Luther's Reformation

A Conscience Unbound
I. Luther's Theological Evolution
Ninety-five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences

Luther’s father, Hans Luder, was a respectable and successful

Thuringian miner who attained considerable although not
enormous wealth. He was therefore able to ensure that his second
son received a good education.

One of eight children, Martin was born on November 10, 1483,

in Eisleben, but grew up in Mansfeld. When Martin turned
fourteen, he was sent to a preparatory school in Magdeburg and
later in Eisenach
He attended the University of Erfurt, where he received his
baccalaureate in 1502 and a master’s degree in January 1505,
graduating second in his class.
Went off to law school in Erfurt

It would appear that several experiences turned Luther’s attention

from law to the monastery.
Plague

A lightning bolt struck a tree perilously close by, and the young
Luther, in a fit of fear, called upon St. Anne, the patron saint of
distressed travelers, vowing to become a monk if only she would
spare his life. St. Anne did spare his life, and Luther, true to his
promise, entered the monastery of the Augustinian Hermits.

Luther bowed his head and entered the monastic life in July 1505.
A. Monastic Life

The Augustinian Hermits in Erfurt and one of the

more rigorous religious orders
Luther was a successful monk.
Academic abilities were quickly recognized by
Staupitz,
Instructor at the new University of Wittenberg
Doctorate in 1512
B. The Evangelical Breakthrough
Justification by faith alone (sola fide)
His theological discovery as a single decisive event, we should view it
more as a gradual process.
His lectures on the Psalms (1513–15) and Romans (1515–16)

His early education had taught him to think of God’s righteousness as an

“active righteousness” that demands that humans in their own strength
measure up to God’s righteous standards. Luther, however, came to the
conviction that human effort is utterly unable to achieve this standard of
righteousness unless God grants it graciously without regard to merit.
B. The Evangelical Breakthrough
Romans 1:17 (“For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith
to faith”)
The “righteousness of God” in this text is not, as he had been taught,
referring to a divine attribute, but to the divine activity of clothing
sinners in the righteousness of Christ through the gift of faith.

Rejected the concept of meritorious works by 1513–15

Luther did not make a sharp distinction between justification and

sanctification.
Justification both an event and a process
B. The Evangelical Breakthrough
Both are gifts from God, and both come to the Christian via faith.

“Luther does not scruple to use the one word justification to cover the
process of sanctification as well as justification in the narrower and
stricter sense.” Luther’s understanding of justification underwent a shift
after 1530

Commentary on Galatians (1535).

Protestant doctrine of justification, centering on the imputed

righteousness of Christ for the forgiveness of sins.
Justification as the imputed righteousness of Christ
C. The Indulgences Controversy
The selling of indulgences (remission of temporal punishment for sin)
was the historical fulcrum around which the early events of the
Reformation revolved. Pope Julius II permitted the sale of indulgences in
1507
“Once a coin into the coffer clings, a soul from purgatory springs.”

Frederick the Wise, a prince in the electorate of Saxony, refused to let

Tetzel into his territory

George Burckhardt (known as Spalatin), Frederick’s private secretary, a

court preacher, and an advocate for Luther.
D. The Sacrament of Penance
At the heart of medieval Catholicism was the sacrament of penance, which
sometimes is called the “second plank of salvation.”

Baptism washed away the culpa (guilt) of original sin, but neither plank
washed away the poena (punishment).

Every sin deserved two kinds of punishment, eternal and temporal

The Fourth Lateran Council defined penance in 1215 as requiring three

responsibilities of the sinner: contrition, confession, and satisfaction.
Contrition can be defined as genuine sorrow over the commission of a sin.
Confession in the Catholic Church, according to 1 John 1:9, required an oral
admission of sins to a priest, who serves as the intermediary between God and
man.
D. The Sacrament of Penance
Satisfaction required that God be satisfied, or compensated somehow, for the
dishonor incurred by the sin.

