Messe), Martin Luther, the founder of that denomination, wrote that:
In discussing the Divine Service, Lorraine S. Brugh and Gordon W. Lathrop write that "Many Lutherans, in concert with many other Christians, think that the time of which Luther spoke has indeed come, and that the pastor should preside at the table facting the people, i.e., "versus populum". The assembly needs to have a sense that it is gathered around that table, sees and hears what happens there, has a promise of Christ clearly addressed to it, participates in the thanksgiving, and is made into a community through God's gift." Thus, in the Lutheran Church, many altars are now built to be freestanding. In churches where the former altar attached to the wall cannot be moved, it has often been converted to be used as a credence table, as a "significant new table is set up, closer to the people and standing free".
Martin Luther
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. 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." 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.
History of the Catholic Church in Germany
Around the beginning of the 16th century, there was much discontent in the Holy Roman Empire, caused by abuses such as indulgences in the Catholic Church and a general desire for reform.
In 1517, the Reformation began with the publication of Martin Luther's 95 theses; he had posted them innocuously in the town square, and copies of them to German nobles, but never nailed them to the church door in Wittenberg as is commonly said. Rather, an unknown person decided to take the 95 theses from their obscure posting and nail them to the Church's door. The list detailed 95 assertions Luther believed to show corruption and misguidance within the Catholic Church. One often cited example, and perhaps Luther's chief concern, was a condemnation of the selling of indulgences; another prominent point within the 95 theses is Luther's disagreement both with the way in which the higher clergy, especially the pope, used and abused power, and with the very idea of the pope.
Decet Romanum Pontificem
Decet Romanum Pontificem () (1521) is the papal bull excommunicating Martin Luther, bearing the title of the first three Latin words of the text. It was issued on January 3, 1521, by Pope Leo X to effect the excommunication threatened in his earlier papal bull "Exsurge Domine" (1520) since Luther failed to recant. Luther had burned his copy of "Exsurge Domine" on December 10, 1520, at the Elster Gate in Wittenberg, indicating his response to it.
History of Christian theology
Luther's followers and the Roman Catholic Church broke fellowship during the Protestant Reformation. In the years and decades following Luther's posting of the 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg church, large numbers of Europeans abandoned observance of papal authority, including the majority of German speakers. Following the Counter-Reformation, Catholic Austria and Bavaria, together with the electoral archbishops of Mainz, Cologne, and Trier consolidated the Catholic position on the German-speaking section of the European continent. Because Luther sparked this mass movement, he is known as the father of the Protestant Reformation, and the father of Protestantism in general.
Martin Luther
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 in the University of Oxford argued that Luther's writing was a "blueprint." 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."
At the heart of scholars' 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. Uwe Siemon-Netto agreed, arguing that it was because the Nazis were already anti-Semites that they revived Luther's work. 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. 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."
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 Lutheran clergy and theologians during the Nazi Third Reich 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.
Unfulfilled Christian religious predictions
The founder of the Lutheran Church was the reformer, Martin Luther (1483–1546 A.D.). According to one authority, Luther ventured to predict: "For my part, I am sure that the Day of Judgement is just around the corner. It doesn't matter that we don't know the precise day... perhaps someone else can figure it out. But it is certain that time is now at an end." Another author says: "In all of [Luther's] work there was a sense of urgency for the time was short... the world was heading for Armageddon in the war with the Turk."
Martin Luther
On 31 October 1517, Luther wrote to his bishop, Albrecht von Brandenburg, protesting the sale of indulgences. He enclosed in his letter a copy of his "Disputation of Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences", 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." 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?"
Luther objected to a saying attributed to Johann Tetzel that "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory (also attested as 'into heaven') springs." 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.
SS. Peter and Paul's Church, Göttingen
Twelve years after Martin Luther's publication of the 95 Theses, Reformation took hold in Göttingen in 1529. This resulted in hardships for the black friars in the subsequent years. The city magistrate in the beginning did not have full administrative control over the parish churches. These were under the authority of duke Eric I of Brunswick-Lüneburg, prince of Calenberg-Göttingen. He stayed faithful to the old beliefs and did not want to permit Lutheran sermons in his churches. The city magistrate therefore decided the mendicant order's masses would be delivered in the two churches. The largest one of these was the Paulinerkirche, so most of these masses were delivered primarily here. The first regular mass was given by reverend Friedrich Hüventhal against the wishes of the monks on October 24, 1529. Also, in this place the first children in Göttingen were baptized to the Lutheran faith. (rather baptized "according to Lutheran practice." No one is baptized into a denominational faith.)
Shortly afterwards the monastery was dissolved, and the building was then used as a paedagogium for educational purposes. This later lead to the establishment of Göttingen University in this building in 1737. A short time before this, the foundation of the university library of Göttingen took place. Masses for the students and adademics continued in the church until 1803.
