Martin Luther biography

Dromo's Den

Martin Luther Biography

LUTHER, Martin (1483–1546). The founder of Protestant Christianity, born at Eisleben, in the heart of Germany, Nov. 10, 1483. His father, Hans, a poor miner, and his mother, Margaret, did not spare the rod in bringing up their large family. Amid the privations of poverty, the brutalities of his first schoolmasters, and superstitious terrors of the devil and of witches, the boy’s life was far from happy. At the age of 13 he was sent to Magdeburg to school, and then for four years to Eisenach, at both of which places he, like other poor students, helped support himself by begging. In the autumn of 1501 he matriculated at the University of Erfurt. Ranking among the better scholars, he took his bachelor's degree in 1502 and that of master three years later.

He had just begun the study of jurisprudence, when the course of his life was suddenly altered. An epidemic of the plague swept over Germany, killing two of his brothers and forcing the university to close. As he was returning to it from home, on July 2, 1505, he was overtaken by a thunderstorm, which frightened him into making the vow to St. Anna to become a monk. Two weeks later he fulfilled this promise by entering the Augustinian friary at Erfurt. After a year’s novitiate he took the irrevocable vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience; in 1507 he was ordained priest. In 1508 he was called to teach philosophy at the new University of Wittenberg. Returning to Erfurt, he continued to lecture on theology. A pilgrimage to Rome on business of the order in the winter of 1510–11 gave him an unfavorable impression of conditions in the capital of Christendom. In 1511 he was again called to Wittenberg as professor of biblical exegesis, a position he held the rest of his life.

His inner experiences during the first 10 years in the friary are of more interest than his public actions. He began with the conviction of sin, and the horrible belief that he was predestined to an eternity in hell. He learned, both from the practice of the Church and from the theologians, that a man must win salvation by "good works," chief of which was reckoned the monastic life, with its prayers, its hardships, and its penances. He also believed that concupiscence was the greatest of sins and was original sin itself. Finding that none of his efforts, strenuous though these were, could rid him of natural desire nor give him assurance of God's grace, he concluded that the will was impotent, and that no human actions whatever could suffice to merit divine favor. The worthlessness of "good works" was impressed upon him by a sharp quarrel with some members of his order who laid most stress upon the regulations of the cloister. He kept asking himself "How can I win a gracious God?" and the answer, suggested partly by the counsels of his superior, John von Staupitz, and partly by the writings of the German mystics and of St. Paul, came to him about 1515 with such force that he believed it to be a direct revelation of the Holy Ghost. It dawned on him that, if man could do nothing, all must be left to God. Pure passivity in his hands, complete self-abandonment, constituted that "faith," justification by which has ever since been counted the cardinal doctrine of Protestants.

The effect of his discovery was instantaneous. Not only did it become the burden of his lectures on Romans (1515–16) and Galatians (1517–19), but it stimulated him to purge his order and his university, as far as lay in his power, of some of the older doctrine and practices. He soon found himself obliged to protest against what he deemed a flagrant abuse.

Among the "good works" recommended to Christians at that time, one of the most obtrusive was the purchase of indulgences or papal remissions of the penalties of sin, including both penances in this life and the pains of purgatory. An indulgence proclaimed by Pope Leo X in 1515 was taken up by Albert, Archbishop of Mainz, and exploited extensively. His chief agent was a Dominican named John Tetzel, who traveled through Germany proclaiming that for a payment of money remission of the temporal punishment due to sin could be obtained. Nor were these benefits limited to the living; the souls of the dead were released from purgatory as soon as indulgences applicable to those souls were gained for them by their friends. Many men were opposed to this procedure, but no effectual protest was made, until, on Oct. 31, 1517, Martin Luther posted on the doors of the principal church at Wittenberg 95 theses calling in question the value of indulgences, and particularly arraigning the practices of the agents employed to sell them. The Theses, written in Latin, were translated into German and published without Luther's knowledge. They spread like wildfire over Germany, in many quarters applauded to the echo, and awakened vehement opposition to the indulgences in question.

The Church, always sensitive to attacks on her power and revenues, lost no time in acting. As early as February, 1518, the Pope ordered the general of the Augustinians to make the presumptuous friar recant. At a general chapter of the order held at Heidelberg in May, Luther was present, but, far from recanting, defended his position in a public debate. He was accordingly summoned to appear before the Cardinal Legate Cajetan at Augsburg to answer for his heresy. He did so in October, but again refused, in a stormy interview, to retract aught that he had said. Shortly afterward he appealed from the Pope to a general council of the Church, a new offense in the eyes of the curia. Cajetan was instructed to seize him and send him to Rome, a project foiled by Luther's sovereign, Elector Frederick III of Saxony, who secured for him a safe-conduct from the Emperor Maximilian.

Failing in force, the Church resorted to milder means. Charles von Miltitz was sent as special nuncio to Saxony, with instructions to persuade Brother Martin to keep quiet, or else to cajole the Elector into suppressing him. A meeting between Miltitz and Luther early in January, 1519, failed to accomplish anything.

