Born inEisleben, Luther was ordained to thepriesthood in 1507. He came to reject several teachings and practices of the contemporaryRoman Catholic Church, in particular the view onindulgences and papal authority. Luther initiated an international debate on these in works like hisNinety-five Theses, which he authored in 1517. In 1520,Pope Leo X demanded that Luther renounce all of his writings, and when Luther refused to do so,excommunicated him in January 1521. Later that year,Holy Roman Emperor Charles V condemned Luther as an outlaw at theDiet of Worms. When Luther died in 1546, his excommunication by Leo X was still in effect.
Luther taught that justification is not earned by any human acts or intents or merit; rather, it is receivedonly as the free gift of God'sgrace through the believer'sfaith inJesus Christ. He held thatgood works were a necessary fruit of living faith, part of the process ofsanctification.[6][7]Luther's theology challenged the authority and office of the pope and bishops by teaching that theBible is theonly source ofdivinely revealed knowledge on the Gospel,[8] and opposedsacerdotalism by considering all baptized Christians to be aholy priesthood.[9] Those who identify with these, as well as Luther's wider teachings, are called Lutherans, although Luther insisted on Christian or Evangelical (German:evangelisch), as the only acceptable names for individuals who professed Christ.
In 1484, his family moved toMansfeld, where his father was a leaseholder of copper mines and smelters[23] and served as one of four citizen representatives on the local council; in 1492, he was elected as a town councilor.[24][22] The religious scholarMartin Marty describes Luther's mother as a hard-working woman of "trading-class stock and middling means", contrary to Luther's enemies, who labeled her a whore and bath attendant.[22]
Luther had several brothers and sisters and is known to have been close to one of them, Jacob.[25]
Education
Hans Luther, Martin's father, was determined to see Martin, his eldest son, become a lawyer. He sent Martin to Latin schools in Mansfeld, thenMagdeburg in 1497, where he attended theBrethren of the Common Life, a school operated by alay group, andEisenach in 1498.[26] The three schools focused on the so-called "trivium": grammar, rhetoric, and logic. Luther later compared his education there topurgatory andhell.[27]
In 1501, at age 17, Martin entered theUniversity of Erfurt, which he later described as a beerhouse and whorehouse.[28] He was made to wake at 4 a.m. for "a day of rote learning and often wearying spiritual exercises."[28] He received his master's degree in 1505.[29]
In accordance with his father's wishes, Luther enrolled in law but dropped out almost immediately, believing that law was an uncertain profession.[29] Luther instead sought assurances about life and was drawn to theology and philosophy, expressing interest inAristotle,William of Ockham, andGabriel Biel.[29] He was deeply influenced by two tutors,Bartholomaeus Arnoldi von Usingen and Jodocus Trutfetter, who taught him to be suspicious of even the greatest thinkers[29] and to test everything himself by experience.[30]
Philosophy proved to be unsatisfying to Luther because it offered assurance about the use ofreason but none about lovingGod, which Luther believed was more important. Reason could not lead men to God, Luther felt, and he thereafter developed a love-hate relationship with Aristotle over Aristotle's emphasis on reason.[30] For Luther, reason could be used to question men and institutions, but not God. Human beings could learn about God only through divinerevelation, he believed, leading him to viewscripture as increasingly important.[30]
Monastic and academic career
There are two stories told of Luther's sudden decision to become a monk: Melancthon's story is that Luther was shocked by the sudden death of a university friend, Hieronimus Buntz.[31]: 33 (The cause of this death has been variously speculated as lightning, plague, pleurisy, or even that Luther killed him in a duel.)[32]
The other story is that on 2 July 1505, while Luther was returning to university on horseback following a trip home, alightning bolt struck near him during a thunderstorm. He later told his father that he was terrified of death and divine judgment, and he cried out, "Help!Saint Anna, I will become a monk!"[33][34] He came to view his cry for help as a vow that he could never break. He withdrew from the university, sold his books, and enteredSt. Augustine's Monastery inErfurt on 17 July 1505.[35] One friend blamed the decision on Luther's sadness over the deaths of two friends. Luther himself seemed saddened by the move. Those who attended a farewell supper walked him to the door of the Black Cloister. "This day you see me, and then, not ever again," he said.[30] His father was furious over what he saw as a waste of Luther's education.[36]
Luther described this period of his life as one of deep spiritual despair. He said, "I lost touch with Christ the Savior and Comforter, and made of him the jailer and hangman of my poor soul."[39]Johann von Staupitz, his superior and frustrated confessor, concluded that Luther needed more work to distract him from excessive introspection and ordered him to pursue an academic career.[40]
On 21 October 1512, Luther was received into the senate of the theological faculty of theUniversity of Wittenberg,[43] succeeding von Staupitz as chair of theology.[44] He spent the rest of his career in this position at the University of Wittenberg.
In 1515, he was made provincialvicar ofSaxony andThuringia, which required him to visit and oversee eleven monasteries in his province.[45]
Luther at Erfurt, an 1861 portrait byJoseph Noel Paton depicting Luther discovering the doctrine ofsola fide (by faith alone)
From 1510 to 1520, Luther lectured on the Psalms, and on the books of Hebrews, Romans, and Galatians. As he studied these portions of the Bible, partly withDesiderius Erasmus' newannotated translation, he came to view the use of terms such aspenance andrighteousness by the Catholic Church in new ways. He became convinced that the church was corrupt and had lost sight of what he saw as several of the central truths of Christianity.
The most important for Luther was the doctrine ofjustification—God's act of declaring a sinner righteous—by faith alone through God's grace. He began to teach that salvation or redemption is a gift of God'sgrace, attainable only through faith in Jesus as theMessiah.[46] "This one and firm rock, which we call the doctrine of justification", he writes, "is the chief article of the whole Christian doctrine, which comprehends the understanding of all godliness."[47] Luther's use of justification by faith has been called his "macro-hermeneutical presupposition for biblical interpretation and theological construction."[48]: 180
Luther came to understand justification as entirely the work of God. This teaching by Luther was clearly expressed in his 1525 publicationOn the Bondage of the Will, which was written in response toOn Free Will by Erasmus (1524), who believed Luther's early teaching on the necessity of evil was unbiblical.[49] Against theCatholic andOrthodox teaching that the righteous acts of believers are performed incooperation with God's preceding grace (synergism), Luther wrote that Christians receive such righteousness entirely from outside themselves (monergism). Taking Erasmus' earlier Latintranslation choice to an extreme, he taught that righteousness not only comes from Christ but actuallyis the righteousness of Christ, imputed to Christians (rather than alsoinfused into them) through faith,[50]
"That is why faith alone makes someone just and fulfills the law," he writes. "Faith is that which brings theHoly Spirit through the merits of Christ."[51] Faith, for Luther, was a gift from God; the experience of being justified by faith was "as though I had been born again." His entry into Paradise, no less, was a discovery about "the righteousness of God"—a discovery that "the just person" of whom the Bible speaks (as in Romans 1:17) lives by faith.[52] He explains his concept of "justification" in theSmalcald Articles:
The first and chief article is this: Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, died for our sins and was raised again for our justification (Romans 3:24–25). He alone is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), and God has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6). All have sinned and are justified freely, without their own works and merits, by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, in His blood (Romans 3:23–25). This is necessary to believe. This cannot be otherwise acquired or grasped by any work, law, or merit. Therefore, it is clear and certain that this faith alone justifies us ... Nothing of this article can be yielded or surrendered, even though heaven and earth and everything else falls (Mark 13:31).[53]
In 1516,Johann Tetzel, aDominican friar, was sent to Germany by the Roman Catholic Church to sell indulgences to raise money in order to rebuildSt. Peter's Basilica in Rome.[54] Tetzel's experiences as a preacher of indulgences, especially between 1503 and 1510, led to his appointment as general commissioner byAlbrecht von Brandenburg, Archbishop of Mainz, who, already deeply in debt to pay for a large accumulation of benefices, had to contribute the considerable sum of ten thousandducats[55] 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 of sin), half of the proceeds of which Albrecht was to claim to pay the fees of his benefices.
On 31 October 1517, Luther wrote to his bishop, Albrecht von Brandenburg, protesting against the sale of indulgences. He enclosed in his letter a copy of his "Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences",[a] which came to be known as theNinety-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."[57] 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 richestCrassus, build the basilica of St. Peter with the money of poor believers rather than with his own money?"[57]
Luther objected to a saying attributed to Tetzel that, "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory (also attested as 'into heaven') springs."[58] He insisted that, sinceforgiveness was God's alone to grant, those who claimed that indulgencesabsolved buyers from all punishments and granted them salvation were in error. Christians, he said, must not slacken in following Christ on account of such false assurances.
According to one account, Luther nailed hisNinety-five Theses to the door ofAll Saints' Church inWittenberg on 31 October 1517. Scholars Walter Krämer, Götz Trenkler, Gerhard Ritter, and Gerhard Prause contend that the story of the posting on the door, although it has become one of the pillars of history, has little foundation in truth.[59][60][61][62] The story is based on comments made by Luther's collaboratorPhilip Melanchthon, though it is thought that he was not in Wittenberg at the time.[63] According toRoland Bainton, on the other hand, it is true.[64]
The LatinTheses were printed in several locations in Germany in 1517. In January 1518 friends of Luther translated theNinety-five Theses into German.[65] Within two weeks, copies of the theses had spread throughout Germany. Luther's writings circulated widely, reachingFrance,England, andItaly as early as 1519.
