Charl timotheus biography of martin luther

His parents believed that the financial success of their children would guarantee the elder Luthers comfort in their old age. Hans Luther had a dislike for the priesthood, a feeling that probably influenced his decision that Martin should be a lawyer. Hans believed that if Martin became a lawyer, he would be able to increase the Luther family's prosperity.

Martin was enrolled at the University of Erfurt in He received a bachelor of arts degree in and a master of arts degree in In the same year he enrolled in the faculty of law, giving every sign of being a dutiful and possibly wealthy son. Although Martin seemed poised for a prosperous future in the legal field, he privately yearned to become a priest.

The years between and were filled with religious crises that would take Luther away from the study of law forever. He was extremely pious, a quality that was instilled in him by his parents and early teachers. Aware that the material world was extremely close to the supernatural world, he believed the forces of good and evil had a direct effect on the everyday lives of human beings.

A series of events would confirm this for young Martin and change his life. A serious accident in and the death of a friend a little later began to affect Martin's religious development. Then, on July 2, , while Luther was returning to Erfurt after visiting home, he was caught in a severe thunderstorm. He fell to the ground in terror, and he suddenly vowed that he would become a monk if he survived.

This episode, as important in Christian history as the equally famous and parallel scene of Saint Paul 's conversion, changed the course of Luther's life. Two weeks later, against the opposition of his father and to the dismay of his friends, Luther entered the Reformed Congregation of the Eremetical Order of Saint Augustine at Erfurt. Luther took his vows in and was ordained a priest in Upon ordination, a nervous Luther conducted his first mass, a worship service at which communion is taken.

In attendance at the service was Hans Luther, who was still angered by his son's choice of vocation. Martin felt he was unworthy to be a messenger of Christ, but he explained to his father that he had to enter the monastery because of his experience in the thunderstorm. Martin was determined to prove himself to his father, and he dedicated himself to the rigorous life of a monk.

His supervisor, Johann von Staupitz — , recognized that Martin was academically brilliant, Staupitz urged him to become a teacher. Having reconciled with his father, Martin was selected for advanced theological philosophy of religion study at the University of Erfurt, which had connections with his monastery. In Luther was sent to the University of Wittenberg founded in to lecture in arts.

Like a modern graduate student, he was also preparing for his doctorate degree in theology while he taught. He lectured on the standard medieval texts, such as the Book of Sentences by the Italian religious scholar Peter Lombard c. Luther also read for the first time the works of Saint Augustine a. On October 19, , Luther received his doctorate in theology.

After completion of his degree came the second significant turn in Luther's career: he was appointed to succeed Staupitz as professor of theology at Wittenberg. Luther was to teach throughout the rest of his life. Whatever fame and notoriety his later writings and statements were to bring him, Luther's true work was teaching, a duty he fulfilled diligently until his death.

By , due to the efforts of Luther and his colleague Philip Melanchthon — , Wittenberg was to become the most popular university in Germany. In , however, it lacked the prestige of Erfurt and Leipzig and was insignificant in the eyes of the greatest of the old universities, the University of Paris. Wittenberg was not the place for an academic who aspired to a prominent career, but Luther was dedicated to being a teacher, not to being financially successful.

His rapid rise came from his native ability, his boundless energy, and his dedication to the religious life. Luther had a good relationship with the Duke of Saxony, also known as Frederick the Wise — , who gave his full financial support while he attended the university. This relationship led to Luther becoming one of the most prestigious professors at Wittenberg, even before publishing his works on grace a divine virtue given by God and beginning the infamous indulgence controversy.

Luther had been exposed to two competing philosophical systems during his education: scholasticism and nominalism. Scholasticism was derived from the philosophies of the Italian religious scholar Saint Thomas Aquinas — , who had in turn borrowed ideas from the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle — b. The main concept of scholasticism was that rigorous formal logic thinking based on reason should be used in all philosophical and theological inquiries.

Any question could be answered by studying and thinking about it in a logical, organized way. Nominalism, on the other hand, was derived from the philosophies of the English scholastic William of Ockham c. Those who followed nominalism maintained that God was infinitely remote, or removed, from humans, and that the human intellect could not understand the majesty of God.

