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{{Short description|German priest, theologian and author (1483–1546)}}
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{{hatnote group|{{distinguish|Martin Luther King Jr.{{!}}Martin Luther King Jr}} {{other uses}}}}
:''For other people named Martin Luther, see ].''
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{|align="right"
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
|{{Infobox Biography
{{Use British English|date=August 2010}}
| subject_name = Martin Luther
{{Infobox theologian
| image_name = Luther46c.jpg
| honorific_prefix = ]
| image_caption = Luther at age 46
| name = Martin Luther
| date_of_birth = ] ]
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|post-noms=]|size=100%}}
| place_of_birth = Eisleben, Germany
| image = Lucas Cranach d.Ä. - Martin Luther, 1528 (Veste Coburg).jpg
| date_of_death = ] ]
| caption = ''Martin Luther'', 1528
| place_of_death = Eisleben, Germany
| birth_name = Martin Luder
| birth_date = 10 November 1483
| birth_place = ], County of Mansfeld, Holy Roman Empire
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1546|02|18|1483|11|10}}
| death_place = Eisleben, County of Mansfeld, Holy Roman Empire
| education = ] (], 1502; ], 1505)<br />] (] in ], 1508; ] in <em>]</em>, 1509; ] in Bible, 1512)
| titles = {{hlist| ] | ] |Author | ]}}
| module2 = {{Ordination
| embed = yes
| name = Martin Luther
| denomination = Catholic
| ordained deacon by = Johannes (or Johann) Bonemilch von Laasphe, Auxiliary Bishop of the ]
| date of diaconal ordination = 27 February 1507
| place of diaconal ordination = ], ], Holy Roman Empire
| ordained priest by = Hieronymus (or Jerome) Schultz {{post-nominals|post-noms=]}}, Bishop of the ]
| date of priestly ordination = 3/4 April 1507
| place of priestly ordination = Cathedral Church of St. Mary, Erfurt, Holy Roman Empire
| consecrated by =
| co-consecrators =
| date of consecration =
| place of consecration =
| elevated by =
| date of elevation =
| sources =
| bishop 1 =
| consecration date 1 = }}
| spouse = {{marriage |] |1525}}
| children = {{hlist |Hans&nbsp;(Johannes) |] |] |Martin |] |Margarethe}}
| notable_works = {{ubl|'']'' (1517)}}
| signature = Martin Luther Signature.svg
| era = ]
| tradition_movement = {{Tree list}}
* ]
** ]
{{tree list/end}}
| main_interests = {{hlist | ] | ]}}
| notable_ideas = {{hlist | ] | ] | ] | ]}}
}} }}
{{Lutheranism}}
|-
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'''Martin Luther''' {{post-nominals|post-noms=]}} ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|uː|θ|ər}} {{respell|LOO|thər}};<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141227044730/http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/martin%20luther |date=27 December 2014 }}. '']''.</ref> {{IPA|de|ˈmaʁtiːn ˈlʊtɐ|lang|De-Martin Luther.ogg}}; 10 November 1483<ref>Luther himself, however, believed that he had been born in 1484. {{cite book|last1=Hendrix|first1=Scott H.|title=Martin Luther: Visionary Reformer|date=2015|publisher=]|page=17|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NHKhCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA17|access-date=12 November 2017|isbn=978-0-300-16669-9}}</ref> – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, ], author, ], professor, and ].<ref>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, the ], 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. 8 ''Luther's Works''. (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999), 5:326.</ref> Luther was the seminal figure of the ], and his ] beliefs form the basis of ]. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in ] and ].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hillerbrand |first=Hans J. |date=14 February 2024 |title=Martin Luther |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Martin-Luther |access-date=29 March 2024 |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref>
'''Martin Luther''' (], ] – ]]) was a ] ],<ref>Ewald Plass, "Monasticism", in <cite>What Luther Says: An Anthology</cite> (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959), 2:964.</ref> ], ], ], and church reformer. His teachings inspired the ] and deeply influenced the ]s and culture of the ] and ] traditions, as well as the course of Western civilization.
Luther's hymns, including his best-known "]", inspired the development of congregational singing within Christianity.<ref>"The last and greatest reform of all was in congregational song. In the Middle Ages the liturgy was almost entirely restricted to the celebrant and the choir. The congregation joined in a few responses in the vernacular. Luther so developed this element that he may be considered the father of congregational song." from Roland Bainton, <cite>Here I Stand: a Life of Martin Luther</cite> (New York: Penguin, 1995), 269; Martin Luther, <cite>Luther: Hymns, Ballads, Chants, Truth</cite> (4 compact disks)(St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2005).</ref> His marriage on ], ], to ] reintroduced the practice of ] within many Christian traditions.<ref>"If he could not reform all Christendom, at any rate he could and did establsh the protestant parsonage" from Bainton, 223.</ref>


Luther was ordained to the ] in 1507. He came to reject several teachings and practices of the ], in particular the view on ]s. Luther attempted to resolve these differences amicably, first proposing an academic discussion of the practice and efficacy of indulgences in '']'', which he authored in 1517. In 1520, ] demanded that Luther renounce all of his writings, and when Luther refused to do so, ] him in January 1521. Later that year, ] condemned Luther as an outlaw at the ]. When Luther died in 1546, Pope Leo X's excommunication was still in effect.
Martin Luther's translation of the Bible furthered the development of a standard version of the ] and added several principles to the art of ].<ref>Erwin Fahlbusch and Geoffrey William Bromiley, <cite>The Encyclopedia of Christianity</cite> (Grand Rapids, MI: Leiden, Netherlands: Wm. B. Eerdmans; Brill, 1999–2003), 1:244.</ref> His translation significantly influenced the English ].<ref><cite>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</cite> (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989), ix-x.</ref> Due to the recently developed ], his writings were widely read, influencing many subsequent ] and thinkers, giving rise to diversifying Protestant traditions in Europe and elsewhere.<ref>Jacques Barzun, <cite>From Dawn to Decadence</cite> (New York: Harper Collins, 2000), 4.</ref> Today, nearly seventy million Christians belong to Lutheran churches worldwide,<ref><span style="text-align: left;">Lutheran World Federation, , <cite>The Lutheran World Federation</cite>, <nowiki>http://www.lutheranworld.org/</nowiki> (accessed ] ]).</span></ref> with some four hundred million Protestant Christians<ref><span style="text-align: left;">" <cite>adherents.com</cite> <nowiki>http://www.adherents.com/</nowiki><br><nowiki>adh_branches.html#Christianity</nowiki> (accessed ] ]).</span></ref> tracing their history back to Luther's reforming work.


Luther taught that ] and, consequently, ] are not earned by good deeds; rather, they are received only as the free gift of God's ] through the believer's ] in ]. ] challenged the authority and office of the pope by teaching that the ] is the ] of ] knowledge,<ref>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.</ref> and opposed ] by considering all baptized Christians to be a ].<ref>Luther, Martin. ''Concerning the Ministry'' (1523), tr. Conrad Bergendoff, in Bergendoff, Conrad (ed.) ''Luther's Works''. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1958, 40:18 ff.</ref> ] into ] from ] made the Bible vastly more accessible to the laity, which had a tremendous impact on both the church and German culture. It fostered the development of a standard version of the ], added several principles to the art of translation,<ref>Fahlbusch, Erwin and Bromiley, Geoffrey William. ''The Encyclopedia of Christianity''. Grand Rapids, MI: Leiden, Netherlands: Wm. B. Eerdmans; Brill, 1999–2003, 1:244.</ref> and influenced the writing of an ] translation, the ].<ref name="Tyndale">''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: ] Press, 1989, ix–x.</ref> His hymns ] of singing in Protestant churches.<ref name="Bainton269">]. ''Here I Stand: a Life of Martin Luther''. New York: Penguin, 1995, 269.</ref> His marriage to ], a former nun, set a model for the practice of ], allowing Protestant ] to marry.<ref name="Bainton223">Bainton, Roland. ''Here I Stand: a Life of Martin Luther''. New York: Penguin, 1995, p. 223.</ref>
Luther is also known for his writings about the ]s, in which he proposed that their homes be destroyed, ]s and schools burned, money confiscated, and rights and liberties curtailed.<ref name=LutherJews>Martin Luther, "On the Jews and Their Lies," Tr. Martin H. Bertram, in <cite>Luther's Works</cite> ed. Franklin Sherman (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971), 47:268-272 (hereafter cited in notes as ''LW'').</ref> These views were given "full publicity"<ref>Timothy F. Lull, "Luther's Writings," in <cite>The Cambridge Companion to Martin Luther</cite>, ed. Donald K. McKim (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 58.</ref> by the ] in Germany in 1933–45.<ref>See also Uwe Siemon-Netto, <cite>The Fabricated Luther: the Rise and Fall of the Shirer Myth</cite>, Forward by Peter L. Berger (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1995).</ref>
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In two later works, Luther expressed ], calling for the expulsion of ] and the burning of ]s.<ref>Hendrix, Scott H. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110302005613/http://www2.luthersem.edu/word%26world/Archives/3-4_Luther/3-4_Hendrix.pdf |date=2 March 2011 }}, ''Word & World'' 3/4 (1983), Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. Also see Hillerbrand, Hans. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716031045/http://cco.cambridge.org/extract?id=ccol0521816483_CCOL0521816483A018 |date=16 July 2011 }}, in Hillerbrand, Hans & McKim, Donald K. (eds.) ''The Cambridge Companion to Luther''. Cambridge University Press, 2003.
==Early life==
]Luther was born to ] and ], on ], ], in ], ]. He was baptized the next morning, on the feast day of ], after whom he was named. His family moved to ] in 1484, where his father first worked in, then later operated, ] mines.<ref name="mines">Martin Brecht, <cite>Martin Luther</cite>, Trans. James L. Schaaf (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985-1993), 1:3-5.</ref> Having risen from the ], Hans Luther was determined to see his eldest son become a lawyer. Luther was sent to schools in Mansfeld and later, in 1497, ], where he attended a school operated by a ] called the ]. In 1498, he attended school in ].<ref name=EB><cite>Encyclopædia Britannica Online</cite>, s.v. (by Ernst Gordon Rupp), <nowiki>http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-59117</nowiki> (Accessed 2006).</ref>


In 1523, Luther wrote that Jesus Christ was born a Jew which discouraged mistreatment of the Jews and advocated their conversion by proving that the ] 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, ], and the ].</ref> These works also targeted ]s, ], and ].<ref>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.</ref> Based upon his teachings, despite the fact that Luther did not directly advocate the murdering of Jews,<ref>Martin Brecht, ''Martin Luther'' (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1985–1993), 3:336.</ref><ref>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 {{cite web |title=Luther and the Jews |url=http://www.ntrmin.org/Luther%20and%20the%20Jews%20(Web).htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051104181522/http://www.ntrmin.org/Luther%20and%20the%20Jews%20%28Web%29.htm |archive-date=4 November 2005 |access-date=21 March 2017}}, this paragraph is not available in the English edition of Luther's works.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Sydow |first=Michael |date=1 December 1999 |title=Journal of Theology: Martin Luther, Reformation Theologian and Educator |url=http://clclutheran.org/library/jtheo_arch/jtdec1999.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928132039/http://clclutheran.org/library/jtheo_arch/jtdec1999.pdf |archive-date=28 September 2007 |access-date=17 May 2022}}</ref> some historians contend that his rhetoric contributed to the development of ] and the emergence, centuries later, of the ].<ref name="Wallman1">"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 Protestant ] 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", '']'', n.s. 1 (Spring 1987) 1:72–97.</ref><ref>For similar views, see:
In 1501, at the age of seventeen, he entered the ] where he played the ] and was nicknamed "the philosopher." He received a ] in 1502 and an ] in 1505, placing second out of seventeen candidates.<ref> E.G. Schwiebert, <cite>Luther and His Times</cite> (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1950), 128.</ref> In accordance with his father's wishes, Luther enrolled in the law school at the same university.
* Berger, Ronald. ''Fathoming the Holocaust: A Social Problems Approach'' (New York: Aldine De Gruyter, 2002), 28.
* ]. "Revolutionary Antisemitism in Germany from Kant to Wagner," (Princeton University Press, 1990), quoted in Berger, 28;
* ]. ''The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'', (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1960).
* ]. ''A History of the Jews'' (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1987), 242.
* ]. ''History of Anti-Semitism: From the Time of Christ to the Court Jews''. (N.P.: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003), 216.
* ]. ''The World Must Know''. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press and the ], 1993, 2000), 8–9.</ref><ref name="Grunberger1971">]. ''The 12-Year Reich: A Social History of Nazi Germany 1933–1945'' (NP:Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971), 465.</ref>


==Early life and education==
According to Luther, the course of his life changed during a thunderstorm in the summer of 1505, when a lightning bolt struck near him as he was returning to school. Terrified, he cried out, "Help! ], I'll become a monk!"<ref>Brecht, 1:48.</ref> His life spared, he left law school, sold his books (save ] and ]), and entered the ] ] in ] on ], ].<ref>Schwiebert, 136.</ref>
===Birth and early life<!--'Hans Luther (15th century)' redirects here-->===
] in 1527]]
] in ]]]
], where he began teaching ] in 1508]]
] with a ]]]
Martin Luther was born on 10 November 1483 to Hans Luder (or Ludher, later Luther)<ref name=Marty1>]. ''Martin Luther''. Viking Penguin, 2004, p. 1.</ref> and his wife Margarethe (née Lindemann) in ], ], in the ]. Luther was ] the next morning on the ] of ].


In 1484, his family moved to ], where his father was a leaseholder of copper mines and smelters<ref name=Brecht3>]. ''Martin Luther''. tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 1:3–5.</ref> and served as one of four citizen representatives on the local council; in 1492, he was elected as a town councilor.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Martin-Luther | title=Martin Luther &#124; Biography, Reformation, Works, & Facts| date=17 May 2023}}</ref><ref name=Marty1/> The religious scholar ] 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.<ref name=Marty1/>
== Monastic and academic life ==
]
Luther dedicated himself to monastic life. He devoted himself to ], long hours in ] and ], and constant ]. Luther tried to please God through this dedication; instead however, it increased his awareness of his own sinfulness.<ref name="Bainton1">Bainton, 40-42.</ref> He would later remark, "If anyone could have gained heaven as a monk, then I would indeed have been among them."<ref>James Kittelson, <cite>Luther The Refomer</cite> (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Publishing House, 1986), 53.</ref> Luther described this period of his life as one of deep spiritual despair. He said, "I lost hold of Christ the Savior and Comforter and made of him a stock-master and hangman over my poor soul."<ref>Kittelson, 79.</ref>


He had several brothers and sisters and is known to have been close to one of them, Jacob.<ref name=Marty3>]. ''Martin Luther''. Viking Penguin, 2004, p. 3.</ref>
], Luther's superior, concluded that the young monk needed more work to distract him from excessive ] and ordered Luther to pursue an academic career. In 1507 he was ordained to the priesthood, and in 1508 he began teaching ] at the ].<ref name="bainton2">Bainton, 44-45.</ref> He received a Bachelor's degree in biblical studies on ], ], and another Bachelor's degree in the '']'' by ] in 1509.<ref>a major ] textbook of theology; Brecht, 1:93.</ref> On ], ], he was awarded his ] and, on ], ], was received into the senate of the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg, having been called to the position of ''Doctor in Bible''.<ref>Brecht, 1:12-27.</ref> He spent the rest of his career in this position at the University of Wittenberg.


===Education===
==Justification by faith==
Hans Luther, Martin's father, was determined to see Martin, his eldest son, become a lawyer. He sent Martin to Latin schools in Mansfeld, then ] in 1497, where he attended the ], a school operated by a ], and ] in 1498.<ref name=RuppEB>]. "Martin Luther," ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', accessed 2006.</ref> The three schools focused on the so-called "]": grammar, rhetoric, and logic. Luther later compared his education there to ] and ].<ref name=Marty2>]. ''Martin Luther''. Viking Penguin, 2004, pp. 2–3.</ref>
].]]
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|{{#if:{{{3|}}}|,&#32;|&#32;and&#32;}}]}}{{#if:{{{3|}}}
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From 1510 to 1520, Luther lectured on the Psalms, the books of Hebrews, Romans and Galatians. As he studied these portions of the Bible, he came to understand terms such as ] and ] in new ways. He began to teach that ] is a gift of God's ] through ] received by ] alone.<ref name="Wriedt">Markus Wriedt, "Luther's Theology," in <cite>The Cambridge Companion to Luther</cite> (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 88-94.</ref> The first and chief article is this, Luther wrote, "Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, died for our sins and was raised again for our justification ... herefore, 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."<ref>Martin Luther, <cite>The Smalcald Articles<cite> in <cite>Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions</cite> (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2005), 289, Part two, Article 1.</ref>
Another essential aspect of his theology was his emphasis on the "proper distinction"<ref>Plass, 2:732, no. 2276</ref> between ]. He believed that this principle of interpretation was an essential starting point in the study of the scriptures and that failing to distinguish properly between ] was at the root of many fundamental theological errors.<ref name="Preus">Preus, Robert D. <cite>Concordia Theological Quarterly</cite> 48 (1984) no. 1:11-12.</ref>


In 1501, at age 17, Martin entered the ], which he later described as a beerhouse and whorehouse.<ref name=Marty4>]. ''Martin Luther''. Viking Penguin, 2004, p. 4.</ref> He was made to wake at 4 a.m. for "a day of rote learning and often wearying spiritual exercises."<ref name=Marty4/> He received his master's degree in 1505.<ref name=Marty5>]. ''Martin Luther''. Viking Penguin, 2004, p. 5.</ref>
==Indulgence controversy==
:<div class="noprint">''Main article{{#if:{{{2|}}}|s}}&#58; ]{{#if:{{{2| }}}
|{{#if:{{{3|}}}|,&#32;|&#32;and&#32;}}]}}{{#if:{{{3|}}}
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]
An ] is the remission (either full or partial) of temporal punishment still remaining for sins after guilt has been removed by absolution. A buyer could purchase one, either for himself or for one of his deceased relatives in ]. The ] friar ] was enlisted to travel throughout ] episcopal territories promoting and selling indulgences for the renovation of ] in ]. ] was very successful at it. A quote attributed to him says: "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs."<ref>Bainton, 60; Brecht, 1:182; Kittelson, 104.</ref>


In accordance with his father's wishes, Luther enrolled in law but dropped out almost immediately, believing that law was an uncertain profession.<ref name=Marty5/> Luther instead sought assurances about life and was drawn to theology and philosophy, expressing interest in ], ], and ].<ref name=Marty5/> He was deeply influenced by two tutors, ] von Usingen and Jodocus Trutfetter, who taught him to be suspicious of even the greatest thinkers<ref name=Marty5/> and to test everything himself by experience.<ref name=Marty6>]. ''Martin Luther''. Viking Penguin, 2004, p. 6.</ref>
Luther saw this traffic in indulgences as an abuse that could mislead people into relying on the indulgences themselves, to the neglect of confession, true repentance, and satisfactions. Luther preached three sermons against indulgences in 1516 and 1517. <!-- Please see the 95 Theses page for discussion of whether Luther actually nailed the 95 Theses to the Castle Church door. Please discuss on talk page before adding more about them here, since these sentences are summaries of that whole article --> On ], ], according to tradition, Luther posted ] on the Castle Church door in Wittenberg for a disputation on indulgences.<ref>Brecht, 1:200.</ref> The Theses condemned greed and worldliness in the Church as an abuse and asked for a theological disputation on what indulgences could grant. Luther did not challenge the authority of the Pope to grant indulgences, but insisted that the power of indulgences was limited to penance assigned by the Church.<ref name="Theses2">Brecht, 1:192.</ref>


Philosophy proved to be unsatisfying to Luther because it offered assurance about the use of ] but none about loving ], 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.<ref name=Marty6/> For Luther, reason could be used to question men and institutions, but not God. Human beings could learn about God only through divine ], he believed, leading him to view ] as increasingly important.<ref name=Marty6/>
Luther wrote to Archbishop Albert of Mainz on ], ] to express his deep concerns about the traffic in indulgences that he was allowing in the territories under his authority. With the letter, Luther included a copy of his 95 theses. Albert did not reply, but instead forwarded the theses on to Rome, suspecting Luther of heresy.<ref>Treu, 31.</ref> As a Doctor of Holy Scripture it was well within Luther's right to discuss indulgences, or any open question, since the matter of indulgences had not at this point been established as formal church dogma, nor would be for several more years. However, "his adversaries... detected severe criticism of the Pope in his theses, and this was considered heretical."<ref>Treu, 32.</ref>


On 2 July 1505, while Luther was returning to university on horseback following a trip home, a ] 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! ], I will become a monk!"<ref name=Brecht48>Brecht, Martin. ''Martin Luther''. tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 1:48.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Google Books Archive of Martin Luther: His road to Reformation, 1483–1521 (By Martin Brecht)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hH6nI6Q6qBIC&q=Martin%20Luther%3A%20His%20road%20to%20Reformation%2C%201483-1521%20%20By%20Martin%20Brecht%20Help%20me%20saint%20Anne%20I%20will%20become%20a%20monk&pg=PA48|access-date=14 May 2015|isbn=978-1-4514-1414-1|last1=Brecht|first1=Martin|year=1985| publisher=Fortress Press }}</ref> 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 entered ] in ] on 17 July 1505.<ref>Schwiebert, E.G. ''Luther and His Times''. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1950, 136.</ref> 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.<ref name=Marty6/> His father was furious over what he saw as a waste of Luther's education.<ref name=Marty7>]. ''Martin Luther''. Viking Penguin, 2004, p. 7.</ref>
The ] were quickly translated into German, printed and widely copied. Within two weeks they had spread throughout Germany, and within two months throughout Europe. This was one of the first events in history that was profoundly affected by the ],<ref>Brecht, 1:204-205.</ref> which made the distribution of documents easier and more widespread.


===Monastic life===
==Response of the papacy==
] friar<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schwiebert |first=Ernest G |date=Mar 1948 |title=The Reformation from a New Perspective. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3160546 |journal=Church History |volume=17 |issue=1 |page=16 |doi=10.2307/3160546 |jstor=3160546 }}</ref>]]
]
Luther dedicated himself to the ], devoting himself to ], long hours in ], ], and frequent ].<ref name=Bainton40>Bainton, Roland. ''Here I Stand: a Life of Martin Luther''. New York: Penguin, 1995, 40–42.</ref> 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."<ref name=Kittelson79>Kittelson, James. ''Luther The Reformer''. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Publishing House, 1986, 79.</ref>
After disregarding Luther as "a drunken German who wrote the Theses" who "when sober will change his mind,"<ref>Philip Schaff, <cite>History of the Christian Church<cite> (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1910), 7:99; W.G. Polack, <cite>The Story of Luther<cite> (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1931), 45.</ref> ] ordered the Dominican professor of theology, ], called from his birthplace ], Prierias (also Prieras), in 1518, to inquire into the matter. Prierias recognized Luther's implicit opposition to the authority of the pope by being at variance with a ], declared him a heretic, and wrote a scholastic refutation of his theses. It asserted papal authority over the Church and denounced every departure from it as a ]. Luther replied in kind, and a controversy developed.


], his superior, concluded that Luther needed more work to distract him from excessive introspection and ordered him to pursue an academic career.{{cn|date=December 2024}} On 3 April 1507, Jerome Schultz, the ], ordained Luther in ].
Meanwhile, Luther took part in an ] convention at ], where he presented theses on the slavery of man to sin and on divine grace. In the course of the controversy on indulgences, the question arose of the absolute power and authority of the pope, since the doctrine of the "Treasury of the Church", the "Treasury of Merits", which underpinned the doctrine and practice of indulgences, was based on the Bull ''Unigenitus'' (1343) of ]. Because of his opposition to that doctrine, Luther was branded a heretic, and the pope, who had determined to suppress his views, summoned him to Rome.


The following year, in 1508, Luther began teaching ] at the ].<ref name=Bainton44>Bainton, Roland. ''Here I Stand: a Life of Martin Luther''. New York: Penguin, 1995, 44–45.</ref> He received two bachelor's degrees, one in biblical studies on 9 March 1508, and another in the '']'' by ] in 1509.<ref name=Brecht93>Brecht, Martin. ''Martin Luther''. tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 1:93.</ref> On 19 October 1512, he was awarded his ].
Yielding, however, to the ], whom the pope hoped would become the next Holy Roman Emperor and who was unwilling to part with his theologian, the pope did not press the matter, and the cardinal legate ] was deputed to receive Luther's submission in Augsburg in October 1518. <!--what is this date in parentheses? This date in parentheses was the date that Luther met Cajetan in Augsburg, maybe it could be edited as I do now.-->


==Later life, ministry, and the Reformation==
Luther, while professing his obedience to the Church, boldly denied papal authority, and appealed first "from the pope not well informed to the pope who should be better informed"<ref>Martin Luther, "Proceedings at Augsburg (1518)," trans. Harold J. Grimm in <cite>Luther's Works</cite>, ed. Harold J. Grimm (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1957), ''LW'' 31:257.</ref> and on ] to a general ]. Luther now declared that the papacy formed no part of the original and immutable essence of the Church.
===University of Wittenberg===
On 21 October 1512, Luther was received into the senate of the theological faculty of the ],<ref name="Brecht12">Brecht, Martin. ''Martin Luther''. tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 1:112–127.</ref> succeeding von Staupitz as chair of theology.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hendrix |first=Scott H. |year=2015 |title=Martin Luther: Visionary Reformer |place=New Haven, CT |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-16669-9 |page=44}}</ref> He spent the rest of his career in this position at the University of Wittenberg.


In 1515, he was made provincial ] of ] and ], which required him to visit and oversee eleven monasteries in his province.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hendrix |first=Scott H. |year=2015 |title=Martin Luther: Visionary Reformer |place=New Haven, CT |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-16669-9 |page=45}}</ref>
Wishing to remain on friendly terms with Luther's protector, Elector Frederick the Wise, the pope made a final attempt to reach a peaceful resolution. A conference with the papal chamberlain ] at ] in January 1519 led Luther to agree to remain silent as long as his opponents would, to write a humble letter to the pope, and to compose a treatise demonstrating his reverence for the Catholic Church. The letter was written but never sent, since it contained no retraction. In the German treatise he composed later, Luther, while recognizing purgatory, clergy/laity distinction, indulgences, and the invocation of the saints, denied all effect of indulgences on purgatory.