Paris in the 16th century
In 1517, in Wittenberg, the Augustine monk Martin Luther had condemned the sale of indulgences, and in 1520 he formally split from the Roman Catholic Church. The writings of Luther began to circulate in Paris in 1519-20. Luther's doctrines were formally condemned by the University of Paris on April 15, 1521. Nonetheless, the movement became popular among the Swiss and German students at the University. The movement was firmly condemned by the faculty of the College of Sorbonne in 1521, and then the church took harsher measures. The Lutheran Jean Villiere was condemned, hanged and then burned at the Pork Market at the porte Saint-Honoré for denying the immaculate conception of Christ. Many more executions followed. King Francis I, a follower of humanism, and the Bishop of Paris, Jean Du Bellay, protected some church reformers, such as Louis Berquin, the translator of Erasmus and Luther, but in his absence the Sorbonne had Berquin arrested, strangled, and then burned on the place de Grève on April 17, 1529. Miles Regnault, a secretary of the Bishop of Paris, was also burned. The Lutherans of Paris responded by mutilating the statues of saints on the street corners and walls of houses in the city.
Martin Luther (1953 film)
A few years go by. It is now 1517, and in Rome Pope Leo X arranges with Archbishop Albert to promulgate in Germany a special jubilee indulgence. Johann Tetzel is the main preacher of this indulgence, and his pitch is presented in public with the beating of drums. That same evening Martin Luther comes across one of his parishioners in a drunken stupor with the conviction that he does not need to go to confession anymore because he has bought one of Tetzel's indulgences. Luther then preaches against what he believes to be the abuse of indulgences with the appeal, "Beloved, you cannot buy God's mercy." He then also posts his "The Ninety-Five Theses" on the door of the castle church, which does not seem to arouse any attention until his theses are copied down, translated, and printed for all of Germany to read, hear, and comment about. Tetzel finds that his sales of indulgences have fallen off, which moves Archbishop Albert of Mainz to send a copy of Luther's theses to the pope.
Evangelical Lutheran Church of São Paulo
In August 1908, the church's pastoral house, at the bottom of the land, was inaugurated with the creation of an administrative office. Four months later, on December 25, 1908, in the midst of the Christmas celebration, the Martin Luther church was inaugurated, then named Stadtkirche in German, which means "City Church."
Hymn tune
As part of his efforts at reform, after Martin Luther prepared a version of the Mass in Latin, he prepared a version in German, adapting parts of the liturgical texts of the Mass as chorales in the vernacular which could be sung and understood by the congregation. Luther arranged the music for some of these by adapting the music of existing plainsong melodies; he set other texts to newly composed tunes composed by others, or by himself. An example of the latter is the tune he composed for his German paraphrase of Psalm 46, "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" ("A Mighty Fortress Is Our God"). Nicholas Temperley wrote in "The Hymn Tune Index" that Luther "wished his congregations to take part in the singing, but
in general they failed to do so" and "It was the Calvinist, or 'Reformed', branches of Protestantism
that succeeded in establishing congregation hymn singing in worship."
Luther (1483–1546) posted his theses against Roman Church practices, particularly "indulgences", in 1517, which signalled the start of the Reformation, "...but six or seven years passed after the inception of his Reformation before he gave his thought to hymns... Luther wished to refine the worship of the Church by excluding what he thought were needless complications while retaining, through the use of music, the essential spirit of Christian devotion as enshrined in the church's tradition... The year 1524 saw the first official Luther hymnals."
Luther wanted the congregation to participate in singing, with German texts sung to tunes straightforward enough for ordinary people to sing. "Luther himself wrote many new religious texts to be used with well-known German folk songs. "Vom Himmel hoch" is one of these."
History of Lutheranism
For eight days in Lent, beginning on 9 March, Invocavit Sunday, and concluding the following Sunday, 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:
Martin Luther (1953 film)
The pope is furious with Luther's publications of 1520 ("On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church," "To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation," and "On the Freedom of a Christian"), so he issues his bull "Exsurge Domine" threatening Luther with excommunication. It too is disseminated in as public a manner as Luther's "Ninety-five Theses", but Luther responds by burning it on the deadline demanded for his retraction. Cardinal Aleander goes to Elector Frederick to demand that he hand Luther over to the pope. It is there that the film has him meet Desiderius Erasmus, who seems to trivialize the matter. The Elector says that Luther will appear at the upcoming Diet of Worms.
Lutherhaus
When the University was opened in 1503, the monks of the Order of Saint Augustine were given land previously belonging to the Heiligegeisthospital (Hospital of the Holy Spirit) located near the Elster Gate. There, they began building a cloister, known as the "Black Monastery" because of the color of the monks' habits, which was to be a residence hall and academy for the Augustinians studying in Wittenberg. In 1507, after his ordination as a priest, Martin Luther was sent by Johann von Staupitz to continue his study, and he took up residence in a cell in the southwest corner of the new monastery. By 1512, he had graduated as a Doctor of Theology and was part of the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg, having the official position of "Doctor of Bible". He began developing and preaching the basic tenets of the Protestant Reformation and published his "95 Theses" while teaching here.
Marktkirche Unser Lieben Frauen
The Market Church, which had been built to defend against the spread of Reformation sympathies, was the very spot where Justus Jonas officially introduced the Reformation into Halle with his Good Friday address in 1541. The service must have been at least partly conducted in the open air, because at that time construction had only been finished at the eastern end of the nave. Jonas began a successful preaching crusade and attracted so many people the church was overfilled. Cardinal Albert left the town for good, after the estates ("Stände") in the city had announced that they would take over his enormous debt mountain at the bank of Jacob Fugger. Halle became Protestant and in 1542 Jonas was appointed as priest to St. Mary's and in 1544 bishop over the city. In 1545 and 1546 Luther preached three times in the church, staying with his friend Jonas during Christmas. In 1546 Luther died and his body lay in repose in Halle during his funeral procession from Eisleben to Wittenberg. In the same year Jonas was banished by Maurice, Elector of Saxony and left the city.