Archbishop Albrecht did not reply to Luther's letter containing theNinety-five Theses. He had the theses checked for heresy and in December 1517 forwarded them to Rome.[67] He needed the revenue from the indulgences to pay off a papal dispensation for histenure of more than one bishopric. As Luther later notes, "the pope had a finger in the pie as well, because one half was to go to the building of St. Peter's Church in Rome".[68]
Pope Leo X was used to reformers and heretics,[69] and he responded slowly, "with great care as is proper."[70] Over the next three years he deployed a series of papal theologians and envoys against Luther, which served only to harden the reformer's anti-papal theology. First, the Dominican theologianSylvester Mazzolini drafted a heresy case against Luther, whom Leo then summoned to Rome. TheElector Frederick persuaded the pope to have Luther examined at Augsburg, where theImperial Diet was held.[71] Over a three-day period in October 1518 where he stayed atSt. Anne's Priory, Luther defended himself under questioning bypapal legateCardinal Cajetan. The pope's right to issue indulgences was at the centre of the dispute between the two men.[72][73] The hearings degenerated into a shouting match. More than writing his theses, Luther's confrontation with the church cast him as an enemy of the pope: "His Holiness abuses Scripture", retorted Luther. "I deny that he is above Scripture".[74][75] Cajetan's original instructions had been to arrest Luther if he failed to recant, but the legate desisted from doing so.[76] With help from theCarmelite friarChristoph Langenmantel, Luther slipped out of the city at night, unbeknownst to Cajetan.[77]
In January 1519, atAltenburg in Saxony, the papal nuncioKarl von Miltitz adopted a more conciliatory approach. Luther made certain concessions to the Saxon, who was a relative of the Elector, and promised to remain silent if his opponents did.[78] The theologianJohann Eck, however, was determined to expose Luther's doctrine in a public forum. In June and July 1519, he staged adisputation with Luther's colleagueAndreas Karlstadt atLeipzig and invited Luther to speak.[79] Luther's boldest assertion in the debate was that popes do not have the exclusive right to interpret scripture, and that therefore neither popes norchurch councils were infallible.[80] For this, Eck branded Luther a newJan Hus, referring to the Czech reformer and hereticburned at the stake in 1415. From that moment, he devoted himself to Luther's defeat.[81]
Excommunication
On 15 June 1520, the Pope warned Luther with thepapal bull (edict)Exsurge Domine that he riskedexcommunication unless he recanted 41 sentences drawn from his writings, including theNinety-five Theses, within 60 days. That autumn, Eck proclaimed the bull inMeissen and other towns. Von Miltitz attempted to broker a solution, but Luther, who had sent the pope a copy ofOn the Freedom of a Christian in October, publicly set fire to the bull anddecretals in Wittenberg on 10 December 1520,[82] an act he defended inWhy the Pope and his Recent Book are Burned andAssertions Concerning All Articles.
The enforcement of the ban on theNinety-five Theses fell to the secular authorities. On 17 April 1521, Luther appeared as ordered before theDiet of Worms. This was a general assembly of the estates of the Holy Roman Empire that took place inWorms, a town on theRhine. It was conducted from 28 January to 25 May 1521, withEmperor Charles V presiding. PrinceFrederick III, Elector of Saxony, obtained asafe conduct for Luther to and from the meeting.
Johann Eck, speaking on behalf of the empire as assistant of theArchbishop of Trier, presented Luther with copies of his writings laid out on a table and asked him if the books were his and whether he stood by their contents. Luther confirmed he was their author but requested time to think about the answer to the second question. He prayed, consulted friends, and gave his response the next day:
Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted, and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen.[87]
At the end of this speech, Luther raised his arm "in the traditional salute of a knight winning a bout." Michael Mullett considers this speech as a "world classic of epoch-making oratory."[88]
Eck informed Luther that he was acting like a heretic, saying,
Martin, there is no one of the heresies which have torn the bosom of the church, which has not derived its origin from the various interpretation of the Scripture. The Bible itself is the arsenal whence each innovator has drawn his deceptive arguments. It was with Biblical texts thatPelagius andArius maintained their doctrines. Arius, for instance, found the negation of the eternity of the Word—an eternity which you admit, in this verse of the New Testament—Joseph knew not his wife till she had brought forth her first-born son; and he said, in the same way that you say, that this passage enchained him. When the fathers of theCouncil of Constance condemned this proposition of Jan Hus—The church of Jesus Christ is only the community of the elect, they condemned an error; for the church, like a good mother, embraces within her arms all who bear the name of Christian, all who are called to enjoy the celestial beatitude.[89]
Luther refused to recant his writings. He is sometimes also quoted as saying: "Here I stand. I can do no other". Recent scholars consider the evidence for these words to be unreliable since they were inserted before "May God help me" only in later versions of the speech and not recorded in witness accounts of the proceedings.[90] However, Mullett suggests that given his nature, "we are free to believe that Luther would tend to select the more dramatic form of words."[88]
Over the next five days, private conferences were held to determine Luther's fate. The emperor presented the final draft of theEdict of Worms on 25 May 1521, declaring Luther anoutlaw, banning his literature, and requiring his arrest: "We want him to be apprehended and punished as a notorious heretic."[91] The edict allowed anyone to kill Luther without legal consequence, and made it a crime to give him food or shelter.
Luther's disappearance during his return to Wittenberg was planned.Frederick III had him intercepted on his way home in the forest near Wittenberg by masked horsemen impersonating highway robbers. They escorted Luther to the security of theWartburg Castle atEisenach.[92] During his stay at Wartburg, which he referred to as "myPatmos",[93] Luther translated theNew Testament from Greek into German and poured out doctrinal and polemical writings. These included a renewed attack onAlbert of Brandenburg,Archbishop of Mainz, whom he shamed into halting the sale of indulgences in his episcopates,[94] and aRefutation of the Argument of Latomus, in which he expounded the principle of justification toJacobus Latomus, an orthodox theologian fromLouvain.[95] In this work, one of his most emphatic statements on faith, he argued that every good work designed to attract God's favor is a sin.[96] All humans are sinners by nature, he explained, andGod's grace alone (which cannot be earned) can make them just. On 1 August 1521, Luther wrote to Melanchthon on the same theme: "Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides."[97]
In the summer of 1521, Luther widened his target from individual pieties like indulgences and pilgrimages to doctrines at the heart of Church practice. InOn 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.[98] His essayOn Confession, Whether the Pope has the Power to Require It rejected compulsoryconfession and encouraged private confession andabsolution, since "every Christian is a confessor."[99] In November, Luther wroteThe 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.[100]
Luther made his pronouncements from Wartburg in the context of rapid developments at Wittenberg, of which he was kept fully informed. Andreas Karlstadt, supported by the ex-AugustinianGabriel Zwilling, embarked on a radical programme of reform there in June 1521, exceeding anything envisaged by Luther. The reforms provoked disturbances, including a revolt by the Augustinian friars against their prior, the smashing of statues and images in churches, and denunciations of the magistracy. After secretly visiting Wittenberg in early December 1521, Luther wroteA Sincere Admonition by Martin Luther to All Christians to Guard Against Insurrection and Rebellion.[101] Wittenberg became even more volatile after Christmas when a band of visionary zealots, the so-calledZwickau prophets, arrived, preaching revolutionary doctrines such as the equality of man,[clarification needed]adult baptism, and Christ's imminent return.[102] When the town council asked Luther to return, he decided it was his duty to act.[103]
Luther secretly returned toWittenberg on 6 March 1522. He wrote to the Elector: "During my absence, Satan has entered my sheepfold, and committed ravages which I cannot repair by writing, but only by my personal presence and living word."[104] For eight days inLent, beginning on Invocavit Sunday, 9 March, Luther preached eight sermons, which became known as the "Invocavit Sermons". In these sermons, he hammered home the primacy of coreChristian 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.[105]
Do you know what the Devil thinks when he sees men use violence to propagate the gospel? He sits with folded arms behind the fire of hell and says with malignant looks and frightful grin: "Ah, how wise these madmen are to play my game! Let them go on; I shall reap the benefit. I delight in it." But when he sees the Word running and contending alone on the battle-field, then he shudders and shakes for fear.[106]
The effect of Luther's intervention was immediate. After the sixth sermon, the Wittenberg jurist Jerome Schurf wrote to the elector: "Oh, what joy has Dr. Martin's return spread among us! His words, through divine mercy, are bringing back every day misguided people into the way of the truth."[106]
Luther next set about reversing or modifying the new church practices. By working alongside the authorities to restore public order, he signaled his reinvention as a conservative force within the Reformation.[107] After banishing the Zwickau prophets, he faced a battle against both the established Church and the radical reformers who threatened the new order by fomenting social unrest and violence.[108]
Despite his victory in Wittenberg, Luther was unable to stifle radicalism further afield. Preachers such asThomas Müntzer and Zwickau prophetNicholas Storch found support amongst poorer townspeople and peasants between 1521 and 1525. There had beenrevolts by the peasantry on smaller scales since the 15th century.[109] Luther's pamphlets against the Church and the hierarchy, often worded with "liberal" phraseology, led many peasants to believe he would support an attack on the upper classes in general.[110] Revolts broke out inFranconia,Swabia, andThuringia in 1524, even drawing support from disaffected nobles, many of whom were in debt. Gaining momentum under the leadership of radicals such as Müntzer in Thuringia, and Hipler and Lotzer in the south-west, the revolts turned into war.[111]
Luther sympathised with some of the peasants' grievances, as he showed in his response to theTwelve Articles in May 1525, but he reminded the aggrieved to obey the temporal authorities.[112] During a tour of Thuringia, he became enraged at the widespread burning of convents, monasteries, bishops' palaces, and libraries. InAgainst the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants, written on his return to Wittenberg, he gave his interpretation of the Gospel teaching on wealth, condemned the violence as the devil's work, and called for the nobles to put down the rebels like mad dogs:
Therefore let everyone who can, smite, slay, and stab, secretly or openly, remembering that nothing can be more poisonous, hurtful, or devilish than a rebel ... For baptism does not make men free in body and property, but in soul; and the gospel does not make goods common, except in the case of those who, of their ownfree will, do what the apostles and disciples did in Acts 4 [:32–37]. They did not demand, as do our insane peasants in their raging, that the goods of others—of Pilate and Herod—should be common, but only their own goods. Our peasants, however, want to make the goods of other men common, and keep their own for themselves. Fine Christians they are! I think there is not a devil left in hell; they have all gone into the peasants. Their raving has gone beyond all measure.[113]
Without Luther's backing for the uprising, many rebels laid down their weapons; others felt betrayed. Their defeat by theSwabian League at theBattle of Frankenhausen on 15 May 1525, followed by Müntzer's execution, brought the revolutionary stage of the Reformation to a close.[114] Thereafter, radicalism found a refuge in theAnabaptist movement and other religious movements, while Luther's Reformation flourished under the wing of the secular powers.[115] In 1526 Luther wrote: "I, Martin Luther, have during the rebellion slain all the peasants, for it was I who ordered them to be struck dead."[116]
Luther marriedKatharina von Bora, one of 12 nuns he had helped escape from the NimbschenCistercian convent in April 1523, when he arranged for them to be smuggled out in herring barrels.[117] "Suddenly, and while I was occupied with far different thoughts," he wrote to Wenceslaus Link, "the Lord has plunged me into marriage."[118] At the time of their marriage, Katharina was 26 years old and Luther was 41 years old.