===Lectures on Psalms and justification by faith===
When the staunch defender of Catholicism, ], challenged Luther's colleague, ], to a disputation at ], Luther joined in the debate (] &ndash; ], ]). In the course of this debate, he denied the divine right of the papal office and authority, holding that the "power of the keys" had been given to the Church (i.e., to the congregation of the faithful).<ref>Martin Luther, "The Leipzig Debate (1519)," trans. Harold J. Grimm in <cite>Luther's Works</cite>, ed. Harold J. Grimm (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1957), ''LW'' 31:311.</ref> He denied that membership in the western Catholic Church under the pope was necessary to salvation, maintaining the validity of the eastern ]. After the debate Johann Eck claimed that he had forced Luther to admit the similarity of his own doctrine to that of ], who had been ]. Eck viewed this as corroborating his own claim that Luther was "the Saxon Hus" and an arch heretic.
{{Main|Sola fide}}
] depicting Luther discovering the doctrine of '']'' (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, he came to view the use of terms such as ] and ] 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 of ]—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's ], attainable only through faith in Jesus as the ].<ref name=Wriedt>Wriedt, Markus. "Luther's Theology," in ''The Cambridge Companion to Luther''. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003, 88–94.</ref> "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."<ref>Bouman, Herbert J.A. , ''Concordia Theological Monthly'', 26 November 1955, No. 11:801.</ref>


Luther came to understand justification as entirely the work of God. This teaching by Luther was clearly expressed in his 1525 publication '']'', which was written in response to '']'' by ] (1524). Against the teaching of his day that the righteous acts of believers are performed in {{em|cooperation}} with God, Luther wrote that Christians receive such righteousness entirely from outside themselves; that righteousness not only comes from Christ but actually {{em|is}} the righteousness of Christ, imputed to Christians (rather than infused into them) through faith.<ref>Dorman, Ted M., ", ''Quodlibet Journal'': Volume 2 Number 3, Summer 2000. Retrieved 13 July 2007.</ref>
==Widening breach==
''See also ], ], ]


"That is why faith alone makes someone just and fulfills the law," he writes. "Faith is that which brings the ] through the merits of Christ."<ref name=faith>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ProjectWittenberg.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/luther-faith.txt|title=Luther's Definition of Faith}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=155|title=Justification by Faith: The Lutheran-Catholic Convergence|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100615015903/http://religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=155|archive-date=15 June 2010}}</ref> He explains his concept of "justification" in the ]:
]
The disputation at Leipzig (1519) brought Luther into contact with the humanists, particularly ], ] and ]. Luther's writings circulated widely, soon reaching ], ], and ] as early as ]. Students thronged to Wittenberg to hear Luther. He published a short commentary on ] and his <cite>Work on the Psalms</cite>,<ref>Latin title is <cite>Operationes in Psalmos.</ref>. At the same time, he received deputations from Italy and from the ] of Bohemia.<ref><cite>The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge</cite>, ed. Samuel Macauley Jackson and George William Gilmore, (New York, London, Funk and Wagnalls Co., 1908-1914; Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1951) s.v. "," hereafter cited in notes as <cite>Schaff-Herzog</cite>, 71.</ref> ]and knight ].<ref><cite>Schaff-Herzog, ," 71.</ref> offered to place Luther under their protection.


<blockquote>
This period Luther's life was unparalled in his career both by way of creativity, and productivity.<ref>Lewis W. Spitz, The Renaissance and Reformation Movements, Revised Ed. (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1987), 338.</ref> Three of Luther's best known works were published in 1520: <cite>To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation</cite>, <cite>Prelude on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church</cite> and <cite>Freedom of a Christian</cite>.
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 (] 1:29), and God has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (] 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&nbsp;... Nothing of this article can be yielded or surrendered, even though heaven and earth and everything else falls (] 13:31).<ref>Luther, Martin. "The Smalcald Articles," in ''Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions''. Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2005, 289, Part two, Article 1.</ref>
</blockquote>


===Start of the Reformation: 1516–1517===
Luther issued his <cite>To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation</cite> in August of 1520. In this work, he urged the ], as members of the ] to reform the church.<ref><cite>Schaff-Herzog, ," 71.</ref> In this work, Luther first refers to the Pope as the ].<ref>Martin Luther, , trans. C. M. Jacobs, in <cite>Works of Martin Luther: With Introductions and Notes</cite>, Volume 2 (Philadelphia: A. J. Holman Company, 1915; Fort Wayne, IN: Project Wittenberg, 2006). <nowiki>http://www.projectwittenberg.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/</nowiki>
{{Further|History of Protestantism|History of Lutheranism}}
<br><nowiki>luther/web/nblty-01.html</nowiki>.</ref>
] ] shown in ''A Question to a Mintmaker'', a ] by ] of Augsburg, {{Circa|1530}}]]
In 1516, ], a ], was sent to Germany by the Roman Catholic Church to sell indulgences to raise money in order to rebuild ] in Rome.<ref>"]," ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2007</ref> Tetzel's experiences as a preacher of indulgences, especially between 1503 and 1510, led to his appointment as general commissioner by ], who, already deeply in debt to pay for a large accumulation of benefices, had to contribute the considerable sum of ten thousand ]s<ref>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, </ref> toward the rebuilding of the basilica. Albrecht obtained permission from Pope Leo&nbsp;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",{{efn|name=title|{{langx|la|"Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum"}} – The first printings of the ''Theses'' use an ] rather than a title which summarizes the content. Luther usually called them "{{lang|de|meine Propositiones}}" (my propositions).{{sfn|Cummings|2002|p=32}}}} which came to be known as the '']''. 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."<ref name=HillerbrandIndulgences>Hillerbrand, Hans J. "Martin Luther: Indulgences and salvation," ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2007.</ref> Hillerbrand writes that there is nevertheless an undercurrent of challenge in several of the theses, particularly in Thesis 86, which asks: "Why does the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest ], build the basilica of St. Peter with the money of poor believers rather than with his own money?"<ref name=HillerbrandIndulgences/>
Luther redefined the term ] in his work, <cite>]</cite>. For Luther, a sacrament was a ] instituted by Christ Himself and made up of a visible element combined with the ]. Luther concluded that only ] and the ] could be called sacraments by this definition at that even these sacraments were "taken captivity" by the Pope through doctrines such as the sacrifice of the Mass and withholding the cup in the Lord's Supper.<ref><cite>Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation</cite>, ed. Hans J. Hillerbrand, s.v. "Luther, Martin," (by Martin Brecht, tr. Wolfgang Katenz) New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 2:463.</ref>


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."<ref>Thesis 55 of Tetzel's ''One Hundred and Six Theses''. These "Anti-theses" were a reply to Luther's ''Ninety-five Theses'' and were drawn up by Tetzel's friend and former professor, ]. 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 be ''hindered by no interruption'', therefore he errs who says that the soul ''cannot fly out'' before the coin can jingle in the bottom of the chest." In ''The reformation in Germany'', ], 1914, Macmillan Company, p. 405. ''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, ] & Erlangen, vol. 1, p. 300. (] edition: ], 2010, {{ISBN|978-1-142-40551-9}}). See also: {{Cite Catholic Encyclopedia|wstitle=Johann Tetzel}}</ref> He insisted that, since ] was God's alone to grant, those who claimed that indulgences ] 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.
In his devotional work, ]<ref>Published ], ]).</ref> Luther's theology of grace is stated fully for the first time. "A Christian is perfectly free, subject to none" and "A Christian is the most dutiful slave, subject to all." Luther argued that Christians are fully redeemed by God's grace. When they act according to God's will, they are bound by no law. Yet as God's children, they are compelled to spend their whole lives in service of God and their neighbors.<ref>"Luther, Martin," (by Martin Brecht, tr. Wolfgang Katenz), 2:463.</ref>


]; the ] inscription above informs the reader that the original door was destroyed by a fire, and that in 1857, King ] ordered that a replacement be made.]]
==Excommunication and Diet of Worms==
According to one account, Luther nailed his ''Ninety-five Theses'' to the door of ] in ] 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.<ref name="Krämer">Krämer, Walter and Trenkler, Götz. "Luther" in ''Lexicon van Hardnekkige Misverstanden''. Uitgeverij Bert Bakker, 1997, 214:216.</ref><ref name=Ritter>Ritter, Gerhard. ''Luther'', Frankfurt 1985.</ref><ref name=Prause>Gerhard Prause "Luthers Thesanschlag ist eine Legende,"in ''Niemand hat Kolumbus ausgelacht''. Düsseldorf, 1986.</ref><ref name=Marshall>Marshall, Peter ''1517: Martin Luther and the Invention of the Reformation'' (Oxford University Press, 2017) {{ISBN|978-0-19-968201-0}}</ref> The story is based on comments made by Luther's collaborator ], though it is thought that he was not in Wittenberg at the time.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=41aJOjMZ3nwC&pg=PT125 |title=Dresden Leipzig & Saxony Adventure Guide |first=Henrik |last= Bekker |page=125|publisher=Hunter Publishing, Inc |access-date=7 February 2012 |isbn= 978-1-58843-950-5|year=2010 }}</ref> According to ], on the other hand, it is true.<ref>Bainton, Roland. ''Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther'' (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1950), p. 79, </ref>


The Latin ''Theses'' were printed in several locations in Germany in 1517. In January 1518 friends of Luther translated the ''Ninety-five Theses'' into German.<ref name=Brecht204>Brecht, Martin. ''Martin Luther''. tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 1:204–205.</ref> Within two weeks, copies of the theses had spread throughout Germany. Luther's writings circulated widely, reaching ], ], and ] as early as 1519. Students thronged to Wittenberg to hear Luther speak. He published a short commentary on ] and his ''Work on the Psalms''. This early part of Luther's career was one of his most creative and productive.<ref>Spitz, Lewis W. ''The Renaissance and Reformation Movements'', St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1987, 338.</ref> Three of his best-known works were published in 1520: '']'', '']'', and '']''.
]
On ], ], the Pope warned Martin Luther with the ] <cite>]</cite> that he risked ] unless he recanted 41 sentences drawn from his writings<ref><cite>Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation</cite>, 2:463.</ref> within 60 days. On ], Luther responded: <blockquote>As for me, the die is cast; I despise alike the favor and fury of Rome; I do not wish to be reconciled with her; or even to hold any communication with her. Let her condemn and burn my books; I, in turn, unless I can find no fire, will condemn and publicly burn the whole pontifical law, that swamp of heresies.<ref>Translated by H. G. Ganss in <cite>The ]</cite> s.v. "," (by H. G. Ganss) (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910), 7:390; Original text may be found at: Martin Luther, "Luther an Spalatin, Wittenberg, 10 Juli, 1520," <cite>D. Martin Luthers Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe</cite>, Briefwechsel (Weimar, Germany: Herman Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1931), 2:137, no. 310. Hereafer cited in notes as WABr; Martin Luther, "," <cite>Dr. Martin Luthers sämmtliche Werke in beiden Originalsprachen nach den ältischen Ausgaben kritsch und historisch bearbeitet</cite>, ed. J. K. Irmischer, C. S. T. Elspurger, H. Schmid, H. Schmidt and E. L. Enders. Briefwechsel (Stuttgart, Germany: Velag der Vereinsbuchhandlung, 1887), 2:432-433, no. 323.</ref></blockquote>


===Breach with the papacy===
That autumn, Johann Eck proclaimed the bull in Meissen and other towns. Miltitz attempted to broker a solution; but Luther, who sent the pope a copy of <cite>On the Freedom of a Christian</cite> in October, publicly set fire to the bull and decretals at Wittenberg on ] ]<ref>Brecht, "Luther, Martin," 2:463.</ref>, an act he defended in <cite>Why the Pope and his Recent Book are Burned</cite><ref>German title is <cite>Warum des Papstes und seiner Jünger Bücher verbrannt sind</cite>.</ref> and <cite>Assertions Concerning All Articles</cite>.<ref>Latin title is <cite>Assertio omnium articulorum</cite>.</ref> Luther was finally excommunicated by ] on ],], in the bull <cite>]</cite>.
]'s ''Bull against the errors of Martin Luther'', 1521, commonly known as '']'']]
Archbishop Albrecht did not reply to Luther's letter containing the ''Ninety-five Theses''. He had the theses checked for heresy and in December 1517 forwarded them to Rome.<ref>Michael A. Mullett, ''Martin Luther'', London: ], 2004, {{ISBN|978-0-415-26168-5}}, 78; Oberman, Heiko, ''Luther: Man Between God and the Devil'', New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006, {{ISBN|0-300-10313-1}}, 192–193.</ref> He needed the revenue from the indulgences to pay off a papal dispensation for his ]. 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".<ref>Mullett, 68–69; Oberman, 189.</ref>


Pope Leo X was used to reformers and heretics,<ref>Richard Marius, ''Luther'', London: Quartet, 1975, {{ISBN|0-7043-3192-6}}, 85.</ref> and he responded slowly, "with great care as is proper."<ref>Papal Bull '']'', 15 June 1520.</ref> 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 theologian ] drafted a heresy case against Luther, whom Leo then summoned to Rome. The ] persuaded the pope to have Luther examined at Augsburg, where the ] was held.<ref>Mullett, 81–82.</ref> Over a three-day period in October 1518 where he stayed at ], Luther defended himself under questioning by ] ]. The pope's right to issue indulgences was at the centre of the dispute between the two men.<ref name="Reformation500">{{cite web|url=http://reformation500.csl.edu/timeline/luther-meets-with-cajetan-at-augsburg/|title=Luther meets with Cajetan at Augsburg|publisher=Reformation 500 – Concordia Seminary, St. Louis|access-date=28 March 2016|date=11 January 2012|archive-date=19 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170819111021/http://reformation500.csl.edu/timeline/luther-meets-with-cajetan-at-augsburg/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Ex-Classics">{{cite web|url= http://www.exclassics.com/foxe/foxe147.htm |title=The Acts and Monuments of the Church – Martin Luther |publisher=exclassics.com|access-date=28 March 2016}}</ref> 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".<ref>Bainton, Roland. ''Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther'' (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1950), Chapter V, p. 96, </ref><ref>Mullett, 82.</ref> Cajetan's original instructions had been to arrest Luther if he failed to recant, but the legate desisted from doing so.<ref>Mullett, 83.</ref> With help from the ] ], Luther slipped out of the city at night, unbeknownst to Cajetan.<ref>Oberman, 197.</ref>
Enforcement of the ban now fell to the secular authorities. Luther duly appeared on ], ], before the ], which ] had opened on ]. Johann Eck, speaking on behalf of the empire as assistant of the Archbishop of Trier, presented Luther with a table filled with copies of his writings and asked him if the books were his and if he still believed in what they taught. Luther requested time to think about his answer, which was granted. Luther prayed, consulted with friends and mediators and gave his response to the diet the next day:


] (left)]]
<blockquote>Unless I shall be convinced by the testimonies of the Scriptures or by clear reason . . .I neither can nor will make any retraction, since it is neither safe nor honourable to act against conscience. God help me. Amen. <ref>http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc07/Page_72.html</ref></blockquote>
In January 1519, at ] in Saxony, the papal nuncio ] 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.<ref>Mullett, 92–95; Roland H. Bainton, ''Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther'', New York: Mentor, 1955, {{OCLC|220064892}}, 81.</ref> The theologian ], however, was determined to expose Luther's doctrine in a public forum. In June and July 1519, he staged a ] with Luther's colleague ] at ] and invited Luther to speak.<ref>Marius, 87–89; Bainton, Mentor edition, 82.</ref> Luther's boldest assertion in the debate was that popes do not have the exclusive right to interpret scripture, and that therefore neither popes nor ] were infallible.<ref>Marius, 93; Bainton, Mentor edition, 90.</ref> For this, Eck branded Luther a new ], referring to the Czech reformer and heretic ] in 1415. From that moment, he devoted himself to Luther's defeat.<ref>G. R. Elton, ''Reformation Europe: 1517–1559'', London: Collins, 1963, {{OCLC|222872115}}, 177.</ref>


===Excommunication===
Over the next days, private conferences were held to determine the fate of Luther, who left Worms on ]. The emperor presented the final draft of the ] on ], ], declaring Martin Luther an ], banning his literature, and requiring his arrest: "We want him to be apprehended and punished as a notorious heretic".<ref>http://www.bhsu.edu/artssciences/asfaculty/kparrow/Edict%20of%20Worms.htm</ref>
On 15 June 1520, the Pope warned Luther with the ] (edict) '']'' that he risked ] unless he recanted 41 sentences drawn from his writings, including the '']'', within 60 days. That autumn, Eck proclaimed the bull in ] and other towns. Von Miltitz attempted to broker a solution, but Luther, who had sent the pope a copy of ''On the Freedom of a Christian'' in October, publicly set fire to the bull and ]s in Wittenberg on 10 December 1520,<ref name="Hillerbrand463">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.</ref> an act he defended in ''Why the Pope and his Recent Book are Burned'' and ''Assertions Concerning All Articles''.


Luther was excommunicated by Pope {{nowrap|Leo X}} on 3 January 1521, in the bull '']''.<ref>{{cite book|title=From Babylon to Eternity: The Exile Remembered and Constructed in Text and Tradition|first1=Bob|last1=Becking|first2=Alex|last2=Cannegieter|first3=Wilfred|last3=van er Poll|publisher=Routledge|page=91|year=2016|isbn=978-1-134-90386-3}}</ref> Although the ], Methodists and the Catholic Church's ] agreed (in 1999 and 2006, respectively) on a "common understanding of justification by God's grace through faith in Christ," the Catholic Church has never lifted the 1521 excommunication.<ref>Wooden, Cindy. "Methodists adapt Catholic-Lutheran declaration on justification." 24 July 2006</ref><ref>David Van Biema, "A Half-Millennium Rift," ''TIME'', 6 July 1998, 80.</ref><ref>Cindy Wooden, "Lutheran World Council OKs joint declaration on justification," ''The Pilot'', 19 June 1998, 20.</ref>
==Exile at the Wartburg Castle==
].]]
Luther was protected on his return journey to Wittenberg by the safe-conduct secured in advance of the diet by Frederick the Wise, who, careful to avoid openly protecting Luther, now arranged for him to be taken into safe custody on his way home by a company of masked horsemen and carried to ] at Eisenach, where he stayed for about a year. He grew a wide, flaring beard, took on the garb of a knight, and assumed the pseudonym Junker Jörg (Knight George).


===Diet of Worms (1521)===
His time at the Wartburg was a very productive period in his career. During this period of exile, Luther translated the New Testament from Greek into German. It was printed in September 1522. He issued an essay on the practice of Confession <cite>Concerning Confession</cite>,<ref>In German, <cite>Von der Beichte.</cite></ref> in which he rejected laws by the church, forcing people to go to private confession, although he affirmed the value of private confession and absolution. He wrote a polemic against Archbishop ] for attempting to continue the sale of indulgence, bringing such pressure against him that he stopped the sale. In a polemical treatise against Jacobus Latomus, Luther discussed the relationship between the law and grace in Christ emphasizing that the sinner receives God's grace as a gift and it is God's grace, not some indwelling quality in man, that results in the sinner's salvation. He also discussed the reality of sin in the life of the baptized Christian, and how God's grace in Christ is the constant need of every person.
{{Main|Diet of Worms}}
]]]
], a statue of Luther surrounded by the figures of his lay protectors and earlier Church reformers, including ], ], and ]]]
The enforcement of the ban on the ''Ninety-five Theses'' fell to the secular authorities. On 17 April 1521, Luther appeared as ordered before the ]. This was a general assembly of the estates of the Holy Roman Empire that took place in ], a town on the ]. It was conducted from 28 January to 25 May 1521, with ] presiding. Prince ], obtained a ] for Luther to and from the meeting.


Johann Eck, speaking on behalf of the empire as assistant of the ], 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:
Although his stay at Wartburg kept him hidden from public view, Luther often received letters from his friends and allies asking for his views and advice. For example, ] wrote to him and asked how to answer the charge that the reformers neglected pilgrimages, fasts and other traditional forms of piety. Luther replied on ], ]: "If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear the true, not an imaginary sin. God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. 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. We, however, says Peter (] 3:13) are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where justice will reign."<ref name="sinsbestrong">Martin Luther, Trans. Erika Bullman Flores (Fort Wayne, IN: Project Wittenberg, 2006), Letter 99.13. <nowiki>http://www.ProjectWittenberg.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/</nowiki><br><nowiki>luther/letsinsbe.txt</nowiki>. The letter was translated from <cite>Dr. Martin Luther's Saemmtliche Schriften</cite> Ed. ] (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, N.D.), vol. 15, cols. 2585-2590.</ref>


<blockquote>
Meanwhile, some of the Saxon clergy, notably ], had renounced the vow of celibacy. Others, including Melanchthon, had assailed the validity of monastic vows. Luther wrote <cite>Concerning Monastic Vows</cite>, at the Wartburg Castle. Though more cautious than others at this point, Luther concurred, on the ground that the vows were generally taken for the purpose of receiving salvation as a result of a monastic life. With the approval of Luther in his ''Concerning the Abrogation of the Private Mass,'' but against the firm opposition of their Prior, the Wittenberg Augustinians began changing their worship practices at the Augustinian cloister. They did away with many elements of the Mass. Their violence and intolerance, however, were displeasing to Luther, and early in December he spent a few days among them. Returning to the Wartburg, he wrote his ''A Sincere Admonition by Martin Luther to All Christians to Guard Against Insurrection and Rebellion.'' In Wittenberg, Carlstadt and the ex-Augustinian ] demanded the abolition of the private mass, communion in both kinds, the removal of pictures from churches, and the abrogation of the magistracy, and the destruction of what they considered to be idolatrous images in the form of statuary and other works of art.
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.<ref>Brecht, 1:460.</ref>
</blockquote>


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."<ref name=mullettp25>Mullett (1986), p. 25</ref>
==Return to Wittenberg==
].]]
Around Christmas 1521 ]s from Zwickau added to the anarchy. Thoroughly opposed to such radical views and fearful of their results, Luther secretly returned to Wittenberg on ], ], and the Zwickau prophets left the city. For eight days beginning on ], Invocavit Sunday, and concluding on the following Sunday, Luther preached eight sermons that would become known as the ''Invocavit Sermons''. In these sermons Luther counseled careful reform that took into consideration the consciences of those who were not yet persuaded to embrace reform. Communion in one kind (the consecrated bread) was restored for a time, the consecrated cup given only to those of the laity who desired it. He was thought by his hearers John Agricola and Jerome Schurf to have accomplished his goal of quelling unrest. The ], giving it its sacrificial character, was now omitted. Since the former practice of penance had been abolished, communicants were now required to declare their intention to commune and to seek consolation in Christian ] and absolution. This new form of service was set forth by Luther in his ''Formula missæ et communionis'' (''Form of the Mass and Communion'', 1523), and in 1524 the first Wittenberg hymnal appeared with four of his own hymns. Since, however, his writings were forbidden in that part of Saxon ruled by ], Luther declared, in his ''Temporal Authority: to What Extent It Should Be Obeyed,'' that the civil authority could enact no laws for the soul.


Eck informed Luther that he was acting like a heretic, saying,
==Marriage and family==
<blockquote>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 that ] and ] 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 the ] 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/luther/lutherbyluther.html#secondnarrative|title=Life of Luther (Luther by Martin Luther)|first=Martin|last=Luther}}</ref></blockquote>
]
On ], ], Luther wrote Wenceslaus Link: "Yesterday I received nine nuns from their captivity in the Nimbschen convent." Luther had arranged for Torgau burgher Leonhard Koppe on ] to assist twelve nuns to escape from Marien-thron Cistercian monastery in Nimbschen near Grimma in Ducal Saxony. He transported them out of the convent in herring barrels. Three of the nuns went to be with their relatives, leaving the nine that were brought to Wittenberg. One of them was ]. All of them but she were happily provided for. In May and June 1523, it was thought that she would be married to a Wittenberg University student, Jerome Paumgartner, but his family most likely prevented it. Dr. Caspar Glatz was the next prospective husband put forward, but Katharina had "neither desire nor love" for him. She made it known that she wanted to marry either Luther himself or Nicholas von Amsdorf. Luther did not feel that he was a fit husband considering his being excommunicated by the pope and outlawed by the emperor. In May or early June 1525, it became known in Luther's circle that he intended to marry Katharina. Forestalling any objections from friends against Katharina, Luther acted quickly: on the evening of Tuesday, ], ], Luther was legally married to Katharina, whom he would soon come to affectionately call "Katy". Katy moved into her husband's home, the former Augustinian monastery in Wittenberg, and they began their family: The Luthers had three boys and three girls:
*Hans, born ], ], studied law, became a court official, and died in 1575.
*Elizabeth, born ], ], died on ], ].
*Magdalena, born ], ], died in her father's arms ], ]. Her death was particularly hard to bear for Luther and his wife.
*Martin, Jr., born ], ], studied theology but never had a regular pastoral call before his death in 1565.
*Paul, born ], ], became a physician. He fathered six children before his death on ], ] and the male line of the Luther family continued through him to John Ernest, ending in 1759.
*Margaretha, born ], ], married ] of the noble, wealthy Prussian family, but died in 1570 at the age of 36. Her descendants have continued to the present time.


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.<ref>Wilson, 153, 170; Marius, 155.</ref> However, Mullett suggests that given his nature, "we are free to believe that Luther would tend to select the more dramatic form of words."<ref name=mullettp25/>
==Peasants' War==
The ] (1524&ndash;25) was in many ways a response to the preaching of Luther and others. Revolts by the peasantry had existed on a small scale since the 14th century, but many peasants mistakenly believed that Luther's attack on the Church and the hierarchy meant that the reformers would support an attack on the social hierarchy as well, because of the close ties between the secular princes and the princes of the Church that Luther condemned. Revolts that broke out in Swabia, Franconia, and Thuringia in 1524 gained support among peasants and disaffected nobles, many of whom were in debt at that period. Gaining momentum and a new leader in ], the revolts turned into an all-out war, the experience of which played an important role in the founding of the ] movement. Initially, Luther seemed to many to support the peasants, condemning the oppressive practices of the nobility that had incited many of the peasants. As the war continued, and especially as atrocities at the hands of the peasants increased, the revolt became an embarrassment to Luther, who now professed forcefully to be against the revolt; since Luther relied on support and protection from the princes, he was afraid of alienating them. In '']'' (1525), he encouraged the nobility to visit swift and bloody punishment upon the peasants. Many of the revolutionaries considered Luther's words a betrayal. Others withdrew once they realized that there was neither support from the Church nor from its main opponent. The war in Germany ended in 1525 when rebel forces were put down by the armies of the ].