Luther believed both of these philosophies held merit. Luther dedicated himself to his studies, but he remained continuously afraid of God's wrath and power. While at the monastery he began to experience new religious crises that were based upon his acute awareness of the need for spiritual perfection and his equally strong conviction of his own human frailty.

These conflicts caused him almost to despair before the overwhelming majesty and wrath of God. Nevertheless, Luther was a productive writer and he published his lectures on Peter Lombard in He went on to publish his lectures on the Bible: the Psalms —15 , Saint Paul 's Epistle Letter to the Romans —16 , and the epistles to the Galatians and Hebrews — During these years, his biblical studies became more and more important to him.

Besides teaching and study, however, Luther had other duties. Beginning in he preached in the parish church and served as regent member of the governing board of the monastery school. In he became the supervisor of eleven other monasteries. Overwhelmed by his duties, Luther worried about the state of his soul. Luther's crisis of conscience centered upon his fears of imperfection.

He wondered how his personal efforts could begin to satisfy a wrathful God. These fears were intensified in when he began to closely study the works of Saint Paul. Luther began to despair while attempting to interpret the passage in Saint Paul's Epistle to the Romans, which says that the justice of God is revealed in the Gospels four books in the New Testament that tell the story of Christ and his teachings.

How can mankind satisfy this angry God, he asked himself. Soon he felt he had found the answer in Saint Paul's text. Luther claimed that God had to punish humanity because people were inherently sinful, yet because God was righteous he gave the gift of faith to those who would take it. Only faith in God's mercy, according to Luther, could save man.

Good works became less important to him than faith. Luther used the term "works" to refer to both church liturgy and the more general sense of "doing good. The idea that faith was more important than deeds was not new. An estimated forty-three other theologians, including Staupitz and Saint Augustine, had come to conclusions similar to Luther's.

What was new, however, was Luther's relationship with God: unlike traditional Christians, he no longer found himself afraid of God, whom he believed to be a loving deity. These new beliefs, which Luther formulated between and , caused him to ask new theological questions, as well as to challenge certain elements of church life. The most famous of these is the controversy over indulgences pardons for sins.

In a great effort to dispense indulgences was proclaimed throughout Germany. In spite of reservations about this practice, indulgences were believed to be a way to escape punishment in the afterlife. This belief was held not only in Germany, but also across Catholic Europe. As Luther became more and more convinced that indulgences were a threat to true faith, his comments about the issue brought him into direct conflict with the pope.

Indulgences began as gifts of money given to the clergy in appreciation or gratitude for forgiveness. Soon, however, indulgences began to represent an outward showing of grief for sins. People would pay for indulgences to prove to the church and others that they were truly repentant for their sins. The medieval church distinguished between guilt and punishment for a sin: a person could atone for guilt through Jesus Christ, but penance, or penalties, for sins could be ordered by a priest.

Indulgences, therefore, could be used to reduce the penalties for sin. In the thirteenth century, the Catholic Church formulated what was called the "treasury of merits," which was a spiritual bank of sorts that "contained" the good works performed by Jesus Christ, the saints, and all pious Christians. In other words, because Jesus and the saints had lived better lives than necessary to get into heaven, their good deeds had been left on Earth in the treasury of merits.

Good deeds from this treasury could be redistributed in the form of indulgences. One would give money to his or her clergyman, who would in turn make a "withdrawal" from the spiritual bank. This system was supposed to reduce the punishments one suffered in purgatory the place where believers feel the dead go to atone for their sins before either going to heaven or being cast into hell , but many did not understand it.

Some thought they could buy their way out of hell and into heaven. By the fifteenth century many had begun purchasing indulgences for family members who were already dead. It was widely believed that people could sin as much as possible and still buy their way into heaven. In Pope Leo X —; reigned —21 announced his intentions to commission the building of a basilica, or church, over the supposed grave of Saint Peter in Rome.