Martin Luther
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.
Freedom of religion
Martin Luther published his famous 95 Theses in Wittenberg on 31 October 1517. His major aim was theological, summed up in the three basic dogmas of Protestantism:
Ninety-five Theses
Albert seems to have received Luther's letter with the "Theses" around the end of November. He requested the opinion of theologians at the University of Mainz and conferred with his advisers. His advisers recommended he have Luther prohibited from preaching against indulgences in accordance with the indulgence bull. Albert requested such action from the Roman Curia. In Rome, Luther was immediately perceived as a threat. In February 1518, Pope Leo asked the head of the Augustinian Hermits, Luther's religious order, to convince him to stop spreading his ideas about indulgences. Sylvester Mazzolini was also appointed to write an opinion which would be used in the trial against him. Mazzolini wrote "A Dialogue against Martin Luther's Presumptuous Theses concerning the Power of the Pope", which focused on Luther's questioning of the pope's authority rather than his complaints about indulgence preaching. Luther received a summons to Rome in August 1518. He responded with "Explanations of the Disputation Concerning the Value of Indulgences", in which he attempted to clear himself of the charge that he was attacking the pope. As he set down his views more extensively, Luther seems to have recognized that the implications of his beliefs set him further from official teaching than he initially knew. He later said he might not have begun the controversy had he known where it would lead. The "Explanations" have been called Luther's first Reformation work.
Johann Tetzel responded to the "Theses" by calling for Luther to be burnt for heresy and having theologian Konrad Wimpina write 106 theses against Luther's work. Tetzel defended these in a disputation before the University of Frankfurt on the Oder in January 1518. 800 copies of the printed disputation were sent to be sold in Wittenberg, but students of the University seized them from the bookseller and burned them. Luther became increasingly fearful that the situation was out of hand and that he would be in danger. To placate his opponents, he published a "Sermon on Indulgences and Grace", which did not challenge the pope's authority. This pamphlet, written in German, was very short and easy for laypeople to understand. Luther's first widely successful work, it was reprinted twenty times. Tetzel responded with a point-by-point refutation, citing heavily from the Bible and important theologians. His pamphlet was not nearly as popular as Luther's. Luther's reply to Tetzel's pamphlet, on the other hand, was another publishing success for Luther.
Early modern Europe
The Protestant Reformation was a reform-oriented schism from the Roman Catholic Church initiated by Martin Luther and continued by John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, and other early Protestant Reformers. It is typically dated from 1517, lasting until the end of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. It was launched on 31 October 1517 by Martin Luther, who posted his 95 Theses criticizing the practice of indulgences to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, commonly used to post notices to the University community. In was very widely publicized across Europe and caught fire. Luther began by criticizing the sale of indulgences, insisting that the Pope had no authority over purgatory and that the Catholic doctrine of the merits of the saints had no foundation in the gospel. The Protestant position, however, would come to incorporate doctrinal changes such as "sola scriptura" and "sola fide".
Magdeburg Cathedral
On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther published the 95 Theses in Wittenberg, Germany, which date is used as the start of the Protestant reformation. Luther also preached in Magdeburg in 1524. Some smaller churches in Magdeburg changed to Protestantism soon thereafter. The unpopularity of Archbishop Albrecht von Brandenburg also furthered the reformation, and after his death in 1545 in Mainz there was no successor. Magdeburg became a leader in the Protestant reformation, and was outlawed by the emperor. The Catholic church stored the cathedral treasure in Aschaffenburg for safekeeping, but the treasure was later lost to the Swedes in the Thirty Years' War. The priests of the cathedral also changed to Protestantism, and on the first advent Sunday in 1567, the first Protestant worship service was held in the cathedral.
Martin Luther
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. Within two weeks, copies of the theses had spread throughout Germany; within two months, they had spread throughout Europe.
Diet of Worms
Despite the agreement that he could return home safely, it was privately understood that Luther would soon be arrested and punished. To protect him from this fate, Prince Frederick seized him on his way home and hid him in Wartburg Castle. It was during his time in the Wartburg that Luther began his German translation of the Bible. Martin Luther's powerful testimony of faith at the Diet of Worms in 1521 made an indelible impression upon the mind of George, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, who turned his eyes to the new faith earlier than any other German prince or any other member of the House of Hohenzollern. Moreover, Luther entered into correspondence with him, discussing with him the most important problems of faith. The edict was temporarily suspended at the Diet of Speyer 1526 but then reinstated in 1529.
Martin Luther
The elector authorised a visitation of the church, a power formerly exercised by bishops. 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. The Eisleben reformer Johannes Agricola challenged this compromise, and Luther condemned him for teaching that faith is separate from works. The "Instruction" is a problematic document for those seeking a consistent evolution in Luther's thought and practice.
In response to demands for a German liturgy, Luther wrote a "German Mass", which he published in early 1526. 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." 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. 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.