Over the next five days, private conferences were held to determine Luther's fate. The emperor presented the final draft of the ] on 25 May 1521, declaring Luther an ], banning his literature, and requiring his arrest: "We want him to be apprehended and punished as a notorious heretic."<ref>Bratcher, Dennis. " {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171003172831/http://www.crivoice.org/creededictworms.html |date=3 October 2017 }}," in ''The Voice: Biblical and Theological Resources for Growing Christians''. Retrieved 13 July 2007.</ref> It also made it a crime for anyone in Germany to give Luther food or shelter. It permitted anyone to kill Luther without legal consequence.
==Catechisms==
In 1528 Luther took part in the Saxon visitation of parishes and schools to determine the quality of pastoral care and Christian education the people were receiving. Luther wrote in the preface to the Small ],
<blockquote>Mercy! Good God! what manifold misery I beheld! The common people, especially in the villages, have no knowledge whatever of Christian doctrine, and, alas! many pastors are altogether incapable and incompetent to teach.<ref>Martin Luther, ," <cite>Small Catechism</cite>.</ref></blockquote>
In response, Luther prepared the Small and Large Catechisms. They are instructional and devotional material on the ]; the ]; the ]; ]; ] and Absolution; and the ]. <cite>The Small Catechism</cite> was supposed to be read by the people themselves, the <cite>Large Catechism</cite> by the pastors. Luther, who was modest about the publishing of his collected works, thought his catechisms were one of two works he would not be embarrassed to call his own:


===Wartburg Castle (1521)===
<blockquote>Regarding to collect my writings in volumes, 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 the one '']'' and the Catechism.<ref><cite>LW</cite> 50:172-173. Luther compares himself to the mythological ], who devoured most of his children. Luther wanted to get rid of many of his writings except for the two mentioned. The Large and Small Catechisms are spoken of as one work by Luther in this letter.</ref></blockquote>The two catechisms are still popular instructional materials among ].
] in ]]]
] room where Luther translated the ] into ]; an original first edition is kept in the case on the desk.]]
Luther's disappearance during his return to Wittenberg was planned. {{nowrap|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 the ] at ].<ref>''Reformation Europe: 1517–1559,'' London: Fontana, 1963, 53; ], ''Reformation: Europe's House Divided, 1490–1700,'' London: Allen Lane, 2003, 132.</ref> During his stay at Wartburg, which he referred to as "my ]",<ref>Luther, Martin. "Letter 82," in ''Luther'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. ], author of ], had been exiled on the island of Patmos.</ref> Luther translated the ] from Greek into German and poured out doctrinal and polemical writings. These included a renewed attack on ], ], whom he shamed into halting the sale of indulgences in his episcopates,<ref>Brecht, 2:12–14.</ref> and a ''Refutation of the Argument of Latomus'', in which he expounded the principle of justification to ], an orthodox theologian from ].<ref>Mullett, 132, 134; Wilson, 182.</ref> 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.<ref>Brecht, 2:7–9; Marius, 161–162; Marty, 77–79.</ref> All humans are sinners by nature, he explained, and ] 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."<ref name="sinsbestrong">Martin Luther, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928040119/http://www.projectwittenberg.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/letsinsbe.txt |date=28 September 2007 }}, August 1521, Project Wittenberg, retrieved 1 October 2006.</ref>


In the summer of 1521, Luther widened his target from individual pieties like indulgences and pilgrimages to doctrines at the heart of Church practice. In ''On the Abrogation of the Private Mass'', he condemned as idolatry the idea that the mass is a sacrifice, asserting instead that it is a gift, to be received with thanksgiving by the whole congregation.<ref>Brecht, 2:27–29; Mullett, 133.</ref> His essay ''On Confession, Whether the Pope has the Power to Require It'' rejected compulsory ] and encouraged private confession and ], since "every Christian is a confessor."<ref>Brecht, 2:18–21.</ref> In November, Luther wrote ''The Judgement of Martin Luther on Monastic Vows''. He assured monks and nuns that they could break their vows without sin, because vows were an illegitimate and vain attempt to win salvation.<ref>Marius, 163–164.</ref>
==Luther's German Bible==
{{main|Luther Bible}}
]
Luther translated the ] into ] to make it more accessible to the common people, a task he began alone in 1521 during his stay in the ] castle, publishing ] in September 1522 and, in collaboration with ], ], ], ], ], and ], the whole ] in 1534. He worked on refining the translation for the rest of his life. The ] contributed to the emergence of the modern ] and is regarded as a landmark in ]. The 1534 edition was also profoundly influential on ]'s translation <ref><cite>Tyndale's New Testament</cite>, Tr. William Tyndale, Ed. David Daniell (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989), xv, xxvii.</ref>, a precursor of the King James Bible<ref><cite>Tyndale's New Testament</cite>, ix-x.</ref>.


] Jörg" in 1521]]
==Liturgy and Church government==
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-Augustinian ], 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 wrote ''A Sincere Admonition by Martin Luther to All Christians to Guard Against Insurrection and Rebellion''.<ref>Mullett, 135–136.</ref> Wittenberg became even more volatile after Christmas when a band of visionary zealots, the so-called ], arrived, preaching revolutionary doctrines such as the equality of man,{{clarify|date=May 2018}} ], and Christ's imminent return.<ref>Wilson, 192–202; Brecht, 2:34–38.</ref> When the town council asked Luther to return, he decided it was his duty to act.<ref>Bainton, Mentor edition, 164–165.</ref>
]


===Return to Wittenberg and Peasants' War: 1522–1525===
Luther's <cite>German Mass<cite><ref>The German title of this work is <cite>Deutsche Messe<cite> . See the full text in image format at Martin Luther, (Wittenberg, Germany: N.P., 1526.</ref> of 1526 provided for weekday services and for catechetical instruction. He strongly objected, however, to making a new law of the forms and urged the retention of other good liturgies.<ref><cite>Schaff-Herzog, ," 73.</ref> While Luther advocated Christian liberty in liturgical matters in this way, he also spoke out in favor of maintaining and establishing liturgical uniformity among those sharing the same faith in a given area. He saw in liturgical uniformity a fitting outward expression of unity in the faith, while in liturgical variation, an indication of possible doctrinal variation. He did not consider liturgical change a virtue, especially when it might be made by individual Christians or congregations: he was content to conserve and reform what the Church had inherited from the past. Therefore Luther, while eliminating and condemning those parts of the ] indicating the Eucharist was a propitiatory sacrifice and contained the Body of Christ by ],<ref><cite>Schaff-Herzog, ," 73.</ref>, retained the use of an eastward altar table, ], ] and ]. However, Luther is reported to have said, that later on, more changes would have to be made to the liturgy, which during his lifetime would still have offended the faithful people.{{fact}}
{{See also|Radical Reformation|German Peasants' War}}
], Luther's residence in ]]]
Luther secretly returned to ] 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."<ref>Letter of 7 March 1522. Schaff, Philip, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170823185716/http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/history/7_ch04.htm |date=23 August 2017 }}; Brecht, 2:57.</ref> For eight days in ], 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 core ] such as love, patience, charity, and freedom, and reminded the citizens to trust God's word rather than violence to bring about necessary change.<ref>Brecht, 2:60; Bainton, Mentor edition, 165; Marius, 168–169.</ref>


<blockquote>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.<ref name="Schaff IV">Schaff, Philip, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170823185716/http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/history/7_ch04.htm |date=23 August 2017 }}.</ref></blockquote>
The gradual transformation of the administration of baptism was accomplished in the <cite>Baptismal Booklet</cite><ref>German title is: <cite>Taufbüchlein</cite>, 1523, 1526."; <cite>Schaff-Herzog, ," 73.</ref>
In May, 1525, the first Evangelical ordination took place at Wittenberg. "Luther had long since rejected the Roman Catholic sacrament of ordination, and had replaced it by a simple calling to the service of preaching and the administration of the sacraments. The laying-on of hands with prayer in a solemn congregational service was considered a fitting human rite."<ref><cite>Schaff-Herzog, ," 73.</ref>


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."<ref name="Schaff IV" />
To fill the vacuum of the lack of higher ecclesiastical authority—few bishops in the German lands embraced Luther's doctrine—"as early as 1525 ... held that the secular authorities should take part in the administration of the Church, making appointments to ecclesiastical office and directing visitations" of clergy and churches. These tasks were not inherent powers of the "secular authorities as such, and Luther gladly would have had them vested in an evangelical episcopate" had a larger number of bishops become evangelicals.<ref><cite>Schaff-Herzog, ," 73.</ref> "He ... declared in 1542 that the Evangelical princes themselves 'must be necessity-bishops,'" and envisioned ecclesiastical powers being exercised in congregational meetings of Christians,<ref><cite>Schaff-Herzog, ," 74; Martin Luther, "To Nicholas Hausmann March 29, 1527," Tr. Gottfried G. Krodel, in <cite>Luther's Works</cite> ed. Gottfried G. Krodel (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1972), 49:161-164; Original text found at <cite>Weimar Ausgabe Briefwechsel</cite>, 4:180-181. Hereafter cited in notes as <cite>WABr</cite>.</ref> "but determined to be guided by the course of events and to wait until parishes and schools were provided with the proper persons."<ref><cite>Schaff-Herzog, ," 74.</ref> The discoveries of the Saxon visitation (1527–29) showed that parishes and schools were not ready for such responsiblity, necessitating the retention of ecclesiastical forms as they were at the beginning of the Reformation.<ref><cite>Schaff-Herzog, ," 74.</ref>


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.<ref>Marius, 169.</ref> 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.<ref>Mullett, 141–43.</ref>
] <cite>Instruction for the Visitors of Parish Pastors</cite><ref>The German title of this work is <cite>Unterricht der Visitatoren an die Pfarrherrn<cite>.</ref>, facilitated the Saxon visitation. The visitation accordingly took place in 1527-29, "Luther the preface to Melanchthon's Unterricht der Visitatoren an die Pfarrherrn, and as a visitor in one of the districts after Oct., 1528, while, as a result of his observations, he wrote both his catechisms in 1529. At the same time he took the keenest interest in education, conferring with ] in 1524 on plans for a school system, and declared that it was the duty of the civil authorities to provide schools and to see that parents sent their children to them. He also advocated the establishment of elementary schools for the instruction of girls."<ref><cite>Schaff-Herzog, ," 74.</ref>
In the meantime, Lutheran churches in Scandinavia and many of the Baltic States, as well as the ], continued to maintain the ] and ], even though they had adopted Luther's anti-papal theology.{{fact}}


]'' of peasants' demands, issued in 1525]]
==Eucharist controversy==
Despite his victory in Wittenberg, Luther was unable to stifle radicalism further afield. Preachers such as ] and Zwickau prophet ] found support amongst poorer townspeople and peasants between 1521 and 1525. There had been ] on smaller scales since the 15th century.<ref>Michael Hughes, ''Early Modern Germany: 1477–1806'', London: Macmillan, 1992, {{ISBN|0-333-53774-2}}, 45.</ref> 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.<ref>A.G. Dickens, ''The German Nation and Martin Luther'', London: Edward Arnold, 1974, {{ISBN|0-7131-5700-3}}, 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".</ref> Revolts broke out in ], ], and ] 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.<ref>Hughes, 45–47.</ref>


Luther sympathised with some of the peasants' grievances, as he showed in his response to the ] in May 1525, but he reminded the aggrieved to obey the temporal authorities.<ref>Hughes, 50.</ref> During a tour of Thuringia, he became enraged at the widespread burning of convents, monasteries, bishops' palaces, and libraries. In '']'', 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:
] in central ]]]


<blockquote>
Martin Luther's views on the ], the ] of the ], were put to the test in October 1529 at the ], an assembly of Protestant theologians gathered by ], to establish doctrinal consistency in the emerging Protestant states. Agreement was achieved on most points, the exception being the nature of the Eucharist, an issue crucial to Luther.<ref><cite>Schaff-Herzog, ," 74.</ref>
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 own ], do what the apostles and disciples did in Acts 4 . 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.<ref>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.</ref>
</blockquote>


Without Luther's backing for the uprising, many rebels laid down their weapons; others felt betrayed. Their defeat by the ] at the ] on 15 May 1525, followed by Müntzer's execution, brought the revolutionary stage of the Reformation to a close.<ref>Hughes, 51.</ref> Thereafter, radicalism found a refuge in the ] movement and other religious movements, while Luther's Reformation flourished under the wing of the secular powers.<ref>Andrew Pettegree, ''Europe in the Sixteenth Century'', Oxford: Blackwell, {{ISBN|0-631-20704-X}}, 102–103.</ref> 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."<ref>Erlangen Edition of ''Luther's Works'', Vol. 59, p. 284</ref>
The theologians, including ], ], ], and ], differed among themselves on the significance of the words of institution spoken by Jesus at the Last Supper: "This is my body which is for you", "This cup is the new covenant in my blood" (]:23-26). Whereas Luther insisted on the ] of Jesus at the Eucharist, other theologians believed God to be only symbolically present: Zwingli, for example, denied Jesus's ability to be in more than one place at a time. But Luther, who affirmed the doctrine of ], that Jesus is one and the same as God, was clear:


===Marriage===
]
], Luther's wife, by ]]]
]
Luther married ], one of 12 nuns he had helped escape from the Nimbschen ] in April 1523, when he arranged for them to be smuggled out in herring barrels.<ref>Wilson, 232.</ref> "Suddenly, and while I was occupied with far different thoughts," he wrote to Wenceslaus Link, "the Lord has plunged me into marriage."<ref>Schaff, Philip, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170823185716/http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/history/7_ch04.htm |date=23 August 2017 }}, rpt. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Retrieved 17 May 2009; Bainton, Mentor edition, 226.</ref> 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, with ], ], Johannes Apel, ] and ] and his wife as witnesses.<ref name=Scheible147>{{cite book|last=Scheible|first=Heinz|title=Melanchthon. Eine Biographie|publisher=C.H.Beck|location=Munich|year=1997|isbn=978-3-406-42223-2|language=de|page=147}}</ref> On the evening of the same day, the couple was married by Bugenhagen.<ref name=Scheible147/> The ceremonial walk to the church and the wedding banquet were left out and were made up two weeks later on 27 June.<ref name=Scheible147/>


Some priests and former members of ] had already married, including Andreas Karlstadt and Justus Jonas, but Luther's wedding set the seal of approval on clerical marriage.<ref>Lohse, Bernhard, ''Martin Luther: An Introduction to his Life and Work,'', translated by Robert C. Schultz, Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1987, {{ISBN|0-567-09357-3}}, 32; Brecht, 2:196–197.</ref> He had long condemned ] on biblical grounds, but his decision to marry surprised many, not least Melanchthon, who called it reckless.<ref>Brecht, 2:199; Wilson, 234; Lohse, 32.</ref> Luther had written to ] 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."<ref>Schaff, Philip. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170707101105/http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc7.ii.v.ii.html |date=7 July 2017 }}, ''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.</ref>
<blockquote>For I do not want to deny in any way that God’s power is able to make a body be simultaneously in many places, even in a corporeal and circumscribed manner. For who wants to try to prove that God is unable to do that? Who has seen the limits of his power?<ref><cite>LW</cite> 37:223-224.</ref></blockquote>
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.<ref>Marty, 109; Bainton, Mentor edition, 226.</ref>


Luther and his wife moved into a former monastery, "]," a wedding present from Elector ]. They embarked on what appears to have been a happy and successful marriage, though money was often short.<ref>Brecht, 2: 202; Mullett, 182.</ref> Katharina bore six children: Hans&nbsp;– June 1526; ]&nbsp;– 10 December 1527, who died within a few months; ]&nbsp;– 1529, who died in Luther's arms in 1542; Martin&nbsp;– 1531; ]&nbsp;– January 1533; and Margaret&nbsp;– 1534; and she helped the couple earn a living by farming and taking in boarders.<ref>Oberman, 278–280; Wilson, 237; Marty, 110.</ref> Luther confided to ] 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 of ]."<ref>Bainton, Mentor edition, 228; Schaff, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170707101105/http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc7.ii.v.ii.html |date=7 July 2017 }}; Brecht, 2: 204.</ref>
In taking the words of institution at face value, Luther saw no reason to define the mystery of the Eucharist in terms such as ], the notion that the substance of Christ's body and blood are present alongside that of the bread and the wine, or ], that God was literally made bread. Although his doctrine has been described as both of those, he simply taught that the body and blood of Christ are present, essence unchanged, in, with, and under the forms of bread and wine. He used "the analogy of the iron put into the fire whereby both fire and iron are united in the red-hot iron and yet each continues unchanged"<ref><cite>Against the Heavenly Prophets</cite> (1525) and <cite>Confession concerning Christ's Supper</cite> (1528) as cited in <cite>The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church</cite>,ed. F.L. Cross (London: Oxford University Press, 1958), 337.</ref>, a process which he called the "]".


===Organising the church: 1525–1529===
While recognising the commemorative element of "do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me", Luther also took issue with Zwingli's view that the Eucharist is merely memorial. And he disagreed that the benefit of the sacrament is conditional on good works, asserting rather that it is conditional on faith alone, laying stress on the words "given for you" and therefore on the atonement and forgiveness through the death of Jesus.<ref><cite>Schaff-Herzog, ," 74.</ref>
]
By 1526, Luther found himself increasingly occupied in organising a new church. His biblical ideal of congregations choosing their own ministers had proved unworkable.<ref>MacCulloch, 164.</ref> 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."<ref>Bainton, Mentor edition, 243.</ref>


From 1525 to 1529, he established a supervisory church body, laid down a new form of ], and wrote a clear summary of the new faith in the form of two ].<ref name="Schroeder2000">{{cite book|first=Steven|last=Schroeder|title=Between Freedom and Necessity: An Essay on the Place of Value|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JfT6aQvkVfAC&pg=PA104|year=2000|publisher=Rodopi|isbn=978-90-420-1302-5|page=104}}</ref> 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 the ], 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.<ref>Brecht, 2:260–63, 67; Mullett, 184–86.</ref> 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".<ref>Brecht, 2:267; Bainton, Mentor edition, 244.</ref>
Luther was convinced that God had blinded Zwingli's eyes so that he could not see the true significance of the Lord's Supper<ref><cite>Schaff-Herzog, ," 74.</ref>, denouncing Zwingli and his followers as "fanatics" and "devils"<ref><cite>Schaff-Herzog, ," 74.</ref> and refusing to call his opponents brethren, though he wished them peace and love.


The elector authorised a ] of the church, a power formerly exercised by bishops.<ref>Brecht, 2:267; MacCulloch, 165. On one occasion, Luther referred to the elector as an "emergency bishop" (''Notbischof'').</ref> At times, Luther's practical reforms fell short of his earlier radical pronouncements. For example, the ''Instructions for the Visitors of Parish Pastors in Electoral Saxony'' (1528), drafted by Melanchthon with Luther's approval, stressed the role of repentance in the forgiveness of sins, despite Luther's position that faith alone ensures justification.<ref>Mullett, 186–187; Brecht, 2:264–265, 267.</ref> The ] reformer ] challenged this compromise, and Luther condemned him for teaching that faith is separate from works.<ref>Brecht, 2:264–265.</ref> The ''Instruction'' is a problematic document for those seeking a consistent evolution in Luther's thought and practice.<ref>Brecht, 2:268.</ref>
Despite these disagreements on the Eucharist, the Marburg Colloquy paved the way for the signing in 1530 of the ] and for the formation of the ] the following year by leading Protestant nobles such as Philip of Hesse, ], and ]. Nevertheless, interpretations of the Eucharist differ among Protestants to this day.


]
==Augsburg Confession==
In response to demands for a German ], Luther wrote a '']'', which he published in early 1526.<ref>Brecht, 2:251–254; Bainton, Mentor edition, 266.</ref> 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."<ref>Brecht, 2:255.</ref> Luther based his order on the Catholic service but omitted "everything that smacks of sacrifice", and the Mass became a celebration where everyone received the wine as well as the bread.<ref>Mullett, 183; Eric W. Gritsch, ''A History of Lutheranism'', Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002, {{ISBN|0-8006-3472-1}}, 37.</ref> He retained the ] and ], while trappings such as the Mass ]s, altar, and candles were made optional, allowing freedom of ceremony.<ref>Brecht, 2:256; Mullett, 183.</ref> Some reformers, including followers of ], considered Luther's service too papistic, and modern scholars note the conservatism of his alternative to the Catholic Mass.<ref>Brecht, 2:256; Bainton, Mentor edition, 265–266.</ref> 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 the ].<ref>Brecht, 2:256; Bainton, Mentor edition, 269–270.</ref> To reach the simple people and the young, Luther incorporated religious instruction into the weekday services in the form of catechism.<ref>Brecht, 2:256–57.</ref> He also provided simplified versions of the baptism and marriage services.<ref>Brecht, 2:258.</ref> The former included the "]".<ref name=Birkholz>{{cite web |last1=Birkholz |first1=Mark |title=Luther's Flood Prayer |url=https://lutheranreformation.org/history/luthers-flood-prayer/ |website=Lutheran Reformation |publisher=] |access-date=7 October 2024 |date=3 January 2016}}</ref>


Luther and his colleagues introduced the new order of worship during their visitation of the Electorate of Saxony, which began in 1527.<ref>Brecht, 2:263.</ref> 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."<ref>Mullett, 186. Quoted from Luther's preface to the ''Small Catechism'', 1529; MacCulloch, 165.</ref>
]], the ], convened an ] in ] in 1530 with the goal of uniting the ] against the ], who had ] the previous autumn. To achieve unity, he required a resolution of the religious controversies in his realm. Luther, despised by emperor and empire, was left behind at the ] fortress while his elector and colleagues from ] attended the diet. The ], a summary of the Lutheran faith authored by ] but influenced by Luther,<ref><cite>Schaff-Herzog</cite>, , 74.</ref> was read aloud to the emperor. It was the first specifically Lutheran confession included in the ] of 1580, and is regarded as the principle confession of the Lutheran Church.


===Catechisms===
==Luther and antisemitism==
]
:''See also: ] and ]''
Luther devised the catechism as a method of imparting the basics of Christianity to the congregations. In 1529, he wrote the ], a manual for pastors and teachers, as well as a synopsis, the ], to be memorised by the people.<ref>Marty, 123.</ref> The catechisms provided easy-to-understand instructional and devotional material on the ], the ], ], ], and the ].<ref>Brecht, 2:273; Bainton, Mentor edition, 263.</ref> Luther incorporated questions and answers in the catechism so that the basics of Christian faith would not just be ], "the way monkeys do it", but understood.<ref>Marty, 123; Wilson, 278.</ref>
]'', written by Martin Luther in 1543.]]