The church is now known as Saint Peter's Basilica. Leo sanctioned the sale of indulgences to raise money for the construction. That same year, an experienced indulgence salesman, a Dominican friar named Johan Tetzel — , arrived in a town not far from Wittenberg to begin raising money for the construction. Luther wrote a letter of protest to his archbishop, Albrecht von Bradenburg.

Initially, Luther's protest fell on deaf ears, for the archbishop was sharing the profits of indulgence sales with the pope. Luther attached his Ninety-Five Theses, or propositions for debate, to the letter. He questioned the value of indulgence sales and reprimanded the church for its financial exploitation of Germany. Peter with his own money rather than with the money of poor believers.

Academic debates about theological questions were commonplace at Wittenberg, and had someone not translated Luther's theses from Latin into German they might have gone unnoticed. The translation made them accessible to theologians, scholars, and anyone else who could read German. Soon the theses gained worldwide attention. Most modern scholars agree that Luther never intended to begin a worldwide reform movement within the Catholic Church.

He merely wanted to spark academic debate about a serious issue. He had condensed his Ninety-Five Theses down to "Twenty-Eight Theses on Indulgences" and was excited about engaging in academic debate on the importance of salvation through faith. Luther wanted to put forth the idea that the Scriptures the text of the Bible are the sole authority for Christianity.

He was warmly received by his fellow Augustine monks, who openly gave their support with cheers. Many of those in attendance would later become the first generation of Luther's followers. Luther quickly became a German folk hero, spearheading the campaign to end religious corruption. Meanwhile, back at the Vatican, Pope Leo X —notorious for hobbies such as hunting and traveling that kept him away from his papal duties—realized that Luther's condemnation of indulgences represented a threat to the church's source of income.

Leo, who was the son of the influential Italian banker Lorenzo de' Medici see "Florence" in Chapter 2 , intended to stop Luther from making more noise about the issue. He ordered a meeting for August 7, Luther asked his prince and supporter, Frederick the Wise, for guidance. Having already sought council from his own advisor, Frederick did not believe Luther to be a heretic and allowed him to stay at Wittenberg.

As one of the seven electors of the Holy Roman Emperor electors were German princes entitled to vote for an Emperor and a leading Christian, Frederick put pressure on the Vatican for the hearing to be on German soil. Although nervous about the meeting, Luther was also excited to meet such a revered theologian. Luther was well versed in the writings of Thomas Aquinas, on which Cajetan was a leading expert.

Luther hoped the two would be able to discuss Aquinas, which would serve as a launching point to dialogue about the new opinions of Luther. Upon meeting at the palace of the Fuggers a wealthy banking family , the two men took an instant disliking to one another. While Luther looked for debate, Cajetan wanted Luther to submit to the authority of the church.

Luther refused, and the two parted on bad terms. Hearing that he was to be arrested, Luther fled from Augsburg to the safety of Nuremberg. After a while, Luther returned to Wittenberg, where Frederick the Wise allowed him to continue teaching. Frederick hoped that the controversy would go away, and Luther agreed to stop writing or speaking publicly about his opinions on indulgences.

Neither of them could foresee the controversy that was about to be unleashed. In Luther agreed to a debate with the theologian Johann Eck — to be held at the University of Leipzig. Eck was a professor at the University of Ingolstadt and an extremely skilled debater. Eck realized he could earn celebrity and win favor with Rome by dismantling Luther's theological positions.

A staunch supporter of the church, he was determined to defend the sacred institution. The debate, held in early July, was originally scheduled to take place between Eck and Luther's colleague Andreas von Karlstadt — When Eck quickly demolished all of Karlstadt's arguments, it was Luther's turn to join the debate. Eck outwitted Luther by challenging his positions, claiming they were similar to those of Jan Hus.

Hus was a priest from Bohemia now Czechoslovakia who had been excommunicated from, or kicked out of, the church and executed in by the Council of Constance , a committee of Catholic officials meeting in the town of Constance, Switzerland see "Bohemia" in Chapter 4. One of his crimes was criticizing the practice of selling indulgences. Hus angered many church leaders and state officials, who often split the money raised from indulgences.