Unfulfilled Christian religious predictions
Even after Luther's death in 1546, Lutheran leaders kept up the claim of the nearness of the end. About the year 1584, a zealous Lutheran named Adam Nachenmoser wrote the large volume '[Prognosticum Theologicum]' in which he predicted: ""In 1590 the Gospel would be preached to all nations and a wonderful unity would be achieved. The last days would then be close at hand."" Nachenmoser offered numerous conjectures about the date; 1635 seemed most likely.
History of the Lutheran Church of Australia
In 1846, Kavel released a proclamation regarding the power of civil government in the church. Kavel specifically pronounced disagreements with the Lutheran Confessions, favoring instead statements made in the new adopted church constitution formulated in 1838. Fritzsche explicitly disagreed with Kavel, affirming the Confessions over the constitution. As a result, the divide between the followers of Fritzsche and of Kavel intensified.
Martin Luther
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.
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Lutheranism is associated with the German reformer Martin Luther, with its official confessional writings found in the Book of Concord. The ELCA accepts the unaltered Augsburg Confession (not the variata) as a true witness to the Gospel. The ELCA is less conservative than the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) or the even more conservative Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), the second and third largest Lutheran bodies in the United States respectively. Although having a sizable conservative minority, most ELCA Lutherans are theologically moderate-to-liberal. Most other Lutheran bodies in the U.S. hold more strictly to Confessional Lutheranism, Pietism, or a combination of the two, than the ELCA does.
History of Lutheranism
During his stay at Wartburg (May 1521-March 1522), which he referred to as "my Patmos", Luther translated the New Testament from Greek into German, and poured out doctrinal and polemical writings, including in October a renewed attack on Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz, whom he shamed into halting the sale of indulgences in his episcopates, and a "Refutation of the argument of Latomus," in which he expounded the principle of justification to Jacobus Latomus, a philosopher from Louvain. In a letter to Melanchthon of 1 August 1521, he wrote: "[L]et 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."
In "On the Abrogation of the Private Mass", in the summer of 1521, Luther widened his target from individual pieties like indulgences and pilgrimages to doctrines at the heart of Church practices. His essay "Concerning Confession" rejected the Roman Catholic Church's requirement of confession, although he affirmed the value of private confession and absolution. In the introduction to his New Testament — published in September 1522 and selling 5,000 copies in two months — he explained that good works spring from faith; they do not produce it.
Pope John Paul II
On 31 October 1999, (the 482nd anniversary of Reformation Day, Martin Luther's posting of the 95 Theses), representatives of the Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) signed a Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, as a gesture of unity. The signing was a fruit of a theological dialogue that had been going on between the LWF and the Vatican since 1965.
To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation
Under these circumstances, complicated by the crisis then confronting the German nobles, Luther issued his "To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation" (Aug. 1520), committing to the laity, as spiritual priests, the reformation required by God but neglected by the pope and the clergy. This treatise, which has been called a "cry from the heart of the people" and a "blast on the war trumpet," was the first publication Luther produced after he was convinced that a break with Rome was both inevitable and unavoidable. In it he attacked what he regarded as the "three walls of the Romanists": (1) that secular authority has no jurisdiction over them; (2) that only the pope is able to explain Scripture; (3) that nobody but the Pope himself can call a general church council.
Book of Concord
The Book of Concord" (1580) or Concordia (often referred to as the Lutheran Confessions") is the historic doctrinal standard of the Lutheran Church, consisting of ten credal documents recognized as authoritative in Lutheranism since the 16th century. They are also known as the symbolical books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
Augsburg Confession
The Augsburg Confession became the primary confessional document for the Lutheran movement, even without the contribution of Martin Luther. Following the public reading of the Augsburg Confession in June 1530, the expected response by Charles V and the Vatican representatives at the Diet of Augsburg was not immediately forthcoming. Following debate between the court of Charles V and the Vatican representatives, the official response known as the Pontifical Confutation of the Augsburg Confession was produced to the Diet, though the document was so poorly prepared that the document was never published for widespread distribution, nor presented to the Lutherans at the Diet.
Dies sind die heilgen zehn Gebot
The reformer Martin Luther wrote the hymn in twelve stanzas of four lines each as a catechetical setting of the Ten Commandments. The commandments were used for confession and for instructions. After an introduction, stanzas 2 to 10 are related to the ten commandments; 11 and 12 provide a conclusion, related to Jesus. Luther published the hymn in 1524 with a melody from the 14th century in the "Erfurt Enchiridion". The hymn is a "Leise", concluding each stanza by "Kyrieleis".
Martin Luther
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. Others had previously translated the Bible into German, but Luther tailored his translation to his own doctrine.
Two of the earlier translations were the Mentelin Bible (1456) and the Koberger Bible (1484). There were as many as fourteen in High German, four in Low German, four in Netherlands language, and various in other languages before the Bible of Luther.
When he was criticised for inserting the word "alone" after "faith" in , 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'."