On 13 June 1525, the couple was engaged, withJohannes Bugenhagen,Justus Jonas, Johannes Apel,Philipp Melanchthon andLucas Cranach the Elder and his wife as witnesses.[119] On the evening of the same day, the couple was married by Bugenhagen.[119] The ceremonial walk to the church and the wedding banquet were left out and were made up two weeks later on 27 June.[119]
Some priests and former members ofreligious orders had already married, including Andreas Karlstadt and Justus Jonas, but Luther's wedding set the seal of approval on clerical marriage.[120] He had long condemnedvows of celibacy on biblical grounds, but his decision to marry surprised many, not least Melanchthon, who called it reckless.[121] Luther had written toGeorge 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."[122]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.[123]
Luther and his wife moved into a former monastery, "The Black Cloister", a wedding present from ElectorJohn the Steadfast. They embarked on what appears to have been a happy and successful marriage, though money was often short.[124] Katharina bore six children: Hans – June 1526;Elisabeth – 10 December 1527, who died within a few months;Magdalene – 1529, who died in Luther's arms in 1542; Martin – 1531;Paul – January 1533; and Margaret – 1534; and she helped the couple earn a living by farming and taking in boarders.[125] Luther confided toMichael Stiefel on 11 August 1526: "My Katie is in all things so obliging and pleasing to me that I would not exchange my poverty for the riches ofCroesus."[126]
Organising the church: 1525–1529
Church orders, Mecklenburg 1650
By 1526, Luther found himself increasingly occupied in organising a new church. His biblical ideal of congregations choosing their own ministers had proved unworkable.[127] According to Bainton: "Luther's dilemma was that he wanted both a confessional church based on personal faith and experience and a territorial church including all in a given locality. If he were forced to choose, he would take his stand with the masses, and this was the direction in which he moved."[128]
From 1525 to 1529, he established a supervisory church body, laid down a new form ofworship service, and wrote a clear summary of the new faith in the form of twocatechisms.[129] To avoid confusing or upsetting the people, Luther avoided extreme change. He also did not wish to replace one controlling system with another. He concentrated on the church in theElectorate of Saxony, acting only as an adviser to churches in new territories, many of which followed his Saxon model. He worked closely with the new elector, John the Steadfast, to whom he turned for secular leadership and funds on behalf of a church largely shorn of its assets and income after the break with Rome.[130] For Luther's biographer Martin Brecht, this partnership "was the beginning of a questionable and originally unintended development towards a church government under the temporal sovereign".[131]
The elector authorised avisitation of the church, a power formerly exercised by bishops.[132] At times, Luther's practical reforms fell short of his earlier radical pronouncements. For example, theInstructions 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.[133] TheEisleben reformerJohannes Agricola challenged this compromise, and Luther condemned him for teaching that faith is separate from works.[134] TheInstruction is a problematic document for those seeking a consistent evolution in Luther's thought and practice.[135]
Lutheran church liturgy and sacraments
In response to demands for a Germanliturgy, Luther wrote aGerman Mass, which he published in early 1526.[136] 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."[137] Luther based his order on the Catholic service but omitted language related to a propitiatory sacrifice, and the Mass became a celebration where everyone received the wine as well as the bread (cf.communion under both kinds).[138] He retained theelevation of the host andchalice, while trappings such as the Massvestments, altar, and candles were made optional, allowing freedom of ceremony.[139] Some reformers, including followers ofHuldrych Zwingli, considered Luther's service too papistic, and modern scholars note the conservatism of his alternative to the Catholic Mass.[140] Luther's service, however, included congregational singing of hymns and psalms in German, as well as parts of the liturgy, including Luther's unison setting of theCreed.[141] To reach the simple people and the young, Luther incorporated religious instruction into the weekday services in the form of catechism.[142] He also provided simplified versions of the baptism and marriage services.[143] The former included the "flood prayer".[144]
Luther and his colleagues introduced the new order of worship during their visitation of the Electorate of Saxony, which began in 1527.[145] They also assessed the standard of pastoral care and Christian education in the territory. "Merciful God, what misery I have seen," Luther writes, "the common people knowing nothing at all of Christian doctrine ... and unfortunately many pastors are well-nigh unskilled and incapable of teaching."[146]
Catechisms
A stained glass portrayal of Luther
Luther devised the catechism as a method of imparting the basics of Christianity to the congregations. In 1529, he wrote theLarge Catechism, a manual for pastors and teachers, as well as a synopsis, theSmall Catechism, to be memorised by the people.[147] The catechisms provided easy-to-understand instructional and devotional material on theTen Commandments, theApostles' Creed,The Lord's Prayer,baptism, and theLord's Supper.[148] Luther incorporated questions and answers in the catechism so that the basics of Christian faith would not just belearned by rote, "the way monkeys do it", but understood.[149]
The catechism is one of Luther's most personal works. "Regarding the plan to collect my writings in volumes," he wrote, "I am quite cool and not at all eager about it because, roused by a Saturnian hunger, I would rather see them all devoured. For I acknowledge none of them to be really a book of mine, except perhaps theBondage of the Will and the Catechism."[150] TheSmall Catechism has earned a reputation as a model of clear religious teaching.[151] It remains in use today, along with Luther's hymns and his translation of the Bible.
Luther'sSmall Catechism proved especially effective in helping parents teach their children; likewise theLarge Catechism was effective for pastors.[152] Using the German vernacular, they expressed the Apostles' Creed in simpler, more personal,Trinitarian language. He rewrote each article of the Creed to express the character of the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit. Luther's goal was to enable thecatechumens to see themselves as a personal object of the work of the three persons of the Trinity, each of which works in the catechumen's life.[153] That is, Luther depicts the Trinity not as a doctrine to be learned, but as persons to be known. Luther's treatment of the Apostles' Creed must be understood in the context of the Decalogue (theTen Commandments) and The Lord's Prayer, which are also part of the Lutheran catechetical teaching.[153]
Charles V requested the 1530 Imperial Diet to decide on three issues; one of them being the disagreements about Christianity. Since Luther was outlawed and could not personally attend, he stayed at John the Steadfast's fortressVeste Coburg from 24 April to 4 October 1530 for protection. From here he influencedPhilipp Melanchthon's negotiations, including theAugsburg Confession, which was presented to Charles V on 25 June.[154] Luther also translated portions ofThe Psalms and penned over a dozen works.[155]
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.[156] Others had previously translated the Bible into German, but Luther tailored his translation to his own doctrine.[157]Two of the earlier translations were the Mentelin Bible (1456)[158] and the Koberger Bible (1484).[159] There were as many as fourteen in High German, four in Low German, four in Dutch, and various other translations in other languages before the Bible of Luther.[160]
Luther's translation used the variant of German spoken at the Saxon chancellery, intelligible to both northern and southern Germans.[161] He intended his vigorous, direct language to make the Bible accessible to everyday Germans, "for we are removing impediments and difficulties so that other people may read it without hindrance."[162] Published at a time of rising demand for German-language publications, Luther's version quickly became a popular and influential Bible translation. As such, it contributed adistinct flavor to the German language and literature.[163] Furnished with notes and prefaces by Luther, and with woodcuts byLucas Cranach that contained anti-papal imagery, it played a major role in the spread of Luther's doctrine throughout Germany.[164] The Luther Bible influenced other vernacular translations, such as theTyndale Bible, a precursor of theKing James Bible.[165]
Luther was a prolifichymnodist, authoring hymns such as "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" ("A Mighty Fortress Is Our God") and "Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her" ("From Heaven Above to Earth I Come").[169] Luther connected high art and folk music, also all classes, clergy and laity, men, women and children. His tool of choice for this connection was the singing of German hymns in connection with worship, school, home, and the public arena.[170] He often accompanied the sung hymns with a lute, later recreated as thewaldzither that became anational instrument of Germany in the 20th century.[171]
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 ofJan van Essen and Hendrik Vos, the first individuals to be martyred by the Roman Catholic Church for Lutheran views, prompting Luther to write the hymn "Ein neues Lied wir heben an" ("A New Song We Raise"), which is generally known in English by John C. Messenger's translation by the title and first line "Flung to the Heedless Winds" and sung to the tune Ibstone composed in 1875 by Maria C. Tiddeman.[172]
Luther's 1524 creedal hymn "Wir glauben all an einen Gott" ("We All Believe in One True God") is a three-stanza confession of faith prefiguring Luther's 1529 three-part explanation of the Apostles' Creed in theSmall Catechism. Luther's hymn, adapted and expanded from an earlier German creedal hymn, gained widespread use in vernacular Lutheran liturgies as early as 1525. Sixteenth-century Lutheran hymnals also included "Wir glauben all" among the catechetical hymns, although 18th-century hymnals tended to label the hymn as Trinitarian rather than catechetical, and 20th-century Lutherans rarely used the hymn because of the perceived difficulty of its tune.[170]
Luther's 1538 hymnic version of theLord's Prayer, "Vater unser im Himmelreich", corresponds exactly to Luther's explanation of the prayer in theSmall Catechism. The hymn functions both as a liturgical setting of the Lord's Prayer and as a means of examining candidates on specific catechism questions. The extant manuscript shows multiple revisions, demonstrating Luther's concern to clarify and strengthen the text and to provide an appropriately prayerful tune. Other 16th- and 20th-century versifications of the Lord's Prayer have adopted Luther's tune, although modern texts are considerably shorter.[173]
Luther wrote "Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir" ("From depths of woe I cry to You") in 1523 as a hymnic version ofPsalm 130 and sent it as a sample to encourage his colleagues to write psalm-hymns for use in German worship. In a collaboration withPaul Speratus, this and seven other hymns were published in theAchtliederbuch, thefirst 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 withErhart Hegenwalt's hymnic version ofPsalm 51, Luther's expanded hymn was also adopted for use with the fifth part of Luther's catechism, concerning confession.[174]