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 the '']'' and the Catechism."<ref>Luther, Martin. ''Luther's Works''. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971, 50:172–173; Bainton, Mentor edition, 263.</ref> The ''Small Catechism'' has earned a reputation as a model of clear religious teaching.<ref>Brecht, 2:277, 280.</ref> It remains in use today, along with Luther's hymns and his translation of the Bible.
In his 60,000-word pamphlet<ref>Graham Noble, "Martin Luther and German anti-Semitism," <cite>History Review</cite> (2002) No. 42:1-2.</ref> <cite>]</cite>, published in 1543 as ''Von den Juden und ihren Lügen'', Luther spoke of the need to set synagogues on fire, destroy Jewish ], forbid rabbis from preaching, seize Jews' property and money, smash and destroy their homes, and ensure that these "poisonous envenomed worms" be forced into labor or expelled "for all time."<ref>Luther, "On the Jews and Their Lies,"<cite>LW</cite> 47:268-271.</ref> Four centuries later, a first edition of the pamphlet was given to ], editor of the ] newspaper '']'', by the city of ] in honor of his birthday in 1937. The newspaper later described the pamphlet as the most radically ] tract ever published, <ref>], "" (NP: Baylor University Center for American and Jewish Studies, Spring 2004), Slide 14. <nowiki>http://www3.baylor.edu/American_Jewish/everythingthatusedtobehere/resources/hh.htm</nowiki></ref> a view that is shared by contemporary scholars.<ref>], <cite>The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945</cite> (New York:Cambridge University Press, 2003), 33. "On the Jews and Their Lies is one of the most notorious antisemitic tracts ever written, especially for someone of Luther's esteem."; ], <cite>Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews &mdash; A History</cite> (N.P.:Mariner Books, 2002, 367; Also see ], <cite>History of Anti-Semitism: From the Time of Christ to the Court Jews</cite> (N.P.: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003), 216.</ref> The German philosopher ] said of it: "There you already have the whole Nazi program."<ref>cited in ], <cite>Faith Transformed: Christian Encounters with Jews and Judaism</cite>, ed. ] (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2003), 63-64.</ref>


Luther's ''Small Catechism'' proved especially effective in helping parents teach their children; likewise the ''Large Catechism'' was effective for pastors.<ref>See texts at {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170716175426/http://www.projectwittenberg.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/wittenberg-luther.html#sw-hymn |date=16 July 2017 }}</ref> Using the German vernacular, they expressed the Apostles' Creed in simpler, more personal, ] 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 the ]s 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.<ref name="James Arne Nestingen 1996">Charles P. Arand, "Luther on the Creed." '']'' 2006 20(1): 1–25. {{ISSN|0024-7499}}; James Arne Nestingen, "Luther's Catechisms" ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation.'' Ed. Hans J. Hillerbrand. (1996)</ref> 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 (the ]) and The Lord's Prayer, which are also part of the Lutheran catechetical teaching.<ref name="James Arne Nestingen 1996" />
British historian ] writes that, even before <cite>On the Jews and their Lies</cite>, Luther "got the Jews expelled from Saxony in 1537, and in the 1540s he drove them from many German towns; he tried unsuccessfully to get the elector to expel them from Brandenburg in 1543. His followers continued to agitate against the Jews there: they sacked the Berlin synagogue in 1572 and the following year finally got their way, the Jews being banned from the entire country."<ref>Paul Johnson, <cite>A History of the Jews</cite> (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1987), 242.</ref>


===Translation of the Old Testament: 1534–1535===
There is little doubt among historians that Luther's rhetoric may have contributed to,<ref name=Berger>], <cite>Fathoming the Holocaust: A Social Problems Approach</cite>(New York: Aldine De Gruyter, 2002), 28;], <cite>Revolutionary Antisemitism in Germany from Kant to Wagner</cite> (Princeton University Press, 1990), quoted in Berger, 28); ], <cite>The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich</cite>, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1960).</ref> or at the very least foreshadowed,<ref name=Berenbaum>]. <cite>"The World Must Know": A History of the Holocaust as told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum</cite> (Baltimore:John Hopkins University Press,1993, 2000), 8-9.</ref> the actions of the Nazis when ] came to power in Germany in 1933, although the extent to which it played a direct role in the events leading to the ] is debated. At the heart of the debate is whether it is ] to view Luther's sentiments as an example, or early precursor, of racial anti-Semitism &mdash; hatred toward the Jews as a people &mdash; rather than ] &mdash; contempt for ] as a religion.
{{Main|Luther Bible}}
]
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.<ref>Mullett, 145; Lohse, 119.</ref> Others had previously translated the Bible into German, but Luther tailored his translation to his own doctrine.<ref>Mullett, 148–150.</ref>
Two of the earlier translations were the Mentelin Bible (1456)<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.wdl.org/en/item/18191/ |title=Mentelin Bible |newspaper=The Library of Congress |access-date=2 June 2018|year=1466 }}</ref> and the Koberger Bible (1484).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.wdl.org/en/item/18183/ |title=Koberger Bible |website=World Digital Library |access-date=2 June 2018|date=1483 }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=] |title=The Contested History of a Book: The German Bible of the Later Middle Ages and Reformation in Legend, Ideology, and Scholarship |last=Gow |first=Andrew C. |volume=9 |year=2009 |issn=1203-1542 |doi=10.5508/jhs.2009.v9.a13 |doi-access=free }}</ref>


Luther's translation used the variant of German spoken at the Saxon chancellery, intelligible to both northern and southern Germans.<ref>Wilson, 183; Brecht, 2:48–49.</ref> 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."<ref>Mullett, 149; Wilson, 302.</ref> 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 a ] to the German language and literature.<ref>Marius, 162.</ref> Furnished with notes and prefaces by Luther, and with woodcuts by ] that contained anti-papal imagery, it played a major role in the spread of Luther's doctrine throughout Germany.<ref>Lohse, 112–117; Wilson, 183; Bainton, Mentor edition, 258.</ref> The Luther Bible influenced other vernacular translations, such as the ], a precursor of the ].<ref>Daniel Weissbort and Astradur Eysteinsson (eds.), ''Translation – Theory and Practice: A Historical Reader'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, {{ISBN|0-19-871200-6}}, 68.</ref>
In <cite>The World Must Know</cite>, the official publication of the ], the museum's project director ] writes that Luther's reliance on the Bible as the sole source of Christian authority fed his fury toward Jews over their rejection of Jesus as the ].<ref>Berenbaum, 8-9.</ref> For Luther, salvation depended on the belief that Jesus was the son of God, a belief that Jews do not share. Earlier in his life, Luther had argued that the Jews had been prevented from converting to ] by the proclamation of what he believed to be an impure gospel by Christians, and he believed they would respond favorably to the evangelical message if it were presented to them gently. He expressed concern for the poor conditions in which they were forced to live, and insisted that anyone denying that Jesus was born a Jew was committing ]. Graham Noble writes that he wanted to save Jews, in his own terms, not exterminate them, but beneath his apparent reasonableness toward them, there was a "biting intolerance," which produced "ever more furious demands for their conversion to his own brand of Christianity."<ref>Noble, 1-2.</ref> When they failed to convert, he turned on them. Berenbaum quotes Luther's apparent support for the idea that Christians may be justified in killing Jews: "We are at fault in not slaying them. Rather we allow them to live freely in our midst despite their murder, cursing, blaspheming, lying and defaming."<ref>"Jerusalem was destroyed over 1400 years ago, and at that time we Christians were harassed and persecuted by the Jews throughout the world ... So we are even at fault for not avenging all this innocent blood of our Lord and of the Christians which they shed for 300 years after the destruction of Jerusalem ... We are at fault in not slaying them." Martin Luther. ''On the Jews and Their Lies'', cited in ], "Luther, Luther Scholars, and the Jews," <cite>Encounter</cite> 46 (Autumn 1985) No. 4:343-344.</ref>


Luther did not include ],<ref name="Metzger1994">{{Cite book| edition = 2| publisher = Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft| isbn = 978-3-438-06010-5| last = Metzger| first = Bruce M.| title = A textual commentary on the Greek New Testament: a companion volume to the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament (fourth revised edition)| location = Stuttgart| date = 1994| pages = 647–649}}</ref> the ] in his translation, rejecting it as a forgery. It was inserted into the text by others after Luther's death.<ref>{{cite book |last= Criticus |first= (Rev. William Orme)|date= 1830|title= Memoir of The Controversy respecting the Three Heavenly Witnesses, I John V.7 |location= London |publisher= (1872, Boston, "a new edition, with notes and an appendix by Ezra Abbot") |page= 42|author-link= William Orme (minister)}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= White|first= Andrew Dickson |date= 1896|title= A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology, Vol. 2 |location= New York|publisher= Appleton|page= 304|author-link= Andrew Dickson White}}</ref>
Scholars argue that the violence of Luther's views lent a new element to the standard Christian suspicion of Judaism. Sociologist Ronald Berger has written that Luther is credited with "Germanizing the Christian critique of Judaism and establishing anti-Semitism as a key element of German culture and national identity."<ref>Berger, 28.</cite></ref> Historian ] concurs, arguing that Luther caused a "hysterical and demonizing mentality" about Jews to enter German thought and discourse, a mentality that might otherwise have been absent.<ref>Rose as quoted in Berger, 28.</ref> The coarseness of the language made his material particularly attractive to Nazism.<ref>], 236.</ref> In <cite>]</cite>, ] named Luther as one of the great historical "protagonists" he most admired.<ref>Noble, 1-2.</ref> <cite>On the Jews and Their Lies</cite> was publicly exhibited in a glass case at the ] and was quoted in a 54-page explanation of the Aryan Law by Dr. E.H. Schulz and Dr. R. Frercks.<ref>Noble, 1-2.</ref> The Nazi Bishop Martin Sasse of Thuringia hailed Luther as "the greatest anti-Semite of his time," and said that it was a happy cooincidence that ] fell on Luther's birthday.<ref>In <cite>The 12-Year Reich: A Social History of Nazi German 1933-1945</cite>, historian ] observed: "The thoughts of such cultural heroes as Luther and ] provided ideal underpinning for the official anti-Semitic ideology ." ], <cite>The 12-Year Reich: A Social History of Nazi German 1933-1945</cite> (NP:Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971), 465, and ], in <cite>The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich</cite>, wrote: "In his utterances about the Jews, Luther employed a coarseness and brutality of language unequaled in German history until the Nazi time." ], <cite>The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich</cite> (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1960), 236.</ref>


===Hymnodist===
A minority viewpoint disagrees with the attempt to link Luther's work causally to the rise of Nazi anti-Semitism, arguing that it is too simplistic an analysis.<ref>], 297; ], "Martin Luther and the Jews," <cite>Lutheran Forum</cite> (Summer 2000):32; Brecht, <cite>Martin Luther</cite>, 3:351; ], Jr. <cite>Luther's Last Battles: Politics and Polemics 1531-46</cite> (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983), 139; ], “Was Luther Anti-Semitic? ” 12 <cite>Christian History</cite> No. 3:39; ], <cite>Luther the Reformer</cite>, 274; ], <cite>Martin Luther</cite>, 377; Heiko Oberman, <cite>The Roots of Anti-Semitism: In the Age of Renaissance and Reformation</cite> (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984), 102; ],<cite>Martin Luther</cite>, 75; ], <cite>Lutheran Witness</cite>, 19.</ref> Writing in <cite>Lutheran Quarterly</cite>, Johannes Wallmann, professor of church history at the ], writes that Luther's writings against the Jews were largely ignored in the ] and ],<ref>], "The Reception of Luther's Writings on the Jews from the Reformation to the End of the 19th Century", <cite>Lutheran Quarterly</cite>, n.s. 1 (Spring 1987) 1:72-97.</ref> and journalist and lay Lutheran theologian ] argues that it was because the Nazis were already anti-Semites that they revived Luther's work on the Jews. For Siemon-Netto, Nazism had its origins, not in Luther, but in 19th century Romanticism and 20th century Darwinism:<ref>], <cite>The Fabricated Luther</cite>, 17-20.</ref> "To suggest that Lutheran theology turned Germans into Nazis is a false charge that simply cannot be substantiated by the facts."<ref name=”SiemonNetto2”>], "Luther and the Jews," <cite>Lutheran Witness</cite> 123 (2004) No. 4:19, 21.</ref> Luther and Reformation historian ] concurs that there is a "world of difference" between Luther's belief in salvation, which depended on a faith in Jesus being the messiah, and a racial ideology of anti-Semitism,"<ref>], 3:351.</ref> and Graham Noble agrees that, although Luther offered a "historical and intellectual justification for the ]," he had "no notion of the pseudo-scientific ] which underpinned Nazi anti-Semitism."<ref>Noble, 1-2.</ref> Reformation historian ] writes that, far from hating the Jewish people, and despite the ferocity of his attacks, Luther "never truly renounced the notion of coexistence between Jews and Christians."<ref>], <cite>Martin Luther: The Christian Between God and Death</cite> (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999), 380.</ref>
{{Main|List of hymns by Martin Luther}}
]"]]
{{listen
|type=music
|filename=Ein' Feste Burg.ogg
|title=Ein feste Burg sung in German
|description=The German text of "Ein feste Burg" ("A Mighty Fortress") sung to the isometric, more widely known arrangement of its traditional melody
}}
Luther was a prolific ], authoring hymns such as "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" ("]") and "]" ("From Heaven Above to Earth I Come").<ref>For a short collection see {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170716175426/http://www.projectwittenberg.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/wittenberg-luther.html#sw-hymn |date=16 July 2017 }}</ref> 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.<ref name="Christopher Boyd Brown 2005">Christopher Boyd Brown, ''Singing the Gospel: Lutheran Hymns and the Success of the Reformation''. (2005)</ref> He often accompanied the sung hymns with a lute, later recreated as the ] that became a ] of Germany in the 20th century.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=23 March 2014|title=Waldzither – Bibliography of the 19th century|publisher=Studia Instrumentorum|url=http://www.studia-instrumentorum.de/MUSEUM/zistern.htm|quote=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)}}</ref>


Luther's hymns were frequently evoked by particular events in his life and the unfolding Reformation. This behavior started with his learning of the execution of ], the first individuals to be martyred by the Roman Catholic Church for Lutheran views, prompting Luther to write the hymn "]" ("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.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/f/l/u/flungtot.htm |journal=Hymntime |title=Flung to the heedless winds |access-date=7 October 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014171540/http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/f/l/u/flungtot.htm |archive-date=14 October 2013 }}</ref>
] bodies have distanced themselves from this aspect of Luther's work. In 1983, the ], denounced Luther's "hostile attitude" toward the Jews.<ref name=declaration1> at Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, www.lcms.org. Retrieved December 15, 2005.</ref> In 1994, the Church Council of the ] announced: "As did many of Luther's own companions in the sixteenth century, we reject this violent invective, and yet more do we express our deep and abiding sorrow over its tragic effects on subsequent generations."<ref name=declaration2>'''', April 18, 1994, www.elca.org. Retrieved December 15, 2005.</ref>


Luther's 1524 creedal hymn "{{lang|de|]|italic=unset}}" ("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 the ''Small 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.<ref name="Christopher Boyd Brown 2005" />
==Luther on witchcraft and magic==
Luther shared the belief that ] existed and was inimical to ]. While Luther did not specifically write about witchcraft, his ideas of it are available through discussions of Biblical references to witchcraft and in table talk. His ideas were similar to those of late medieval Christian thinkers.<ref>Susan C. Karant-Nunn and Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks, Luther on Women: A Sourcebook, (Cambridge: Cambridge U. Press, 2003), 228.</ref> Luther shared some of the superstitions about witchcraft that were common in his time. When interpreting Exodus 22:18,<ref></ref> Luther stated that witches with the help of the devil could steal milk simply by thinking of a cow.<ref>''Sermon on Exodus, 1526'', ''WA'' 16, 551 f.</ref>


{{multiple image
In his Small Catechism, Luther taught that witchcraft was a sin against the second commandment<ref>Martin Luther, , Trans. Robert E. Smith, (Fort Wayne: Project Wittenberg, 2004), <cite>Small Catechism</cite> 1.2.</ref> and prescribed the Biblical penalty for it in a "table talk": <blockquote>On 25&nbsp;August 1538 there was much discussion about witches and sorceresses who steal chicken eggs out of nests, or steal milk and butter. Doctor Martin said: "One should show no mercy to these ; I would burn them myself, for we read in the Law that the priests were the ones to begin the stoning of criminals."<ref>''WA Tr'' 4:51-52, no. 3979 quoted and translated in Karant-Nunn, 236. The original Latin and German text is: "25, Augusti multa dicebant de veneficis et incantatricibus, quae ova ex gallinis et lac et butyrum furarentur. Respondit Lutherus: Cum illis nulla habenda est misericordia. Ich wolte sie selber verprennen, more legis, ubi sacerdotes reos lapidare incipiebant.</ref></blockquote>
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| footer = Autograph of "]", with the only notes extant in Luther's handwriting
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Luther's 1538 hymnic version of the ], "]", corresponds exactly to Luther's explanation of the prayer in the ''Small 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.<ref>Robin A. Leaver, "Luther's Catechism Hymns." '']'' 1998 12(1): 79–88, 89–98.</ref>


Luther wrote "]" ("From depths of woe I cry to You") in 1523 as a hymnic version of ] and sent it as a sample to encourage his colleagues to write psalm-hymns for use in German worship. In a collaboration with ], this and seven other hymns were published in the ''Achtliederbuch'', the ]. In 1524 Luther developed his original four-stanza psalm paraphrase into a five-stanza Reformation hymn that developed the theme of "grace alone" more fully. Because it expressed essential Reformation doctrine, this expanded version of "Aus tiefer Not" was designated as a regular component of several regional Lutheran liturgies and was widely used at funerals, including Luther's own. Along with ] hymnic version of ], Luther's expanded hymn was also adopted for use with the fifth part of Luther's catechism, concerning confession.<ref>Robin A. Leaver, "Luther's Catechism Hymns: 5. Baptism." '']'' 1998 12(2): 160–169, 170–180.</ref>
==Final years==
Luther's rhetoric became more severe in his final years concerning Jews and Christians alike. In the context of the opening of the ] in 1545, Luther wrote a pamphlet entitled, <cite>Against the Roman Papacy an Institution of the Devil</cite>.<ref><cite>LW</cite> 41:259-376.</ref> It was his bitterest attack against the institution of the papacy.<ref><cite>LW</cite> 41:259.</ref> In some of his later writings, popes, bishops, and cardinals were referred to as "Roman sodom." He once blessed a group of followers, saying: "May the Lord fill you with His blessings and with hatred of the Pope."<ref>Emanuel Valenza, "" <cite>The Angellus</cite> 8 (1985) No. 3. <nowiki>http://www.sspx.ca/Angelus/1985_March/Christ_Among_Us.htm</nowiki>.</ref></blockquote>


Luther wrote "]" ("Oh God, look down from heaven"). "]" (Now come, Savior of the gentiles), based on '']'', became the main hymn (Hauptlied) for ]. He transformed ''A solus ortus cardine'' to "{{lang|de|]|italic=unset}}" ("We should now praise Christ") and '']'' to "{{lang|de|]|italic=unset}}" ("Come, Holy Spirit, Lord God").<ref>Christoph Markschies, Michael Trowitzsch: ''Luther zwischen den Zeiten&nbsp;– Eine Jenaer Ringvorlesung''; Mohr Siebeck, 1999; pp. 215–219 (in German).</ref> He wrote two hymns on the ], "{{lang|de|]|italic=unset}}" and "Mensch, willst du leben seliglich". His "]" ("Praise be to You, Jesus Christ") became the main hymn for Christmas. He wrote for ] "]", and adopted for Easter "{{lang|de|]|italic=unset}}" (Christ is risen), based on ]. "{{lang|de|]|italic=unset}}", a paraphrase of ], was intended for ], but became also a funeral hymn. He paraphrased the ] as "]" with a simplified form of the melody. It became known as the German Te Deum.
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Luther's health declined in the years before his death. Throughout his years as a reformer, Luther had suffered from a variety of ailments, including constipation, hemorrhoids, heart congestion,<ref>In January of 1527, Luther was overcome by "a violent rush of blood to the heart, which well-nigh killed him." For an account of this event, see: Wilhelm Rein, , New York, Funk & Wagnalls (1883), pp.139-146.</ref> fainting spells, dizziness and roaring in the ears. From 1531-1546 Luther experienced a series of more severe health problems,<ref>Some of these may have been stress related; the years of struggle with Rome, the various antagonisms with and among his fellow reformers, and the scandal which ensued from the ] of ] incident, in which Luther had played a leading role, all may have contributed to Luther's declining health.</ref> including ringing in the ears, and, in 1536-1537, Luther began to experience kidney and bladder stones, which caused him particular agony during the rest of his life. He also suffered from arthritis, and experienced a ruptured ear drum due to an inner ear infection. In December 1544, he suffered from severe angina and finally suffered a heart attack which ended his life in February 1546.<ref>Edwards, 9.</ref>


Luther's 1541 hymn "{{lang|de|]|italic=unset}}" ("To Jordan came the Christ our Lord") reflects the structure and substance of his questions and answers concerning baptism in the ''Small Catechism''. Luther adopted a preexisting ] tune associated with a hymnic setting of ]'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, including ], 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 Lutheran ].<ref name="Christopher Boyd Brown 2005" />
]During the later years of his life, Luther remained busy and active, with lecturing at the university on the Biblical book of Genesis, serving as dean of the theological faculty, making many visitations to churches. During the final nine years of his life Luther wrote 165 treatises and nearly ten letters a day, examined many candidates for doctoral degrees in theology, hosting doctoral feats for the successful candidates. His later years were marked by continuing illnesses and physical problems, making him short-tempered and even more pointed and harsh in his writings and comments. His wife Katie was overheard saying, "Dear husband, you are too rude," and he responded, "They teach me to be rude."<ref>Spitz, 354.</ref>


Luther's hymns were included in early Lutheran hymnals and spread the ideas of the Reformation. He supplied four of eight songs of the First Lutheran hymnal ''Achtliederbuch'', 18 of 26 songs of the '']'', and 24 of the 32 songs in the first choral hymnal with settings by Johann Walter, '']'', all published in 1524. Luther's hymns inspired composers to write music. ] included several verses as ]s in his ] and based ] entirely on them, namely ], as early as possibly 1707, in his second annual cycle (1724 to 1725) ], ], ], ], and ], later ], and in 1735 ].
]Luther's final journey, to Mansfeld, was taken due to 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.


===On the soul after death===
Accompanied by his three sons, Luther left Wittenberg on ]. The negotiations were successfully concluded on ]. After 8:00 p.m. that day, Luther 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 1:00 a.m. he awoke with more chest pain and was warmed with hot towels. Knowing his death was imminent, 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. He died 2:45 a.m., ], ], in Eisleben, the city of his birth. Luther was buried in the Castle Church in Wittenberg, underneath the pulpit.<ref>cf. Brecht, 3:369-379.</ref>
] being raised by Jesus from the dead, painting by ], 1558]]
In contrast to the views of ]<ref>''Psychopannychia'' (the night banquet of the soul), manuscript Orléans 1534, Latin Strasbourg 1542, 2nd.ed. 1545, French, Geneva 1558, English 1581.</ref> and ],<ref>''Liber de Anima'' 1562</ref> 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.<ref>D. Franz Pieper ''Christliche 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."</ref> Accordingly, he disputed traditional interpretations of some Bible passages, such as the parable of the ].<ref>''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.</ref> 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."<ref>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."</ref> He also rejected the existence of ], which involved Christian souls undergoing penitential suffering after death.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bookofconcord.org/smalcald.php#part2.2.12|title=Smalcald Articles, Part II, Article II, paragraph 12|publisher=Bookofconcord.org|access-date=15 August 2012|archive-date=10 October 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081010210703/http://bookofconcord.org/smalcald.php#part2.2.12|url-status=dead}}</ref> He affirmed the continuity of one's personal identity beyond death. In his ], he described the saints as currently residing "in their graves and in heaven."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bookofconcord.org/smalcald.php#part2.2.28|title=Smalcald Articles, Part II, Article II, paragraph 28|publisher=Bookofconcord.org|access-date=15 August 2012|archive-date=10 October 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081010210703/http://bookofconcord.org/smalcald.php#part2.2.28|url-status=dead}}</ref>


The Lutheran theologian ] observes that Luther's teaching about the state of the Christian's soul after death differed from the later Lutheran theologians such as ].<ref>Gerhard ''Loci 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).</ref> ] (1755) had earlier reached the same conclusion in his analysis of ] on this issue.<ref>Article in the ''Berlinischer Zeitung'' 1755 in Complete Works ed. Karl Friedrich Theodor Lachmann&nbsp;– 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."</ref>
A piece of paper was found in Luther's pocket with his last known written statement: <blockquote>No one who was not a shepherd or a peasant for five years can understand Virgil in his Bucolica and Georgica. I maintain that no one can undersand Cicero in his letters unless he was active in important affairs of state for twenty years. Let no one who had not guided the congregations with the prophets for one hundred years believe that he has tasted Holy Scripture thoroughly. For this reason the miracle is stupendous (1)in John the Baptist, (2) in Christ, (3) in the Apostles. Do not try to fathom this divine Aeneid, but humbly worship its footprints. We are beggars. That is true.<ref>Orig. German and Latin of Luther's last written words is: "Wir sein pettler. Hoc est verum." Heinrich Bornkamm, <cite>Luther's World of Thought</cite>, tr. Martin H. Bertram (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1958), 291.</ref></blockquote>


Luther's ''Commentary on Genesis'' contains a passage which concludes that "the soul does not sleep (''anima non sic dormit''), but wakes (''sed vigilat'') and experiences visions".<ref>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&nbsp;– ''Enarrationes in Genesin'', XXV, 1535–1545)"</ref> ] argues that ] misread this and other passages from Luther,<ref>Blackburne ''A short historical view of the controversy concerning an intermediate state'' (1765) p. 121</ref> while ] 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.<ref>]. ''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"</ref>
==See also==
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Henry Eyster Jacobs' English translation from 1898 reads:
==References==
:"Nevertheless, the sleep of this life and that of the future life differ; for '''in 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."<ref>Henry Eyster Jacobs ''Martin Luther the Hero of the Reformation 1483 to 1546'' (1898). Emphasis added.</ref>
{{Schaff-Herzog}}


===Sacramentarian controversy and the Marburg Colloquy===
<references />
{{See also|The Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ—Against the Fanatics}}
<ref>http://www.bhsu.edu/artssciences/asfaculty/kparrow/Edict%20of%20Worms.htm</ref>
]
In October 1529, ], convoked an assembly of German and Swiss theologians at the ], to establish doctrinal unity in the emerging Protestant states.<ref>Mullett, 194–195.</ref> Agreement was achieved on fourteen points out of fifteen, the exception being the nature of the ], the ] of the Lord's Supper, an issue crucial to Luther.<ref>Brecht, 2:325–334; Mullett, 197.</ref> The theologians, including Zwingli, Melanchthon, ], and ], differed on the significance of the words spoken by Jesus at the ]: "This is my body which is for you" and "This cup is the new covenant in my blood" (]:23–26).<ref>Wilson, 259.</ref> Luther insisted on the ] of the body and blood of Christ in the consecrated bread and wine, which he called the ],<ref>'']'' 26, 442; ''Luther's Works'' 37, 299–300.</ref> while his opponents believed God to be only spiritually or symbolically present.<ref>Oberman, 237.</ref>


Zwingli, for example, denied Jesus' ability to be in more than one place at a time. Luther stressed the ] of Jesus' human nature.<ref>Marty, 140–141; Lohse, 74–75.</ref> According to transcripts, the debate sometimes became confrontational. Citing Jesus' words "The flesh profiteth nothing" (] 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."<ref>Quoted by Oberman, 237.</ref> On his table Luther wrote the words "''Hoc est corpus meum''" ("This is my body") in chalk, to continually indicate his firm stance.<ref>Brecht 2:329.</ref>
]


Despite the disagreements on the Eucharist, the Marburg Colloquy paved the way for the signing in 1530 of the ], and for the formation of the ] the following year by leading Protestant nobles such as ], Philip of Hesse, and ]. The Swiss cities, however, did not sign these agreements.<ref>Oberman, 238.</ref>
==Bibliography==
''For the works of Luther himself, see ].


===Epistemology of faith and reason===
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."<ref>Martin Luther, ''Werke, VIII''</ref> and " 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."<ref>Martin Luther, ''Table Talk''.</ref> 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",<ref>Martin Luther, "On Justification CCXCIV", ''Table Talk''</ref> bringing claims he was a ] into dispute. Contemporary Lutheran scholarship, however, has found a different reality in Luther. Luther rather seeks to separate ] in order to honor the separate spheres of knowledge that each applies to.