In July a still wider publicity was given to the whole affair by a debate held at Leipzig between Luther and his colleague Carlstadt on one side, and the celebrated Catholic theologian John Eck on the other. Starting from the question of indulgences, the debate soon came to turn on the power of the Pope to grant them, and from that to the authority of the Roman see in general. Luther denied the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome, which he considered a usurpation about four centuries old, and he further denied that churches not in communion with Rome were for that reason schismatic. It was for this doctrine that John Huss had been condemned by the Council of Constance in 1415; Luther asserted that the council had erred in doing this, and that many of the positions of Huss condemned as heresy were in reality "most Christian and evangelic." His words sent a thrill throughout Christendom. He had first appealed from indulgence seller to Pope, then from Pope to council; he now declared a council could err and appealed from it to the Bible as interpreted by his own reason. It was a clear issue, though hardly recognized as such by himself, between the religion of authority and the religion of private judgment.

The Wittenberg professor continued to develop his ideas in a series of remarkable publications. The success of his movement was due in large measure to the recent invention of printing. The press, as an organ for appealing to and molding public opinion, has never been more thoroughly exploited than it was by the reformer. In 1520 three pamphlets, in many respects his most powerful works, set forth the programme of the Reformation. In the first, An Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, he called on the secular powers to reform, by force if necessary, the abuses in the Church. Elsewhere he proclaimed that the Pope was Antichrist and summoned his countrymen to march on Rome and wash their hands in the blood of the old religionists. In his second pamphlet, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, he attacked the sacramental system and reduced the number of sacraments from seven to two. The third, The Liberty of a Christian Man, a devotional treatise, sets forth a mystical ideal of indifference to the world.

In the meantime a papal commission, headed by John Eck, drew up the bull Exsurge Domine, condemning Luther and threatening excommunication and all the penalties of heresy. This was signed by Leo on June 15, 1520, was taken by Eck to Germany, and published there in September. Far from being intimidated, Luther burned it, together with the whole Canon Law and other books supporting the papal declarations, at Wittenberg, on December 10. The curia continued to use every means to secure the bold friar's condemnation by the secular authorities. The death of Maximilian on Jan. 12, 1519, necessitated a new Imperial election. Leo at first promised Frederick of Saxony his support in gaining the crown, in exchange for the surrender of his obnoxious subject. The wise Prince refused and threw his influence to Charles, of Spain, who was duly elected in June, 1519. Charles V, as he was now called, did not come to Germany to be crowned until the autumn of 1520. The machinations of the Papal Nuncio, Aleander, were foiled by Frederick, who stipulated that before being condemned Luther should be heard by the Imperial Diet about to be opened at Worms. The Wittenberg professor was accordingly summoned, and appeared, before this august body on April 17 and 18, 1521. Asked to recant, he refused in the memorable oration of which the closing words are traditionally, though perhaps not quite accurately, reported: "Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen."

Acting under pressure from the Emperor, and doubtless contrary to the wishes of most of the members, the Diet passed the Edict of Worms, putting Luther under the ban of the Empire. The legates urged Charles to seize Luther at once, in violation of the safe-conduct; but the young ruler was true to his word and allowed the condemned man to depart in safety. Frederick of Saxony, seeing that it would be unsafe to protect Luther openly, secretly sent him to one of his castles, the Wartburg. Here the reformer remained nearly a year in hiding, doing important literary work; here he wrote his treatise On Monastic Vows, proclaiming that they were invalid and wrong and urging monks and nuns to leave their cloisters; here also he made his translation of the New Testament from the Greek text published by Erasmus. In later years he added to this the Old Testament, and the work as a whole is justly ranked high as a scholarly achievement and still higher as a stylistic masterpiece. It was not, indeed, the first German version, but as it far surpassed all others not only in its intrinsic excellence, but also in the hold it took on the people, it marks a real epoch in German life and literature.

Luther returned to Wittenberg in March, 1522, in order to quiet some disturbances caused by the arrival in that town of three Anabaptists, who proclaimed themselves prophets and urged a much more radical reform than that of Luther. He had little difficulty in restoring order and forthwith set about the arduous task of organizing his new church. He altered the services in accordance with his new ideas of the sacraments and substituted German for Latin. He also framed a new system of Church government, in which the highest authority was the civil ruler. His famous catechisms (1529) furnished religious instruction to the people. Of the hymns he wrote, the greatest, "A mighty fortress is our God," has ever been the battle song of the Evangelical church.

Owing partly to dissatisfaction with the conditions of the old Church, partly to a growing discontent with her ascetic ideal, and partly to other causes, such as the rise of nationalism and individualism, the spread of the revolt from Rome was rapid during the lifetime of its leader, most of the states of Germany and some foreign nations ranging themselves under his banner. The most serious menace to the new cause came in 1525 with the insurrection of the German peasants. A class war, motived by economic conditions, it was nevertheless believed to be largely the result of the religious movement. The leaders themselves appealed to Luther, who approved of some of their demands, while condemning others, such as the request of the serfs to be freed. He soon became alienated by the excesses of the rebels and wrote an invective against them, urging the upper classes "to stab, smite, and slay" those "enemies of God" as in a crusade. The rebellion was, in fact, put down with ruthless slaughter, for which Luther cannot be held entirely guiltless.

