Martin Luther was a Northern German Augustinian monk whose inability to reconcile his own beliefs with the practices and teachings of the Roman Catholic Church led to the Protestant Reformation. Born in Eisleben in 1483, Luther was the son of hard-working, middle-class Saxon parents. He was a bright and dedicated student, and was especially concerned with his faith. Luther struggled with what he perceived to be his own innate sinfulness, afraid he was perhaps unworthy of God's acceptance. In 1505, just after receiving his law degree, Luther was traveling between Erfurt and Eisleben when he encountered a violent thunderstorm. Scared by the lightning, Luther threw himself to the ground and made a vow to St. Anne, the mother of Mary, that he would become a monk if she allowed him to survive the storm. Luther survived, and two weeks later he joined an Augustinian monastery in Erfurt.
Luther was a devout and introspective monk who could not accept the woeful, corrupt state of the Church. He was ordained a priest in 1507, and received his doctorate in theology only 5 years later. Luther had many questions about Catholic rituals and doctrine. While teaching and studying at the University of Wittenberg, he was troubled by the Church teaching that salvation was attainable through good acts. While studying St. Paul's Letter to the Romans, Luther came across the passage, "By faith are you saved." He interpreted that to mean by faith alone is one saved, and this insight changed his whole understanding of the relationship between God and humans. Luther no longer saw God as a judge with whom one could barter for eternal life. Instead, he believed that the key to salvation was in the acceptance that humans are inherently sinful and therefore incapable of the good works necessary to attain salvation. He argued that no matter how many good works people perform, they aren't guaranteed salvation, which can only be gained through sincere faith and God's grace, or compassion for the repentant sinner.
Luther's justification by faith, as this theory was called, opened his eyes to the many abuses of the Church, which he saw not only as corruption but as insulting to God. Chief among the abuses was the selling of indulgences. In 1517, Pope Leo X allowed Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz, Germany, to hold three Church offices at one time. To pay the pope the enormous fee for the positions, Albrecht took out a loan from the famous Fugger banking house of Augsburg. Albrecht then employed a Dominican monk, named Johan Tetzel, to come to Saxony to sell indulgences. Leo X arranged with Albrecht that one half of the proceeds from Tetzel's sales would go directly to the Fugger bank to pay off the loan, while the other half would be earmarked for the rebuilding of St. Peter's Church in Rome. Tetzel claimed that his indulgences could not only grant penance for sins already committed, but also for sins committed in the future. Luther was outraged. In response, he wrote a document, now called the Ninety-Five Theses, that he hoped would lead to debate on the issue of Church abuses. The Ninety-Five Theses called into doubt the validity of indulgences. Many years after the Ninety-Five Theses were written, Philip Melanchthon, a long-time companion to Luther, claimed Luther had nailed them to the main door of the Wittenberg church. It is more likely that he posted them on a side door of the same church, but in any case he started more than a debate: his questions precipitated a revolution that split the western Christian world.
Luther's Ninety-Five Theses were meant simply to create discussion about reform, but buried beneath the complex theology was the kernel of his dissent: that Christians did not need the Church to attain salvation, because faith alone mattered. Luther's views attracted many Germans who resented Italian control of the Church hierarchy, the pope's meddling in political affairs, and the sacrilegious nature of some Church practices and teachings. Many German princes saw Luther's reforms as a way to escape from papal control of the Holy Roman Empire. Within a year, Rome ordered Luther to report to the Church officials in Rome to explain his views. The secular leader of Saxony, Prince Frederick I, who sought to reduce papal power, advised Luther not to go and promised to protect him within his state. In 1520, Pope Leo X issued a formal document of excommunication that gave Luther 60 days to recant. Luther burned the Papal order in the square at Wittenberg, and was in turn excommunicated. Luther had officially broken with the Church.
Luther was a devout and introspective monk who could not accept the woeful, corrupt state of the Church. He was ordained a priest in 1507, and received his doctorate in theology only 5 years later. Luther had many questions about Catholic rituals and doctrine. While teaching and studying at the University of Wittenberg, he was troubled by the Church teaching that salvation was attainable through good acts. While studying St. Paul's Letter to the Romans, Luther came across the passage, "By faith are you saved." He interpreted that to mean by faith alone is one saved, and this insight changed his whole understanding of the relationship between God and humans. Luther no longer saw God as a judge with whom one could barter for eternal life. Instead, he believed that the key to salvation was in the acceptance that humans are inherently sinful and therefore incapable of the good works necessary to attain salvation. He argued that no matter how many good works people perform, they aren't guaranteed salvation, which can only be gained through sincere faith and God's grace, or compassion for the repentant sinner.
Luther's justification by faith, as this theory was called, opened his eyes to the many abuses of the Church, which he saw not only as corruption but as insulting to God. Chief among the abuses was the selling of indulgences. In 1517, Pope Leo X allowed Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz, Germany, to hold three Church offices at one time. To pay the pope the enormous fee for the positions, Albrecht took out a loan from the famous Fugger banking house of Augsburg. Albrecht then employed a Dominican monk, named Johan Tetzel, to come to Saxony to sell indulgences. Leo X arranged with Albrecht that one half of the proceeds from Tetzel's sales would go directly to the Fugger bank to pay off the loan, while the other half would be earmarked for the rebuilding of St. Peter's Church in Rome. Tetzel claimed that his indulgences could not only grant penance for sins already committed, but also for sins committed in the future. Luther was outraged. In response, he wrote a document, now called the Ninety-Five Theses, that he hoped would lead to debate on the issue of Church abuses. The Ninety-Five Theses called into doubt the validity of indulgences. Many years after the Ninety-Five Theses were written, Philip Melanchthon, a long-time companion to Luther, claimed Luther had nailed them to the main door of the Wittenberg church. It is more likely that he posted them on a side door of the same church, but in any case he started more than a debate: his questions precipitated a revolution that split the western Christian world.
Luther's Ninety-Five Theses were meant simply to create discussion about reform, but buried beneath the complex theology was the kernel of his dissent: that Christians did not need the Church to attain salvation, because faith alone mattered. Luther's views attracted many Germans who resented Italian control of the Church hierarchy, the pope's meddling in political affairs, and the sacrilegious nature of some Church practices and teachings. Many German princes saw Luther's reforms as a way to escape from papal control of the Holy Roman Empire. Within a year, Rome ordered Luther to report to the Church officials in Rome to explain his views. The secular leader of Saxony, Prince Frederick I, who sought to reduce papal power, advised Luther not to go and promised to protect him within his state. In 1520, Pope Leo X issued a formal document of excommunication that gave Luther 60 days to recant. Luther burned the Papal order in the square at Wittenberg, and was in turn excommunicated. Luther had officially broken with the Church.