Ninety-five Theses
Luther sent the "Theses" enclosed with a letter to Albert of Brandenburg, the Archbishop of Mainz, on 31 October 1517, a date now considered the start of the Reformation and commemorated annually as Reformation Day. Luther may have also posted the "Theses" on the door of All Saints' Church and other churches in Wittenberg in accordance with University custom on 31 October or in mid-November. The "Theses" were quickly reprinted, translated, and distributed throughout Germany and Europe. They initiated a pamphlet war with indulgence preacher Johann Tetzel, which spread Luther's fame even further. Luther's ecclesiastical superiors had him tried for heresy, which culminated in his excommunication in 1521. Though the "Theses" were the start of the Reformation, Luther did not consider indulgences to be as important as other theological matters which would divide the church, such as and the bondage of the will. His breakthrough on these issues would come later, and he did not see the writing of the "Theses" as the point at which his beliefs diverged from those of Rome.
Late Middle Ages
Martin Luther, a German monk, started the German Reformation by posting 95 theses on the castle church of Wittenberg on October 31, 1517. The immediate provocation spurring this act was Pope Leo X’s renewal of the indulgence for the building of the new St. Peter's Basilica in 1514. Luther was challenged to recant his heresy at the Diet of Worms in 1521. When he refused, he was placed under the ban of the Empire by Charles V. Receiving the protection of Frederick the Wise, he was then able to translate the Bible into German.
Martin Luther
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. Famous images from this period include the woodcuts by Hans Brosamer (1530) and Lucas Cranach the Elder and Lucas Cranach the Younger (1546).
St. Augustine's Monastery (Erfurt)
In his later role as the provincial vicar of Saxony and Thuringia, from 1515, Luther continued to pay visits to St. Augustine's and other monasteries. He delivered an historic sermon against the theology of the Catholic Church and the papacy to a crowd in St. Augustine's Church on 7 April 1521, on his way to the Diet of Worms, an assembly to which he had been summoned to account for his teachings. He was declared a heretic on 26 May 1521.
Es spricht der Unweisen Mund wohl
At the end of 1523, Luther paraphrased Psalm 14 (Psalm 13 in Vulgata numbering), in Latin , attempting to make the psalms accessible to Protestant church services in German. As he did with "", Luther expanded the content of the psalm to show the precise situation of the early Reformation as a time of conflict. Luther wrote six stanzas of seven lines each.
Luther's Small Catechism
Luther's Small Catechism () is a catechism written by Martin Luther and published in 1529 for the training of children. Luther's Small Catechism reviews the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, the Office of the Keys and Confession and the Sacrament of the Eucharist. It is included in the "Book of Concord" as an authoritative statement of what Lutherans believe. The Small Catechism is widely used today in Lutheran churches as part of youth education and Confirmation. It was mandatory for confirmands in the Church of Sweden until the 1960s.
Lars Ulstadius
On 22 July 1688 Ulstadius appeared in the Dome of Turku in his rags, with his hair hanging long and with a huge matted beard, interrupting the service by starting to read aloud the radical theses he had written down. He proclaimed that the Lutheran doctrine was doomed, that prayer books and postils were a bunch of lies, and that the ministers were not endowed with the Holy Spirit. When two men grabbed him to throw him out of the Dome, what was left of his humble dress fell off and Ulstadius ran down the main aisle of the church, naked and screaming that the disgrace of Finnish clergymen would be revealed, like his current disgrace.
Martin Luther
In two of his later works, Luther expressed antagonistic views towards Jews. His rhetoric was not directed at Jews alone, but also towards Roman Catholics, Anabaptists, and nontrinitarian Christians. Luther died in 1546, with his decree of excommunication by Pope Leo X still effective.
Confession (Lutheran Church)
The Lutheran Church practices "Confession and Absolution" [referred to as the Office of the Keys] with the emphasis on the absolution, which is God's word of forgiveness. Indeed, Lutherans highly regard Holy Absolution. They, like Roman Catholics, see and as biblical evidence for confession. Confession and absolution is done in private to the pastor, called the "confessor" with the person confessing known as the "penitent". In confession, the penitent makes an act of contrition, as the pastor, acting "in persona Christi", announces the formula of absolution. Prior to the confession, the penitent is to review the Ten Commandments to examine his or her conscience. In the Lutheran Church, like the Roman Catholic Church, the pastor is bound by the Seal of the Confessional. Luther's Small Catechism says "the pastor is pledged not to tell anyone else of sins to him in private confession, for those sins have been removed." If the Seal is broken, it will result in excommunication. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, private confession fell into disuse; at the present time, it is, for example, expected before partaking of the Eucharist for the first time. It is also encouraged to be done frequently in a year (specifically before Easter). In many churches, times are set for the pastor to hear confessions.
Martin Luther
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. He had long condemned vows of celibacy on Biblical grounds, but his decision to marry surprised many, not least Melanchthon, who called it reckless. 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."
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.
Adoration of the Shepherds (Lucas Cranach the Elder)
The painting was painted around the time when Martin Luther first spoke out about the light of the Gospels and used the candle as a metaphor for revelation. In his work translating the bible and spreading his message, he hired Cranach to make illustrations and a candle featured in many of them. This same scene in a simplified form was even featured in one of Cranach's woodcuts for Luther's "Passional Christi und Antichristi":
This painting was once in the collection of Richard von Kaufmann and was purchased by the museum from his estate in 1917. It was claimed by the Russians in 1945 and returned to the museum in 1955.
Two kingdoms doctrine
The two kingdoms doctrine is simply another form of the distinctive Lutheran teaching of Law and Gospel. The official book that defines Lutheranism, the "Book of Concord" which was compiled in 1580, references a sermon by Martin Luther on this from 1528 preached on the 19th Sunday after Trinity in Marburg about the two kingdoms or kinds of righteousness.
