Jules edmond masson biography of martin luther

Albrecht obtained permission from Pope Leo X to conduct the sale of a special plenary indulgence i. On 31 OctoberLuther wrote to his bishop, Albrecht von Brandenburg, protesting against the sale of indulgences. He enclosed in his letter a copy of his "Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences", [ a ] which came to be known as the Ninety-five Theses.

Hans Hillerbrand writes that Luther had no intention of confronting the church but saw his disputation as a scholarly objection to church practices, and the tone of the writing is accordingly "searching, rather than doctrinaire. Peter with the money of poor believers rather than with his own money? Luther objected to a saying attributed to Tetzel that, "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory also attested as 'into heaven' springs.

Christians, he said, must not slacken in following Christ on account of such false assurances. The Latin Theses were printed in several locations in Germany in Luther's writings circulated widely, reaching FranceEnglandand Italy as early as Students thronged to Wittenberg to hear Luther speak. He published a short commentary on Galatians and his Work on the Psalms.

This early part of Luther's career was one of his most creative and productive. Archbishop Albrecht did not reply to Luther's letter containing the Ninety-five Theses. He had the theses checked for heresy and in December forwarded them to Rome. As Luther later notes, "the pope had a finger in the pie as well, because one half was to go to the building of St.

Peter's Church in Rome". Pope Leo X was used to reformers and heretics, [ 61 ] and he responded slowly, "with great care as is proper. First, the Dominican theologian Sylvester Mazzolini drafted a heresy case against Luther, whom Leo then summoned to Rome. Anne's PrioryLuther defended himself under questioning by papal legate Cardinal Cajetan. The pope's right to issue indulgences was at the centre of the dispute between the two men.

More than writing his theses, Luther's confrontation with the church cast him as an enemy of the pope: "His Holiness abuses Scripture", retorted Luther. In Januaryat Altenburg in Saxony, the papal nuncio Karl von Miltitz adopted a more conciliatory approach. Luther made certain concessions to the Saxon, who was a relative of the Elector and promised to remain silent if his opponents did.

From that moment, he devoted himself to Luther's defeat. On 15 Junethe Pope warned Luther with the papal bull edict Exsurge Domine that he risked excommunication unless he recanted 41 sentences drawn from his writings, including the Ninety-five Theseswithin 60 days. That autumn, Eck proclaimed the bull in Meissen and other towns. Von Miltitz attempted to broker a solution, but Luther, who had sent the pope a copy of On the Freedom of a Christian in October, publicly set fire to the bull and decretals in Wittenberg on 10 December[ 74 ] an act he defended in Why the Pope and his Recent Book are Burned and Assertions Concerning All Articles.

The jule edmond masson biography of martin luther of the ban on the Ninety-five Theses fell to the secular authorities. On 17 AprilLuther appeared as ordered before the Diet of Worms. This was a general assembly of the estates of the Holy Roman Empire that took place in Wormsa town on the Rhine. Johann Eck, speaking on behalf of the empire as assistant of the Archbishop of Trierpresented Luther with copies of his writings laid out on a table and asked him if the books were his and whether he stood by their contents.

Luther confirmed he was their author but requested time to think about the answer to the second question. He prayed, consulted friends, and gave his response the next day:. Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselvesI am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted, and my conscience is captive to the Word of God.

I cannot and will not recant anything since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. At the end of this speech, Luther raised his arm "in the traditional salute of a knight winning a bout. Martin, there is no one of the heresies which have torn the bosom of the church, which has not derived its origin from the various interpretation of the Scripture.

The Bible itself is the arsenal whence each innovator has drawn his deceptive arguments. It was with Biblical texts that Pelagius and Arius maintained their doctrines. Arius, for instance, found the negation of the eternity of the Word—an eternity which you admit, in this verse of the New Testament— Joseph knew not his wife till she had brought forth her first-born son ; and he said, in the same way that you say, that this passage enchained him.