After Hus was executed he became a national hero and his followers went on to stage the Hussite Revolt — He is now considered one of the forefathers of the Protestant Reformation. Luther was pushed into a corner, and he was forced to declare that the Council of Constance had been wrong in its condemnation of Hus. The University of Leipzig had been founded by student and faculty refugees who had fled from Prague during the height of the Hussite Revolt, and Luther's position proved unpopular with the audience.

Luther refused to accept any reading of the. Luther's prince and supporter, Frederick the Wise, was one of seven electors responsible for choosing a new emperor after the death of Maximilian I —; ruled — on January 12, Charles was a member of the house of Habsburg, a family of rulers based in Austria and in Spain. Charles had inherited the throne of Spain from his grandparents, Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon, and had also inherited his rule over the Low Countries present-day Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg.

Many politicians, the pope among them, felt that the naming of Charles to the throne would give too much power to the house of Habsburg. The same was true of Francis I of France, who belonged to the house of Valois. If made ruler of the Holy Roman Empire , the Frenchman would have a kingdom as large as that of Charlemagne, a ninth-century Frankish king who ruled much of Europe.

Pope Leo was extremely worried about the election of a Habsburg or a Valois because each house controlled an Italian city-state that was close to Rome. Charles was king of Naples, and Francis ruled Milan, so either man would be ideally positioned to overtake the papacy. The pope asked Frederick the Wise to name himself as a candidate. Leo was certain that Frederick, a Saxon who was fiercely devoted to the church, was no threat to the papacy.

Trying to be even more persuasive, Leo promised that if Frederick should be elected, he could chose any person he wanted to be made an archbishop. Leo was assuming that Frederick would choose Martin Luther for the post. Had Frederick chosen Luther, two problems could have been solved for Leo: he would have an emperor who did not want papal territory, and the condemnations of the church would stop; he assumed that if Luther were given a high-ranking position within the church, he would hesitate to publicly criticize the institution.

Frederick was uninterested in the job, however, and he politely declined. Charles promised to respect the traditions of Germany, and he appointed only Germans to imperial offices. Scripture that was decided by a council. Luther's later movement, which grew out of this position, essentially ended the practice of convening church councils, known as conciliarism.

Luther lost the debate by an overwhelming margin. Luther's statements had been extremely dangerous, and he opened himself up to charges of heresy. Eck immediately began to capitalize on his victory, writing the Exsurge Domine Arise Lord , the document that the pope later used as a basis for excommunicating Luther from the Church. For years Luther was tormented by doubts about his ability to meet the demands of a righteous God.

In , a few months before his death, he wrote about this problem in a preface to an edition of his Latin works. He noted that after the disastrous debate in Leipzig in , he studied the Psalms a book in the Bible and felt the joyful assurance that God did not demand righteousness from human beings. Instead, humans were made righteous by God's gift of Jesus Christ, a gift that was to be accepted by faith.

Earlier Luther had taught that Christians who feared death were guilty of insufficient belief. He asked how one could be a Christian and doubt that God could raise the dead. After , however, Luther taught that horror before death was a natural part of the human condition because death was a penalty for sin. According to Luther, a Christian could be terrified of death and yet trust God's graciousness despite this doubt and uncertainty.

In Luther realized that he was intensely at odds with the church, but he felt it was his duty to defend his views and protect his growing group of supporters. He wrote powerful assaults on the papacy. In his An den christlichen Adel deutscher Nation Appeal to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation , he asked the princes to take the duty of church reform over from the pope.

He said that there was a "universal priesthood of all believers," who had a direct relationship with God. Those who were baptized in the faith were of equal standing with priests and had every right to address concerns about the state of their religion. He further argued that the clergy should be allowed to marry, a belief that shook Christendom to its foundations.

In De captivitat Babylonica ecclesiae Babylonian captivity of the church , he rejected the Catholic sacraments, or holy rites, of confirmation, marriage, ordination, and extreme unction the act of anointing a person with oil before death. He claimed they had no scriptural basis and were merely conspiracies to keep Christians trapped within control of the church.