Gethsemane Lutheran Church
After the Lutheran congregation left the church in 1961, community members began arguing for historical preservation of the structure. The church was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1962, and the sanctuary was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 25, 1970. The NRHP listing was later expanded to include neighboring Luther Hall on December 23, 2004.
Luther's canon
Luther's canon is the biblical canon attributed to Martin Luther, which has influenced Protestants since the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. While the Lutheran Confessions, specifically did not define a canon, it is widely regarded as the canon of the Lutheran Church. It differs from the 1546 Roman Catholic canon of the Council of Trent in that it rejects the Deuterocanonical books and questions the seven New Testament books, called "Luther's Antilegomena", four of which are still ordered last in German-language Luther Bibles to this day.
Disputation
Martin Luther opened the Protestant Reformation by demanding a disputation upon his 95 theses, 31 October 1517. Although presented as a call to an ordinary scholastic dispute, the oral debate never occurred.
On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church
Prelude on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church (, October 1520) was the second of the three major treatises published by Martin Luther in 1520, coming after the "Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation" (August 1520) and before "On the Freedom of a Christian" (November 1520). It was a theological treatise, and as such was published in Latin as well as German, the language in which the treatises were written.
Reformation
The Reformation is usually dated to 31 October 1517 in Wittenberg, Saxony, when Luther sent his "Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences" to the Archbishop of Mainz. The theses debated and criticised the Church and the papacy, but concentrated upon the selling of indulgences and doctrinal policies about purgatory, particular judgment, and the authority of the pope. He would later in the period 1517–1521 write works on the Catholic devotion to Virgin Mary, the intercession of and devotion to the saints, the sacraments, mandatory clerical celibacy, monasticism, further on the authority of the pope, the ecclesiastical law, censure and excommunication, the role of secular rulers in religious matters, the relationship between Christianity and the law, and good works.
Four Marks of the Church
The Augsburg Confession found within the Book of Concord, a compendium of belief of the Lutheran Churches, teaches that "the faith as confessed by Luther and his followers is nothing new, but the true catholic faith, and that their churches represent the true catholic or universal church." When the Lutherans presented the Augsburg Confession to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor in 1530, they believe to have "showed that each article of faith and practice was true first of all to Holy Scripture, and then also to the teaching of the church fathers and the councils." As such, the Lutheran Churches traditionally hold that theirs represents the true visible Church.
Magdeburg
In about Easter 1497, the then twelve-year-old Martin Luther attended school in Magdeburg, where he was exposed to the teachings of the Brethren of the Common Life. In 1524, he was called to Magdeburg, where he preached and caused the city's defection from Roman Catholicism. The Protestant Reformation had quickly found adherents in the city, where Luther had been a schoolboy. Emperor Charles V repeatedly outlawed the unruly town, which had joined the League of Torgau and the Schmalkaldic League. Because it had not accepted the Augsburg Interim decree (1548), the city, by the emperor's commands, was besieged (1550–1551) by Maurice, Elector of Saxony, but it retained its independence. The rule of the archbishop was replaced by that of various administrators belonging to Protestant dynasties. In the following years Magdeburg gained a reputation as a stronghold of Protestantism and became the first major city to publish the writings of Luther. In Magdeburg, Matthias Flacius and his companions wrote their anti-Catholic pamphlets and the "Magdeburg Centuries", in which they argued that the Roman Catholic Church had become the kingdom of the Antichrist.
Lutheran sacraments
Confirmation is a public profession of faith prepared for by long and careful instruction. In English, it is known as the "affirmation of baptism", and is a mature and public profession of the faith which "marks the completion of the congregation's program of confirmation ministry". The German language uses for Lutheran confirmation a different word ("Konfirmation") from the word used for the same Sacrament in the Catholic Church ("Firmung"). Confirmation teaches Baptized Christians about Martin Luther's doctrine on the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and the Sacrament of the Eucharist. An average catechism class lasts about two years.
Martin Luther
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 Johann Esch and Heinrich Voes, 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.
Jacob Kautz
Jacob Kautz (also Jakob Kautz) (c. 1500 – c. 1532) was an Anabaptist who posted seven theses to the door of the Worms Cathedral in 1527. He undermined the authority of the church with accusations of idolatry. In essence, he took Martin Luther's protest to the logical conclusion that individual freedom of conscience should be enshrined in law.
Ninety-five Theses
The "Theses" are written as propositions to be argued in a formal academic disputation, though there is no evidence that such an event ever took place. In the heading of the "Theses", Luther invited interested scholars from other cities to participate. Holding such a debate was a privilege Luther held as a doctor, and it was not an unusual form of academic inquiry. Luther prepared twenty sets of theses for disputation at Wittenberg between 1516 and 1521. Andreas Karlstadt had written a set of such theses in April 1517, and these were more radical in theological terms than Luther's. He posted them on the door of All Saints' Church, as Luther was alleged to have done with the "Ninety-five Theses". Karlstadt posted his theses at a time when the relics of the church were placed on display, and this may have been considered a provocative gesture. Similarly, Luther posted the "Ninety-five Theses" on the eve of All Saints' Day, the most important day of the year for the display of relics at All Saints' Church.
