The Causes Of Martin Luther And The Protestant Reformation

In Luther’s Address to the Christian Nobility, he states, “God has given us a young and noble sovereign, and has roused great hopes in many hearts; now it is right that we too should do what we can, and make good use of time and grace.” This establishes what he wants the German Nobility to do. He wants them to confront the church and make it stop the wrong it is doing. Luther is saying that God has given them the obligation to correct what the church has corrupted. God has given the

This quote explains Martin Luther’s ideas of salvation and justification through only faith. He believed that people like the Pope were just public figures that were abusing their power for their own interests and beliefs. They would use god’s word to intimidate Kings and Queens. He thought that the Pope was out of line using his authority to forgive sins for material objects. Indulgence is a grant given by the Pope to cancel all sins for donations to the church. This made people more willing to just donate if they could get something in return also. Critics told Luther that there is no way you could achieve salvation without good works, but Luther uses bible passages to make a case that faith, alone, is all you need to be a Christian follower set to be in heaven. Martin Luther knew that it wasn’t right nor faithful for the Pope to do this.

He stated that the bible had nothing to do with earthly justice. In the HRE, the church officials viewed the spread of Protestantism in Germany (which they viewed as heresy) was causing the rebellion to happen. As Michael Eisenhart is possibly a church official and views the rebellion as a part of Protestantism’s teaching. “…through certain citizens here who adhere to the heresy of Luther, it has come about that bad, false teaching has greatly got the upper hand.”(Doc 5) The church viewed this event as an event caused because of the teaching of a “heretic.” In the end, the nobles crushed the rebellion and killed about seventy five thousand peasants. This event strengthened the strength of nobles and Protestantism lost its appeal in the lower classes.

Martin Luther himself delivered a stern condemnation of the rebels’ action in his piece Against the Murdering, Thieving Hordes of Peasants (Document 7), in which he names Münzer as responsible for the chaos. In document seven, Luther is clearly attempting to distance himself from Münzer and the peasants, who were influenced by Lutheran teachings, so as to avoid the anger of those who might see him as the cause of the revolts. THe revolts were condemned by secular forces as well, as indicated by the Decree of the Imperial Diet of Speyer (Document 12). In document twelve, as well as the Memmingen town council’s reply to the Articles of the Peasants of Memmingen (Document 4) the authorities appear to have adopted a certain degree of leniency towards the peasants, enabling them to either purchase their freedom from their lords, or in the case of document twelve, giving lords the ability to restore the previous status of peasants who had rebelled. This was likely done in order to make those in power appear more benevolent in the eyes of the peasantry, and lessening the likelihood of future

Prior to his new understanding of God’s righteousness Luther hated God because he did not know the love of God, he only knew the judging angry God. Luther did not understand how an angry God could be righteous. Consequently, Luther had been taught that, “God is righteous and punishes the unrighteous sinner”. As a result, he believed there was no way for sinners to be justified by God. Luther felt crushed by the Mosaic Law and threatened with God’s righteousness and wrath by the gospel. However, through his studies and meditations Luther came to understand the true meaning of the phrase “righteousness of God”. He described his new understanding to be “the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith.” In other words, the righteousness of God is a gift from God to those who live by faith. Accordingly, Luther felt born again. He found a new relationship with God and the Scriptures. In the light of his new views, Luther was conflicted by the Roman Catholic Church teachings on penance and righteousness. As a result, Luther developed his own doctrine of justification based on

Luther had a very strong belief that salvation comes from faith alone. All that is needed to be justified in front of God is to have faith. Michael M. Ramos writes “Martin Luther believed that salvation depends not on human effort or merit but only on the freely given grace of God, which is accepted in faith” (35). Luther believes that first God extends grace, which is the death of Jesus and the sending of the Holy Spirit. God reaches out to man and offers grace. The grace is not because humans deserve it from merit or human accomplishments. God extends grace because he is a righteous God. Now the only thing that humans must do to be justified

There are approximately eight hundred million Protestant Christians currently in the world with it being the second largest Christian domination (Fairchild). However, there are over a billion followers of the Roman Catholic faith and it currently stands as the Christian domination with the most followers (Fairchild). If it were not for the German monk, Martin Luther, most Christians would have been Roman Catholic in the present. Martin Luther is famous for “95 Theses” that critiqued the practices and beliefs of the Catholic Church and it was written on Halloween Day, 1517 (Ellis and Esler 423-427). Other people agreed with him and shared their perceptions, which led to the birth of the Protestant Reformation (Ellis and Esler 423-427). In the documents written by people who either supported or were against the Protestant Reformation, the main idea of them is that the Catholic Church supported the idea of paying indulgences and competing with others for power.