Another scandal to the new church was the bigamy of its ablest political champion, Philip, Landgrave of Hesse. As Luther had stated in 1520 that he preferred polygamy to divorce, on the ground that the former was not forbidden by the New Testament as was the latter, and as in 1531 he had advised Henry VIII of England to take a second wife rather than put away Catharine of Aragon, Philip naturally turned to him for approval of his own bigamous marriage. A dispensation for this was signed by Luther and Melanchthon on Dee. 10, 1539, accompanied, however, by a strong recommendation to keep the matter secret. Luther even advised Philip, "for the sake and good of the Christian Church, to tell a good, strong lie"— a practice which in a pious cause he claimed was sanctioned by the example of Christ.

The tendency of Protestantism to divide into many bodies showed itself in the first years of its existence. It is remarkable that Luther should have regarded other reformed sects with a hatred more malignant, if possible, than that with which he visited the Catholics. The greatest of his rivals was Ulrich Zwingli, who differed from him in regarding the Eucharist as a simple memorial service, whereas Luther insisted on the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the bread and wine; his doctrine, called consubstantiation, in fact closely resembled the transubstantiation of the Roman church. An acrimonious war of pens was followed by a personal conference between the two leaders at Marburg in October, 1529; but this accomplished so little in the way of reconciling them that when Zwingli died, two years later, his fellow reformer loudly proclaimed his belief that the other had been damned for his errors. The Anabaptists he called "senseless fools possessed by the Devil," and his followers joined the Catholics at the Diet of Spires (1529) in passing an edict condemning them to death. When, in 1530, a Protestant inquisition was established in Saxony with Melanchthon at its head, resulting in the banishment, life imprisonment, and execution of many nonconformists, Luther publicly expressed his approval.

On June 13, 1525, the reformer married Catharine von Bora, an ex-nun 13 years younger than himself. His domestic life was happy and hospitable. Besides his own six children he cared for several orphaned nephews and nieces, and besides numerous guests he entertained a large number, of poor students. These fervent disciples wrote down everything the master said, and this "Table Talk," later published, has always enjoyed great popularity, not only because of the refreshing and Rabelaisian unreserve of the conversations, but also because of their real brilliance. During his last years, tortured by painful diseases, he sank into world weariness and disgust with life. He died, while on a visit to Eisleben, on Feb. 18, 1546.

In estimating Luther's place in history, we must pass over the partisan claims of his disciples and of his foes. He stood in an age of transition, as far removed from the mediæval on the one side as from the modern on the other. Finding its ideal in a remote past, the Reformation was not, intentionally, a progressive movement. "We know," said its leader, "that Reason is the Devil's harlot, who can do nought but slander and harm whatever God says and does." Quite consistently he proclaimed Copernicus "a great, big fool" for thinking he knew more about the motions of the stars than did the inspired writers. Erasmus he charged with atheism for applying scientific principles to the elucidation of Scripture. Neither was he in any sense a social reformer. For the improvement of the condition of the masses, as for political equality, he never cared at all. From the Middle Ages he took his conception of an authoritative ecclesiastical civilization, in which the state should be charged with the duty of stamping out heresy. Even in his own field of theology he made surprisingly little innovation. He not only postulated the existence of an ethical, personal God and of a future life, but he took from the Church of Rome most of her mysteries, including the doctrine of the Trinity and the miracles and resurrection of Christ. The one important dogmatic reform he made, that of the sacramental system, was not, according to Harnack, because he was specially enlightened, but "because of his inner experience that when grace does not endow the soul with God the sacraments are an illusion."

On the other hand, his services to the world are solid and important. In the first place, he broke the monopoly hitherto enjoyed by the Roman church. It was not so important that the new churches were different in quality from the old, as that they did effectively, and even in a cutthroat spirit, compete with her. Secondly, the Reformation really was in many respects a progressive movement, and not, as it claimed to be, mainly the return to a primitive standpoint. By appealing from the highest authority to his own private conscience and judgment, Luther set an example and initiated a method which, however much he might deprecate its use by others, was inevitably bound to lead on from one position to another, in the ever greater assertion of freedom and of the right of reason. Thirdly, in many ways, especially by abolishing monastic vows, he restored to the world and to the family countless men and women formerly living in unproductive sterility. But, more than this, he shattered the ascetic ideal which, by turning men’s thoughts to the other world, had for 1500 years diverted them from the improvement of this world. By declaring that the man at the plow and the woman at the loom did God the truest service, Luther gave the necessary sanction to the immense material industry of modern times. In asserting that all laymen were priests he purposed to reduce the clerical calling to the level of any lay vocation.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XIV (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 485-488.