Jules edmond masson biography of martin luther: contemporary theory of history will find

When the fathers of the Council of Constance condemned this proposition of Jan Hus— The church of Jesus Christ is only the community of the electthey condemned an error; for the church, like a good mother, embraces within her arms all who bear the name of Christian, all who are called to enjoy the celestial beatitude. Luther refused to recant his writings.

He is sometimes also quoted as saying: "Here I stand. I can do no other". Recent scholars consider the evidence for these words to be unreliable since they were inserted before "May God help me" only in later versions of the speech and not recorded in witness accounts of the proceedings. Over the next five days, private conferences were held to determine Luther's fate.

Jules edmond masson biography of martin luther: Cambridge Core - Medieval and Renaissance

The emperor presented the final draft of the Edict of Worms on 25 Maydeclaring Luther an outlawbanning his literature, and requiring his arrest: "We want him to be apprehended and punished as a notorious heretic. It permitted anyone to kill Luther without legal consequence. Luther's disappearance during his return to Wittenberg was planned.

Frederick III had him intercepted on his way home in the forest near Wittenberg by masked horsemen impersonating highway robbers. They escorted Luther to the security of the Wartburg Castle at Eisenach. These included a renewed attack on Albert of BrandenburgArchbishop of Mainzwhom he shamed into halting the sale of indulgences in his episcopates, [ 86 ] and a Refutation of the Argument of Latomusin which he expounded the principle of justification to Jacobus Latomusan orthodox theologian from Louvain.

On 1 AugustLuther wrote to Melanchthon on the same theme: "Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides. In the summer ofLuther widened his target from individual pieties like indulgences and pilgrimages to doctrines at the heart of Church practice.

In On the Abrogation of the Private Masshe condemned as idolatry the idea that the mass is a sacrifice, asserting instead that it is a gift, to be received with thanksgiving by the whole congregation. He assured monks and nuns that they could break their vows without sin, because vows were an illegitimate and vain attempt to win salvation.

Luther made his pronouncements from Wartburg in the context of rapid developments at Wittenberg, of which he was kept fully informed. Andreas Karlstadt, supported by the ex-Augustinian Gabriel Zwillingembarked on a radical programme of reform there in Juneexceeding anything envisaged by Luther. The reforms provoked disturbances, including a revolt by the Augustinian friars against their prior, the smashing of statues and images in churches, and denunciations of the magistracy.

Luther secretly returned to Wittenberg on 6 March He wrote to the Elector: "During my absence, Satan has entered my sheepfold, and committed ravages which I cannot repair by writing, but only by my personal presence and living word. In these sermons, he hammered home the primacy of core Christian values such as love, patience, charity, and freedom, and reminded the citizens to trust God's word rather than violence to bring about necessary change.

Do you know what the Devil thinks when he sees men use violence to propagate the gospel? He sits with folded arms behind the fire of hell and says with malignant looks and frightful grin: "Ah, how wise these madmen are to play my game! Let them go on; I shall reap the benefit. I delight in it. The effect of Luther's intervention was immediate.

After the sixth sermon, the Wittenberg jurist Jerome Schurf wrote to the elector: "Oh, what joy has Dr. Martin's return spread among us! His words, through divine mercy, are bringing back every day misguided people into the way of the truth. Luther next set about reversing or modifying the new church practices. By working alongside the authorities to restore public order, he signaled his reinvention as a conservative force within the Reformation.

Despite his victory in Wittenberg, Luther was unable to stifle radicalism further afield. There had been revolts by the peasantry on smaller scales since the 15th century. Luther sympathised with some of the peasants' grievances, as he showed in his response to the Twelve Articles in Maybut he reminded the aggrieved to obey the temporal authorities.

In Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasantswritten on his return to Wittenberg, he gave his interpretation of the Gospel teaching on wealth, condemned the violence as the devil's work, and called for the nobles to put down the rebels like mad dogs:. Therefore let everyone who can, smite, slay, and stab, secretly or openly, remembering that nothing can be more poisonous, hurtful, or devilish than a rebel For baptism does not make men free in body and property, but in soul; and the gospel does not make goods common, except in the case of those who, of their own free willdo what the apostles and disciples did in Acts 4 [—37].