More specifically, a special decree was included in the Imperial Diet of Speyer in response to the rebellion (Document 7).  This decree ordered an examination of the revolt so that it could be prevented in the future.  Also, the decree included allowing those who “surrendered unconditionally” to return back to their estates despite their violent actions.  On the other hand, Martin Luther took a very different approach in his criticisms in Document 5.  He states that the peasants are acting like “raging dogs” in their violent revolts.  Also, he condemns their use of God was a motivation since instead they are merely trying to get others to join their devilish ways. Martin Luther, as the creator of Lutheranism, is an extremely credible source of criticism for the use of the will of God to inspire and justify the revolts since he is the actual creator of the religion the peasants now follow. At the same time, the German princes also reacted to the revolt by going to the aid of Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire.  He used his armies to assist the princes in shutting down the

Going back to Christian beliefs, the Protestant Reformation’s role in these uprisings cannot be understated, the peasants truly believed they were part of a new and significant movement in religious history (Document 1). This Christian lean to revolution emphasises that reforms are in line with God’s will. The appeal to Christianity found in Doc 2 says that if a reform was against God, the reform would not be instituted. Religious approach leads to a less violent view as seen in most rebellions, with the effect of many of the demands of these documents being ignored

The German Peasants Revolt took place in the lands of the Holy Roman Empire. The peasant’s revolt was the result of the reformation in which Martin Luther and others went against the religion and traditions of the Catholic Church . The protestant reformation was led by Martin Luther who in 1517, nailed the Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg. The Ninety Five theses which pointed out the pope or the head of the church was suppressing the peasants by taking their money to sell them an indulgence. The clergy told the peasants if an indulgence paper was not purchased, their deceased loved one would suffer in purgatory . In the year 1522, the Pope excommunicated Luther from the church for the crime of heresy because of what he wrote in the ninety five thesis about the pope and the papacy. After this, Martin Luther and his followers broke away from the Catholic Church. Martin Luther then started to preach that the pope was “antichrist” . Martin Luther’s followers did not believe in teachings of the Catholic Church, and instead believed that only the relationship that mattered is their relationship with God. Followers of Martin Luther only believed in two of the seven sacraments, baptism, and the Eucharist or Holy Communion. Martin Luther did not believe that violence would help solve the problem of how the church made money of the peasants, through indulgences sold. So, Luther told his followers that even though they were suppressed by their rulers, they

The introduction and manipulation of Lutheran ideas was what gave the peasants the justification to revolt. As seen in document

did feel that there was value in possessions. This is shown in his anger for the Catholic Church

In Printing, Propaganda and Martin Luther, Mark Edwards Jr. uses various criticisms of Martin Luther’s influence on peasants such as that of Emser. Emser believed Luther had an adverse effect on the general obedience of peasants and invoked Luther’s On the Babylonian Captivity insofar as “no law can justly be imposed on Christians, neither by human beings nor by angels, no matter how much they wish to, since we are free from them all.” In other words, Luther proclaims that Christians supersede secular regulations as they are only subject to the word of God. The notion of faith alone bringing salvation is pervasive in Luther’s Reformation and implicates the invalidity of any law not by G-d. It is not difficult to see how this alleged invalidity of any law imposed on Christians as faith is the only factor towards salvation and life on Earth is but a precursor to salvation. Therefore, Luther’s indication of condemnable disloyalty towards secular rulers in Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants directly contrasts Emser’s invocation that provided for the peasants perceived fallaciousness of secular laws.

What happens when people start to break away from the entity that bound an entire civilization together for over a thousand years? How does one go from unparalleled devotion to God to the exploration of what man could do? From absolute acceptance to intense scrutiny? Sheeple to independent thinkers? Like all revolutions preceding it, the Protestant Reformation did not happen overnight. Catholics had begun to lose faith in the once infallible Church ever since the Great Schism, when there were two popes, each declaring that the other was the antichrist. Two things in particular can be identified as the final catalyst: a new philosophy and simple disgust. The expanding influence of humanism and the corruption of the Catholic Church

A German Augustinian friar, Martin Luther launched the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century. Luther grew up the son of a miner, but he did not maintain that lifestyle for himself. He lived in a period that had a widespread desire for reformation of the Christian church and a yearning for salvation.