List of hymns by Martin Luther
Luther worked on the tunes, sometimes modifying older tunes, in collaboration with Johann Walter. Hymns were published in the "Achtliederbuch", in Walter's choral hymnal "Eyn geystlich Gesangk Buchleyn" (Wittenberg) and the Erfurt "Enchiridion" (Erfurt) in 1524, and in the "Klugsches Gesangbuch", among others.
Other hymns sometimes ascribed to Luther but not listed above include "All Her und Lob soll Gottes sein", "Unser große Sünde und schwere Missetat", "Christ ist erstanden", and "Nun laßt uns den Leib begraben".
Confession (Lutheran Church)
In his 1529 catechisms, Martin Luther praised confession (before a pastor or a fellow Christian) "for the sake of absolution", the forgiveness of sins bestowed in an audible, concrete way. The Lutheran reformers held that a complete enumeration of sins is impossible and that one's confidence of forgiveness is not to be based on the sincerity of one's contrition nor on one's doing works of satisfaction imposed by the confessor (penance). The Roman Catholic church held confession to be composed of three parts: "contritio cordis" ("contrition of the heart"), "confessio oris" ("confession of the mouth"), and "satisfactio operis" ("satisfaction of deeds"). The Lutheran reformers abolished the "satisfaction of deeds," holding that confession and absolution consist of only two parts: the confession of the penitent and the absolution spoken by the confessor. Faith or trust in Jesus' complete active and passive satisfaction is what receives the forgiveness and salvation won by him and imparted to the penitent by the word of absolution.
Martin Luther
His last sermon was delivered at Eisleben, his place of birth, on 15 February 1546, three days before his death. 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. 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." 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."
Hymnwriter
Many leaders of the reformation, including Martin Luther (1483-1546) himself, were hymn writers; Luther's work included "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" ("A mighty fortress is our God") and "Christ lag in Todesbanden (Christ Jesus lay in death's strong bonds)". Lutherans continued to compose hymns, and some of the popular hymn writers of the 16th and 17th centuries included the three saints commemorated in the Lutheran Calendar of Saints on 26 October: Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608), Johann Heermann (1585-1647), and Paul Gerhardt (1607-76). Michael Praetorius (1571-1621), and Johann Crüger (1598-1662) also gained renown as German Lutheran hymn writers of that era.
John Fisher
Fisher has also been named, though without any real proof, as the true author of the royal treatise against Martin Luther entitled ""Assertio septem sacramentorum"" ("Defence of the Seven Sacraments"), published in 1521, which won for King Henry VIII the title ""Fidei Defensor"" ("Defender of the Faith"). Prior to this date Fisher had denounced various abuses in the church, urging the need for disciplinary reforms. On about 11 February 1526, at the King's command, he preached a famous sermon against Luther at St Paul's Cross, the open-air pulpit outside St Paul's Cathedral in London. This was in the wake of numerous other controversial writings; the battle against heterodox teachings increasingly occupied Fisher's later years. In 1529 Fisher ordered the arrest of Thomas Hitton, a follower of William Tyndale, and subsequently interrogated him. Hitton was tortured and executed at the stake for heresy.
All Saints' Church, Wittenberg
All Saints' Church, commonly referred to as Schlosskirche (Castle Church) to distinguish it from the "Stadtkirche" (Town Church) of St. Mary's – and sometimes known as the Reformation Memorial Church – is a Lutheran church in Wittenberg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is the site where, according to Philip Melanchthon, the "Ninety-five Theses" were posted by Martin Luther in 1517, the act that has been called the start of the Protestant Reformation. From 1883 onwards, the church was restored as a memorial site and re-inaugurated on 31 October 1892, 375 years after Luther's posting.
1653 Imperial election
On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther, a professor of moral theology at the University of Wittenberg, now part of the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, had delivered the "Ninety-five Theses" to Albert of Brandenburg, the elector of Mainz. This list of propositions criticized the practice of selling indulgences, remissions of the punishment meted out for sin in Purgatory. Luther's criticism snowballed into a massive schism in the church, and from there into a split among the states of the empire.
Henry Muhlenberg
The dedication stone of the Augustus Lutheran Church, above its door, is dedicated to Muhlenberg and its other founders. It reads, in Latin, translated into English: "Under the auspices of Christ, Henry Melchior Muhlenberg with his Council, J.N.Crosman, F.Marsteller, A.Heilman, J.Mueller, H.Haas, and H.Rebner, erected from the very foundation this building dedicated by the Society of the Augsburg Confession. A.D.1743." This is the only known church building bearing an inscription that designates the confessional document of the congregation instead of the name Lutheran by which it is popularly known. The name of the first church—Augustus—was adopted in honor of Herman Augustus Francke, founder of the Halle Institutions, whose son persuaded Muhlenberg to accept the call of the three United Congregations in America, the first such confederation to bring Lutheranism to North America.
Martin Luther
Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz and Magdeburg 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. He needed the revenue from the indulgences to pay off a papal dispensation for his tenure of more than one bishopric. As Luther later noted, "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".
