Martin Luther Essay Research Paper Martin LutherMartin

Martin Luther Essay, Research Paper

Martin Luther.

Martin Luther was born in Eisleben, Germany, the son of Hans Luther, who worked in the copper mines, and his wife Margarethe. He went to school at Magdeburg and Eisenach, and entered the University of Erfurt in 1501, graduating with a BA in 1502 and an MA in 1505. His father wished him to be a lawyer, but Luther was drawn to the study of the Scriptures, and spent three years in the Augustinian monastery at Erfurt. In 1507 he was ordained a priest, and went to the University of Wittenberg, where he lectured on philosophy and the Scriptures, becoming a powerful and influential preacher.

Luther began his career as an Augustinian Monk in the Roman Catholic Church. Consequently, Luther was initially loyal to the papacy, and even after many theological conflicts, he attempted to bring about his reconciliation with the Church. But this didn’t last long because Luther waged battle with the papacy. On a mission to Rome in 1510–11 he was appalled by the corruption he found there. Money was greatly needed at the time for the rebuilding of St Peter’s, and papal emissaries sought everywhere to raise funds by the sale of indulgences. The system was grossly abused, and Luther’s indignation at the shameless traffic, carried on in particular by the Dominican Johann Tetzel, became irrepressible.

As professor of biblical exegesis at Wittenberg (1512–46), he began to preach the doctrine of salvation by faith rather than works; and on 31 October 1517 drew up a list of 95 theses on indulgences denying the pope any right to forgive sins, and nailed them on the church door at Wittenberg. Tetzel retreated from Saxony to Frankfurt-an-der-Oder, where he published a set of counter-theses and burnt Luther’s. It is usually considered to be the original document of the Reformation. Basically, this document exposed all the wrongs of the Catholic Church from indulgences to immoral behavior of priests. The Wittenberg students retaliated by burning Tetzel’s, and in 1518 Luther was joined in his views by Melanchthon. Luther’s ideas and reforms on Christianity were in direct conflict with the Catholic Church. These ideas, reforms, and thoughts on faith was the spark plug that started the Protestant Reformation.

The principal sacrament of the Roman Catholic Church is the Holy Eucharist of Communion. The fact that Luther was messing with this sacrament proved to be a significant problem to the Catholic Church. Luther generated the Protestant belief that this sacrament is a ritual through which they raise their spirits in remembrance of Christ’s life and death. According to the teachings of the Roman Church, Christ’s human body and blood are actually present in the consecrated bread and wine. As Luther saw it, no sacrament is effective by itself without listening to the Word associated with the sacrament, and the faith that believes in it. There is no magical element to any sacrament, including the doctrine of change. Luther’s teachings on the sacraments took away the power of the priests and the special nature of the Holy Eucharist. The Catholic mass depended completely on these concepts in order for the Roman Church to maintain its effectiveness as the representation of Christ. For Luther to take this position-required courage because he was taking on a force of great strength and authority. Luther did what most kings would fear to do. Luther’s courage and boldness can be seen in his “Open Letter to Pope Leo X,” “I have, to be sure, sharply attacked ungodly doctrines in general, and I have snapped at my opponents, not because of their bad morals, but because of their ungodliness. Rather than repent this in the least, I have determined to persist in that fervent zeal and to despise the judgment of men, following the example of Christ who in his zeal called his opponents ‘a blood of vipers,’ ‘blind fools,’ ‘hypocrites’. . . I have truly despised your see, the Roman Curia, which, however, neither you nor anyone else can deny is more corrupt than any Babylon or Sodom ever was, and which, as far as I can see, is characterized by a completely depraved, hopeless, and notorious godlessness” (Luther and Dillenberger 44-45).

Luther’s believed that absolution relied upon the sinner’s faith and God’s Grace rather than the intervention of a priest. Luther did not want an actual separation from the Roman Catholic Church. Instead, Luther felt his suggested reforms could be implemented within Catholicism. If the Catholic Church had attempted to consider Luther’s reforms, the Protestant Reformation would probably not have seen the light of day. But the religious practices being what they were in the Roman Church, there was little chance at that time for any great change. The Church of Rome, set in its ways, was not about to change into something else. If a change had occurred within the Roman Catholic Church, Luther would have had a different destiny. Luther’s fate was sealed, however his job was cut out for him. Luther broke the religious restraints of the Roman Catholic religion. This accomplishment amounts to the establishment of another religion known as Protestantism, a faith that was generated from the Reformation. Luther stood out as one of the Reformation’s major influences. Luther’s reforms regarded to the Catholic sacraments. For Luther, the Holy Eucharist of Lord’s supper was really a symbolic act rather than an actual instance