He redefined penance to be a mutual assurance of divine forgiveness between Christians, and he argued for keeping only the traditional rites of baptism the ceremony in which a person is blessed as a Christian and communion. At this time, there was considerable controversy among reformers about communion. Many debated whether there was a real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the bread and wine that was partaken during the ritual.

Luther believed that the body and blood of Christ were combined with the substance of the bread and wine known as consubstantiation , instead of the wine and bread being transformed into the actual body and blood known as transubstantiation. In Von der Freiheit eines Christenmenschen The freedom of the Christian , Luther held that the true Christian did good works not because of heavenly reward, but out of spontaneous gratitude to God for salvation.

In Pope Leo issued Exsurge domine, the bull decree written by Eck. The bull threatened Luther with excommunication if he did not recant his writings. On January 3, , the pope issued another bull, titled Decet Romanum Pontifecem It is fitting that the pope , and Luther was officially excommunicated from the church. Charles knew that the pope had objected to his election, and he wanted to gain favor with the church.

On the other hand, Charles did not want to offend Frederick the Wise, Luther's supporter, or any other German prince. The emperor needed their help in his war against France see " Italian Wars dominate Renaissance" Chapter 2. Wanting to gain as much German favor as possible, Charles agreed to Frederick's request that Luther be given a hearing at the Imperial Diet of Worms.

Luther arrived in Worms and began studying with Jewish scholars to improve his Hebrew. He was working on a translation of the Old Testament , and he found that translating a Hebrew text directly to German would be more accurate than using a Greek translation as his master source. Luther was a firm believer in using original sources, a major theme of Renaissance humanism.

When Luther presented himself before the council at Worms at 4 P. What he encountered was not what he had expected. Luther was led to a room in which his collected writings were piled on a table. He was ordered to renounce them. He refused to recant and Emperor Charles V declared him an outlaw and a heretic. Luther went into hiding at Wartburg Castle.

In , he returned to Wittenberg and in married Katharina von Bora, a former nun, with whom he had six children. Luther then became involved in the controversy surrounding the Peasants War - , the leaders of which had used Luther's arguments to justify their revolt. He rejected their demands and upheld the right of the authorities to suppress the revolt, which lost him many supporters.

In , Luther published a complete translation of the bible into German, underlining his belief that people should be able to read it in their own language. The translation contributed significantly to the spread and development of the German language. Luther spoke out against the Jews in Saxony, Brandenburg, and Silesia. Throughout the s, 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. In , he began to suffer from kidney and bladder stones , arthritis , and an ear infection which ruptured an ear drum.

In December , 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. His last sermon was delivered at Eisleben, his place of birth, on 15 February , three days before his death.

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. Luther journeyed to Mansfeld twice in late to participate in the negotiations for a settlement, and a third visit was needed in early for their completion.

The negotiations were successfully concluded on 17 February After 8 p. When he went to his bed, he prayed, "Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God" Ps. 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?

An apoplectic stroke deprived him of his speech, and he died shortly afterwards at a. He was buried in the Schlosskirche in Wittenberg, in front of the pulpit. 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:. Do not assail this divine Aeneid ; nay, rather prostrate revere the ground that it treads.

We are beggars: this is true. Luther was the most widely read author of his generation, and within Germany he acquired the status of a prophet. Heinrich Himmler albeit never a Lutheran, having been brought up Catholic wrote admiringly of his writings and sermons on the Jews in Schulz and R. On 17 December , 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.

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. 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. 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.

His position was entirely religious and in no respect racial. Probst, in his book Demonizing the Jews: Luther and the Protestant Church in Nazi Germany , 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.

Some scholars, such as Mark U. Edwards in his book Luther's Last Battles: Politics and Polemics —46 , 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 s, Lutheran denominations have repudiated Martin Luther's statements against the Jews [ citation needed ] and have rejected the use of them to incite hatred against Lutherans. 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 and , Luther's works represented one fifth of all materials printed in Germany. In the s and s, 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.

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. 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. Various sites both inside and outside Germany supposedly visited by Martin Luther throughout his lifetime commemorate it with local memorials. 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 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 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 , 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. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk.