===On Islam===
{{Further|Protestantism and Islam}}
]
At the time of the Marburg Colloquy, ] was ] with a vast ] army.<ref>Mallett, 198; Marius, 220. The siege was lifted on 14 October 1529, which Luther saw as a divine miracle.</ref> Luther had argued against resisting the Turks in his 1518 ''Explanation of the Ninety-five Theses'', provoking accusations of defeatism. He saw the Turks as a ] sent by God to punish Christians, as agents of the biblical ] that would destroy the ], whom Luther believed to be the papacy and the Roman Church.<ref>Andrew Cunningham, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221122074525/https://books.google.com/books?id=hLxDnAMaUgQC&pg=PA141 |date=22 November 2022 }}, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000, {{ISBN|0-521-46701-2}}, 141; Mullett, 239–240; Marty, 164.</ref> He consistently rejected the idea of a ], "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".<ref>From '']'', 1529, quoted in William P. Brown, , Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, {{ISBN|0-664-22323-0}}, 258; Lohse, 61; Marty, 166.</ref> On the other hand, in keeping with his ], Luther did support non-religious war against the Turks.<ref>Marty, 166; Marius, 219; Brecht, 2:365, 368.</ref> In 1526, he argued in ''Whether Soldiers can be in a State of Grace'' that national defence is reason for a just war.<ref>Mullett, 238–239; Lohse, 59–61.</ref> By 1529, in '']'', he was actively urging Emperor Charles&nbsp;V and the German people to fight a secular war against the Turks.<ref>Brecht, 2:364.</ref>
He made clear, however, that the spiritual war against an alien faith was separate, to be waged through prayer and repentance.<ref>Wilson, 257; Brecht, 2:364–365.</ref> 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".<ref>Brecht, 2:365; Mullett, 239.</ref>


In 1542, Luther read a Latin translation of the ].<ref>Brecht, 3:354.</ref> He went on to produce several critical pamphlets on ], which he called "Mohammedanism" or "the Turk".<ref>Daniel Goffman, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221122074511/https://books.google.com/books?id=3uJzjatjTL4C&pg=PA109 |date=22 November 2022 }}, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002, {{ISBN|0-521-45908-7}}, 109; Mullett, 241; Marty, 163.</ref> 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."<ref>From ''On war against the Turk'', 1529, quoted in Roland E. Miller, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221122074516/https://books.google.com/books?id=BjC7K1j_AT8C&pg=PA208 |date=22 November 2022 }}, Minneapolis: Kirk House Publishers, 2006, {{ISBN|1-932688-07-2}}, 208.</ref> He opposed banning the publication of the Qur'an, wanting it exposed to scrutiny.<ref>Brecht, 3:355.</ref>
=== Books ===
* Bainton, Roland H. <cite>Here I Stand: a Life of Martin Luther</cite>. New York: Penguin, 1995 (1950). ISBN 0-452-01146-9.
* Bornkamm, Heinrich. <cite>Luther in Mid-Career 1521-1530</cite>. Tr. E. Theodore Bachmann. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983. ISBN 0-8006-0692-2.
* Bornkamm, Heinrich. <cite>Luther's World of Thought</cite>. Martin H. Bertram, trans. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1958. ISBN 0-7586-0832-2
* Brecht, Martin. <cite>Martin Luther</cite>. Tr. James L. Schaaf. 3 Volumes. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985-1993. ISBN 0-8006-2813-6, ISBN 0-8006-2814-4, ISBN 0-8006-2815-2.
* d'Aubigne, Jean Henri Merle. <cite>The Triumph of Truth: A Life of Martin Luther</cite>. Tr. Henry White. Ed. Mark Sidwell. Bob Jones University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-89084-876-9.
* Dickens, A.G. <cite>Martin Luther and the Reformation</cite>. New York: Harper & Row, 1967. ASIN: B0007DY59M.
* Haile, H.G. <cite>Luther: An Experiment in Biography</cite>. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co., 1980. ISBN 0-385-15960-9.
* Kittelson, James M. <cite>Luther the Reformer: The Story of the Man and His Career</cite>. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1986. ISBN 0-8066-2240-7.
* Kolb, Robert. <cite>Martin Luther As Prophet, Teacher, Hero: Images of the Reformer, 1520-1620</cite>. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 2000. ISBN 0-8010-2214-2.
* Manns, Peter. <cite>Martin Luther: An Illustrated Biography</cite>. New York: Crossroad Publishing Co., 1982. ISBN 0-8245-0510-7
* Marty, Martin. <cite>Martin Luther: A Penguin Life</cite>. New York: Penguin, 2004. ISBN 0-670-03272-7
* Nohl, Frederick. <cite>Luther: Biography of a Reformer</cite>. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2003. ISBN 0-7586-0651-6
* Oberman, Heiko A. <cite>Luther: Man Between God and the Devil</cite>. New York: Doubleday, 1989. ISBN 0-385-42278-4
* Plass, Ewald M. <cite>This Is Luther: A Character Study</cite>. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1948 . ISBN 0-570-03942-8.
* Polack, W.G. <cite>The Story of Luther</cite>. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1931.
* Reu, M. <cite>Luther and the Scriptures</cite>. Columbus, Ohio: The Wartburg Press, 1944. .
* Reu, M. <cite>Luther's German Bible: An Historical Presentation Together with a Collection of Sources</cite>. Columbus, Ohio: The Lutheran Book Concern, 1934. .
* ]. <cite>Luther: His Life and Work</cite>. John Riches, trans. New York: Harper & Row, 1963. ISBN 0-313-20347-4.
* Schwiebert, E.G. <cite>Luther and His Times</cite>. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1950. ISBN 0-570-03246-6.
* Siemon-Netto, Uwe. <cite>The Fabricated Luther: the Rise and Fall of the Shirer Myth</cite>. Peter L. Berger, Foreward. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1995. ISBN 0-570-04800-1.
*.
* Tjernagel, Neelak S. <cite>Martin Luther and the Jewish People</cite>. Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1985. ISBN 0-8100-0213-2
* Todd, John M. <cite>Luther: A Life</cite>. New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1982. ISBN 0-8245-0479-8 (Also at )
*<cite>Triglot Concordia</cite>. ed., trans. Bente, F. et al. Historical introductions by F. Bente. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921.


=== Chapters === ===Antinomian controversy===
], where ] and Luther preached]]
* Farrell, John. "Luther and the Devil's World," in <cite>Paranoia and Modernity: Cervantes to Rousseau</cite> (NP: Cornell University Press, 2006), chapter four.
Early in 1537, ]—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 anonymous ] theses circulating in Wittenberg. These theses asserted that the law is no longer to be taught to Christians but belonged only to city hall.<ref>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. {{ISBN|978-0-9748529-6-6}}</ref> Luther responded to these theses with six series of theses against Agricola and the antinomians, four of which became the basis for ]s between 1538 and 1540.<ref>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. {{ISBN|978-0-9748529-6-6}}</ref> He also responded to these assertions in other writings, such as his 1539 ] to C. Güttel ''Against the Antinomians'',<ref>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).</ref> and his book ''On the Councils and the Church'' from the same year.<ref>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 preach ''de 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).</ref>
* MacCulloch, Diarmaid. <cite>The Reformation: Europe's House Divided 1490-1700</cite>. London: BBC Books, 2003. ISBN 0-7139-9370-7
* Oberman, Heiko A. <cite>The Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Age of Renaissance and Reformation</cite>. James I. Porter, trans. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984. ISBN 0-8006-0709-0
* ]. <cite>History of the Christian Church</cite>. 8 vols. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1910.
* Westerholm, Stephen. <cite>Israel's Law and the Church's Faith</cite>. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1988. ISBN 0-8028-0288-5


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.<ref>Cf. Luther, ''Only the Decalogue Is Eternal,'' 33–36.</ref> 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.<ref>Cf. Luther, ''Only the Decalogue Is Eternal'', 170–172</ref> 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.<ref>Cf. Luther, ''Only the Decalogue Is Eternal'', 76, 105–107.</ref> 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.<ref>Cf. Luther, ''Only the Decalogue Is Eternal'', 140, 157.</ref>
=== Encyclopedia articles ===


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.<ref>Cf. Luther, ''Only the Decalogue Is Eternal'', 75, 104–105, 172–173.</ref> This has traditionally been called the "third use of the law."<ref>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.</ref> 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 her ]s on a daily basis.<ref>Cf. Luther, ''Only the Decalogue Is Eternal'', 110.</ref>
* <cite>Christian Cyclopedia</cite>. Eds. Erwin L. Lueker, Luther Poellot, and Paul Jackson. s.v. ." St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2000.


The Ten Commandments, and the beginnings of the renewed life of Christians accorded to them by the sacrament of ], are a present foreshadowing of the believers' future ]-like life in heaven in the midst of this life.<ref>Cf. Luther, ''Only the Decalogue Is Eternal'', 35: "The law, therefore, cannot be eliminated, but remains, prior to Christ as not fulfilled, after Christ as to be fulfilled, although this does not happen perfectly in this life even by the justified. ... This will happen perfectly first in the coming life." Cf. Luther, ''Only the Decalogue Is Eternal,'', 43–44, 91–93.</ref> Luther's teaching of the Ten Commandments, therefore, has clear ] overtones, which, characteristically for Luther, do not encourage world-flight but direct the Christian to service to the neighbor in the common, daily vocations of this perishing world.
=== Audio recordings ===


===Bigamy of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse: 1539–1540===
*<cite></cite>
From December 1539, Luther became involved in the designs of ] to marry a lady-in-waiting of his wife, ]. Philip solicited the approval of Luther, Melanchthon, and Bucer, citing as a precedent the ]. The theologians were not prepared to make a general ruling, and they reluctantly advised the ] that if he was determined, he should marry secretly and keep quiet about the matter because divorce was worse than ].<ref>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 of {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190120194507/https://www.cuw.edu/academics/schools/arts-and-sciences/_assets/theological-journal/v3i1-Fall_2015.pdf |date=20 January 2019 }} Nathan R. Jastram, Concordia Theological Journal, Fall 2015/Spring 2016, Volume 3</ref> As a result, on 4 March 1540, Philip married a second wife, ], with Melanchthon and Bucer among the witnesses. Philip's sister ] 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.<ref>Brecht, Martin, ''Martin Luther'', tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 3:212.</ref> 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 biographer ], "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".<ref>Brecht, Martin, ''Martin Luther'', tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 3:214.</ref> Brecht argues that Luther's mistake was not that he gave private pastoral advice, but that he miscalculated the political implications.<ref>Brecht, Martin, ''Martin Luther'', tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 3:205–215.</ref> The affair caused lasting damage to Luther's reputation.<ref>Oberman, Heiko, ''Luther: Man Between God and the Devil'', New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006, 294.</ref>


===Anti-Jewish polemics and antisemitism: 1543–1544===
== Filmography ==
{{Main|Martin Luther and antisemitism}}
{{see also|Christianity and antisemitism}}
]'', written by Martin Luther in 1543]]
Luther wrote negatively about ] throughout his career.<ref name=":2">Michael, Robert. ''Holy Hatred: Christianity, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust''. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, 109; Mullett, 242.</ref> Though Luther rarely encountered Jews, 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.<ref>Edwards, Mark. ''Luther's Last Battles''. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983, 121.</ref> He considered the Jews blasphemers and liars because they rejected the divinity of Jesus.<ref>], 3:341–343; Mullett, 241; Marty, 172.</ref> In 1523, Luther advised kindness toward the Jews in ''That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew'' and also aimed to convert them to Christianity.<ref>Brecht, 3:334; Marty, 169; Marius, 235.</ref> When his efforts at conversion failed, he grew increasingly bitter toward them.<ref>Noble, Graham. "Martin Luther and German anti-Semitism," ''History Review'' (2002) No. 42:1–2; Mullett, 246.</ref>


Luther's major works on the Jews were his 60,000-word treatise ''Von den Juden und Ihren Lügen'' ('']''), and ''Vom Schem Hamphoras und vom Geschlecht Christi'' ('']''), both published in 1543, three years before his death.<ref>Brecht, 3:341–347.</ref> Luther argued that the Jews were no longer the chosen people but "the devil's people", and referred to them with violent language.<ref>Luther, ''On the Jews and their Lies'', quoted in Michael, 112.</ref><ref>Luther, ''Vom Schem Hamphoras'', quoted in Michael, 113.</ref> Citing Deuteronomy 13, wherein ] 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."<ref name=gritsch8687>Gritsch, Eric W. (2012). ''''. Grand Rapids, Michigan: ]. {{ISBN|978-0-8028-6676-9}}. pp. 86–87.</ref> Luther advocated setting ]s on fire, destroying Jewish ], forbidding ]s 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".<ref name=":0">Luther, ''On the Jews and Their Lies'', ''Luthers Werke''. 47:268–271.</ref> In ]'s view, Luther's words "We are at fault in not slaying them" amounted to a sanction for murder.<ref>Luther, ''On the Jews and Their Lies'', quoted in Robert Michael, "Luther, Luther Scholars, and the Jews," ''Encounter'' 46 (Autumn 1985) No. 4:343–344.</ref> "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!"<ref name=gritsch8687/>
* 1953: ''Martin Luther'', theatrical film, with ] as Luther; directed by Irving Pichel. ] nominations for black & white cinematography and art/set direction. Rereleased in 2002 on DVD in 4 languages.
* 1974: ''Luther'', theatrical film (] rating: PG), with ] as Luther. Adapted from ]'s play.
* 1981: ''Where Luther Walked'', documentary featuring the late Roland Bainton as guide and narrator, directed by Ray Christensen (VHS released in 1992), ISBN 1-56364-012-0
* 1983: ''Martin Luther: Heretic'', TV presentation with ] as Luther, directed by Norman Stone.
* 1983: ''Martin Luther: An Eye on Augsburg'', a film funded by the Northern Illinois District of the ] with Rev. Robert Clausen as Luther.
* 2001: ''Opening the Door to Luther'', travelogue hosted by Rick Steves. Sponsored by the ].
* 2002: ''Martin Luther'', a historical film from the Lion TV/] ''Empires'' series, with ] as Luther, narrated by ] and directed by Cassian Harrison.
* 2003: '']'', theatrical release (MPAA rating: PG-13), with ] as Luther and directed by Eric Till. Partially funded by American and German Lutheran groups.


Luther launched a polemic against vagrants in his 1528 preface to '']'', saying that the Jews had contributed Hebrew words as a main basis of the '']'' ]. He warned in the admonitory preface Christians not to give them alms as it was, in his opinion, to forsake the truly poor.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Dialects of the Yiddish Language: Winter Studies in Yiddish, Volume 2. Papers from the Second Annual Oxford Winter Symposium in Yiddish Language and Literature, 14–16 December 1986 |chapter=Chapter 9. Early Yiddish in Non-Jewish Books |publisher=] |year=1988 |isbn=978-0080365640 |last=Rosenfeld |first=Moshe N. |oclc=17727332 |editor-first=Dovid |editor-last=Katz |editor-link=Dovid Katz |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NSyLBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA99 |access-date=22 February 2023 |via=Google Books |page=99 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Small Dictionaries and Curiosity: Lexicography and Fieldwork in Post-medieval Europe |chapter=Chapter 5. first curiosity-driven wordlists: Rotwelsch |publisher=] |year=2017 |isbn=978-0198785019 |last=Considine |first=John P. |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/9269 |url-access=registration |oclc=955312844 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MmLODQAAQBAJ&pg=PA36 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198785019.001.0001 |access-date=22 February 2023 |via=Google Books |page=37 }}</ref>
==External links==
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''Original writings of Luther and contemporaries''
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Luther spoke out against the Jews in Saxony, Brandenburg, and Silesia.<ref name="Michael:Josel/Strasbourg">Michael, 117.</ref> ], 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."<ref>Quoted by Michael, 110.</ref> 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 in ] used a sermon to urge his parishioners to murder Jews.<ref name="Michael:Josel/Strasbourg" /> Luther's influence persisted after his death. Throughout the 1580s, riots led to the expulsion of Jews from several German Lutheran states.<ref>Michael, 117–118.</ref>
''Online information on Luther and his work''
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], an ] 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."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Singer |first1=Tovia |title=A Closer Look at the "Crucifixion Psalm" |url=https://outreachjudaism.org/crucifixion-psalm/ |website=Outreach Judaism |date=30 April 2014 |access-date=20 July 2019}}</ref>
{{Persondata

|NAME=Luther, Martin
=== Final years, illness and death ===
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
]]]
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=German ]
]]]
|DATE OF BIRTH=], ]
Luther had been suffering from ill health for years, including ], ], fainting, ], and a ] in one eye.<ref name="pmid9019884">{{cite journal |author=Iversen OH |title=Martin Luther's somatic diseases. A short life-history 450 years after his death |language=no |journal=] |volume=116 |issue=30 |pages=3643–3646 |year=1996 |pmid=9019884 }}</ref> From 1531 to 1546, his health deteriorated further. In 1536, he began to suffer from ], ], and an ear infection which ruptured an ear drum. In December 1544, he began to feel the effects of ].<ref>Edwards, 9.</ref>
|PLACE OF BIRTH=], ]

|DATE OF DEATH=], ]
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."<ref>Spitz, 354.</ref> In 1545 and 1546 Luther preached three times in the ] in Halle, staying with his friend Justus Jonas during Christmas.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170707161754/https://www.buergerstiftung-halle.de/bildung-im-voruebergehen/luther/ |date=7 July 2017 }} buergerstiftung-halle.de {{in lang|de}}</ref>
|PLACE OF DEATH=], ]

His last sermon was delivered at Eisleben, his place of birth, on 15 February 1546, three days before his death.<ref>Luther, Martin. Sermon No. 8, "Predigt über Mat. 11:25, Eisleben gehalten," 15 February 1546, ''Luthers Werke'', Weimar 1914, 51:196–197.</ref> It was "entirely devoted to the obdurate Jews, whom it was a matter of great urgency to expel from all German territory," according to ].<ref>]. ''From the Time of Christ to the Court Jews'', Vanguard Press, p. 220.</ref> 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."<ref>Mackinnon, James. ''Luther and the Reformation''. Vol. IV, (New York): Russell & Russell, 1962, p. 204.</ref> Luther said, "we want to practice Christian love toward them and pray that they convert," but also that they are "our public enemies&nbsp;... and if they could kill us all, they would gladly do so. And so often they do."<ref>Luther, Martin. ''Admonition against the Jews'', added to his final sermon, cited in ]. ''Luther: Man Between God and the Devil'', New York: Image Books, 1989, p. 294. A complete translation of Luther's ''Admonition'' can be found in Wikisource. ]</ref>

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&nbsp;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&nbsp;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.<ref name=Reeves60>Reeves, Michael. "The Unquenchable Flame". Nottingham: IVP, 2009, p. 60.</ref>

An apoplectic stroke deprived him of his speech, and he died shortly afterwards at 2:45&nbsp;a.m. on 18 February 1546, aged 62, in Eisleben, the city of his birth. He was buried in the ] in Wittenberg, in front of the pulpit.<ref>]. ''Martin Luther''. tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 3:369–379.</ref> The funeral was held by his friends ] and Philipp Melanchthon.<ref name=MacKim19>{{cite book|last=McKim|first=Donald K.|title=The Cambridge companion to Martin Luther|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2003|series=Cambridge companions to religion|isbn=978-0-521-01673-5|page=19}}</ref> A year later, troops of Luther's adversary Charles&nbsp;V, Holy Roman Emperor entered the town but were ordered by Charles not to disturb the grave.<ref name=MacKim19/>

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:

<blockquote><poem># No one can understand ]'s '']'' unless he has been a shepherd for five years. No one can understand Virgil's '']'', unless he has been a farmer for five years.
# No one can understand ] (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 as ] and ], ], Christ and the apostles.

Do not assail this divine ]; nay, rather prostrate revere the ground that it treads.

We are beggars: this is true.<ref>Kellermann, James A. (translator) {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171004132238/http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/beggars.txt |date=4 October 2017 }}. 16 February 1546.</ref><ref>Original German and Latin of Luther's last written words is: "Wir sein pettler. Hoc est verum." {{interlanguage link|Heinrich Bornkamm|de}}, ''Luther's World of Thought'', tr. Martin H. Bertram (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1958), 291.</ref></poem></blockquote>

<gallery>
File:Luthers Sterbehaus Eisleben.jpg|], 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.<ref>''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</ref>
File:Luther death-hand mask.jpg|Casts of Luther's face and hands at his death, in the Market Church in Halle<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130529060226/http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_new=26979&int_sec=2 |date=29 May 2013 }} artdaily.com</ref>
File:Schlosskirche (Wittenberg).jpg|'']'' in Wittenberg, where Luther posted his ''Ninety-five Theses'', is also his gravesite.
File:Luthertombstoneunderaltar.jpg|Luther's tombstone beneath the pulpit in the ]
File:Luthergrab-WB.jpg|Close-up of the grave with inscription in Latin
</gallery>

== Posthumous influence within Nazism ==
] in ] after the ]]]
Luther was the most widely read author of his generation, and within Germany he acquired the status of a prophet.<ref>Gritsch, 113–114; Michael, 117.</ref> According to the prevailing opinion among historians,<ref name=Wallman1 /> his anti-Jewish rhetoric contributed significantly to the development of antisemitism in Germany,<ref name=":1">Berger, Ronald. ''Fathoming the Holocaust: A Social Problems Approach'' (New York: Aldine De Gruyter, 2002), 28; ]. ''A History of the Jews'' (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1987), 242; ]. ''The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'', (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1960).</ref> and in the 1930s and 1940s provided an "ideal underpinning" for the Nazis' attacks on Jews.<ref name="Grunberger1971" /> 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 in ] contained references to and quotations from Luther. ] (albeit never a Lutheran, having been brought up Catholic) wrote admiringly of his writings and sermons on the Jews in 1940.<ref>Himmler wrote: "what Luther said and wrote about the Jews. No judgment could be sharper."</ref> The city of ] presented a first edition of ''On the Jews and their Lies'' to ], editor of the Nazi newspaper '']'', on his birthday in 1937; the newspaper described it as the most radically antisemitic tract ever published.<ref>]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070710100514/http://www3.baylor.edu/American_Jewish/everythingthatusedtobehere/resources/PowerPoints/Christian%20Anti-Semitism%20%28part%202%29.ppt |date=10 July 2007 }}, (NP: Baylor University Center for American and Jewish Studies, Spring 2004), Slide 14. {{cite web|url=http://www3.baylor.edu/American_Jewish/everythingthatusedtobehere/resources/hh.htm |title=Hitler and the Holocaust|publisher=Baylor University|access-date=22 April 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060422212116/http://www3.baylor.edu/American_Jewish/everythingthatusedtobehere/resources/hh.htm |archive-date=22 April 2006}}.</ref> It was publicly exhibited in a glass case at the ] and quoted in a 54-page explanation of the Aryan Law by E.H. Schulz and R. Frercks.<ref>See Noble, Graham. "Martin Luther and German anti-Semitism," ''History Review'' (2002) No. 42:1–2.</ref>

On 17 December 1941, seven Protestant regional church confederations issued a statement agreeing with the policy of forcing Jews to wear the ], "since after his bitter experience Luther had already suggested preventive measures against the Jews and their expulsion from German territory." According to ], Bishop ], a leading Protestant churchman, published a compendium of Luther's writings shortly after ], for which ], professor of the history of the church at the ] argued that Luther's writing was a "blueprint."<ref>Diarmaid MacCulloch, ''Reformation: Europe's House Divided, 1490–1700''. New York: Penguin Books Ltd, 2004, pp. 666–667.</ref> 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."<ref>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)</ref>

{{Quote box|"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."|author=]<ref>Brecht 3:351.</ref>|width=25%|align=left}}
At the heart of scholarly debate about Luther's influence is whether it is ] 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. ] 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.<ref>Wallmann, 72–97.</ref> ] agreed, arguing that it was because the Nazis were already antisemites that they revived Luther's work.<ref>], ''The Fabricated Luther'', 17–20.</ref><ref name="SiemonNetto2">], "Luther and the Jews," Lutheran Witness 123 (2004) No. 4:19, 21.</ref> ] agreed that to focus on Luther was to adopt an essentially ahistorical perspective of Nazi antisemitism that ignored other contributory factors in ].<ref name=HillerbrandEB>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."</ref> Similarly, ], noted church historian and Luther biographer, wrote "One could wish that Luther had died before ever was written. His position was entirely religious and in no respect racial."<ref>Bainton, Roland: ''Here I Stand'', (Nashville: Abingdon Press, New American Library, 1983), p. 297</ref><ref>For similar views, see:
* Briese, Russell. "Martin Luther and the Jews," ''Lutheran Forum'' (Summer 2000):32;
* Brecht, ''Martin Luther'', 3:351;
* Edwards, Mark U. Jr. ''Luther's Last Battles: Politics and Polemics 1531–46''. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983, 139;
* Gritsch, Eric. "Was Luther Anti-Semitic?", ''Christian History'', No. 3:39, 12.;
* Kittelson, James M., ''Luther the Reformer'', 274;
* Oberman, Heiko. ''The Roots of Anti-Semitism: In the Age of Renaissance and Reformation''. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984, 102;
* Rupp, Gordon. ''Martin Luther'', 75;
* Siemon-Netto, Uwe. ''Lutheran Witness'', 19.<!--needs a proper citation--></ref>
However, Christopher J. Probst, in his book ''Demonizing the Jews: Luther and the Protestant Church in Nazi Germany'' (2012), shows that a large number of German 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.<ref>Christopher J. Probst, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170311100051/http://www.ushmm.org/research/publications/academic-publications/full-list-of-academic-publications/demonizing-the-jews-luther-and-the-protestant-church-in-nazi-germany |date=11 March 2017 }}, Indiana University Press in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2012, {{ISBN|978-0-253-00100-9}}</ref> The pro-Nazi Christian group ] drew parallels between Martin Luther and the "Führer" ].<ref>"Der Deutsche Luthertag 1933 und die Deutschen Christen" by
Hansjörg Buss. In: ''Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte'' Vol. 26, No. 2</ref>

Some scholars, such as Mark U. Edwards in his book ''Luther'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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theologian.org.uk/churchhistory/lutherandthejews.html#_ftnref67|title=Martin Luther and "The Jews" A Reappraisal|author=Dr. Christopher Probst|publisher=The Theologian|access-date=20 March 2014}}</ref>

Since the 1980s, Lutheran denominations have repudiated Martin Luther's statements against the Jews{{Citation needed|reason=This claim needs a reliable source.|date=May 2022}} and have rejected the use of them to incite hatred against Lutherans.{{Citation needed|reason=This claim needs a reliable source.|date=May 2022}}<ref>''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 of {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090225041133/http://www.ctsfw.edu/bsmith-cts/etext/lcms/Synod/resolutions.pdf |date=25 February 2009 }}</ref><ref>Lull, Timothy ''Martin Luther's Basic Theological Writings, Second Edition'' (2005), p. 25</ref> 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.<ref>See Merton P. Strommen et al., A Study of Generations (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing, 1972), p. 206. P. 208 also states "The clergy are less likely to indicate anti-Semitic or racially prejudiced attitudes ."</ref> Nevertheless, Professor Richard Geary, former professor of modern history at the ] and the author of ''Hitler and Nazism'', examined electoral trends in ] 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.<ref>Richard (Dick) Geary, "Who voted for the Nazis? (electoral history of the National Socialist German Workers' Party)", in '']'', 1 October 1998, Vol. 48, Issue 10, pp. 8–14</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/spenkuch/research/religion_nazis.pdf|title=Special Interests at the Ballot Box? Religion and the Electoral Success of the Nazis|access-date=25 March 2017|archive-date=18 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418075104/https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/spenkuch/research/religion_nazis.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Legacy and commemoration==
]
Luther made effective use of ]'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.<ref>Wall Street Journal, "The Monk Who Shook the World", Richard J. Evans,
31 March 2017</ref>

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 by ] (1530) and ] and ] (1546).<ref>{{cite journal|last=Roper|first=Lyndal|author-link=Lyndal Roper|title=Martin Luther's Body: The 'Stout Doctor' and His Biographers|journal=American Historical Review|date=April 2010|volume=115|issue=2|pages=351–362|doi=10.1086/ahr.115.2.351|pmid=20509226|doi-access=free| issn = 0002-8762}}</ref>

] in ], Germany]]
Luther is honoured on 18 February with a commemoration in the ] and in the ]. In the ]'s ] he is ] on 31 October.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Calendar|url=https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/common-worship/churchs-year/calendar|access-date=9 April 2021|website=The Church of England|language=en}}</ref> Luther is honored in various ways by Christian traditions coming out directly from the Protestant Reformation, i.e. Lutheranism, the ], and ]. 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.