Luther's 1541 hymn "Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam" ("To Jordan came the Christ our Lord") reflects the structure and substance of his questions and answers concerning baptism in theSmall Catechism. Luther adopted a preexistingJohann Walter tune associated with a hymnic setting ofPsalm 67's prayer for grace; Wolf Heintz's four-part setting of the hymn was used to introduce the Lutheran Reformation in Halle in 1541. Preachers and composers of the 18th century, includingJ.S. Bach, used this rich hymn as a subject for their own work, although its objective baptismal theology was displaced by more subjective hymns under the influence of late-19th-century Lutheranpietism.[170]
In contrast to the views ofJohn Calvin[176] andPhilipp Melanchthon,[177] throughout his life Luther maintained that it was not false doctrine to believe that a Christian's soul sleeps after it is separated from the body in death.[178] Accordingly, he disputed traditional interpretations of some Bible passages, such as the parable of therich man and Lazarus.[179] This also led Luther to reject the idea of torments for the saints: "It is enough for us to know that souls do not leave their bodies to be threatened by the torments and punishments of hell, but enter a prepared bedchamber in which they sleep in peace."[180] He also rejected the existence ofpurgatory, which involved Christian souls undergoing penitential suffering after death.[181] He affirmed the continuity of one's personal identity beyond death. In hisSmalcald Articles, he described the saints as currently residing "in their graves and in heaven."[182]
The Lutheran theologianFranz Pieper observes that Luther's teaching about the state of the Christian's soul after death differed from the later Lutheran theologians such asJohann Gerhard.[183]Lessing (1755) had earlier reached the same conclusion in his analysis ofLutheran orthodoxy on this issue.[184]
Luther'sCommentary on Genesis contains a passage which concludes that "the soul does not sleep (anima non sic dormit), but wakes (sed vigilat) and experiences visions".[185]Francis Blackburne argues thatJohn Jortin misread this and other passages from Luther,[186] whileGottfried Fritschel points out that it actually refers to the soul of a man "in this life" (homo enim in hac vita) tired from his daily labour (defatigus diurno labore) who at night enters his bedchamber (sub noctem intrat in cubiculum suum) and whose sleep is interrupted by dreams.[187]
Henry Eyster Jacobs' English translation from 1898 reads:
"Nevertheless, the sleep of this life and that of the future life differ; forin this life, man, fatigued by his daily labour, at nightfall goes to his couch, as in peace, to sleep there, and enjoys rest; nor does he know anything of evil, whether of fire or of murder."[188]
Sacramentarian controversy and the Marburg Colloquy
In October 1529,Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, convoked an assembly of German and Swiss theologians at theMarburg Colloquy, to establish doctrinal unity in the emerging Protestant states.[189] Agreement was achieved on fourteen points out of fifteen, the exception being the nature of theEucharist, thesacrament of the Lord's Supper, an issue crucial to Luther.[190] The theologians, including Zwingli, Melanchthon,Martin Bucer, andJohannes Oecolampadius, differed on the significance of the words spoken by Jesus at theLast Supper: "This is my body which is for you" and "This cup is the new covenant in my blood" (1 Corinthians 11:23–26).[191] Luther insisted on theReal presence of the body and blood of Christ in the consecrated bread and wine, which he called thesacramental union,[192] while his opponents believed God to be only spiritually or symbolically present.[193]
Zwingli, for example, denied Jesus' ability to be in more than one place at a time. Luther stressed theomnipresence of Jesus' human nature.[194] According to transcripts, the debate sometimes became confrontational. Citing Jesus' words "The flesh profiteth nothing" (John 6.63), Zwingli said, "This passage breaks your neck". "Don't be too proud," Luther retorted, "German necks don't break that easily. This is Hesse, not Switzerland."[195] On his table Luther wrote the words "Hoc est corpus meum" ("This is my body") in chalk, to continually indicate his firm stance.[196]
Some scholars have asserted that Luther taught that faith and reason were antithetical in the sense that questions of faith could not be illuminated by reason. He wrote, "All the articles of our Christian faith, which God has revealed to us in His Word, are in presence of reason sheerly impossible, absurd, and false."[198] and "[That] Reason in no way contributes to faith. [...] For reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things."[199] However, though seemingly contradictorily, he also wrote in the latter work that human reason "strives not against faith, when enlightened, but rather furthers and advances it",[200] bringing claims he was afideist into dispute. Contemporary Lutheran scholarship, however, has found a different reality in Luther. Luther rather seeks to separatefaith and reason in order to honor the separate spheres of knowledge that each applies to.
The 16th-century battle between the Turks and the Christians
At the time of the Marburg Colloquy,Suleiman the Magnificent wasbesieging Vienna with a vastOttoman army.[201] Luther had argued against resisting the Turks in his 1518Explanation of the Ninety-five Theses, provoking accusations of defeatism. He saw the Turks as ascourge sent by God to punish Christians, as agents of the biblicalapocalypse that would destroy theAntichrist, whom Luther believed to be the papacy and the Roman Church.[202] He consistently rejected the idea of aHoly War, "as though our people were an army of Christians against the Turks, who were enemies of Christ. This is absolutely contrary to Christ's doctrine and name".[203] On the other hand, in keeping with hisdoctrine of the two kingdoms, Luther did support non-religious war against the Turks.[204] In 1526, he argued inWhether Soldiers can be in a State of Grace that national defence is reason for a just war.[205] By 1529, inOn War against the Turk, he was actively urging Emperor Charles V and the German people to fight a secular war against the Turks.[206]He made clear, however, that the spiritual war against an alien faith was separate, to be waged through prayer and repentance.[207] Around the time of the Siege of Vienna, Luther wrote a prayer for national deliverance from the Turks, asking God to "give to our emperor perpetual victory over our enemies".[208]
In 1542, Luther read a Latin translation of theQur'an.[209] He went on to produce several critical pamphlets onIslam, which he called "Mohammedanism" or "the Turk".[210] Though Luther saw the Muslim religion as a tool of the devil, he was indifferent to its practice: "Let the Turk believe and live as he will, just as one lets the papacy and other false Christians live."[211] He opposed banning the publication of the Qur'an, wanting it exposed to scrutiny.[212]
Early in 1537,Johannes Agricola—serving at the time as pastor in Luther's birthplace, Eisleben—preached a sermon in which he claimed that God's gospel, not God's moral law (the Ten Commandments), revealed God's wrath to Christians. Based on this sermon and others by Agricola, Luther suspected that Agricola was behind certain anonymousantinomian theses circulating in Wittenberg. These theses asserted that the law is no longer to be taught to Christians but belonged only to city hall.[213] Luther responded to these theses with six series of theses against Agricola and the antinomians, four of which became the basis fordisputations between 1538 and 1540.[214] He also responded to these assertions in other writings, such as his 1539open letter to C. GüttelAgainst the Antinomians,[215] and his bookOn the Councils and the Church from the same year.[216]
In his theses and disputations against the antinomians, Luther reviews and reaffirms, on the one hand, what has been called the "second use of the law," that is, the law as the Holy Spirit's tool to work sorrow over sin in man's heart, thus preparing him for Christ's fulfillment of the law offered in the gospel.[217] Luther states that everything that is used to work sorrow over sin is called the law, even if it is Christ's life, Christ's death for sin, or God's goodness experienced in creation.[218] Simply refusing to preach the Ten Commandments among Christians—thereby, as it were, removing the three letters l-a-w from the church—does not eliminate the accusing law.[219] Claiming that the law—in any form—should not be preached to Christians anymore would be tantamount to asserting that Christians are no longer sinners in themselves and that the church consists only of essentially holy people.[220]
Luther also points out that the Ten Commandments—when considered not as God's condemning judgment but as an expression of his eternal will, that is, of the natural law—positively teach how the Christian ought to live.[221] This has traditionally been called the "third use of the law."[222] For Luther, also Christ's life, when understood as an example, is nothing more than an illustration of the Ten Commandments, which a Christian should follow in his or hervocations on a daily basis.[223]
Bigamy of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse: 1539–1540
From December 1539, Luther became involved in the designs ofPhilip I, Landgrave of Hesse to marry a lady-in-waiting of his wife,Christine of Saxony. Philip solicited the approval of Luther, Melanchthon, and Bucer, citing as a precedent thepolygamy of the patriarchs. The theologians were not prepared to make a general ruling, and they reluctantly advised thelandgrave that if he was determined, he should marry secretly and keep quiet about the matter because divorce was worse thanbigamy.[224] As a result, on 4 March 1540, Philip married a second wife,Margarethe von der Saale, with Melanchthon and Bucer among the witnesses. Philip's sisterElisabeth quickly made the scandal public, and Philip threatened to expose Luther's advice. Luther told him to "tell a good, strong lie" and deny the marriage completely, which Philip did.[225] Margarethe gave birth to nine children over a span of 17 years, giving Philip a total of 19 children. In the view of Luther's biographerMartin Brecht, "giving confessional advice for Philip of Hesse was one of the worst mistakes Luther made, and, next to the landgrave himself, who was directly responsible for it, history chiefly holds Luther accountable".[226] Brecht argues that Luther's mistake was not that he gave private pastoral advice, but that he miscalculated the political implications.[227] The affair caused lasting damage to Luther's reputation.[228]
Although Luther rarely encountered Jews, he wrote negatively about them throughout his career,[229] and his attitudes reflected a theological and cultural tradition which saw Jews as a rejected people guilty of the murder of Christ, and he lived in a locality which had expelled Jews roughly 90 years earlier.[230] He considered the Jews blasphemers and liars because they rejected the divinity of Jesus.[231] In 1523, Luther advised kindness toward the Jews inThat Jesus Christ was Born a Jew and also aimed to convert them to Christianity.[232] When his efforts at conversion failed, he grew increasingly bitter toward them.[233]
Luther's major works on the Jews were his 60,000-word treatiseVon den Juden und Ihren Lügen (On the Jews and Their Lies), andVom Schem Hamphoras und vom Geschlecht Christi (On the Holy Name and the Lineage of Christ), both published in 1543, three years before his death.[234] Luther argued that the Jews were no longer the chosen people but "the devil's people", and referred to them with violent language.[235][236] Citing Deuteronomy 13, whereinMoses commands the killing of idolaters and the burning of their cities and property as an offering to God, Luther called for a "scharfe Barmherzigkeit" ("sharp mercy") against the Jews "to see whether we might save at least a few from the glowing flames."[237] Luther advocated settingsynagogues on fire, destroying Jewishprayerbooks, forbiddingrabbis from preaching, seizing Jews' property and money, and smashing up their homes, so that these "envenomed worms" would be forced into labour or expelled "for all time".[238] InRobert Michael's view, Luther's words "We are at fault in not slaying them" amounted to a sanction for murder.[239] "God's anger with them is so intense," Luther concluded, "that gentle mercy will only tend to make them worse, while sharp mercy will reform them but little. Therefore, in any case, away with them!"[237]