Read View source View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikisource Wikidata item. German priest, theologian and author — Not to be confused with Martin Luther King Jr. For other uses, see Martin Luther disambiguation. The Reverend. Ninety-five Theses Priest Theologian Author Hymnwriter.

Katharina von Bora. Reformation Lutheranism. Prolegomena Soteriology. Ordination history. Diaconal ordination. Priestly ordination. Christianity Start of the Reformation Reformation Protestantism. Doctrine and theology. Bible Old Testament New Testament. Augsburg Confession. Apology of the Augsburg Confession. Smalcald Articles. Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope.

Formula of Concord. Theology of Martin Luther. Justification Law and Gospel. Sola gratia Sola scriptura. Christology Sanctification. Two kingdoms catholicity. Two states of the Church. Priesthood of all believers. Divine Providence Marian theology. Sacramental Union. Sacraments and worship. Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference.

Charl timotheus biography of martin luther

Key figures. Later life, ministry, and the Reformation. Lectures on Psalms and justification by faith. Main article: Sola fide. Start of the Reformation: — Further information: History of Protestantism and History of Lutheranism. Diet of Worms Main article: Diet of Worms. Wartburg Castle Return to Wittenberg and Peasants' War: — Organising the church: — Translation of the Old Testament: — Main article: Luther Bible.

Main article: List of hymns by Martin Luther. 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. Problems playing this file? See media help. Autograph of " Vater unser im Himmelreich ", with the only notes extant in Luther's handwriting.

Sacramentarian controversy and the Marburg Colloquy. Epistemology of faith and reason. Further information: Protestantism and Islam. Bigamy of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse: — Anti-Jewish polemics and antisemitism: — Main article: Martin Luther and antisemitism. See also: Christianity and antisemitism. Final years, illness and death. 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. 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. 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.

Martin Luther's Death House , considered the site of Luther's death since However the building where Luther actually died at Markt 56, now the site of Hotel Graf von Mansfeld was torn down in 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.

Luther's tombstone beneath the pulpit in the Castle Church in Wittenberg. Posthumous influence within Nazism. Swan weather vane, Round Lutheran Church , Amsterdam. Luther and the swan are toward the top on the right. Main article: Martin Luther bibliography. Luther usually called them " meine Propositiones " my propositions. Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.

Hendrix, Scott H. Martin Luther: Visionary Reformer. Yale University Press. ISBN Retrieved 12 November 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.

Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, , Retrieved 29 March In July , Luther had a life-changing experience that set him on a new course to becoming a monk. Caught in a horrific thunderstorm where he feared for his life, Luther cried out to St. The decision to become a monk was difficult and greatly disappointed his father, but he felt he must keep a promise.

The first few years of monastic life were difficult for Luther, as he did not find the religious enlightenment he was seeking. A mentor told him to focus his life exclusively on Jesus Christ and this would later provide him with the guidance he sought. At age 27, Luther was given the opportunity to be a delegate to a Catholic church conference in Rome.

He came away more disillusioned, and very discouraged by the immorality and corruption he witnessed there among the Catholic priests. Upon his return to Germany, he enrolled in the University of Wittenberg in an attempt to suppress his spiritual turmoil. He excelled in his studies and received a doctorate, becoming a professor of theology at the university known today as Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg.

Through his studies of scripture, Luther finally gained religious enlightenment. Finally, he realized the key to spiritual salvation was not to fear God or be enslaved by religious dogma but to believe that faith alone would bring salvation. This period marked a major change in his life and set in motion the Reformation. Luther also sent a copy to Archbishop Albert Albrecht of Mainz, calling on him to end the sale of indulgences.

Aided by the printing press , copies of the 95 Theses spread throughout Germany within two weeks and throughout Europe within two months. The Church eventually moved to stop the act of defiance. In October , at a meeting with Cardinal Thomas Cajetan in Augsburg, Luther was ordered to recant his 95 Theses by the authority of the pope. Luther said he would not recant unless scripture proved him wrong.

The meeting ended in a shouting match and initiated his ultimate excommunication from the Church. Following the publication of his 95 Theses , Luther continued to lecture and write in Wittenberg.