“treasury of merit"
On what basis did a priest or pope claim to have the authority to produce
satisfaction?
“spiritual reservoir”

In 1460 Pope Sixtus IV decided that the buying of indulgences not only was
good for the sinner in this life, but could be applied to deceased family
members in purgatory as well.
“By the sixteenth century, there was not an intelligent man in Europe who did
not know that a reformation was at hand.”
II. From Controversy to Reformation
A. The October Revolution of 1517 (Ninety-five Theses)

He was also concerned about the economic exploitation. He explicitly

mentions “money” or “wealth” in nine of the theses, thereby suggesting that
he was contemptuous of Tetzel’s financial exploitation

A strong economic and social element existed in the Reformation, which

made it more complex than a matter of people simply hearing and
responding to the gospel.

As said earlier, someone realized its significance and had it translated into
German, printed, and distributed throughout Germany. Perhaps it was
someone from Albert’s court who, like so many Germans, was disturbed by
Roman interference in German affairs.
II. From Controversy to Reformation
A. The October Revolution of 1517 (Ninety-five Theses)

Luther was perceived as a loyal German standing up to the Roman religious

occupation of Germany, and Albert was seen as a collaborator with the
enemy of the German people.

The posting of the theses was not an act of rebellion against the church, but
the work of a responsible church theologian who was seeking to address
what he perceived to be distortions of Catholic teaching.

Even though the Ninety-five Theses were intended for discussion purposes
of the theological faculty at Wittenberg, the papacy saw in them an implicit
challenge to the authority of Rome.
II. From Controversy to Reformation
A. The October Revolution of 1517 (Ninety-five Theses)

Sylvester Prieras (1518), as the title indicates (Dialogue Concerning the

Power of the Pope), asserted that the deeper issue beneath Luther’s criticism
of Tetzel was papal authority.

Dr. Jerome Schurff, professor of canon law, cautioned, “Do you wish to
write against the pope?… It won’t be tolerated.” Emperor Maximilian in his
letter to Pope Leo X (August 5, 1518) asserted that in the Ninety-five
Theses “the authority of the Pope is disregarded” and added that they appear
to be “injurious and heretical.”

From Tetzel’s perspective, the pope had authorized him to sell the
indulgences, and therefore to challenge the sale of indulgences was in fact a
challenge to papal authority. What Luther intended to address as a matter of
the abuse of indulgences quickly became a matter of the authority of the
pope.
II. From Controversy to Reformation
B. The Heidelberg Disputation (1518)

Luther was sent as a delegate to the triennial meeting of the Augustinian

Hermits in Heidelberg. Staupitz gave him the opportunity to articulate and
defend his views in the customary disputation.

Remarkably, the topic of indulgences was not addressed. Rather, Luther was
much more concerned to address the larger theological doctrines that
underlay his deepest convictions, such as original sin, free will, law-gospel
distinction, and grace.
First, Luther had embraced an intensively Augustinian reading of the apostle
Paul.

His understanding of original sin was so rigorous that he rejected out of

hand the notion of free will. In thesis 13 he stated that “free will, after the
fall, exists in name only, and as long as it does what it is able, it commits a
mortal sin.”
II. From Controversy to Reformation
B. The Heidelberg Disputation (1518)

The Bondage of the Will (1525).

Second, the forty theses manifest Luther’s white-hot anti-Scholastic and

anti-Aristotelian sentiments. His antipathy toward his

“The person who believes that he can obtain grace by doing what is in him
(facere quod in se est) adds sin so that he becomes doubly guilty.”

The conclusion that Scholasticism and Aristotle could not coexist with Paul
and Augustine.

“I have just seen the next Erasmus” (Martin Bucer, speaking of Martin
Luther).
II. From Controversy to Reformation
C. Encountering the Power of Rome

“drunken monk”

the pope asked Prierias (Silvester Mazzolini), the Master of the Sacred
Palace and Dominican professor of theology, to investigate.

Pope Leo lost patience and on August 7 ordered Luther to appear in Rome
within sixty days to recant his heresies.