] in ], U.S.]]
Various sites both inside and outside Germany (supposedly) visited by Martin Luther throughout his lifetime commemorate it with local memorials. ] has two towns officially named after Luther, ] and ]. ] is sometimes called Mansfeld-Lutherstadt, although the state government has not decided to put the '']'' suffix in its official name.

] commemorates the publication of the ''Ninety-five Theses'' in 1517. It is a civic holiday in the German states of ], ], ], ], ], ] and ]. Two further states (] and ]) 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.

==Luther and the swan==
<gallery>
File:Strümpfelbach im Remstal - Kirche - Lutherbild.jpg|Luther with a swan (painting in the church at ], Weinstadt, Germany, by J. A. List)
File:WLM - andrevanb - amsterdam, ronde lutherse kerk (1).jpg|Swan weather vane, ], Amsterdam
File:Halberstadt St Martini Altar.jpg|Altar in St Martin's Church, ], Germany. Luther and the swan are toward the top on the right.
File:Fotothek df tg 0004142 Münze ^ Gedenkmünze ^ Schaumünze ^ Medaille ^ Schwan.jpg|Coin commemorating Luther (engraving by Georg Wilhelm Göbel, ], 1706)
</gallery>
Luther is often depicted with a swan as his ], 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 the ] (now Czech), Hus's name meant ]. 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 his ''Ninety-five Theses'' some 103 years later.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191019013653/https://www.hamburger-reformation.de/hamburger-reformation/panorama-geschichten/luther-und-der-schwan |date=19 October 2019 }} hamburger-reformation.de, retrieved 19 October 2019</ref><ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200706123240/https://lutheranpress.com/the-swan/ |date=6 July 2020 }} Lutheran Press, retrieved 6 July 2020</ref><ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200706135913/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/early-music-history/article/lutheran-identity-of-josquins-missa-pange-lingua-renaissance-of-a-renaissance-mass/BB791A5089D9E675993F0AA00EC4E4B0 |date=6 July 2020 }} Early Music History, vol. 36, October 2017, pp. 193–249; CUP; retrieved 6 July 2020</ref>

==Works and editions==
{{main|Martin Luther bibliography}}
] of Luther's works]]
* The Erlangen Edition (''Erlangener Ausgabe'': "EA"), comprising the ''Exegetica opera latina''&nbsp;– Latin exegetical works of Luther.
* The ] (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.

==See also==
{{portal|Biography|Evangelical Christianity|Holy Roman Empire}}
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* '']''
* '']''
* '']''

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book
|first = Martin
|last = Brecht
|title=Martin Luther
|author2=tr. James L. Schaaf
|publisher=Philadelphia: Fortress Press
|volume=1: His Road to Reformation, 1483–1521
|year=1985
|author-link=Martin Brecht
}}
* {{cite book
|first = Martin
|last = Brecht
|title=Martin Luther
|author2=tr. James L. Schaaf
|publisher=Philadelphia: Fortress Press
|volume=2: Shaping and Defining the Reformation, 1521–1532
|year=1994
}}
* {{cite book
|first = Martin
|last = Brecht
|title=Martin Luther
|author2=tr. James L. Schaaf
|publisher=Philadelphia: Fortress Press
|volume=3: The Preservation of the Church, 1532–1546
|year=1999
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Cummings
|first=Brian
|year=2002
|title=The Literary Culture of the Reformation: Grammar and Grace
|place=Oxford
|publisher=Oxford University Press
|url-access=subscription
|via=Oxford Scholarship Online
|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198187356.001.0001
|isbn=978-0-19-818735-6
|url=http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198187356.001.0001/acprof-9780198187356
}}
* {{cite book
|first = Michael A.
|last = Mullett
|title=Martin Luther
|publisher=London: Routledge
|year=2004
|isbn=978-0-415-26168-5
}}
* {{cite book
|first = Michael A.
|last = Mullett
|title=Luther
|publisher=Methuen & Co (Lancashire Pamphlets)
|year=1986
|isbn=978-0-415-10932-1
}}
* {{cite book
|first = Derek
|last = Wilson
|title = Out of the Storm: The Life and Legacy of Martin Luther
|publisher = London: Hutchinson
|year = 2007
|isbn = 978-0-09-180001-7
}} }}


==Further reading==
]
For works by and about Luther, see ] or ] at Wikisource.
]
* Atkinson, James (1968). ''Martin Luther and the Birth of Protestantism'', in series, Pelican Book. Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin Books. 352 pp.
]
* Bainton, Roland. ''Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther'' (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1950),
]
* 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 biography
]
* {{cite book |title=Martin Luther: Selections from his Writings|url=https://archive.org/details/martinluthersele00luth|url-access=registration|last=Dillenberger |first=John |author-link=John Dillenberger |year=1961 |publisher=Doubleday |location=Garden City, NY|oclc=165808}}
]
* Erikson, Erik H. (1958). ''Young Man Luther: A Study in Psychoanalysis and History''. New York: W.W. Norton.
]
* ]. (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's ''Luther, sein Leben und seine Zeit''.
]
* {{cite book |title=Martin Luther: Selections from his Writings|last=Lull |first=Timothy |author-link=Timothy Lull |year=1989 |publisher=Fortress |location=Minneapolis |isbn=978-0-8006-3680-7}}
]
* {{cite book |last1=Lull |first1=Timothy F. |last2=Nelson |first2=Derek R. |year=2015 |title=Resilient Reformer: The Life and Thought of Martin Luther |place=Minneapolis, MN |publisher=Fortress |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/40846 |url-access=subscription |via=] |isbn=978-1-4514-9415-0 }}
]
* Kolb, Robert; Dingel, Irene; Batka, Ľubomír (eds.): ''The Oxford Handbook of Martin Luther's Theology''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. {{ISBN|978-0-19-960470-8}}.
]
* Luther, M. ''The Bondage of the Will.'' Eds. ] and O.R. Johnson. Old Tappan, NJ: Revell, 1957. {{OCLC|22724565}}.
* Luther, Martin (1974). ''Selected Political Writings'', ed. and with an introd. by J.M. Porter. Philadelphia: Fortress Press. {{ISBN|0-8006-1079-2}}
* ''Luther's Works'', 55 vols. Eds. H.T. Lehman and ]. 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.
* ] (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. {{ISBN|0-570-01337-2}}
* 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.

==External links==
{{Spoken Misplaced Pages|En-Martin_Luther.ogg|date=17 July 2011}}
{{Sister project links|auto=yes}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=155 | name=Martin Luther}}
* {{Internet Archive author |search=(((subject:"Luther, Martin" OR subject:"Martin Luther" OR creator:"Luther, Martin" OR creator:"Martin Luther" OR creator:"Luther, M." OR title:"Martin Luther" OR description:"Luther, Martin" OR description:"Martin Luther") OR ("1483–1546" AND Luther)) AND (-mediatype:software) AND NOT ("Luther King" OR "Luther McCoy" OR "Jr." OR (1895 AND 1945) OR (1748 AND 1826) ) )}}
*
* {{Librivox author |id=1342}}
* {{PRDL|8}}
* {{MutopiaComposer|LutherM}}
*
* {{cite IEP |url-id=luther |title=Martin Luther}}
* Martin Luther Collection: Early works attributed to Martin Luther, (285 titles). From the


{{Link FA|no}} {{Martin Luther}}
{{Lutheran history}}
{{Lutheran hymnody}}
{{History of Christianity|collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}


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Latest revision as of 20:06, 22 December 2024

German priest, theologian and author (1483–1546) Not to be confused with Martin Luther King Jr. For other uses, see Martin Luther (disambiguation).

The ReverendMartin LutherOSA
Martin Luther, 1528
BornMartin Luder
10 November 1483
Eisleben, County of Mansfeld, Holy Roman Empire
Died18 February 1546(1546-02-18) (aged 62)
Eisleben, County of Mansfeld, Holy Roman Empire
EducationUniversity of Erfurt (Artium Baccalaureus, 1502; Artium Magister, 1505)
University of Wittenberg (Biblicus Baccalaureus in Bible, 1508; Sententiarius Baccalaureus in Sentences, 1509; Theologiæ Doctor in Bible, 1512)
Notable work
Title
Spouse Katharina von Bora ​(m. 1525)
Children
Theological work
EraRenaissance
Tradition or movement
Main interests
Notable ideas
Ordination history
History
Diaconal ordination
Ordained byJohannes (or Johann) Bonemilch von Laasphe, Auxiliary Bishop of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Mainz
Date27 February 1507
PlaceCathedral Church of St. Mary, Erfurt, Holy Roman Empire
Priestly ordination
Ordained byHieronymus (or Jerome) Schultz OPraem, Bishop of the Diocese of Brandenburg
Date3/4 April 1507
PlaceCathedral Church of St. Mary, Erfurt, Holy Roman Empire
Signature
Part of a series on
Lutheranism
Background
Doctrine and theology
Bible
Creeds
Book of Concord
  • Formula of Concord
  • Distinctive theological concepts
    Other relevant topics
    Organization
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    Key figuresMissionaries

    Bible Translators

    Theologians

    Martin Luther OSA (/ˈluːθər/ LOO-thər; German: [ˈmaʁtiːn ˈlʊtɐ] ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, professor, and Augustinian friar. Luther was the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation, and his theological beliefs form the basis of Lutheranism. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in Western and Christian history.

    Luther was ordained to the priesthood in 1507. He came to reject several teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, in particular the view on indulgences. Luther attempted to resolve these differences amicably, first proposing an academic discussion of the practice and efficacy of indulgences in Ninety-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 the Diet of Worms. When Luther died in 1546, Pope Leo X's excommunication was still in effect.

    Luther taught that salvation and, consequently, eternal life are not earned by good deeds; rather, they are received only as the free gift of God's grace through the believer's faith in Jesus Christ. Luther's theology challenged the authority and office of the pope by teaching that the Bible is the only source of divinely revealed knowledge, and opposed sacerdotalism by considering all baptized Christians to be a holy priesthood. Luther's translation of the Bible into German from Latin made the Bible vastly more accessible to the laity, which had a tremendous impact on both the church and German culture. It fostered the development of a standard version of the German language, added several principles to the art of translation, and influenced the writing of an English translation, the Tyndale Bible. His hymns influenced the development of singing in Protestant churches. His marriage to Katharina von Bora, a former nun, set a model for the practice of clerical marriage, allowing Protestant clergy to marry.

    In two later works, Luther expressed anti-Judaistic views, calling for the expulsion of Jews and the burning of synagogues. These works also targeted Roman Catholics, Anabaptists, and nontrinitarian Christians. Based upon his teachings, despite the fact that Luther did not directly advocate the murdering of Jews, some historians contend that his rhetoric contributed to the development of antisemitism in Germany and the emergence, centuries later, of the Nazi Party.

    Early life and education

    Birth and early life

    Portraits of Luther's parents, Hans and Margarethe Luther, by Lucas Cranach the Elder in 1527
    In July 1505, Luther entered St. Augustine's Monastery in Erfurt
    Luther's residence at the University of Wittenberg, where he began teaching theology in 1508
    A 1520 engraving of Luther as a friar with a tonsure

    Martin Luther was born on 10 November 1483 to Hans Luder (or Ludher, later Luther) and his wife Margarethe (née Lindemann) in Eisleben, County of Mansfeld, in the Holy Roman Empire. Luther was baptized the next morning on the feast day of Martin of Tours.

    In 1484, his family moved to Mansfeld, where his father was a leaseholder of copper mines and smelters and served as one of four citizen representatives on the local council; in 1492, he was elected as a town councilor. The religious scholar Martin 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.

    He had several brothers and sisters and is known to have been close to one of them, Jacob.

    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, then Magdeburg in 1497, where he attended the Brethren of the Common Life, a school operated by a lay group, and Eisenach in 1498. The three schools focused on the so-called "trivium": grammar, rhetoric, and logic. Luther later compared his education there to purgatory and hell.

    In 1501, at age 17, Martin entered the University of Erfurt, which he later described as a beerhouse and whorehouse. He was made to wake at 4 a.m. for "a day of rote learning and often wearying spiritual exercises." He received his master's degree in 1505.

    In accordance with his father's wishes, Luther enrolled in law but dropped out almost immediately, believing that law was an uncertain profession. Luther instead sought assurances about life and was drawn to theology and philosophy, expressing interest in Aristotle, William of Ockham, and Gabriel Biel. 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 and to test everything himself by experience.

    Philosophy proved to be unsatisfying to Luther because it offered assurance about the use of reason but none about loving God, 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. For Luther, reason could be used to question men and institutions, but not God. Human beings could learn about God only through divine revelation, he believed, leading him to view scripture as increasingly important.

    On 2 July 1505, while Luther was returning to university on horseback following a trip home, a lightning 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!" 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 entered St. Augustine's Monastery in Erfurt on 17 July 1505. 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. His father was furious over what he saw as a waste of Luther's education.

    Monastic life

    A posthumous portrait of Luther as an Augustinian friar

    Luther dedicated himself to the Augustinian order, devoting himself to fasting, long hours in prayer, pilgrimage, and frequent confession. 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."

    Johann von Staupitz, his superior, concluded that Luther needed more work to distract him from excessive introspection and ordered him to pursue an academic career. On 3 April 1507, Jerome Schultz, the Bishop of Brandenburg, ordained Luther in Erfurt Cathedral.

    The following year, in 1508, Luther began teaching theology at the University of Wittenberg. He received two bachelor's degrees, one in biblical studies on 9 March 1508, and another in the Sentences by Peter Lombard in 1509. On 19 October 1512, he was awarded his Doctor of Theology.

    Later life, ministry, and the Reformation

    University of Wittenberg

    On 21 October 1512, Luther was received into the senate of the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg, succeeding von Staupitz as chair of theology. He spent the rest of his career in this position at the University of Wittenberg.

    In 1515, he was made provincial vicar of Saxony and Thuringia, which required him to visit and oversee eleven monasteries in his province.

    Lectures on Psalms and justification by faith

    Main article: Sola fide
    Luther at Erfurt, an 1861 portrait by Joseph Noel Paton depicting Luther discovering the doctrine of sola 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, he came to view the use of terms such as penance and righteousness 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 of justification—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's grace, attainable only through faith in Jesus as the Messiah. "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."

    Luther came to understand justification as entirely the work of God. This teaching by Luther was clearly expressed in his 1525 publication On the Bondage of the Will, which was written in response to On Free Will by Desiderius Erasmus (1524). Against the teaching of his day that the righteous acts of believers are performed in cooperation with God, Luther wrote that Christians receive such righteousness entirely from outside themselves; that righteousness not only comes from Christ but actually is the righteousness of Christ, imputed to Christians (rather than infused into them) through faith.

    "That is why faith alone makes someone just and fulfills the law," he writes. "Faith is that which brings the Holy Spirit through the merits of Christ." 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. He explains his concept of "justification" in the Smalcald 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).

    Start of the Reformation: 1516–1517

    Further information: History of Protestantism and History of Lutheranism
    The Catholic sale of indulgences shown in A Question to a Mintmaker, a woodcut by Jörg Breu the Elder of Augsburg, c. 1530

    In 1516, Johann Tetzel, a Dominican friar, was sent to Germany by the Roman Catholic Church to sell indulgences to raise money in order to rebuild St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Tetzel's experiences as a preacher of indulgences, especially between 1503 and 1510, led to his appointment as general commissioner by Albrecht 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 thousand ducats 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", which came to be known as the Ninety-five Theses. Hans Hillerbrand writes that Luther had no intention of confronting the church but saw his disputation as a scholarly objection to church practices, and the tone of the writing is accordingly "searching, rather than doctrinaire." Hillerbrand writes that there is nevertheless an undercurrent of challenge in several of the theses, particularly in Thesis 86, which asks: "Why does the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of St. Peter with the money of poor believers rather than with his own money?"

    Luther objected to a saying attributed to Tetzel that, "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory (also attested as 'into heaven') springs." He insisted that, since forgiveness was God's alone to grant, those who claimed that indulgences absolved buyers from all punishments and granted them salvation were in error. Christians, he said, must not slacken in following Christ on account of such false assurances.

    Luther's theses are engraved into the door of All Saints' Church, Wittenberg; the Latin inscription above informs the reader that the original door was destroyed by a fire, and that in 1857, King Frederick William IV of Prussia ordered that a replacement be made.

    According to one account, Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the door of All Saints' Church in Wittenberg 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. The story is based on comments made by Luther's collaborator Philip Melanchthon, though it is thought that he was not in Wittenberg at the time. According to Roland Bainton, on the other hand, it is true.

    The Latin Theses were printed in several locations in Germany in 1517. In January 1518 friends of Luther translated the Ninety-five Theses into German. Within two weeks, copies of the theses had spread throughout Germany. Luther's writings circulated widely, reaching France, England, and Italy as early as 1519. Students thronged to Wittenberg to hear Luther speak. He published a short commentary on Galatians and his Work on the Psalms. This early part of Luther's career was one of his most creative and productive. Three of his best-known works were published in 1520: To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, and On the Freedom of a Christian.

    Breach with the papacy

    Pope Leo X's Bull against the errors of Martin Luther, 1521, commonly known as Exsurge Domine

    Archbishop Albrecht did not reply to Luther's letter containing the Ninety-five Theses. He had the theses checked for heresy and in December 1517 forwarded them to Rome. He needed the revenue from the indulgences to pay off a papal dispensation for his tenure of more than one bishopric. As Luther later 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".

    Pope Leo X was used to reformers and heretics, and he responded slowly, "with great care as is proper." 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 theologian Sylvester Mazzolini drafted a heresy case against Luther, whom Leo then summoned to Rome. The Elector Frederick persuaded the pope to have Luther examined at Augsburg, where the Imperial Diet was held. Over a three-day period in October 1518 where he stayed at St. Anne's Priory, Luther defended himself under questioning by papal legate Cardinal Cajetan. The pope's right to issue indulgences was at the centre of the dispute between the two men. 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". Cajetan's original instructions had been to arrest Luther if he failed to recant, but the legate desisted from doing so. With help from the Carmelite friar Christoph Langenmantel, Luther slipped out of the city at night, unbeknownst to Cajetan.

    Luther (right) meeting Cardinal Cajetan (left)

    In January 1519, at Altenburg in Saxony, the papal nuncio Karl 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. The theologian Johann Eck, however, was determined to expose Luther's doctrine in a public forum. In June and July 1519, he staged a disputation with Luther's colleague Andreas Karlstadt at Leipzig and invited Luther to speak. Luther's boldest assertion in the debate was that popes do not have the exclusive right to interpret scripture, and that therefore neither popes nor church councils were infallible. For this, Eck branded Luther a new Jan Hus, referring to the Czech reformer and heretic burned at the stake in 1415. From that moment, he devoted himself to Luther's defeat.

    Excommunication

    On 15 June 1520, the Pope warned Luther with the papal bull (edict) Exsurge Domine that he risked excommunication unless he recanted 41 sentences drawn from his writings, including the Ninety-five Theses, within 60 days. That autumn, Eck proclaimed the bull in Meissen and other towns. Von Miltitz attempted to broker a solution, but Luther, who had sent the pope a copy of On the Freedom of a Christian in October, publicly set fire to the bull and decretals in Wittenberg on 10 December 1520, an act he defended in Why the Pope and his Recent Book are Burned and Assertions Concerning All Articles.

    Luther was excommunicated by Pope Leo X on 3 January 1521, in the bull Decet Romanum Pontificem. Although the Lutheran World Federation, Methodists and the Catholic Church's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity agreed (in 1999 and 2006, respectively) on a "common understanding of justification by God's grace through faith in Christ," the Catholic Church has never lifted the 1521 excommunication.

    Diet of Worms (1521)

    Main article: Diet of Worms
    Luther Before the Diet of Worms, an 1877 portrait by Anton von Werner
    Luther Monument in Worms, a statue of Luther surrounded by the figures of his lay protectors and earlier Church reformers, including John Wycliffe, Jan Hus, and Girolamo Savonarola

    The enforcement of the ban on the Ninety-five Theses fell to the secular authorities. On 17 April 1521, Luther appeared as ordered before the Diet of Worms. This was a general assembly of the estates of the Holy Roman Empire that took place in Worms, a town on the Rhine. It was conducted from 28 January to 25 May 1521, with Emperor Charles V presiding. Prince Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, obtained a safe conduct for Luther to and from the meeting.

    Johann Eck, speaking on behalf of the empire as assistant of the Archbishop of Trier, presented Luther with copies of his writings laid out on a table and asked him if the books were his and whether he stood by their contents. 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.

    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."

    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 that Pelagius and Arius 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 the Council 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.

    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. However, Mullett suggests that given his nature, "we are free to believe that Luther would tend to select the more dramatic form of words."

    Over the next five days, private conferences were held to determine Luther's fate. The emperor presented the final draft of the Edict of Worms on 25 May 1521, declaring Luther an outlaw, banning his literature, and requiring his arrest: "We want him to be apprehended and punished as a notorious heretic." It also made it a crime for anyone in Germany to give Luther food or shelter. It permitted anyone to kill Luther without legal consequence.

    Wartburg Castle (1521)

    Wartburg Castle in Eisenach
    The Wartburg room where Luther translated the New Testament into German; an original first edition is kept in the case on the desk.

    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 the Wartburg Castle at Eisenach. During his stay at Wartburg, which he referred to as "my Patmos", Luther translated the New Testament from Greek into German and poured out doctrinal and polemical writings. These included a renewed attack on Albert of Brandenburg, Archbishop of Mainz, whom he shamed into halting the sale of indulgences in his episcopates, and a Refutation of the Argument of Latomus, in which he expounded the principle of justification to Jacobus Latomus, an orthodox theologian from Louvain. 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. All humans are sinners by nature, he explained, and God'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."

    In the summer of 1521, Luther widened his target from individual pieties like indulgences and pilgrimages to doctrines at the heart of Church practice. In On the Abrogation of the Private Mass, he condemned as idolatry the idea that the mass is a sacrifice, asserting instead that it is a gift, to be received with thanksgiving by the whole congregation. His essay On Confession, Whether the Pope has the Power to Require It rejected compulsory confession and encouraged private confession and absolution, since "every Christian is a confessor." In November, Luther wrote The Judgement of Martin Luther on Monastic Vows. He assured monks and nuns that they could break their vows without sin, because vows were an illegitimate and vain attempt to win salvation.

    Luther disguised as "Junker Jörg" in 1521

    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-Augustinian Gabriel 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 wrote A Sincere Admonition by Martin Luther to All Christians to Guard Against Insurrection and Rebellion. Wittenberg became even more volatile after Christmas when a band of visionary zealots, the so-called Zwickau prophets, arrived, preaching revolutionary doctrines such as the equality of man, adult baptism, and Christ's imminent return. When the town council asked Luther to return, he decided it was his duty to act.

    Return to Wittenberg and Peasants' War: 1522–1525

    See also: Radical Reformation and German Peasants' War
    Lutherhaus, Luther's residence in Wittenberg

    Luther secretly returned to Wittenberg 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." For eight days in Lent, 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 core Christian values such as love, patience, charity, and freedom, and reminded the citizens to trust God's word rather than violence to bring about necessary change.

    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.

    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."

    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. 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.

    The Twelve Articles of peasants' demands, issued in 1525

    Despite his victory in Wittenberg, Luther was unable to stifle radicalism further afield. Preachers such as Thomas Müntzer and Zwickau prophet Nicholas Storch found support amongst poorer townspeople and peasants between 1521 and 1525. There had been revolts by the peasantry on smaller scales since the 15th century. 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. Revolts broke out in Franconia, Swabia, and Thuringia 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.

    Luther sympathised with some of the peasants' grievances, as he showed in his response to the Twelve Articles in May 1525, but he reminded the aggrieved to obey the temporal authorities. During a tour of Thuringia, he became enraged at the widespread burning of convents, monasteries, bishops' palaces, and libraries. In Against 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 own free will, do what the apostles and disciples did in Acts 4 . 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.

    Without Luther's backing for the uprising, many rebels laid down their weapons; others felt betrayed. Their defeat by the Swabian League at the Battle of Frankenhausen on 15 May 1525, followed by Müntzer's execution, brought the revolutionary stage of the Reformation to a close. Thereafter, radicalism found a refuge in the Anabaptist movement and other religious movements, while Luther's Reformation flourished under the wing of the secular powers. 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."