Luther launched a polemic against vagrants in his 1528 preface toLiber Vagatorum, saying that the Jews had contributed Hebrew words as a main basis of theRotwelschcryptolect. He warned in the admonitory preface Christians not to give them alms as it was, in his opinion, to forsake the truly poor.[240][241]
Luther spoke out against the Jews in Saxony, Brandenburg, and Silesia.[242]Josel of Rosheim, the Jewish spokesman who tried to help the Jews of Saxony in 1537, later blamed their plight on "that priest whose name was Martin Luther—may his body and soul be bound up in hell!—who wrote and issued many heretical books in which he said that whoever would help the Jews was doomed to perdition."[243] Josel asked the city of Strasbourg to forbid the sale of Luther's anti-Jewish works: they refused initially but did so when a Lutheran pastor inHochfelden used a sermon to urge his parishioners to murder Jews.[242] Luther's influence persisted after his death. Throughout the 1580s, riots led to the expulsion of Jews from several German Lutheran states.[244]
Tovia Singer, anOrthodox Jewish rabbi, remarking about Luther's attitude toward Jews, put it thus: "Among all the Church Fathers and Reformers, there was no mouth more vile, no tongue that uttered more vulgar curses against the Children of Israel than this founder of the Reformation."[245]
Luther had been suffering from ill health for years, includingMénière's disease,vertigo, fainting,tinnitus, and acataract in one eye.[246] From 1531 to 1546, his health deteriorated further. In 1536, he began to suffer fromkidney and bladder stones,arthritis, and an ear infection which ruptured an ear drum. In December 1544, he began to feel the effects ofangina.[247]
His poor physical health made him short-tempered and even harsher in his writings and comments. His wife Katharina was overheard saying, "Dear husband, you are too rude," and he responded, "They are teaching me to be rude."[248] In 1545 and 1546 Luther preached three times in theMarket Church in Halle, staying with his friend Justus Jonas during Christmas.[249]
His last sermon was delivered at Eisleben, his place of birth, on 15 February 1546, three days before his death.[250] It was "entirely devoted to the obdurate Jews, whom it was a matter of great urgency to expel from all German territory," according toLéon Poliakov.[251] 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."[252] 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."[253]
Luther's final journey, to Mansfeld, was taken because of his concern for his siblings' families continuing in their father Hans Luther's copper mining trade. Their livelihood was threatened by Count Albrecht of Mansfeld bringing the industry under his own control. The controversy that ensued involved all four Mansfeld counts: Albrecht, Philip, John George, and Gerhard. Luther journeyed to Mansfeld twice in late 1545 to participate in the negotiations for a settlement, and a third visit was needed in early 1546 for their completion.
The negotiations were successfully concluded on 17 February 1546. After 8 p.m., he experienced chest pains. When he went to his bed, he prayed, "Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God" (Ps. 31:5), the common prayer of the dying. At 1 a.m. on 18 February, he awoke with more chest pain and was warmed with hot towels. He thanked God for revealing his Son to him in whom he had believed. His companions, Justus Jonas and Michael Coelius, shouted loudly, "Reverend father, are you ready to die trusting in your Lord Jesus Christ and to confess the doctrine which you have taught in his name?" A distinct "Yes" was Luther's reply.[254]
An apoplectic stroke deprived him of his speech, and he died shortly afterwards at 2:45 a.m. on 18 February 1546, aged 62, in Eisleben, the city of his birth. He was buried in theSchlosskirche in Wittenberg, in front of the pulpit.[255] The funeral was held by his friendsJohannes Bugenhagen and Philipp Melanchthon.[256] A year later, troops of Luther's adversary Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor entered the town but were ordered by Charles not to disturb the grave.[256]
A piece of paper was later found on which Luther had written his last statement. The statement was in Latin, apart from "We are beggars," which was in German. The statement reads:
No one can understandVirgil'sBucolics unless he has been a shepherd for five years. No one can understand Virgil'sGeorgics, unless he has been a farmer for five years.
No one can understandCicero'sLetters (or so I teach), unless he has busied himself in the affairs of some prominent state for twenty years.
Know that no one can have indulged in the Holy Writers sufficiently, unless he has governed churches for a hundred years with the prophets, such asElijah andElisha,John the Baptist, Christ and the apostles.
Do not assail this divineAeneid; nay, rather prostrate revere the ground that it treads.
Martin Luther's Death House, considered the site of Luther's death since 1726. However, the building where Luther actually died (at Markt 56, now the site of Hotel Graf von Mansfeld) was torn down in 1570.[259]
Casts of Luther's face and hands at his death, in the Market Church in Halle[260]
Schlosskirche in Wittenberg, where Luther posted hisNinety-five Theses, is also his gravesite.
Luther was the most widely read author of his generation, and within Germany he acquired the status of a prophet.[261] According to the prevailing opinion among historians,[19] his anti-Jewish rhetoric contributed significantly to the development of antisemitism in Germany,[262] and in the 1930s and 1940s provided an "ideal underpinning" for the Nazis' attacks on Jews.[21] Reinhold Lewin writes that anybody who "wrote against the Jews for whatever reason believed he had the right to justify himself by triumphantly referring to Luther." According to Michael, just about every anti-Jewish book printed inNazi Germany contained references to and quotations from Luther.Heinrich Himmler (albeit never a Lutheran, having been brought up Catholic) wrote admiringly of his writings and sermons on the Jews in 1940.[263] The city ofNuremberg presented a first edition ofOn the Jews and their Lies toJulius Streicher, editor of the Nazi newspaperDer Stürmer, on his birthday in 1937; the newspaper described it as the most radically antisemitic tract ever published.[264] It was publicly exhibited in a glass case at theNuremberg rallies and quoted in a 54-page explanation of the Aryan Law by E.H. Schulz and R. Frercks.[265]
On 17 December 1941, seven Protestant regional church confederations issued a statement agreeing with the policy of forcing Jews to wear theyellow badge, "since after his bitter experience Luther had already suggested preventive measures against the Jews and their expulsion from German territory." According toDaniel Goldhagen, BishopMartin Sasse, a leading Protestant churchman, published a compendium of Luther's writings shortly afterKristallnacht, for whichDiarmaid MacCulloch, professor of the history of the church at theUniversity of Oxford argued that Luther's writing was a "blueprint".[266] 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."[267]
"There is a world of difference between his belief in salvation and a racial ideology. Nevertheless, his misguided agitation had the evil result that Luther fatefully became one of the 'church fathers' of anti-Semitism and thus provided material for the modern hatred of the Jews, cloaking it with the authority of the Reformer."
At the heart of scholarly debate about Luther's influence is whether it isanachronistic 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.[269]Uwe Siemon-Netto agreed, arguing that it was because the Nazis were already antisemites that they revived Luther's work.[270][271]Hans J. Hillerbrand agreed that to focus on Luther was to adopt an essentially ahistorical perspective of Nazi antisemitism that ignored other contributory factors inGerman history.[272] 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."[273][274]However, Christopher J. Probst, in his bookDemonizing the Jews: Luther and the Protestant Church in Nazi Germany (2012), shows that a large number of German Protestant clergy and theologians during the Nazi era used Luther's hostile publications towards the Jews and their Jewish religion to justify at least in part the antisemitic policies of the National Socialists.[275] The pro-Nazi Christian groupDeutsche Christen drew parallels between Martin Luther and the "Führer"Adolf Hitler.[276]
Some scholars, such as Mark U. Edwards in his bookLuther's Last Battles: Politics and Polemics 1531–46 (1983), suggest that since Luther's increasingly antisemitic views developed during the years his health deteriorated, it is possible they were at least partly the product of a state of mind. Edwards also comments that Luther often deliberately used "vulgarity and violence" for effect, both in his writings condemning the Jews and in diatribes against "Turks" (Muslims) and Catholics.[277]
Since the 1980s, Lutheran denominations have repudiated Martin Luther's statements against the Jews, calling them 'sins',[278][279] and have rejected the use of them to incite hatred against Lutherans.[citation needed][280][281] Strommen et al.'s 1970 survey of 4,745 North American Lutherans aged 15–65 found that, compared to the other minority groups under consideration, Lutherans were the least prejudiced toward Jews.[282] Nevertheless, Professor Richard Geary, former professor of modern history at theUniversity of Nottingham and the author ofHitler and Nazism, examined electoral trends inWeimar Germany between 1928 and 1933 and notes that, based on his research, the Nazi Party received disproportionately more votes from Protestant than Catholic areas of Germany.[283][284]
Legacy and commemoration
Worldwide Protestantism in 2010
Luther made effective use ofJohannes Gutenberg's printing press to spread his views. He switched from Latin to German in his writing to appeal to a broader audience. Between 1500 and 1530, Luther's works represented one fifth of all materials printed in Germany.[285]
In the 1530s and 1540s, printed images of Luther that emphasized his monumental size were crucial to the spread of Protestantism. In contrast to images of frail Catholic saints, Luther was presented as a stout man with a "double chin, strong mouth, piercing deep-set eyes, fleshy face, and squat neck." He was shown to be physically imposing, an equal in stature to the secular German princes with whom he would join forces to spread Lutheranism. His large body also let the viewer know that he did not shun earthly pleasures like drinking—behavior that was a stark contrast to the ascetic life of the medieval religious orders. Images from this period include the woodcuts byHans Brosamer (1530) andLucas Cranach the Elder andLucas Cranach the Younger (1546).[286]
Luther is honoured on 18 February with a commemoration in theLutheran Calendar of Saints and in theEpiscopal (United States) Calendar of Saints. In theChurch of England'sCalendar of Saints he iscommemorated on 31 October.[287] Luther is honored in various ways by Christian traditions coming out directly from the Protestant Reformation, i.e. Lutheranism, theReformed tradition, andAnglicanism. Branches of Protestantism that emerged afterwards vary in their remembrance and veneration of Luther, ranging from a complete lack of a single mention of him to a commemoration almost comparable to the way Lutherans commemorate and remember his persona. There is no known condemnation of Luther by Protestants themselves.
