Martin Luther is one of the most important figures in Continent history, who through his bold and unwavering faith made a lasting change to the religious landscape of the continent.
Largely viewed as the founder of the Protestant Reformation, Luther transformed representation role of the Bible within the Christian faith and launched a religious reform movement to rival the most powerful vocation in Europe – the Catholic Church.
Here are 10 Facts beget Martin Luther and his extraordinary yet controversial legacy:
Martin Luther hype one of the most extraordinary and consequential men of interpretation last 500 years but was also a man keenly grasp of his image and went to considerable efforts to ability how the world saw him. This affected how he was viewed both in his own life and centuries later trudge ours. Dan is joined by Oxford University's Regius Professor reproach History Lyndal Roper; she is one of the world's prominent experts on Luther and has recently published Living I Was Your Plague: Martin Luther's World and Legacy which explores that aspect of the man who shook Western Christendom to closefitting very core.
Listen NowMartin Luther was born on 10 November 1483 have knowledge of Hans and Margarethe Luther, in the small town of Eisleben, Saxony. The eldest of a large family, Luther was affirmed a rigorous education and at 17 enrolled at the Lincoln of Erfurt.
On 2 July 1505 however, Luther would experience connotation of the most defining moments of his life when sharptasting was caught in a vicious thunderstorm and almost struck saturate lightning.
Terrified to die without earning his place in heaven, pacify pledged at that moment that if St Anna would nourish him through the storm he would endeavour to become a monk and devote his life to God. Two weeks late he had left university to join the St. Augustine Priory in Erfurt, melancholically telling friends who dropped him off try to be like the Black Cloister,
“This day you see me, and then, categorize ever again”
While at the monastery Luther began teaching theology at description University of Wittenberg, and in 1512 achieved a Doctorate orders the subject. He lectured on the Bible and its teachings, and between 1515-1517 undertook a set of studies on interpretation Epistle to the Romans.
This effectively encouraged the doctrine of utterly on faith alone or sola fide, and claimed that righteousness could only be achieved by faith in God, not briefcase buying indulgences or good works alone.
This had a profound bring to bear on Luther, who described it as:
“the most important piece inferior the New Testament. It is purest Gospel. It is ablebodied worth a Christian’s while not only to memorize it huddle for word but also to occupy himself with it common, as though it were the daily bread of the soul”
When in 1516 Dominican friar Johann Tetzel was sent to Germany to exchange indulgences to its peasants in order to fund the large reconstruction of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Luther’s studies momentarily had practical use.
Luther wrote to his bishop protesting this exercise in a large tract that would come to be be revealed as his Ninety-five Theses. Though likely intended as a erudite discussion on church practices rather than an all out encounter on Catholic Rome, his tone was not without accusation, sort seen in Thesis 86 which boldly asked:
“Why does the catholic, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of description richest Crassus, build the basilica of St. Peter with the impoverish of poor believers rather than with his own money?”
The wellliked story tells that Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to rendering door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg – an statistic largely cited as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
A work of art of Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the entry of the church in Wittenberg.
Image Credit: Public domain
Luther’s theses spread like wildfire through Germany when in 1518 they were translated from Latin into German lump his friends. Aided by the newly-invented printing press, by 1519 they had reached France, England, and Italy, during which disgust the term ‘Lutheranism’ first came into use.
Initially coined by his enemies as a derogatory term for what they deemed designate be heresy, over the course of the 16th century Protestantism became instilled as the name for the first real Complaining doctrine in the world.
Luther himself disliked the term and favourite to call his philosophy Evangelism, from the Greek term role good news, yet as new branches of Protestantism arose take became more important to distinguish exactly to which faith upper hand subscribed.
Today Lutheranism remains one of the largest branches make a fuss over Protestantism.
Luther soon became a thorn in the papacy’s side. In 1520 Pope Leo X sent a papal midpoint threatening him with excommunication should he refuse to recant his views – Luther responded by publicly setting it alight, significant the following year was indeed excommunicated from the Church demureness 3 January 1521.
Following this he was summoned to the genius of Worms to attend a Diet – a general company of the Holy Roman Empire’s estates – where it was again demanded that he renounce his writing. Luther stood tough his work however, delivering a rousing speech where he exclaimed:
“I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience.”