    Marriage

    A 1526 portrait of Katharina von Bora, Luther's wife, by Lucas Cranach the Elder
    Luther at his desk with family portraits

    Luther married Katharina von Bora, one of 12 nuns he had helped escape from the Nimbschen Cistercian convent in April 1523, when he arranged for them to be smuggled out in herring barrels. "Suddenly, and while I was occupied with far different thoughts," he wrote to Wenceslaus Link, "the Lord has plunged me into marriage." 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, with Johannes Bugenhagen, Justus Jonas, Johannes Apel, Philipp Melanchthon and Lucas Cranach the Elder and his wife as witnesses. On the evening of the same day, the couple was married by Bugenhagen. The ceremonial walk to the church and the wedding banquet were left out and were made up two weeks later on 27 June.

    Some priests and former members of religious orders had already married, including Andreas Karlstadt and Justus Jonas, but Luther's wedding set the seal of approval on clerical marriage. He had long condemned vows of celibacy on biblical grounds, but his decision to marry surprised many, not least Melanchthon, who called it reckless. Luther had written to George Spalatin on 30 November 1524, "I shall never take a wife, as I feel at present. Not that I am insensible to my flesh or sex (for I am neither wood nor stone); but my mind is averse to wedlock because I daily expect the death of a heretic." Before marrying, Luther had been living on the plainest food, and, as he admitted himself, his mildewed bed was not properly made for months at a time.

    Luther and his wife moved into a former monastery, "The Black Cloister," a wedding present from Elector John the Steadfast. They embarked on what appears to have been a happy and successful marriage, though money was often short. 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. Luther confided to Michael 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 of Croesus."

    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. 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."

    From 1525 to 1529, he established a supervisory church body, laid down a new form of worship service, and wrote a clear summary of the new faith in the form of two catechisms. 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 the Electorate 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. 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".

    The elector authorised a visitation of the church, a power formerly exercised by bishops. At times, Luther's practical reforms fell short of his earlier radical pronouncements. For example, the Instructions for the Visitors of Parish Pastors in Electoral Saxony (1528), drafted by Melanchthon with Luther's approval, stressed the role of repentance in the forgiveness of sins, despite Luther's position that faith alone ensures justification. The Eisleben reformer Johannes Agricola challenged this compromise, and Luther condemned him for teaching that faith is separate from works. The Instruction is a problematic document for those seeking a consistent evolution in Luther's thought and practice.

    Lutheran church liturgy and sacraments

    In response to demands for a German liturgy, Luther wrote a German Mass, which he published in early 1526. He did not intend it as a replacement for his 1523 adaptation of the Latin Mass but as an alternative for the "simple people", a "public stimulation for people to believe and become Christians." Luther based his order on the Catholic service but omitted "everything that smacks of sacrifice", and the Mass became a celebration where everyone received the wine as well as the bread. He retained the elevation of the host and chalice, while trappings such as the Mass vestments, altar, and candles were made optional, allowing freedom of ceremony. Some reformers, including followers of Huldrych Zwingli, considered Luther's service too papistic, and modern scholars note the conservatism of his alternative to the Catholic Mass. 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 the Creed. To reach the simple people and the young, Luther incorporated religious instruction into the weekday services in the form of catechism. He also provided simplified versions of the baptism and marriage services. The former included the "flood prayer".

    Luther and his colleagues introduced the new order of worship during their visitation of the Electorate of Saxony, which began in 1527. 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."

    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 the Large Catechism, a manual for pastors and teachers, as well as a synopsis, the Small Catechism, to be memorised by the people. The catechisms provided easy-to-understand instructional and devotional material on the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, The Lord's Prayer, baptism, and the Lord's Supper. Luther incorporated questions and answers in the catechism so that the basics of Christian faith would not just be learned by rote, "the way monkeys do it", but understood.

    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 the Bondage of the Will and the Catechism." The Small Catechism has earned a reputation as a model of clear religious teaching. It remains in use today, along with Luther's hymns and his translation of the Bible.

    Luther's Small Catechism proved especially effective in helping parents teach their children; likewise the Large Catechism was effective for pastors. 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 the catechumens 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. 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 (the Ten Commandments) and The Lord's Prayer, which are also part of the Lutheran catechetical teaching.

    Translation of the Old Testament: 1534–1535

    Main article: Luther Bible
    Luther's 1534 Bible

    Luther had published his German translation of the New Testament in 1522, and he and his collaborators completed the translation of the Old Testament in 1534, when the whole Bible was published. He continued to work on refining the translation until the end of his life. Others had previously translated the Bible into German, but Luther tailored his translation to his own doctrine. Two of the earlier translations were the Mentelin Bible (1456) and the Koberger Bible (1484). There were as many as fourteen in High German, four in Low German, four in Dutch, and various other translations in other languages before the Bible of Luther.

    Luther's translation used the variant of German spoken at the Saxon chancellery, intelligible to both northern and southern Germans. 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." 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 a distinct flavor to the German language and literature. Furnished with notes and prefaces by Luther, and with woodcuts by Lucas Cranach that contained anti-papal imagery, it played a major role in the spread of Luther's doctrine throughout Germany. The Luther Bible influenced other vernacular translations, such as the Tyndale Bible, a precursor of the King James Bible.

    Luther did not include First Epistle of John, the Johannine Comma in his translation, rejecting it as a forgery. It was inserted into the text by others after Luther's death.

    Hymnodist

    Main article: List of hymns by Martin Luther
    An early printing of Luther's hymn "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott"
    Ein feste Burg sung in German The German text of "Ein feste Burg" ("A Mighty Fortress") sung to the isometric, more widely known arrangement of its traditional melody
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    Luther was a prolific hymnodist, 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"). 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. He often accompanied the sung hymns with a lute, later recreated as the waldzither that became a national instrument of Germany in the 20th century.

    Luther's hymns were frequently evoked by particular events in his life and the unfolding Reformation. This behavior started with his learning of the execution of Jan 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.

    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 the Small 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.

    Autograph of "Vater unser im Himmelreich", with the only notes extant in Luther's handwriting

    Luther's 1538 hymnic version of the Lord's Prayer, "Vater unser im Himmelreich", corresponds exactly to Luther's explanation of the prayer in the Small 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.

    Luther wrote "Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir" ("From depths of woe I cry to You") in 1523 as a hymnic version of Psalm 130 and sent it as a sample to encourage his colleagues to write psalm-hymns for use in German worship. In a collaboration with Paul Speratus, this and seven other hymns were published in the Achtliederbuch, the first Lutheran hymnal. In 1524 Luther developed his original four-stanza psalm paraphrase into a five-stanza Reformation hymn that developed the theme of "grace alone" more fully. Because it expressed essential Reformation doctrine, this expanded version of "Aus tiefer Not" was designated as a regular component of several regional Lutheran liturgies and was widely used at funerals, including Luther's own. Along with Erhart Hegenwalt's hymnic version of Psalm 51, Luther's expanded hymn was also adopted for use with the fifth part of Luther's catechism, concerning confession.

    Luther wrote "Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein" ("Oh God, look down from heaven"). "Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland" (Now come, Savior of the gentiles), based on Veni redemptor gentium, became the main hymn (Hauptlied) for Advent. He transformed A solus ortus cardine to "Christum wir sollen loben schon" ("We should now praise Christ") and Veni Creator Spiritus to "Komm, Gott Schöpfer, Heiliger Geist" ("Come, Holy Spirit, Lord God"). He wrote two hymns on the Ten Commandments, "Dies sind die heilgen Zehn Gebot" and "Mensch, willst du leben seliglich". His "Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ" ("Praise be to You, Jesus Christ") became the main hymn for Christmas. He wrote for Pentecost "Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist", and adopted for Easter "Christ ist erstanden" (Christ is risen), based on Victimae paschali laudes. "Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin", a paraphrase of Nunc dimittis, was intended for Purification, but became also a funeral hymn. He paraphrased the Te Deum as "Herr Gott, dich loben wir" with a simplified form of the melody. It became known as the German Te Deum.

    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 the Small Catechism. Luther adopted a preexisting Johann Walter tune associated with a hymnic setting of Psalm 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, including J.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 Lutheran pietism.

    Luther's hymns were included in early Lutheran hymnals and spread the ideas of the Reformation. He supplied four of eight songs of the First Lutheran hymnal Achtliederbuch, 18 of 26 songs of the Erfurt Enchiridion, and 24 of the 32 songs in the first choral hymnal with settings by Johann Walter, Eyn geystlich Gesangk Buchleyn, all published in 1524. Luther's hymns inspired composers to write music. Johann Sebastian Bach included several verses as chorales in his cantatas and based chorale cantatas entirely on them, namely Christ lag in Todes Banden, BWV 4, as early as possibly 1707, in his second annual cycle (1724 to 1725) Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein, BWV 2, Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam, BWV 7, Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 62, Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ, BWV 91, and Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir, BWV 38, later Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV 80, and in 1735 Wär Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit, BWV 14.

    On the soul after death

    Luther on the left with Lazarus being raised by Jesus from the dead, painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1558

    In contrast to the views of John Calvin and Philipp Melanchthon, 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. Accordingly, he disputed traditional interpretations of some Bible passages, such as the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. 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." He also rejected the existence of purgatory, which involved Christian souls undergoing penitential suffering after death. He affirmed the continuity of one's personal identity beyond death. In his Smalcald Articles, he described the saints as currently residing "in their graves and in heaven."

    The Lutheran theologian Franz Pieper observes that Luther's teaching about the state of the Christian's soul after death differed from the later Lutheran theologians such as Johann Gerhard. Lessing (1755) had earlier reached the same conclusion in his analysis of Lutheran orthodoxy on this issue.

    Luther's Commentary on Genesis contains a passage which concludes that "the soul does not sleep (anima non sic dormit), but wakes (sed vigilat) and experiences visions". Francis Blackburne argues that John Jortin misread this and other passages from Luther, while Gottfried 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.

    Henry Eyster Jacobs' English translation from 1898 reads:

    "Nevertheless, the sleep of this life and that of the future life differ; for in 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."

    Sacramentarian controversy and the Marburg Colloquy

    See also: The Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ—Against the Fanatics
    The Marburg Colloquy, by August Noack

    In October 1529, Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, convoked an assembly of German and Swiss theologians at the Marburg Colloquy, to establish doctrinal unity in the emerging Protestant states. Agreement was achieved on fourteen points out of fifteen, the exception being the nature of the Eucharist, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, an issue crucial to Luther. The theologians, including Zwingli, Melanchthon, Martin Bucer, and Johannes Oecolampadius, differed on the significance of the words spoken by Jesus at the Last Supper: "This is my body which is for you" and "This cup is the new covenant in my blood" (1 Corinthians 11:23–26). Luther insisted on the Real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the consecrated bread and wine, which he called the sacramental union, while his opponents believed God to be only spiritually or symbolically present.

    Zwingli, for example, denied Jesus' ability to be in more than one place at a time. Luther stressed the omnipresence of Jesus' human nature. 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." On his table Luther wrote the words "Hoc est corpus meum" ("This is my body") in chalk, to continually indicate his firm stance.

    Despite the disagreements on the Eucharist, the Marburg Colloquy paved the way for the signing in 1530 of the Augsburg Confession, and for the formation of the Schmalkaldic League the following year by leading Protestant nobles such as John of Saxony, Philip of Hesse, and George, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach. The Swiss cities, however, did not sign these agreements.

    Epistemology of faith and reason

    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." and " 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." 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", bringing claims he was a fideist into dispute. Contemporary Lutheran scholarship, however, has found a different reality in Luther. Luther rather seeks to separate faith and reason in order to honor the separate spheres of knowledge that each applies to.

    On Islam

    Further information: Protestantism and Islam
    The 16th-century battle between the Turks and the Christians

    At the time of the Marburg Colloquy, Suleiman the Magnificent was besieging Vienna with a vast Ottoman army. Luther had argued against resisting the Turks in his 1518 Explanation of the Ninety-five Theses, provoking accusations of defeatism. He saw the Turks as a scourge sent by God to punish Christians, as agents of the biblical apocalypse that would destroy the Antichrist, whom Luther believed to be the papacy and the Roman Church. He consistently rejected the idea of a Holy 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". On the other hand, in keeping with his doctrine of the two kingdoms, Luther did support non-religious war against the Turks. In 1526, he argued in Whether Soldiers can be in a State of Grace that national defence is reason for a just war. By 1529, in On War against the Turk, he was actively urging Emperor Charles V and the German people to fight a secular war against the Turks. He made clear, however, that the spiritual war against an alien faith was separate, to be waged through prayer and repentance. 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".

    In 1542, Luther read a Latin translation of the Qur'an. He went on to produce several critical pamphlets on Islam, which he called "Mohammedanism" or "the Turk". 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." He opposed banning the publication of the Qur'an, wanting it exposed to scrutiny.

    Antinomian controversy

    Pulpit of St Andreas Church, Eisleben, where Johannes Agricola and Luther preached

    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 anonymous antinomian theses circulating in Wittenberg. These theses asserted that the law is no longer to be taught to Christians but belonged only to city hall. Luther responded to these theses with six series of theses against Agricola and the antinomians, four of which became the basis for disputations between 1538 and 1540. He also responded to these assertions in other writings, such as his 1539 open letter to C. Güttel Against the Antinomians, and his book On the Councils and the Church from the same year.

    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. 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. 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. 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.

    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. This has traditionally been called the "third use of the law." 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 her vocations on a daily basis.

    The Ten Commandments, and the beginnings of the renewed life of Christians accorded to them by the sacrament of baptism, are a present foreshadowing of the believers' future angel-like life in heaven in the midst of this life. Luther's teaching of the Ten Commandments, therefore, has clear eschatological overtones, which, characteristically for Luther, do not encourage world-flight but direct the Christian to service to the neighbor in the common, daily vocations of this perishing world.

    Bigamy of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse: 1539–1540

    From December 1539, Luther became involved in the designs of Philip 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 the polygamy of the patriarchs. The theologians were not prepared to make a general ruling, and they reluctantly advised the landgrave that if he was determined, he should marry secretly and keep quiet about the matter because divorce was worse than bigamy. 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 sister Elisabeth 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. 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 biographer Martin 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". Brecht argues that Luther's mistake was not that he gave private pastoral advice, but that he miscalculated the political implications. The affair caused lasting damage to Luther's reputation.

    Anti-Jewish polemics and antisemitism: 1543–1544

    Main article: Martin Luther and antisemitism See also: Christianity and antisemitism
    The original title page of On the Jews and Their Lies, written by Martin Luther in 1543

    Luther wrote negatively about Jews throughout his career. Though Luther rarely encountered Jews, 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. He considered the Jews blasphemers and liars because they rejected the divinity of Jesus. In 1523, Luther advised kindness toward the Jews in That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew and also aimed to convert them to Christianity. When his efforts at conversion failed, he grew increasingly bitter toward them.

    Luther's major works on the Jews were his 60,000-word treatise Von den Juden und Ihren Lügen (On the Jews and Their Lies), and Vom Schem Hamphoras und vom Geschlecht Christi (On the Holy Name and the Lineage of Christ), both published in 1543, three years before his death. Luther argued that the Jews were no longer the chosen people but "the devil's people", and referred to them with violent language. Citing Deuteronomy 13, wherein Moses 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." Luther advocated setting synagogues on fire, destroying Jewish prayerbooks, forbidding rabbis 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". In Robert Michael's view, Luther's words "We are at fault in not slaying them" amounted to a sanction for murder. "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!"

    Luther launched a polemic against vagrants in his 1528 preface to Liber Vagatorum, saying that the Jews had contributed Hebrew words as a main basis of the Rotwelsch cryptolect. He warned in the admonitory preface Christians not to give them alms as it was, in his opinion, to forsake the truly poor.

    Luther spoke out against the Jews in Saxony, Brandenburg, and Silesia. 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." 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 in Hochfelden used a sermon to urge his parishioners to murder Jews. Luther's influence persisted after his death. Throughout the 1580s, riots led to the expulsion of Jews from several German Lutheran states.

    Tovia Singer, an Orthodox 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."

    Final years, illness and death

    Luther on his deathbed, a portrait by Lucas Cranach the Elder
    Luther's grave in Schlosskirche, Wittenberg

    Luther had been suffering from ill health for years, including Ménière's disease, vertigo, fainting, tinnitus, and a cataract in one eye. From 1531 to 1546, his health deteriorated further. In 1536, he began to suffer from kidney and bladder stones, arthritis, and an ear infection which ruptured an ear drum. In December 1544, he began to feel the effects of angina.

    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." In 1545 and 1546 Luther preached three times in the Market Church in Halle, staying with his friend Justus Jonas during Christmas.

    His last sermon was delivered at Eisleben, his place of birth, on 15 February 1546, three days before his death. It was "entirely devoted to the obdurate Jews, whom it was a matter of great urgency to expel from all German territory," according to Léon Poliakov. James Mackinnon writes that it concluded with a "fiery summons to drive the Jews bag and baggage from their midst, unless they desisted from their calumny and their usury and became Christians." Luther said, "we want to practice Christian love toward them and pray that they convert," but also that they are "our public enemies ... and if they could kill us all, they would gladly do so. And so often they do."

    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.

    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 the Schlosskirche in Wittenberg, in front of the pulpit. The funeral was held by his friends Johannes Bugenhagen and Philipp Melanchthon. 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.

    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:

    1. No one can understand Virgil's Bucolics unless he has been a shepherd for five years. No one can understand Virgil's Georgics, unless he has been a farmer for five years.
    2. No one can understand Cicero's Letters (or so I teach), unless he has busied himself in the affairs of some prominent state for twenty years.
    3. 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 as Elijah and Elisha, John the Baptist, Christ and the apostles.


    Do not assail this divine Aeneid; nay, rather prostrate revere the ground that it treads.

    We are beggars: this is true.

    • 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. 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.
    • Casts of Luther's face and hands at his death, in the Market Church in Halle Casts of Luther's face and hands at his death, in the Market Church in Halle
    • Schlosskirche in Wittenberg, where Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses, is also his gravesite. Schlosskirche in Wittenberg, where Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses, is also his gravesite.
    • Luther's tombstone beneath the pulpit in the Castle Church in Wittenberg Luther's tombstone beneath the pulpit in the Castle Church in Wittenberg
    • Close-up of the grave with inscription in Latin Close-up of the grave with inscription in Latin

    Posthumous influence within Nazism

    The statue outside the Frauenkirche in Dresden after the bombing of the city in World War II

    Luther was the most widely read author of his generation, and within Germany he acquired the status of a prophet. According to the prevailing opinion among historians, his anti-Jewish rhetoric contributed significantly to the development of antisemitism in Germany, and in the 1930s and 1940s provided an "ideal underpinning" for the Nazis' attacks on Jews. 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 in Nazi 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. The city of Nuremberg presented a first edition of On the Jews and their Lies to Julius Streicher, editor of the Nazi newspaper Der Stürmer, on his birthday in 1937; the newspaper described it as the most radically antisemitic tract ever published. It was publicly exhibited in a glass case at the Nuremberg rallies and quoted in a 54-page explanation of the Aryan Law by E.H. Schulz and R. Frercks.

    On 17 December 1941, seven Protestant regional church confederations issued a statement agreeing with the policy of forcing Jews to wear the yellow badge, "since after his bitter experience Luther had already suggested preventive measures against the Jews and their expulsion from German territory." According to Daniel Goldhagen, Bishop Martin Sasse, a leading Protestant churchman, published a compendium of Luther's writings shortly after Kristallnacht, for which Diarmaid MacCulloch, professor of the history of the church at the University of Oxford argued that Luther's writing was a "blueprint." Sasse applauded the burning of the synagogues and the coincidence of the day, writing in the introduction, "On 10 November 1938, on Luther's birthday, the synagogues are burning in Germany." The German people, he urged, ought to heed these words "of the greatest antisemite of his time, the warner of his people against the Jews."

    "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."

    Martin Brecht

    At the heart of scholarly debate about Luther's influence is whether it is anachronistic to view his work as a precursor of the racial antisemitism of the Nazis. Some scholars see Luther's influence as limited, and the Nazis' use of his work as opportunistic. Johannes Wallmann argues that Luther's writings against the Jews were largely ignored in the 18th and 19th centuries, and that there was no continuity between Luther's thought and Nazi ideology. Uwe Siemon-Netto agreed, arguing that it was because the Nazis were already antisemites that they revived Luther's work. Hans J. Hillerbrand agreed that to focus on Luther was to adopt an essentially ahistorical perspective of Nazi antisemitism that ignored other contributory factors in German history. Similarly, Roland Bainton, noted church historian and Luther biographer, wrote "One could wish that Luther had died before ever was written. His position was entirely religious and in no respect racial." However, Christopher J. Probst, in his book Demonizing the Jews: Luther and the Protestant Church in Nazi Germany (2012), shows that a large number of German 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. The pro-Nazi Christian group Deutsche Christen drew parallels between Martin Luther and the "Führer" Adolf Hitler.

    Some scholars, such as Mark U. Edwards in his book Luther'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.

    Since the 1980s, Lutheran denominations have repudiated Martin Luther's statements against the Jews and have rejected the use of them to incite hatred against Lutherans. 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. Nevertheless, Professor Richard Geary, former professor of modern history at the University of Nottingham and the author of Hitler and Nazism, examined electoral trends in Weimar 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.

    Legacy and commemoration

    Worldwide Protestantism in 2010

    Luther made effective use of Johannes 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.

    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 by Hans Brosamer (1530) and Lucas Cranach the Elder and Lucas Cranach the Younger (1546).

    Luther Monument in Eisenach, Germany

    Luther is honoured on 18 February with a commemoration in the Lutheran Calendar of Saints and in the Episcopal (United States) Calendar of Saints. In the Church of England's Calendar of Saints he is commemorated on 31 October. Luther is honored in various ways by Christian traditions coming out directly from the Protestant Reformation, i.e. Lutheranism, the Reformed tradition, and Anglicanism. 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.

    Martin Luther College in New Ulm, Minnesota, U.S.

    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 and Lutherstadt Wittenberg. Mansfeld is sometimes called Mansfeld-Lutherstadt, although the state government has not decided to put the Lutherstadt suffix in its official name.

    Reformation Day commemorates the publication of the Ninety-five Theses in 1517. It is a civic holiday in the German states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg. Two further states (Lower Saxony and Bremen) 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.

    Luther and the swan

    • Luther with a swan (painting in the church at Strümpfelbach im Remstal, Weinstadt, Germany, by J. A. List) Luther with a swan (painting in the church at Strümpfelbach im Remstal, Weinstadt, Germany, by J. A. List)
    • Swan weather vane, Round Lutheran Church, Amsterdam Swan weather vane, Round Lutheran Church, Amsterdam
    • Altar in St Martin's Church, Halberstadt, Germany. Luther and the swan are toward the top on the right. 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) Coin commemorating Luther (engraving by Georg Wilhelm Göbel, Saxony, 1706)

    Luther is often depicted with a swan as his attribute, 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 the Bohemian 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 his Ninety-five Theses some 103 years later.

    Works and editions

    Main article: Martin Luther bibliography
    Various books of the Weimar Edition of Luther's works
    • The Erlangen Edition (Erlangener Ausgabe: "EA"), comprising the Exegetica opera latina – Latin exegetical works of Luther.
    • The Weimar 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.

    See also

    Notes

    1. Latin: "Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum" – The first printings of the Theses use an incipit rather than a title which summarizes the content. Luther usually called them "meine Propositiones" (my propositions).