Various sites both inside and outside Germany (supposedly) visited by Martin Luther throughout his lifetime commemorate it with local memorials.Saxony-Anhalt has two towns officially named after Luther,Lutherstadt Eisleben andLutherstadt Wittenberg.Mansfeld is sometimes called Mansfeld-Lutherstadt, although the state government has not decided to put theLutherstadt suffix in its official name.
Reformation Day commemorates the publication of theNinety-five Theses in 1517. It is a civic holiday in the German states ofBrandenburg,Mecklenburg-Vorpommern,Saxony,Saxony-Anhalt,Thuringia,Schleswig-Holstein andHamburg. Two further states (Lower Saxony andBremen) are pending a vote on introducing it. Slovenia celebrates it because of the profound contribution of the Reformation to its culture. Austria allows Protestant children not to go to school that day, and Protestant workers have a right to leave work in order to participate in a church service. Switzerland celebrates the holiday on the first Sunday after 31 October. It is also celebrated elsewhere around the world.
Altar in St Martin's Church,Halberstadt, Germany. Luther and the swan are toward the top on the right.
Coin commemorating Luther (engraving by Georg Wilhelm Göbel,Saxony, 1706)
Luther is often depicted with a swan as hisattribute, and Lutheran churches often have a swan for a weather vane. This association with the swan arises out of a prophecy reportedly made by the earlier reformer Jan Hus and endorsed by Luther. In theBohemian language (now Czech), Hus's name meant"grey goose". In 1414, while imprisoned by the Council of Constance and anticipating his execution by burning for heresy, Hus prophesied, "Now they will roast a goose, but in a hundred years' time they'll hear a swan sing. They'd better listen to him." Luther published hisNinety-five Theses some 103 years later.[290][291][292]
The Erlangen Edition (Erlangener Ausgabe: "EA"), comprising theExegetica opera latina – Latin exegetical works of Luther.
TheWeimar Edition (Weimarer Ausgabe) is the exhaustive, standard German edition of Luther's Latin and German works, indicated by the abbreviation "WA". This is continued into "WA Br"Weimarer Ausgabe, Briefwechsel (correspondence), "WA Tr"Weimarer Ausgabe, Tischreden (tabletalk) and "WA DB"Weimarer Ausgabe, Deutsche Bibel (German Bible).
The American Edition (Luther's Works) is the most extensive English translation of Luther's writings, indicated either by the abbreviation "LW" or "AE". The first 55 volumes were published 1955–1986, and a twenty-volume extension (vols. 56–75) is planned of which volumes 58, 60, and 68 have appeared thus far.
^Latin:"Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum" – The first printings of theTheses use anincipit rather than a title which summarizes the content. Luther usually called them "meine Propositiones" (my propositions).[56]
^Luther consistently referred to himself as a former monk. For example: "Thus formerly, when I was a monk, I used to hope that I would be able to pacify my conscience with the fastings, thepraying, and the vigils with which I used to afflict my body in a way to excite pity. But the more I sweat, the less quiet and peace I felt; for the true light had been removed from my eyes." Martin Luther, Lectures on Genesis: Chapters 45–50, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 8Luther's Works. (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999), 5:326.
^Hillerbrand, Hans J. (14 February 2024)."Martin Luther". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved29 March 2024.
^Schreiner, Thomas R. (15 September 2015).Faith Alone---The Doctrine of Justification: What the Reformers Taught...and Why It Still Matters. Zondervan Academic. p. 40.ISBN978-0-310-51579-1.Luther insists that good works cannot be understood as the cause or ground of justification. McGrath summarizes Luther's position, "works are a condition, but not a cause of salvation." The word "condition" is acceptable if one understands works as the fruit or evidence of justification.
^Laffin, Michael Richard (20 October 2016).The Promise of Martin Luther's Political Theology: Freeing Luther from the Modern Political Narrative. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 153.ISBN978-0-567-66990-2.When Luther speaks of sanctification, he includes in this what has traditionally been referred to as the doctrine of the three estates. In sanctification our affections are conformed to Christ, and this formation occurs through suffering the divine activity in the estates of theecclesia,oeconomia, andpolitia. In sanctification our affections and perceptions are transformed so that we may come to recognize and explore the will of God. Herein lies a major, and often overlooked, part of the topography of Luther's theology that presses back against the oversimplistic reduction of his thought to "justification by faith alone." Rather, in the estates we see that sanctification plays a significant role in the overall grammar of Luther's theology. As Bernd Wannenwetsch argues, "Sanctification for Luther is not just a matter of faith, but a matter of faithand created orders, or more precisely offaith that is exercised in love within the divinely assigned spheres of social life, politics, economics and religion (cf. WA16: 'in talibus ordinationibus exercere ceritatem')."
^Ewald M. Plass,What Luther Says, 3 vols., (St. Louis: CPH, 1959), 88, no. 269; M. Reu,Luther and the Scriptures, (Columbus, Ohio: Wartburg Press, 1944), 23.
^Luther, Martin.Concerning the Ministry (1523), tr. Conrad Bergendoff, in Bergendoff, Conrad (ed.)Luther's Works. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1958, 40:18 ff.
^Fahlbusch, Erwin and Bromiley, Geoffrey William.The Encyclopedia of Christianity. Grand Rapids, MI: Leiden, Netherlands: Wm. B. Eerdmans; Brill, 1999–2003, 1:244.
^Tyndale's New Testament, trans. from the Greek by William Tyndale in 1534 in a modern-spelling edition and with an introduction by David Daniell. New Haven, CT:Yale University Press, 1989, ix–x.
^Bainton, Roland.Here I Stand: a Life of Martin Luther. New York: Penguin, 1995, 269.
^Bainton, Roland.Here I Stand: a Life of Martin Luther. New York: Penguin, 1995, p. 223.
^Hendrix, Scott H."The Controversial Luther"Archived 2 March 2011 at theWayback Machine,Word & World 3/4 (1983), Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. Also see Hillerbrand, Hans."The legacy of Martin Luther"Archived 16 July 2011 at theWayback Machine, in Hillerbrand, Hans & McKim, Donald K. (eds.)The Cambridge Companion to Luther. Cambridge University Press, 2003.In 1523, Luther wrote that Jesus Christ was born a Jew which discouraged mistreatment of the Jews and advocated their conversion by proving that theOld Testament could be shown to speak of Jesus Christ. However, as the Reformation grew, Luther began to lose hope in large-scale Jewish conversion to Christianity, and in the years his health deteriorated he grew more acerbic toward the Jews, writing against them with the kind of venom he had already unleashed on the Anabaptists,Zwingli, and thepope.
^Schaff, Philip:History of the Christian Church, Vol. VIII: Modern Christianity: The Swiss Reformation, William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan, US, 1910, page 706.
^Luther's letter to Rabbi Josel as cited by Gordon Rupp,Martin Luther and the Jews (London: The Council of Christians and Jews, 1972), 14. According to"Luther and the Jews". Archived fromthe original on 4 November 2005. Retrieved21 March 2017., this paragraph is not available in the English edition of Luther's works.
^ab"The assertion that Luther's expressions of anti-Jewish sentiment have been of major and persistent influence in the centuries after the Reformation, and that there exists a continuity between Protestantanti-Judaism and modern racially oriented antisemitism, is at present wide-spread in the literature; since the Second World War it has understandably become the prevailing opinion." Johannes Wallmann, "The Reception of Luther's Writings on the Jews from the Reformation to the End of the 19th Century",Lutheran Quarterly, n.s. 1 (Spring 1987) 1:72–97.
^Lindberg, Carter (2021).The European reformations (3rd ed.). Chichester, United Kingdom Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. p. 53.ISBN978-1-119-64081-3.
^Bainton, Roland.Here I Stand: a Life of Martin Luther. New York: Penguin, 1995, 44–45.
^Brecht, Martin.Martin Luther. tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 1:93.
^Brecht, Martin.Martin Luther. tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 1:112–127.
^Hendrix, Scott H. (2015).Martin Luther: Visionary Reformer. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. p. 44.ISBN978-0-300-16669-9.
^Hendrix, Scott H. (2015).Martin Luther: Visionary Reformer. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. p. 45.ISBN978-0-300-16669-9.
^Wriedt, Markus. "Luther's Theology," inThe Cambridge Companion to Luther. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003, 88–94.
^Luther, Martin. "The Smalcald Articles," inConcordia: The Lutheran Confessions. Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2005, 289, Part two, Article 1.
^At first, "the pope demanded twelve thousand ducats for the twelve apostles. Albert offered seven thousand ducats for the seven deadly sins. They compromised on ten thousand, presumably not for the Ten Commandments". Bainton, Roland.Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1950), p. 75,online
^abHillerbrand, Hans J. "Martin Luther: Indulgences and salvation,"Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007.