Cardinal Cajetan (Thomas de Vio)

Augsburg (October 12–14)

“The pope is above the council and also above the Holy Scripture. Recant!”
II. From Controversy to Reformation
C. Encountering the Power of Rome

Staupitz secretly released Luther from his monastic obedience so that he no

longer represented the Augustinian order.
Cajetan described Luther as a “deep-eyed German beast filled with strange
speculations.

It was only later that he concluded that indulgences were indeed

symptomatic of the much deeper matter of papal authority.

Pope Leo sent his nuncio (ambassador) and chamberlain, Karl von Miltitz

At their meeting on January 6, 1519, the papal nuncio expressed sympathy

toward Luther and laid blame for the indulgences controversy at the feet of
Tetzel, but he also implored Luther not to destroy the unity of the church.
II. From Controversy to Reformation
C. Encountering the Power of Rome

The accusations against Luther should be settled in Germany by a German

bishop and not in Rome.

In a letter of March 3, 1519, Luther humbly acknowledged the authority of

the papacy and affirmed that he had never sought to undermine the Roman
Church, although he still expressed concerns over the sale of indulgences.
II. From Controversy to Reformation
D. The Leipzig Disputation (1519)

Dr. Johann Eck (Johann Maier of Eck), one of the leading theologians at the
University of Ingolstadt, sought a public debate with Luther and published
twelve (later thirteen) theses against Luther in December 1518.

A disputation should be held in Leipzig between Eck and Luther and his
senior colleague at the University of Wittenberg, Karlstadt (Andreas
Rudolph Bodenstein von Karlstadt).

On July 5 Eck accused Luther of being dangerously close to the “Bohemian

heresy” (of Jan Hus).
“Among the articles of Jan Hus, I find many that are plainly Christian and
evangelical.”
“The plague is upon us!”
 II. From Controversy to Reformation
D. The Leipzig Disputation (1519)

On July 7 he argued that church councils could err. Eck seized on this as
undeniable heresy: “If you believe that a council, legitimately called, has
erred and can err, be then to me as a Gentile and a publican. I do not have to
explain further what a heretic is.” Eck was declared the victor by Duke
George, and the theological faculties at Cologne and Louvain joined in
condemning Luther as a heretic. However, not everyone gave the victory to
Eck. Town councilman Lazarus Spengler of Nuremberg sided with Luther,
as did the humanists Willibald Pirckheimer and Johann Oecolampadius. As
it turned out, Leipzig was Luther’s Rubicon.
II. From Controversy to Reformation
E. The New Holy Roman Emperor

A new emperor had been elected on June 28 for the Holy Roman Empire
(which covered generally what is modern-day Germany). It was Charles V
of Spain. Emperor Maximilian had died on January 12

Rome opposed the election of Charles because it would enhance his already
vast power.

The Catholic Church did not want such a powerful rival. Initially, the
papacy found common cause with Francis I of France and supported his
candidacy.
Francis did not have the clout or the finances to secure election.

The papacy supported Frederick the Wise as the alternative imperial

candidate.

The papal courting of the elector had an unexpected benefit for Luther.
II. From Controversy to Reformation
F. Luther’s Growing Defiance

Suleiman the Magnificent and his Turkish armies posed a serious threat on
the eastern border of the empire. The effect of this two-front war was to
pull the emperor’s attention away from the empire and distract him from
dealing decisively with Luther. In 1520 Luther boldly began to put his
distinctive convictions to pen and paper.

1. On the Papacy of Rome

In 1517 Ulrich von Hutten had published Lorenzo Valla’s proof that
the ancient ecclesiastical documents supporting papal supremacy —
the Isodorian Decretals and the Donation of Constantine — were
forgeries.
II. From Controversy to Reformation
2. The Address to the German Nobility

“The time for silence is gone, and the time for speaking has come”

The Roman Church had built three walls to preserve its power over
people and nations. The first wall attacked by Luther was the idea that
popes, bishops, monks, and priests are spiritually superior to laity

“priesthood of all believers.”

the pope alone has the right to interpret Scriptures.