    References

    1. "Luther" Archived 27 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
    2. Luther himself, however, believed that he had been born in 1484. Hendrix, Scott H. (2015). Martin Luther: Visionary Reformer. Yale University Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-300-16669-9. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
    3. 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, the praying, 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. 8 Luther's Works. (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999), 5:326.
    4. Hillerbrand, Hans J. (14 February 2024). "Martin Luther". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
    5. 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.
    6. Luther, Martin. Concerning the Ministry (1523), tr. Conrad Bergendoff, in Bergendoff, Conrad (ed.) Luther's Works. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1958, 40:18 ff.
    7. Fahlbusch, Erwin and Bromiley, Geoffrey William. The Encyclopedia of Christianity. Grand Rapids, MI: Leiden, Netherlands: Wm. B. Eerdmans; Brill, 1999–2003, 1:244.
    8. 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.
    9. Bainton, Roland. Here I Stand: a Life of Martin Luther. New York: Penguin, 1995, 269.
    10. Bainton, Roland. Here I Stand: a Life of Martin Luther. New York: Penguin, 1995, p. 223.
    11. Hendrix, Scott H. "The Controversial Luther" Archived 2 March 2011 at the Wayback 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 the Wayback 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 the Old 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 the pope.
    12. 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.
    13. Martin Brecht, Martin Luther (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1985–1993), 3:336.
    14. 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 from the original on 4 November 2005. Retrieved 21 March 2017., this paragraph is not available in the English edition of Luther's works.
    15. Sydow, Michael (1 December 1999). "Journal of Theology: Martin Luther, Reformation Theologian and Educator" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
    16. ^ "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 Protestant anti-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.
    17. For similar views, see:
      • Berger, Ronald. Fathoming the Holocaust: A Social Problems Approach (New York: Aldine De Gruyter, 2002), 28.
      • Rose, Paul Lawrence. "Revolutionary Antisemitism in Germany from Kant to Wagner," (Princeton University Press, 1990), quoted in Berger, 28;
      • Shirer, William. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1960).
      • Johnson, Paul. A History of the Jews (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1987), 242.
      • Poliakov, Leon. History of Anti-Semitism: From the Time of Christ to the Court Jews. (N.P.: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003), 216.
      • Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1993, 2000), 8–9.
    18. ^ Grunberger, Richard. The 12-Year Reich: A Social History of Nazi Germany 1933–1945 (NP:Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971), 465.
    19. ^ Marty, Martin. Martin Luther. Viking Penguin, 2004, p. 1.
    20. Brecht, Martin. Martin Luther. tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 1:3–5.
    21. "Martin Luther | Biography, Reformation, Works, & Facts". 17 May 2023.
    22. Marty, Martin. Martin Luther. Viking Penguin, 2004, p. 3.
    23. Rupp, Ernst Gordon. "Martin Luther," Encyclopædia Britannica, accessed 2006.
    24. Marty, Martin. Martin Luther. Viking Penguin, 2004, pp. 2–3.
    25. ^ Marty, Martin. Martin Luther. Viking Penguin, 2004, p. 4.
    26. ^ Marty, Martin. Martin Luther. Viking Penguin, 2004, p. 5.
    27. ^ Marty, Martin. Martin Luther. Viking Penguin, 2004, p. 6.
    28. Brecht, Martin. Martin Luther. tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 1:48.
    29. Brecht, Martin (1985). Google Books Archive of Martin Luther: His road to Reformation, 1483–1521 (By Martin Brecht). Fortress Press. ISBN 978-1-4514-1414-1. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
    30. Schwiebert, E.G. Luther and His Times. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1950, 136.
    31. Marty, Martin. Martin Luther. Viking Penguin, 2004, p. 7.
    32. Schwiebert, Ernest G (March 1948). "The Reformation from a New Perspective". Church History. 17 (1): 16. doi:10.2307/3160546. JSTOR 3160546.
    33. Bainton, Roland. Here I Stand: a Life of Martin Luther. New York: Penguin, 1995, 40–42.
    34. Kittelson, James. Luther The Reformer. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Publishing House, 1986, 79.
    35. Bainton, Roland. Here I Stand: a Life of Martin Luther. New York: Penguin, 1995, 44–45.
    36. Brecht, Martin. Martin Luther. tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 1:93.
    37. Brecht, Martin. Martin Luther. tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 1:112–127.
    38. Hendrix, Scott H. (2015). Martin Luther: Visionary Reformer. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-300-16669-9.
    39. Hendrix, Scott H. (2015). Martin Luther: Visionary Reformer. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-300-16669-9.
    40. Wriedt, Markus. "Luther's Theology," in The Cambridge Companion to Luther. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003, 88–94.
    41. Bouman, Herbert J.A. "The Doctrine of Justification in the Lutheran Confessions", Concordia Theological Monthly, 26 November 1955, No. 11:801.
    42. Dorman, Ted M., "Justification as Healing: The Little-Known Luther", Quodlibet Journal: Volume 2 Number 3, Summer 2000. Retrieved 13 July 2007.
    43. "Luther's Definition of Faith".
    44. "Justification by Faith: The Lutheran-Catholic Convergence". Archived from the original on 15 June 2010.
    45. Luther, Martin. "The Smalcald Articles," in Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions. Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2005, 289, Part two, Article 1.
    46. "Johann Tetzel," Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007
    47. 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
    48. Cummings 2002, p. 32.
    49. ^ Hillerbrand, Hans J. "Martin Luther: Indulgences and salvation," Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007.
    50. Thesis 55 of Tetzel's One Hundred and Six Theses. These "Anti-theses" were a reply to Luther's Ninety-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 be hindered by no interruption, therefore he errs who says that the soul cannot fly out before the coin can jingle in the bottom of the chest." In The reformation in Germany, Henry Clay Vedder, 1914, Macmillan Company, p. 405. 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, ISBN 978-1-142-40551-9). See also: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Johann Tetzel" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
    51. Krämer, Walter and Trenkler, Götz. "Luther" in Lexicon van Hardnekkige Misverstanden. Uitgeverij Bert Bakker, 1997, 214:216.
    52. Ritter, Gerhard. Luther, Frankfurt 1985.
    53. Gerhard Prause "Luthers Thesanschlag ist eine Legende,"in Niemand hat Kolumbus ausgelacht. Düsseldorf, 1986.
    54. Marshall, Peter 1517: Martin Luther and the Invention of the Reformation (Oxford University Press, 2017) ISBN 978-0-19-968201-0
    55. Bekker, Henrik (2010). Dresden Leipzig & Saxony Adventure Guide. Hunter Publishing, Inc. p. 125. ISBN 978-1-58843-950-5. Retrieved 7 February 2012.
    56. Bainton, Roland. Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1950), p. 79, online
    57. Brecht, Martin. Martin Luther. tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 1:204–205.
    58. Spitz, Lewis W. The Renaissance and Reformation Movements, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1987, 338.
    59. Michael A. Mullett, Martin Luther, London: Routledge, 2004, ISBN 978-0-415-26168-5, 78; Oberman, Heiko, Luther: Man Between God and the Devil, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-300-10313-1, 192–193.
    60. Mullett, 68–69; Oberman, 189.
    61. Richard Marius, Luther, London: Quartet, 1975, ISBN 0-7043-3192-6, 85.
    62. Papal Bull Exsurge Domine, 15 June 1520.
    63. Mullett, 81–82.
    64. "Luther meets with Cajetan at Augsburg". Reformation 500 – Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. 11 January 2012. Archived from the original on 19 August 2017. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
    65. "The Acts and Monuments of the Church – Martin Luther". exclassics.com. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
    66. Bainton, Roland. Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1950), Chapter V, p. 96, online
    67. Mullett, 82.
    68. Mullett, 83.
    69. Oberman, 197.
    70. Mullett, 92–95; Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther, New York: Mentor, 1955, OCLC 220064892, 81.
    71. Marius, 87–89; Bainton, Mentor edition, 82.
    72. Marius, 93; Bainton, Mentor edition, 90.
    73. G. R. Elton, Reformation Europe: 1517–1559, London: Collins, 1963, OCLC 222872115, 177.
    74. 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.
    75. 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. ISBN 978-1-134-90386-3.
    76. Wooden, Cindy. "Methodists adapt Catholic-Lutheran declaration on justification." 24 July 2006
    77. David Van Biema, "A Half-Millennium Rift," TIME, 6 July 1998, 80.
    78. Cindy Wooden, "Lutheran World Council OKs joint declaration on justification," The Pilot, 19 June 1998, 20.
    79. Brecht, 1:460.
    80. ^ Mullett (1986), p. 25
    81. Luther, Martin. "Life of Luther (Luther by Martin Luther)".
    82. Wilson, 153, 170; Marius, 155.
    83. Bratcher, Dennis. "The Diet of Worms (1521) Archived 3 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine," in The Voice: Biblical and Theological Resources for Growing Christians. Retrieved 13 July 2007.
    84. Reformation Europe: 1517–1559, London: Fontana, 1963, 53; Diarmaid MacCulloch, Reformation: Europe's House Divided, 1490–1700, London: Allen Lane, 2003, 132.
    85. Luther, Martin. "Letter 82," in Luther'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 of Revelation, had been exiled on the island of Patmos.
    86. Brecht, 2:12–14.
    87. Mullett, 132, 134; Wilson, 182.
    88. Brecht, 2:7–9; Marius, 161–162; Marty, 77–79.
    89. Martin Luther, "Let Your Sins Be Strong," a Letter From Luther to Melanchthon Archived 28 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine, August 1521, Project Wittenberg, retrieved 1 October 2006.
    90. Brecht, 2:27–29; Mullett, 133.
    91. Brecht, 2:18–21.
    92. Marius, 163–164.
    93. Mullett, 135–136.
    94. Wilson, 192–202; Brecht, 2:34–38.
    95. Bainton, Mentor edition, 164–165.
    96. Letter of 7 March 1522. Schaff, Philip, History of the Christian Church, Vol VII, Ch IV Archived 23 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine; Brecht, 2:57.
    97. Brecht, 2:60; Bainton, Mentor edition, 165; Marius, 168–169.
    98. ^ Schaff, Philip, History of the Christian Church, Vol VII, Ch IV Archived 23 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine.
    99. Marius, 169.
    100. Mullett, 141–43.
    101. Michael Hughes, Early Modern Germany: 1477–1806, London: Macmillan, 1992, ISBN 0-333-53774-2, 45.
    102. A.G. Dickens, The German Nation and Martin Luther, London: Edward Arnold, 1974, ISBN 0-7131-5700-3, 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".
    103. Hughes, 45–47.
    104. Hughes, 50.
    105. 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.
    106. Hughes, 51.
    107. Andrew Pettegree, Europe in the Sixteenth Century, Oxford: Blackwell, ISBN 0-631-20704-X, 102–103.
    108. Erlangen Edition of Luther's Works, Vol. 59, p. 284
    109. Wilson, 232.
    110. Schaff, Philip, History of the Christian Church, Vol VII, Ch V Archived 23 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine, rpt. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Retrieved 17 May 2009; Bainton, Mentor edition, 226.
    111. ^ Scheible, Heinz (1997). Melanchthon. Eine Biographie (in German). Munich: C.H.Beck. p. 147. ISBN 978-3-406-42223-2.
    112. Lohse, Bernhard, Martin Luther: An Introduction to his Life and Work,, translated by Robert C. Schultz, Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1987, ISBN 0-567-09357-3, 32; Brecht, 2:196–197.
    113. Brecht, 2:199; Wilson, 234; Lohse, 32.
    114. Schaff, Philip. "Luther's Marriage. 1525." Archived 7 July 2017 at the Wayback 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.
    115. Marty, 109; Bainton, Mentor edition, 226.
    116. Brecht, 2: 202; Mullett, 182.
    117. Oberman, 278–280; Wilson, 237; Marty, 110.
    118. Bainton, Mentor edition, 228; Schaff, "Luther's Marriage. 1525." Archived 7 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine; Brecht, 2: 204.
    119. MacCulloch, 164.
    120. Bainton, Mentor edition, 243.
    121. Schroeder, Steven (2000). Between Freedom and Necessity: An Essay on the Place of Value. Rodopi. p. 104. ISBN 978-90-420-1302-5.
    122. Brecht, 2:260–63, 67; Mullett, 184–86.
    123. Brecht, 2:267; Bainton, Mentor edition, 244.
    124. Brecht, 2:267; MacCulloch, 165. On one occasion, Luther referred to the elector as an "emergency bishop" (Notbischof).
    125. Mullett, 186–187; Brecht, 2:264–265, 267.
    126. Brecht, 2:264–265.
    127. Brecht, 2:268.
    128. Brecht, 2:251–254; Bainton, Mentor edition, 266.
    129. Brecht, 2:255.
    130. Mullett, 183; Eric W. Gritsch, A History of Lutheranism, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002, ISBN 0-8006-3472-1, 37.
    131. Brecht, 2:256; Mullett, 183.
    132. Brecht, 2:256; Bainton, Mentor edition, 265–266.
    133. Brecht, 2:256; Bainton, Mentor edition, 269–270.
    134. Brecht, 2:256–57.
    135. Brecht, 2:258.
    136. Birkholz, Mark (3 January 2016). "Luther's Flood Prayer". Lutheran Reformation. Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
    137. Brecht, 2:263.
    138. Mullett, 186. Quoted from Luther's preface to the Small Catechism, 1529; MacCulloch, 165.
    139. Marty, 123.
    140. Brecht, 2:273; Bainton, Mentor edition, 263.
    141. Marty, 123; Wilson, 278.
    142. Luther, Martin. Luther's Works. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971, 50:172–173; Bainton, Mentor edition, 263.
    143. Brecht, 2:277, 280.
    144. See texts at English translation Archived 16 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine
    145. ^ Charles P. Arand, "Luther on the Creed." Lutheran Quarterly 2006 20(1): 1–25. ISSN 0024-7499; James Arne Nestingen, "Luther's Catechisms" The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation. Ed. Hans J. Hillerbrand. (1996)
    146. Mullett, 145; Lohse, 119.
    147. Mullett, 148–150.
    148. "Mentelin Bible". The Library of Congress. 1466. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
    149. "Koberger Bible". World Digital Library. 1483. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
    150. Gow, Andrew C. (2009). "The Contested History of a Book: The German Bible of the Later Middle Ages and Reformation in Legend, Ideology, and Scholarship". Journal of Hebrew Scriptures. 9. doi:10.5508/jhs.2009.v9.a13. ISSN 1203-1542.
    151. Wilson, 183; Brecht, 2:48–49.
    152. Mullett, 149; Wilson, 302.
    153. Marius, 162.
    154. Lohse, 112–117; Wilson, 183; Bainton, Mentor edition, 258.
    155. Daniel Weissbort and Astradur Eysteinsson (eds.), Translation – Theory and Practice: A Historical Reader, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-19-871200-6, 68.
    156. 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. ISBN 978-3-438-06010-5.
    157. 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.
    158. White, Andrew Dickson (1896). A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology, Vol. 2. New York: Appleton. p. 304.
    159. For a short collection see online hymns Archived 16 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine
    160. ^ Christopher Boyd Brown, Singing the Gospel: Lutheran Hymns and the Success of the Reformation. (2005)
    161. "Waldzither – Bibliography of the 19th century". Studia Instrumentorum. Retrieved 23 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)
    162. "Flung to the heedless winds". Hymntime. Archived from the original on 14 October 2013. Retrieved 7 October 2012.
    163. Robin A. Leaver, "Luther's Catechism Hymns." Lutheran Quarterly 1998 12(1): 79–88, 89–98.
    164. Robin A. Leaver, "Luther's Catechism Hymns: 5. Baptism." Lutheran Quarterly 1998 12(2): 160–169, 170–180.
    165. Christoph Markschies, Michael Trowitzsch: Luther zwischen den Zeiten – Eine Jenaer Ringvorlesung; Mohr Siebeck, 1999; pp. 215–219 (in German).
    166. Psychopannychia (the night banquet of the soul), manuscript Orléans 1534, Latin Strasbourg 1542, 2nd.ed. 1545, French, Geneva 1558, English 1581.
    167. Liber de Anima 1562
    168. D. Franz Pieper Christliche 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."
    169. 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.
    170. 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."
    171. "Smalcald Articles, Part II, Article II, paragraph 12". Bookofconcord.org. Archived from the original on 10 October 2008. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
    172. "Smalcald Articles, Part II, Article II, paragraph 28". Bookofconcord.org. Archived from the original on 10 October 2008. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
    173. Gerhard Loci 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).
    174. Article in the Berlinischer 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."
    175. 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)"
    176. Blackburne A short historical view of the controversy concerning an intermediate state (1765) p. 121
    177. 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"
    178. Henry Eyster Jacobs Martin Luther the Hero of the Reformation 1483 to 1546 (1898). Emphasis added.
    179. Mullett, 194–195.
    180. Brecht, 2:325–334; Mullett, 197.
    181. Wilson, 259.
    182. Weimar Ausgabe 26, 442; Luther's Works 37, 299–300.
    183. Oberman, 237.
    184. Marty, 140–141; Lohse, 74–75.
    185. Quoted by Oberman, 237.
    186. Brecht 2:329.
    187. Oberman, 238.
    188. Martin Luther, Werke, VIII
    189. Martin Luther, Table Talk.
    190. Martin Luther, "On Justification CCXCIV", Table Talk
    191. Mallett, 198; Marius, 220. The siege was lifted on 14 October 1529, which Luther saw as a divine miracle.
    192. Andrew Cunningham, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Religion, War, Famine and Death in Reformation Europe Archived 22 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-521-46701-2, 141; Mullett, 239–240; Marty, 164.
    193. From On War against the Turk, 1529, quoted in William P. Brown, The Ten Commandments: The Reciprocity of Faithfulness, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, ISBN 0-664-22323-0, 258; Lohse, 61; Marty, 166.
    194. Marty, 166; Marius, 219; Brecht, 2:365, 368.
    195. Mullett, 238–239; Lohse, 59–61.
    196. Brecht, 2:364.
    197. Wilson, 257; Brecht, 2:364–365.
    198. Brecht, 2:365; Mullett, 239.
    199. Brecht, 3:354.
    200. Daniel Goffman, The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe Archived 22 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-521-45908-7, 109; Mullett, 241; Marty, 163.
    201. From On war against the Turk, 1529, quoted in Roland E. Miller, Muslims and the Gospel Archived 22 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine, Minneapolis: Kirk House Publishers, 2006, ISBN 1-932688-07-2, 208.
    202. Brecht, 3:355.
    203. 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. ISBN 978-0-9748529-6-6
    204. 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. ISBN 978-0-9748529-6-6
    205. 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).
    206. 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 preach de 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).
    207. Cf. Luther, Only the Decalogue Is Eternal, 33–36.
    208. Cf. Luther, Only the Decalogue Is Eternal, 170–172
    209. Cf. Luther, Only the Decalogue Is Eternal, 76, 105–107.
    210. Cf. Luther, Only the Decalogue Is Eternal, 140, 157.
    211. Cf. Luther, Only the Decalogue Is Eternal, 75, 104–105, 172–173.
    212. 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.
    213. Cf. Luther, Only the Decalogue Is Eternal, 110.
    214. Cf. Luther, Only the Decalogue Is Eternal, 35: "The law, therefore, cannot be eliminated, but remains, prior to Christ as not fulfilled, after Christ as to be fulfilled, although this does not happen perfectly in this life even by the justified. ... This will happen perfectly first in the coming life." Cf. Luther, Only the Decalogue Is Eternal,, 43–44, 91–93.
    215. 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 of Luther's Authentic Voice on Polygamy Archived 20 January 2019 at the Wayback Machine Nathan R. Jastram, Concordia Theological Journal, Fall 2015/Spring 2016, Volume 3
    216. Brecht, Martin, Martin Luther, tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 3:212.
    217. Brecht, Martin, Martin Luther, tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 3:214.
    218. Brecht, Martin, Martin Luther, tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 3:205–215.
    219. Oberman, Heiko, Luther: Man Between God and the Devil, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006, 294.
    220. Michael, Robert. Holy Hatred: Christianity, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, 109; Mullett, 242.
    221. Edwards, Mark. Luther's Last Battles. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983, 121.
    222. Brecht, 3:341–343; Mullett, 241; Marty, 172.
    223. Brecht, 3:334; Marty, 169; Marius, 235.
    224. Noble, Graham. "Martin Luther and German anti-Semitism," History Review (2002) No. 42:1–2; Mullett, 246.
    225. Brecht, 3:341–347.
    226. Luther, On the Jews and their Lies, quoted in Michael, 112.
    227. Luther, Vom Schem Hamphoras, quoted in Michael, 113.
    228. ^ Gritsch, Eric W. (2012). Martin Luther's Anti-Semitism: Against His Better Judgment. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-8028-6676-9. pp. 86–87.
    229. Luther, On the Jews and Their Lies, Luthers Werke. 47:268–271.
    230. Luther, On the Jews and Their Lies, quoted in Robert Michael, "Luther, Luther Scholars, and the Jews," Encounter 46 (Autumn 1985) No. 4:343–344.
    231. Rosenfeld, Moshe N. (1988). "Chapter 9. Early Yiddish in Non-Jewish Books". In Katz, Dovid (ed.). Dialects of the Yiddish Language: Winter Studies in Yiddish, Volume 2. Papers from the Second Annual Oxford Winter Symposium in Yiddish Language and Literature, 14–16 December 1986. Pergamon Press. p. 99. ISBN 978-0080365640. OCLC 17727332. Retrieved 22 February 2023 – via Google Books.
    232. Considine, John P. (2017). "Chapter 5. first curiosity-driven wordlists: Rotwelsch". Small Dictionaries and Curiosity: Lexicography and Fieldwork in Post-medieval Europe. Oxford University Press. p. 37. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198785019.001.0001. ISBN 978-0198785019. OCLC 955312844. Retrieved 22 February 2023 – via Google Books.
    233. ^ Michael, 117.
    234. Quoted by Michael, 110.
    235. Michael, 117–118.
    236. Singer, Tovia (30 April 2014). "A Closer Look at the "Crucifixion Psalm"". Outreach Judaism. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
    237. 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. PMID 9019884.
    238. Edwards, 9.
    239. Spitz, 354.
    240. Die Beziehungen des Reformators Martin Luther zu Halle Archived 7 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine buergerstiftung-halle.de (in German)
    241. Luther, Martin. Sermon No. 8, "Predigt über Mat. 11:25, Eisleben gehalten," 15 February 1546, Luthers Werke, Weimar 1914, 51:196–197.
    242. Poliakov, Léon. From the Time of Christ to the Court Jews, Vanguard Press, p. 220.
    243. Mackinnon, James. Luther and the Reformation. Vol. IV, (New York): Russell & Russell, 1962, p. 204.
    244. Luther, Martin. Admonition against the Jews, added to his final sermon, cited in Oberman, Heiko. Luther: Man Between God and the Devil, New York: Image Books, 1989, p. 294. A complete translation of Luther's Admonition can be found in Wikisource. s:Warning Against the Jews (1546)
    245. Reeves, Michael. "The Unquenchable Flame". Nottingham: IVP, 2009, p. 60.
    246. Brecht, Martin. Martin Luther. tr. James L. Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93, 3:369–379.
    247. ^ McKim, Donald K. (2003). The Cambridge companion to Martin Luther. Cambridge companions to religion. Cambridge University Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-521-01673-5.
    248. Kellermann, James A. (translator) "The Last Written Words of Luther: Holy Ponderings of the Reverend Father Doctor Martin Luther" Archived 4 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine. 16 February 1546.
    249. 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.
    250. 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
    251. Martin Luther's Death Mask on View at Museum in Halle, Germany Archived 29 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine artdaily.com
    252. Gritsch, 113–114; Michael, 117.
    253. 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).
    254. Himmler wrote: "what Luther said and wrote about the Jews. No judgment could be sharper."
    255. Ellis, Marc H. Hitler and the Holocaust, Christian Anti-Semitism" Archived 10 July 2007 at the Wayback Machine, (NP: Baylor University Center for American and Jewish Studies, Spring 2004), Slide 14. "Hitler and the Holocaust". Baylor University. Archived from the original on 22 April 2006. Retrieved 22 April 2006..
    256. See Noble, Graham. "Martin Luther and German anti-Semitism," History Review (2002) No. 42:1–2.
    257. Diarmaid MacCulloch, Reformation: Europe's House Divided, 1490–1700. New York: Penguin Books Ltd, 2004, pp. 666–667.
    258. 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)
    259. Brecht 3:351.
    260. Wallmann, 72–97.
    261. Siemon-Netto, The Fabricated Luther, 17–20.
    262. Siemon-Netto, "Luther and the Jews," Lutheran Witness 123 (2004) No. 4:19, 21.
    263. 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."
    264. Bainton, Roland: Here I Stand, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, New American Library, 1983), p. 297
    265. For similar views, see:
      • Briese, Russell. "Martin Luther and the Jews," Lutheran Forum (Summer 2000):32;
      • Brecht, Martin Luther, 3:351;
      • Edwards, Mark U. Jr. Luther's Last Battles: Politics and Polemics 1531–46. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983, 139;
      • Gritsch, Eric. "Was Luther Anti-Semitic?", Christian History, No. 3:39, 12.;
      • Kittelson, James M., Luther the Reformer, 274;
      • Oberman, Heiko. The Roots of Anti-Semitism: In the Age of Renaissance and Reformation. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984, 102;
      • Rupp, Gordon. Martin Luther, 75;
      • Siemon-Netto, Uwe. Lutheran Witness, 19.
    266. Christopher J. Probst, Demonizing the Jews: Luther and the Protestant Church in Nazi Germany Archived 11 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Indiana University Press in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2012, ISBN 978-0-253-00100-9
    267. "Der Deutsche Luthertag 1933 und die Deutschen Christen" by Hansjörg Buss. In: Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte Vol. 26, No. 2
    268. Dr. Christopher Probst. "Martin Luther and "The Jews" A Reappraisal". The Theologian. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
    269. 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 of Official Missouri Synod Doctrinal Statements Archived 25 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine
    270. Lull, Timothy Martin Luther's Basic Theological Writings, Second Edition (2005), p. 25
    271. See Merton P. Strommen et al., A Study of Generations (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing, 1972), p. 206. P. 208 also states "The clergy are less likely to indicate anti-Semitic or racially prejudiced attitudes ."
    272. Richard (Dick) Geary, "Who voted for the Nazis? (electoral history of the National Socialist German Workers' Party)", in History Today, 1 October 1998, Vol. 48, Issue 10, pp. 8–14
    273. "Special Interests at the Ballot Box? Religion and the Electoral Success of the Nazis" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 April 2021. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
    274. Wall Street Journal, "The Monk Who Shook the World", Richard J. Evans, 31 March 2017
    275. Roper, Lyndal (April 2010). "Martin Luther's Body: The 'Stout Doctor' and His Biographers". American Historical Review. 115 (2): 351–362. doi:10.1086/ahr.115.2.351. ISSN 0002-8762. PMID 20509226.
    276. "The Calendar". The Church of England. Retrieved 9 April 2021.
    277. Luther und der Schwan Archived 19 October 2019 at the Wayback Machine hamburger-reformation.de, retrieved 19 October 2019
    278. The Swan Archived 6 July 2020 at the Wayback Machine Lutheran Press, retrieved 6 July 2020
    279. The Lutheran Identity of Josquin's Missa Pange Lingua (reference note 94) Archived 6 July 2020 at the Wayback Machine Early Music History, vol. 36, October 2017, pp. 193–249; CUP; retrieved 6 July 2020

    Sources

    Further reading

    For works by and about Luther, see Martin Luther (resources) or Luther's works at Wikisource.

    • Atkinson, James (1968). Martin Luther and the Birth of Protestantism, in series, Pelican Book. 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 biography excerpts
    • Dillenberger, John (1961). Martin Luther: Selections from his Writings. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. OCLC 165808.
    • 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's Luther, sein Leben und seine Zeit.
    • Lull, Timothy (1989). Martin Luther: Selections from his Writings. Minneapolis: Fortress. ISBN 978-0-8006-3680-7.
    • Lull, Timothy F.; Nelson, Derek R. (2015). Resilient Reformer: The Life and Thought of Martin Luther. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress. ISBN 978-1-4514-9415-0 – via Project MUSE.
    • Kolb, Robert; Dingel, Irene; Batka, Ľubomír (eds.): The Oxford Handbook of Martin Luther's Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. ISBN 978-0-19-960470-8.
    • Luther, M. The Bondage of the Will. Eds. J.I. Packer and O.R. Johnson. Old Tappan, NJ: Revell, 1957. OCLC 22724565.
    • Luther, Martin (1974). Selected Political Writings, ed. and with an introd. by J.M. Porter. Philadelphia: Fortress Press. ISBN 0-8006-1079-2
    • Luther's Works, 55 vols. Eds. H.T. Lehman and J. 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. ISBN 0-570-01337-2
    • 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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