They did not demand, as do our insane peasants in their raging, that the goods of others—of Pilate and Herod—should be common, but only their own goods. Our peasants, however, want to make the goods of other men common, and keep their own for themselves. Fine Christians they are! I think there is not a devil left in hell; they have all gone into the peasants.

Their raving has gone beyond all measure. Without Luther's backing for the uprising, many rebels laid down their weapons; others felt betrayed. Luther married Katharina von Boraone of 12 nuns he had helped escape from the Nimbschen Cistercian convent in Aprilwhen he arranged for them to be smuggled out in herring barrels. Some priests and former members of religious orders had already married, including Andreas Karlstadt and Justus Jonas, but Luther's wedding set the seal of approval on clerical marriage.

Not that I am insensible to my flesh or sex for I am neither wood nor stone ; but my mind is averse to wedlock because I daily expect the death of a heretic. Luther and his wife moved into a former monastery, " The Black Cloister ," a wedding present from Elector John the Steadfast. They embarked on what appears to have been a happy and successful marriage, though money was often short.

ByLuther found himself increasingly occupied in organising a new church. His biblical ideal of congregations choosing their own ministers had proved unworkable. If he were forced to choose, he would take his stand with the masses, and this was the direction in which he moved. From tohe established a supervisory church body, laid down a new form of worship serviceand wrote a clear summary of the new faith in the form of two catechisms.

He also did not wish to replace one controlling system with another. He concentrated on the church in the Electorate of Saxonyacting only as an adviser to churches in new territories, many of which followed his Saxon model. He worked closely with the new jule edmond masson biography of martin luther, John the Steadfast, to whom he turned for secular leadership and funds on behalf of a church largely shorn of its assets and income after the break with Rome.

The elector authorised a visitation of the church, a power formerly exercised by bishops. For example, the Instructions for the Visitors of Parish Pastors in Electoral Saxonydrafted by Melanchthon with Luther's approval, stressed the role of repentance in the forgiveness of sins, despite Luther's position that faith alone ensures justification.

In response to demands for a German liturgyLuther wrote a German Masswhich he published in early Luther and his colleagues introduced the new order of worship during their visitation of the Electorate of Saxony, which began in Luther devised the catechism as a method of imparting the basics of Christianity to the congregations. Inhe wrote the Large Catechisma manual for pastors and teachers, as well as a synopsis, the Small Catechismto be memorised by the people.

The catechism is one of Luther's most personal works.

Jules edmond masson biography of martin luther: Born 3 June , in Paris.

For I acknowledge none of them to be really a book of mine, except perhaps the Bondage of the Will and the Catechism. Luther's Small Catechism proved especially effective in helping parents teach their children; likewise the Large Catechism was effective for pastors. He rewrote each article of the Creed to express the character of the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit.

Luther's goal was to enable the catechumens to see themselves as a personal object of the work of the three persons of the Trinity, each of which works in the catechumen's life. Luther's treatment of the Apostles' Creed must be understood in the context of the Decalogue the Ten Commandments and The Lord's Prayer, which are also part of the Lutheran catechetical teaching.

Luther had published his German translation of the New Testament inand he and his collaborators completed the translation of the Old Testament inwhen the whole Bible was published. He continued to work on refining the translation until the end of his life. Luther's translation used the variant of German spoken at the Saxon chancellery, intelligible to both northern and southern Germans.

As such, it contributed a distinct flavor to the German language and jule edmond masson biography of martin luther. Luther did not include First Epistle of John[ ] the Johannine Comma in his translation, rejecting it as a forgery. It was inserted into the text by others after Luther's death. His tool of choice for this connection was the singing of German hymns in connection with worship, school, home, and the public arena.

Luther's hymns were frequently evoked by particular events in his life and the unfolding Reformation. Messenger's translation by the title and first line "Flung to the Heedless Winds" and sung to the tune Ibstone composed in by Maria C. Luther's hymn, adapted and expanded from an earlier German creedal hymn, gained widespread use in vernacular Lutheran liturgies as early as Sixteenth-century Lutheran hymnals also included "Wir glauben all" among the catechetical hymns, although 18th-century hymnals tended to label the hymn as Trinitarian rather than catechetical, and 20th-century Lutherans rarely used the hymn because of the perceived difficulty of its tune.