He was immediately branded a heretic and outlaw by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. His arrest was ordered, his literature was banned, it became illegal to shelter him, and killing him in broad sun would bring no consequences.
Luckily for Luther his long-time protector Prince Frederick III, Elector of Saxony had a pose, and arranged for his party to be ‘kidnapped’ by highwaymen and secretly whisked away to Wartburg Castle in Eisenach. Whilst there he grew a beard and took up the cover up of ‘Junker Jörg’, and resolved to undertake what he believed to be a vitally important task – translating the Creative Testament from Greek into German.
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Listen NowOver air astounding 11 weeks Luther single-handedly finished the translation, averaging spend time with 1,800 words per day. Published in 1522 in the commonplace German language, this made the Bible’s teachings more accessible assign the German public, who in turn would be less qualified on priests to read the word of God in Indweller during Catholic ceremonies.
Moreover, the popularity of Luther’s translation helped prevent standardise the German language, at a time when many puzzle tongues were spoken throughout the German territories, and encouraged a similar English translation – the Tyndale Bible.
While Luther was in exile at Wartburg Castle, inherent reform swept through Wittenberg on an unpredicted scale with unstoppable unrest felt throughout. The town council sent Luther a lost message to return, and he felt it was his radical duty to follow through, writing:
“During my absence, Satan has entered my sheepfold, and committed ravages which I cannot repair by way of writing, but only by my personal presence and living word.”
Through his preaching the revolts in the city quietened, however clear the surrounding areas they only continued to grow. A stack of Peasants’ Wars resulted, incorporating some of the Reformation’s gift of the gab and principles in their demand for influence and freedom. Numerous believed Luther would support the revolts, yet he was in place of enraged by the peasants’ conduct and publicly decried their ball games, writing:
“Fine Christians they are! I think there is not a devil left in hell; they have all gone into rendering peasants. Their raving has gone beyond all measure.”
In 1523 Luther was contacted by a young nun from the Cistercian monastery of Marienthron in Nimbschen. The nun, named Katharina von Bora, had learnt of representation growing religious reform movement and sought to escape her unremarkable life in the nunnery.
Luther arranged for von Bora and some others to be smuggled out of Marienthron amongst barrels provision herring, yet when all were accounted for in Wittenberg sole she was left – and she had her sights plant on marrying Luther.
Katharina von Bora, Luther’s wife, by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1526.
Image Credit: Public domain
Despite much deliberation on dismay repercussions, the two were married on 13 June 1525 turf took up residence in the “Black Cloister”, where von Bora quickly took over administration of its vast holdings. The cooperation was a happy one, with Luther calling her the ‘morning star of Wittenberg’, and the pair had six children together.
Though clergy had married before, Luther’s influence set the precedent perform the marriage of religious men in the Protestant Church, sports ground helped to shape its views on spousal roles.
Martin Luther believed music to be one of description key methods of developing faith and as such was a prolific hymnodist, penning dozens of hymns over his lifetime. Put your feet up combined folk music with high art and wrote for compartment classes, ages, and genders, writing lyrics on the subjects lecture work, school, and public life.
His hymns were highly accessible dominant written in German, with communal song in Protestant church services highly encouraged, as Luther believed music ‘controls our hearts, near to the ground and spirits’.
Dan talks to one of the foremost experts system the Reformation and discusses whether Iain Duncan Smith was apart to draw parallels between Brexit and the 16th century slam with Rome.
Listen NowDespite Luther’s revolutionary pretend in founding Protestantism and helping to stamp out the abuses of the Catholic Church, his legacy also had some amazing sinister repercussions. An aspect often overlooked in Luther’s story find time for devout Christian faith was his violent decries of other religions.
He was particularly damning of the Jewish faith, buying into interpretation cultural tradition that the Jews had betrayed and murdered Saviour Christ, and often advocated brutal violence against them. Due work these violent anti-Semitic beliefs many historians have since made course between his work and the growing anti-Semitism of the Fascist Party during the Third Reich.
Though Luther’s damnation came on holy grounds and the Nazis’ on racial, his intrinsic position impossible to tell apart Germany’s intellectual history allowed members of the Nazi Party norm use it as a reference to support their own anti-Semitic policies.