Reformation Day
According to Philipp Melanchthon, writing in 1546, Luther "wrote theses on indulgences and posted them on the church of All Saints on 31 October 1517", an event now seen as sparking the Reformation. Some scholars have questioned Melanchthon's account, since he did not move to Wittenberg until a year later and no contemporaneous evidence exists for Luther's posting of the theses. Others counter that such evidence is unnecessary because it was the custom at Wittenberg university to advertise a disputation by posting theses on the door of All Saints' Church, also known as "Castle Church".
Suppression of monasteries
In 1521, Martin Luther published 'De votis monasticis' ('On the monastic vows'), a treatise which declared that the monastic life had no scriptural basis, was pointless and also actively immoral in that it was not compatible with the true spirit of Christianity. Luther also declared that monastic vows were meaningless and that no one should feel bound by them. Luther, a one-time Augustinian friar, found some comfort when these views had a dramatic effect: a special meeting of the German province of his order held the same year accepted them and voted that henceforth every member of the regular clergy should be free to renounce their vows, resign their offices and get married. At Luther's home monastery in Wittenberg all the friars, save one, did so.
History of Lutheranism
After the Diets of Nuremberg failed to accomplish the goal of arresting Luther, in 1526, at the First Diet of Speyer it was decided that until a General Council could meet and settle the theological issues raised by Martin Luther, the Edict of Worms would not be enforced and each Prince could decide if Lutheran teachings and worship would be allowed in his territories. In 1529, at the Second Diet of Speyer, the decision the previous Diet of Speyer was reversed — despite the strong protests of the Lutheran princes, free cities and some Zwinglian territories. These states quickly became known as Protestants. At first, this term "Protestant" was used politically for the states that resisted the Edict of Worms. Over time, however, this term came to be used for the religious movements that opposed the Roman Catholic tradition in the 16th century.
Lutheranism would become known as a separate movement after the 1530 Diet of Augsburg, which was convened by Charles V to try to stop the growing Protestant movement. At the Diet, Philipp Melanchthon presented a written summary of Lutheran beliefs called the Augsburg Confession. Several of the German princes (and later, kings and princes of other countries) signed the document to define "Lutheran" territories. The Roman Catholic response to it was "Confutatio Augustana", also at the 1530 Diet of Augsburg. In response to the "Confutatio", Philipp Melanchthon prepared the "Prima delineatio". Although this was rejected by the Emperor, Melanchthon improved it as a private document until it was signed at a meeting of the Schmalkaldic League as the 1537 "Apology of the Augsburg Confession", but the Catholic side did not respond to it until the 1545–63 Council of Trent.
History of Germany
The Reformation was a triumph of literacy and the new printing press. Luther's translation of the Bible into German was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy, and stimulated as well the printing and distribution of religious books and pamphlets. From 1517 onward religious pamphlets flooded Germany and much of Europe. By 1530 over 10,000 publications are known, with a total of ten million copies. The Reformation was thus a media revolution. Luther strengthened his attacks on Rome by depicting a "good" against "bad" church. From there, it became clear that print could be used for propaganda in the Reformation for particular agendas. Reform writers used pre-Reformation styles, clichés, and stereotypes and changed items as needed for their own purposes. Especially effective were Luther's "Small Catechism", for use of parents teaching their children, and "Larger Catechism," for pastors. Using the German vernacular they expressed the Apostles' Creed in simpler, more personal, Trinitarian language. Illustrations in the newly translated Bible and in many tracts popularized Luther's ideas. Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553), the great painter patronized by the electors of Wittenberg, was a close friend of Luther, and illustrated Luther's theology for a popular audience. He dramatized Luther's views on the relationship between the Old and New Testaments, while remaining mindful of Luther's careful distinctions about proper and improper uses of visual imagery.
History of Austria
When Martin Luther posted his ninety-five theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg in 1517, he challenged the very basis of the Holy Roman Empire, Catholic Christianity, and hence Habsburg hegemony. After the Emperor Charles V interrogated and condemned Luther at the 1521 Diet of Worms, Lutheranism and the Protestant Reformation spread rapidly in the Habsburg territories. Temporarily freed from war with France by the 1529 Treaty of Cambrai and the denouncement of the ban on Luther by the Protestant princes at Speyer that year, the Emperor revisited the issue next at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, by which time it was well-established.
Upper Lusatia
Only a few years after Martin Luther put up The Ninety-Five Theses in Saxon Wittenberg, his Reformative ideas spread all over Upper Lusatia. In Görlitz, Bautzen and Zittau, the first Protestant sermons were preached in 1520 and 1521, although the nobility, the city councils and King Louis II of Bohemia tried to prevent its spread. In Görlitz and Bautzen the municipal authorities however soon conceded the pressure of the population and officially adopted the Protestant Reformation in 1523 and 1524, though only in small cautious steps. In particular, the chapter of St. Peter in Bautzen resisted successfully and remained Catholic. Overall, it took decades until the Lutheran doctrine finally prevailed in most parishes, as in Upper Lusatia not the Bohemian sovereign introduced the Reformation but the local city councils and noble lords.
Paul Speratus
On 31 October 1517, Martin Luther wrote to his bishop, Albert of Mainz, protesting the sale of indulgences and enclosing a copy of his 95 Theses, which his friends had translated from Latin to German by January 1518. In the early part of his ministry, Luther saw himself as a reformer operating inside the Catholic Church, as did many early followers such as Speratus.