only the pope could summon church councils. Luther reminded his
German readers that the emperor, not the pope, had called the famous
Council of Nicea in 325. Thus the German nobility had every right to
convene a church council if it so willed.
II. From Controversy to Reformation

2. The Address to the German Nobility

Kissing papal feet, said Luther, was “antichristian"

Luther made a long list of practical reforms

Each congregation should elect its own pastor, ministers should be free
to marry, prostitution should be abolished, and the universities should
be reformed. Luther was advocating nothing less than the complete
abolition of papal authority over the state — and he found a receptive
German audience.
II. From Controversy to Reformation
3. On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church

Published in 1520

Sacramental system

He identified three errors of the sacrament by which the papacy held

the church captive.

“To deny reception of both kinds is an act of impiety and tyranny,” he

thundered.

Luther had disparaged Aristotle as a “dead, blind, accursed, proud,

knavish heathen teacher” and thus regarded any doctrine built on
Aristotelian logic as foolish in the extreme.
II. From Controversy to Reformation
3. On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church

“consubstantiation"

“They [the Roman Church] make God no longer the bestower of good
gifts to us, but the receiver of ours. Such impiety!”

Luther did think the church had overly relied on the second plank of
penance rather than the first plank of baptism for bringing
regeneration.

As for the remaining traditional sacraments (confirmation, marriage,

penance, ordination, and extreme unction), Luther rejected all as
without a divine promise or an external sign.

In the final analysis, Luther upheld only two of the traditional seven
sacraments: baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
II. From Controversy to Reformation
4. The Freedom of the Christian Man

The Christian is the lord of all, and subject to none, because of faith;
he is the servant of all, and subject to everyone, because of love.

“Good works do not make a person good, but a good person does good
works”

“We conclude, therefore, that a Christian lives not in himself, but in

Christ and in his neighbor. Otherwise, he is not a Christian. He lives in
Christ through faith, in his neighbor through love. By faith he is caught
up beyond himself into God. By love he descends beneath himself into
his neighbor.”

In the final analysis, Luther upheld only two of the traditional seven
sacraments: baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
II. From Controversy to Reformation
G. The Diet of Worms (April 1521)

Once the pope excommunicated Luther, it then became the judicial

responsibility of the Holy Roman Emperor to bring Luther to trial.

Luther was summoned to a hearing at the imperial Diet at Worms in

April 1521.

Dr. Johann von der Eck (not Johann Eck who debated Luther at
Leipzig), called out to him with two questions.

Luther acknowledged authorship of the books. The imperial prosecutor

then asked Luther to renounce them.
II. From Controversy to Reformation
G. The Diet of Worms (April 1521)

“I will not retract one iota, so Christ help me.”

His writings belonged to different categories. First, some were

devotional writings that were edifying for Christians, and even his
opponents would not want him to renounce those. Second, there were
some writings against the corruptions of the papacy. To renounce those
would be tantamount to affirming wickedness, and that he could not
do. Third, some of his works were directed against individuals who
defended papal corruption. He confessed that he had at times used
harsh words, but wickedness had to be dealt with, and therefore he
would not retract them either.

“Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.”

Dr. von der Eck blasted Luther, saying, “Abandon your conscience,
Martin, for your conscience errs.”
II. From Controversy to Reformation
G. The Diet of Worms (April 1521)

The Edict of Worms was severe. It not only proclaimed Luther a

criminal, but also prohibited anyone from assisting him in any way on
penalty of death. All his books were banned as well. For the rest of his
life, Luther was declared a heretic of the church and an outlaw of the
state.

Luther departed Worms alive. Jan Hus had been given the same
imperial promise of safe conduct, yet was burned at the stake at the
Council of Constance in 1415. Danger was still in the air as Luther
departed on April 26. As his wagon neared the small town of Moehra,
on the evening of May 4, five soldiers intercepted the wagon and
kidnapped Luther.
As it turned out, this kidnapping was part of an elaborate plan to save
Luther’s life.
Elector Frederick’s bold act not only saved Luther’s life; it also saved
the Reformation movement.
Thank you for listening!