^Thesis 55 of Tetzel'sOne Hundred and Six Theses. These "Anti-theses" were a reply to Luther'sNinety-five Theses and were drawn up by Tetzel's friend and former professor,Konrad Wimpina. Theses 55 & 56 (responding to Luther's 27th Thesis) read: "For a soul to fly out, is for it to obtain the vision of God, which can behindered by no interruption, therefore he errs who says that the soulcannot fly out before the coin can jingle in the bottom of the chest." InThe reformation in Germany,Henry Clay Vedder, 1914, Macmillan Company, p. 405.[1]Animam purgatam evolare, est eam visione dei potiri, quod nulla potest intercapedine impediri. Quisquis ergo dicit, non citius posse animam volare, quam in fundo cistae denarius possit tinnire, errat. In:D. Martini Lutheri, Opera Latina: Varii Argumenti, 1865, Henricus Schmidt, ed., Heyder and Zimmer,Frankfurt am Main & Erlangen, vol. 1, p. 300. (Print on demand edition:Nabu Press, 2010,ISBN978-1-142-40551-9).[2] See also:Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913)."Johann Tetzel" .Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
^Krämer, Walter and Trenkler, Götz. "Luther" inLexicon van Hardnekkige Misverstanden. Uitgeverij Bert Bakker, 1997, 214:216.
^Bainton, Roland.Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1950), p. 79,online
^Brecht, Martin.Martin Luther. tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 1:204–205.
^Spitz, Lewis W.The Renaissance and Reformation Movements, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1987, 338.
^Michael A. Mullett,Martin Luther, London:Routledge, 2004,ISBN978-0-415-26168-5, 78; Oberman, Heiko,Luther: Man Between God and the Devil, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006,ISBN0-300-10313-1, 192–193.
^G. R. Elton,Reformation Europe: 1517–1559, London: Collins, 1963,OCLC222872115, 177.
^Brecht, Martin. (tr. Wolfgang Katenz) "Luther, Martin," in Hillerbrand, Hans J. (ed.)Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996, 2:463.
^Becking, Bob; Cannegieter, Alex; van er Poll, Wilfred (2016).From Babylon to Eternity: The Exile Remembered and Constructed in Text and Tradition. Routledge. p. 91.ISBN978-1-134-90386-3.
^Wooden, Cindy. "Methodists adapt Catholic-Lutheran declaration on justification." 24 July 2006
^David Van Biema, "A Half-Millennium Rift,"TIME, 6 July 1998, 80.
^Cindy Wooden, "Lutheran World Council OKs joint declaration on justification,"The Pilot, 19 June 1998, 20.
^Reformation Europe: 1517–1559, London: Fontana, 1963, 53;Diarmaid MacCulloch,Reformation: Europe's House Divided, 1490–1700, London: Allen Lane, 2003, 132.
^Luther, Martin. "Letter 82," inLuther's Works. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald and Helmut T. Lehmann (eds), Vol. 48: Letters I, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999, c1963, 48:246; Mullett, 133.John, author ofRevelation, had been exiled on the island of Patmos.
^Michael Hughes,Early Modern Germany: 1477–1806, London: Macmillan, 1992,ISBN0-333-53774-2, 45.
^A.G. Dickens,The German Nation and Martin Luther, London: Edward Arnold, 1974,ISBN0-7131-5700-3, 132–133. Dickens cites as an example of Luther's "liberal" phraseology: "Therefore I declare that neither pope nor bishop nor any other person has the right to impose a syllable of law upon a Christian man without his own consent".
^Jaroslav J. Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald,Luther's Works, 55 vols. (St. Louis and Philadelphia: Concordia Pub. House and Fortress Press, 1955–1986), 46: 50–51.
^abcScheible, Heinz (1997).Melanchthon. Eine Biographie (in German). Munich: C.H.Beck. p. 147.ISBN978-3-406-42223-2.
^Lohse, Bernhard,Martin Luther: An Introduction to his Life and Work,, translated by Robert C. Schultz, Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1987,ISBN0-567-09357-3, 32; Brecht, 2:196–197.
^Schaff, Philip."Luther's Marriage. 1525."Archived 7 July 2017 at theWayback Machine,History of the Christian Church, Volume VII, Modern Christianity, The German Reformation. § 77, rpt. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Retrieved 17 May 2009; Mullett, 180–181.
^abCharles P. Arand, "Luther on the Creed."Lutheran Quarterly 2006 20(1): 1–25.ISSN0024-7499; James Arne Nestingen, "Luther's Catechisms"The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation. Ed. Hans J. Hillerbrand. (1996)
^Daniel Weissbort and Astradur Eysteinsson (eds.),Translation – Theory and Practice: A Historical Reader, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002,ISBN0-19-871200-6, 68.
^Metzger, Bruce M. (1994).A textual commentary on the Greek New Testament: a companion volume to the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament (fourth revised edition) (2 ed.). Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft. pp. 647–649.ISBN978-3-438-06010-5.
^Criticus, (Rev. William Orme) (1830).Memoir of The Controversy respecting the Three Heavenly Witnesses, I John V.7. London: (1872, Boston, "a new edition, with notes and an appendix by Ezra Abbot"). p. 42.
^White, Andrew Dickson (1896).A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology, Vol. 2. New York: Appleton. p. 304.
^abcChristopher Boyd Brown,Singing the Gospel: Lutheran Hymns and the Success of the Reformation. (2005)
^"Waldzither – Bibliography of the 19th century". Studia Instrumentorum. Retrieved23 March 2014.Es ist eine unbedingte Notwendigkeit, dass der Deutsche zu seinen Liedern auch ein echt deutsches Begleitinstrument besitzt. Wie der Spanier seine Gitarre (fälschlich Laute genannt), der Italiener seine Mandoline, der Engländer das Banjo, der Russe die Balalaika usw. sein Nationalinstrument nennt, so sollte der Deutsche seine Laute, die Waldzither, welche schon von Dr. Martin Luther auf der Wartburg im Thüringer Walde (daher der Name Waldzither) gepflegt wurde, zu seinem Nationalinstrument machen. Liederheft von C.H. Böhm (Hamburg, March 1919)
^D. Franz PieperChristliche Dogmatik, 3 vols., (Saint Louis: CPH, 1920), 3:575: "Hieraus geht sicher so viel hervor, daß die abgeschiedenen Seelen der Gläubigen in einem Zustande des seligen Genießens Gottes sich befinden .... Ein Seelenschlaf, der ein Genießen Gottes einschließt (so Luther), ist nicht als irrige Lehre zu bezeichnen"; English translation: Francis Pieper,Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., (Saint Louis: CPH, 1953), 3:512: "These texts surely make it evident that the departed souls of the believers are in a state of blessed enjoyment of God .... A sleep of the soul which includes enjoyment of God (says Luther) cannot be called a false doctrine."
^Sermons of Martin Luther: the House Postils, Eugene F.A. Klug, ed. and trans., 3 vols., (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1996), 2:240.
^Weimarer Ausgabe 43, 360, 21–23 (to Genesis 25:7–10): also Exegetica opera latina Vol 5–6 1833 p. 120 and the English translation:Luther's Works, American Edition, 55 vols. (St. Louis: CPH), 4:313; "Sufficit igitur nobis haec cognitio, non egredi animas ex corporibus in periculum cruciatum et paenarum inferni, sed esse eis paratum cubiculum, in quo dormiant in pace."
^GerhardLoci Theologici, Locus de Morte, § 293 ff. Pieper writes: "Luther speaks more guardedly of the state of the soul between death and resurrection than do Gerhard and the later theologians, who transfer some things to the state between death and resurrection which can be said with certainty only of the state after the resurrection" (Christian Dogmatics, 3:512, footnote 21).
^Article in theBerlinischer Zeitung 1755 in Complete Works ed. Karl Friedrich Theodor Lachmann – 1838 p. 59 "Was die Gegner auf alle diese Stellen antworten werden, ist leicht zu errathen. Sie werden sagen, daß Luther mit dem Worte Schlaf gar die Begriffe nicht verbinde, welche Herr R. damit verbindet. Wenn Luther sage, daß die Seele IS nach dem Tode schlafe, so denke er nichts mehr dabey, als was alle Leute denken, wenn sie den Tod des Schlafes Bruder nennen. Tode ruhe, leugneten auch die nicht, welche ihr Wachen behaupteten :c. Ueberhaupt ist mit Luthers Ansehen bey der ganzen Streitigkeit nichts zu gewinnen."
^Exegetica opera Latina, Volumes 5–6 Martin Luther, ed. Christopf Stephan Elsperger (Gottlieb) p. 120 "Differunt tamen somnus sive quies hujus vitae et futurae. Homo enim in hac vita defatigatus diurno labore, sub noctem intrat in cubiculum suum tanquam in pace, ut ibi dormiat, et ea nocte fruitur quiete, neque quicquam scit de ullo malo sive incendii, sive caedis. Anima autem non sic dormit, sed vigilat, et patitur visiones loquelas Angelorum et Dei. Ideo somnus in futura vita profundior est quam in hac vita et tamen anima coram Deo vivit. Hac similitudine, quam habeo a somno viventia." (Commentary on Genesis –Enarrationes in Genesin, XXV, 1535–1545)"
^BlackburneA short historical view of the controversy concerning an intermediate state (1765) p. 121
^Gottfried Fritschel.Zeitschrift für die gesammte lutherische Theologie und Kirche p. 657 "Denn dass Luther mit den Worten "anima non sic dormit, sed vigilat et patitur visiones, loquelas Angelorum et Dei" nicht dasjenige leugnen will, was er an allen andern Stellen seiner Schriften vortragt"
^Henry Eyster JacobsMartin Luther the Hero of the Reformation 1483 to 1546 (1898). Emphasis added.
^Cf. Luther,Only the Decalogue Is Eternal: Martin Luther's Complete Antinomian Theses and Disputations, ed. and tr. H. Sonntag, Minneapolis: Lutheran Press, 2008, 23–27.ISBN978-0-9748529-6-6
^Cf. Luther,Only the Decalogue Is Eternal: Martin Luther's Complete Antinomian Theses and Disputations, ed. and tr. H. Sonntag, Minneapolis: Lutheran Press, 2008, 11–15.ISBN978-0-9748529-6-6
^Cf.Luther's Works 47:107–119. There he writes: "Dear God, should it be unbearable that the holy church confesses itself a sinner, believes in the forgiveness of sins, and asks for remission of sin in the Lord's Prayer? How can one know what sin is without the law and conscience? And how will we learn what Christ is, what he did for us, if we do not know what the law is that he fulfilled for us and what sin is, for which he made satisfaction?" (112–113).
^Cf.Luther's Works 41, 113–114, 143–144, 146–147. There he said about the antinomians: "They may be fine Easter preachers, but they are very poor Pentecost preachers, for they do not preachde sanctificatione et vivificatione Spiritus Sancti, "about the sanctification by the Holy Spirit," but solely about the redemption of Jesus Christ" (114). "Having rejected and being unable to understand the Ten Commandments, ... they see and yet they let the people go on in their public sins, without any renewal or reformation of their lives" (147).
^Cf. Luther,Only the Decalogue Is Eternal, 170–172
^Cf. Luther,Only the Decalogue Is Eternal, 76, 105–107.
^Cf. Luther,Only the Decalogue Is Eternal, 140, 157.
^Cf. Luther,Only the Decalogue Is Eternal, 75, 104–105, 172–173.
^The "first use of the law," accordingly, would be the law used as an external means of order and coercion in the political realm by means of bodily rewards and punishments.
^Brecht, Martin,Martin Luther, tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 3: 206. For a more extensive list of quotes from Luther on the topic of polygamy, see page 11 and following ofLuther's Authentic Voice on PolygamyArchived 20 January 2019 at theWayback Machine Nathan R. Jastram, Concordia Theological Journal, Fall 2015/Spring 2016, Volume 3
^Brecht, Martin,Martin Luther, tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 3:212.
^Brecht, Martin,Martin Luther, tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 3:214.
^Brecht, Martin,Martin Luther, tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 3:205–215.
^Oberman, Heiko,Luther: Man Between God and the Devil, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006, 294.
^Michael, Robert.Holy Hatred: Christianity, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, 109; Mullett, 242.
^Edwards, Mark.Luther's Last Battles. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983, 121.
^Iversen OH (1996). "Martin Luther's somatic diseases. A short life-history 450 years after his death".Tidsskr. Nor. Legeforen. (in Norwegian).116 (30):3643–3646.PMID9019884.
^Luther, Martin. Sermon No. 8, "Predigt über Mat. 11:25, Eisleben gehalten," 15 February 1546,Luthers Werke, Weimar 1914, 51:196–197.
^Poliakov, Léon.From the Time of Christ to the Court Jews, Vanguard Press, p. 220.
^Mackinnon, James.Luther and the Reformation. Vol. IV, (New York): Russell & Russell, 1962, p. 204.
^Luther, Martin.Admonition against the Jews, added to his final sermon, cited inOberman, Heiko.Luther: Man Between God and the Devil, New York: Image Books, 1989, p. 294. A complete translation of Luther'sAdmonition can be found in Wikisource.s:Warning Against the Jews (1546)
^Reeves, Michael. "The Unquenchable Flame". Nottingham: IVP, 2009, p. 60.
^Brecht, Martin.Martin Luther. tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 3:369–379.
^abMcKim, Donald K. (2003).The Cambridge companion to Martin Luther. Cambridge companions to religion. Cambridge University Press. p. 19.ISBN978-0-521-01673-5.
^Original German and Latin of Luther's last written words is: "Wir sein pettler. Hoc est verum."Heinrich Bornkamm [de],Luther's World of Thought, tr. Martin H. Bertram (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1958), 291.
^Dorfpredigten: Biblische Einsichten aus Deutschlands 'wildem Süden'. Ausgewählte Predigten aus den Jahren 1998 bis 2007 Teil II 2002–2007 by Thomas O.H. Kaiser, p. 354
^Berger, Ronald.Fathoming the Holocaust: A Social Problems Approach (New York: Aldine De Gruyter, 2002), 28;Johnson, Paul.A History of the Jews (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1987), 242;Shirer, William.The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1960).
^Himmler wrote: "what Luther said and wrote about the Jews. No judgment could be sharper."
^See Noble, Graham. "Martin Luther and German anti-Semitism,"History Review (2002) No. 42:1–2.
^Diarmaid MacCulloch,Reformation: Europe's House Divided, 1490–1700. New York: Penguin Books Ltd, 2004, pp. 666–667.
^Bernd Nellessen, "Die schweigende Kirche: Katholiken und Judenverfolgung," in Buttner (ed),Die Deutschen und die Jugendverfolg im Dritten Reich, p. 265, cited in Daniel Goldhagen,Hitler's Willing Executioners (Vintage, 1997)
^Siemon-Netto, "Luther and the Jews," Lutheran Witness 123 (2004) No. 4:19, 21.
^Hillerbrand, Hans J. "Martin Luther,"Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007. Hillerbrand writes: "His strident pronouncements against the Jews, especially toward the end of his life, have raised the question of whether Luther significantly encouraged the development of German anti-Semitism. Although many scholars have taken this view, this perspective puts far too much emphasis on Luther and not enough on the larger peculiarities of German history."
^Bainton, Roland:Here I Stand, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, New American Library, 1983), p. 297
^Synod deplores and disassociates itself from Luther's negative statements about the Jewish people and the use of these statements to incite anti-Lutheran sentiment, from a summary ofOfficial Missouri Synod Doctrinal StatementsArchived 25 February 2009 at theWayback Machine
^Lull, TimothyMartin Luther's Basic Theological Writings, Second Edition (2005), p. 25
^See Merton P. Strommen et al., A Study of Generations (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing, 1972), p. 206. P. 208 also states "The clergy [ALC, LCA, or LCMS] are less likely to indicate anti-Semitic or racially prejudiced attitudes [compared to the laity]."
^Richard (Dick) Geary, "Who voted for the Nazis? (electoral history of the National Socialist German Workers' Party)", inHistory Today, 1 October 1998, Vol. 48, Issue 10, pp. 8–14
^"The Calendar".The Church of England. Retrieved9 April 2021.
^Anne C. Harper."Iglesia ni Cristo"(PDF).STJ's Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements. Sacred Tribes Press:1–3. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 5 October 2011.
Brecht, Martin; tr. James L. Schaaf (1985).Martin Luther. Vol. 1: His Road to Reformation,1483–1521. Philadelphia: Fortress Press.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
Brecht, Martin; tr. James L. Schaaf (1994).Martin Luther. Vol. 2: Shaping and Defining the Reformation,1521–1532. Philadelphia: Fortress Press.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
Brecht, Martin; tr. James L. Schaaf (1999).Martin Luther. Vol. 3: The Preservation of the Church,1532–1546. Philadelphia: Fortress Press.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
Mullett, Michael A. (1986).Luther. Methuen & Co (Lancashire Pamphlets).ISBN978-0-415-10932-1.
Wilson, Derek (2007).Out of the Storm: The Life and Legacy of Martin Luther. London: Hutchinson.ISBN978-0-09-180001-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
Atkinson, James (1968).Martin Luther and the Birth of Protestantism, in series, Pelican Book[s]. Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin Books. 352 pp.
Bainton, Roland.Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1950),online
Brecht, Martin.Martin Luther: His Road to Reformation 1483–1521 (vol 1, 1985);Martin Luther 1521–1532: Shaping and Defining the Reformation (vol 2, 1994);Martin Luther The Preservation of the Church Vol 3 1532–1546 (1999), a standard scholarly biographyexcerpts
Erikson, Erik H. (1958).Young Man Luther: A Study in Psychoanalysis and History. New York: W.W. Norton.
Fife, Robert Herndon. (1928).Young Luther: The Intellectual and Religious Development of Martin Luther to 1518. New York: Macmillan.
Fife, Robert Herndon. (1957).The Revolt of Martin Luther. New York NY: Columbia University Press.
Friedenthal, Richard (1970).Luther, His Life and Times. Trans. from the German by John Nowell. First American ed. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. viii, 566 p.N.B.: Trans. of the author'sLuther, sein Leben und seine Zeit.
Kolb, Robert; Dingel, Irene; Batka, Ľubomír (eds.):The Oxford Handbook of Martin Luther's Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.ISBN978-0-19-960470-8.
Luther, M.The Bondage of the Will. Eds.J.I. Packer and O.R. Johnson. Old Tappan, NJ: Revell, 1957.OCLC22724565.
Luther, Martin (1974).Selected Political Writings, ed. and with an introd. by J.M. Porter. Philadelphia: Fortress Press.ISBN0-8006-1079-2
Luther's Works, 55 vols. Eds. H.T. Lehman andJ. Pelikan. St Louis, Missouri, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1955–86. Also on CD-ROM. Minneapolis and St Louis: Fortress Press and Concordia Publishing House, 2002.
Maritain, Jacques (1941).Three Reformers: Luther, Descartes, Rousseau. New York: C. Scribner's Sons. N.B.: Reprint of the ed. published by Muhlenberg Press.
Nettl, Paul (1948).Luther and Music, trans. by Frida Best and Ralph Wood. New York: Russell & Russell, 1967, cop. 1948. vii, 174 p.
Reu, Johann Michael (1917).Thirty-five Years of Luther Research. Chicago: Wartburg Publishing House.
Schalk, Carl F. (1988).Luther on Music: Paradigms of Praise. Saint Louis, Mo.: Concordia Publishing House.ISBN0-570-01337-2
Stang, William (1883).The Life of Martin Luther. Eighth ed. New York: Pustet & Co.N.B.: This is a work of Roman Catholic polemical nature.
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![Casts of Luther's face and hands at his death, in the Market Church in Halle[260]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aLuther_death-hand_mask.jpg)
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