Luther's hymnic version of the Lord's Prayer" Vater unser im Himmelreich ", corresponds exactly to Luther's explanation of the prayer in the Small Catechism. The hymn functions both as a liturgical setting of the Lord's Prayer and as a means of examining candidates on specific catechism questions. The extant manuscript shows multiple revisions, demonstrating Luther's concern to clarify and strengthen the text and to provide an appropriately prayerful tune.

Other 16th- and 20th-century versifications of the Lord's Prayer have adopted Luther's tune, although modern texts are considerably shorter. Luther wrote " Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir " "From depths of woe I cry to You" in as a hymnic version of Psalm and sent it as a sample to encourage his colleagues to write psalm-hymns for use in German worship.

In a collaboration with Paul Speratusthis and seven other hymns were published in the Achtliederbuchthe first Lutheran hymnal. In Luther developed his original four-stanza psalm paraphrase into a five-stanza Reformation hymn that developed the theme of "grace alone" more fully. Because it expressed essential Reformation doctrine, this expanded version of "Aus tiefer Not" was designated as a regular component of several regional Lutheran liturgies and was widely used at funerals, including Luther's own.

Along with Erhart Hegenwalt's hymnic version of Psalm 51Luther's expanded hymn was also adopted for use with the fifth part of Luther's catechism, concerning confession. He wrote for Pentecost " Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist ", and adopted for Easter " Christ ist erstanden " Christ is risenbased on Victimae paschali laudes. He paraphrased the Te Deum as " Herr Gott, dich loben wir " with a simplified form of the melody.

It became known as the German Te Deum. Luther's hymn " Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam " "To Jordan came the Christ our Lord" reflects the structure and substance of his questions and answers concerning baptism in the Small Catechism. Luther adopted a preexisting Johann Walter tune associated with a hymnic setting of Psalm 67 's prayer for grace; Wolf Heintz's four-part setting of the hymn was used to introduce the Lutheran Reformation in Halle in Preachers and composers of the 18th century, including J.

Bachused this rich hymn as a subject for their own work, although its objective baptismal theology was displaced by more subjective hymns under the influence of lateth-century Lutheran pietism. Luther's hymns were included in early Lutheran hymnals and spread the ideas of the Reformation. He supplied four of eight songs of the First Lutheran hymnal Achtliederbuch18 of 26 songs of the Erfurt Enchiridionand 24 of the 32 songs in the first choral hymnal with settings by Johann Walter, Eyn geystlich Gesangk Buchleynall published in Luther's hymns inspired composers to write music.

In contrast to the views of John Calvin [ ] and Philipp Melanchthon[ ] throughout his life Luther maintained that it was not false doctrine to believe that a Christian's soul sleeps after it is separated from the body in death. In his Smalcald Articleshe described the saints as currently residing "in their graves and in heaven. The Lutheran theologian Franz Pieper observes that Luther's teaching about the state of the Christian's soul after death differed from the later Lutheran theologians such as Johann Gerhard.

Luther's Commentary on Genesis contains a passage which concludes that "the soul does not sleep anima non sic dormitbut wakes sed vigilat and experiences visions". In OctoberPhilip I, Landgrave of Hesseconvoked an assembly of German and Swiss theologians at the Marburg Colloquyto establish doctrinal unity in the emerging Protestant states. Zwingli, for example, denied Jesus' ability to be in more than one place at a time.

Luther stressed the omnipresence of Jesus' human nature. Citing Jesus' words "The flesh profiteth nothing" John 6. This is Hesse, not Switzerland. Despite the disagreements on the Eucharist, the Marburg Colloquy paved the way for the signing in of the Augsburg Confessionand for the jule edmond masson biography of martin luther of the Schmalkaldic League the following year by leading Protestant nobles such as John of SaxonyPhilip of Hesse, and George, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach.

The Swiss cities, however, did not sign these agreements. Some scholars have asserted that Luther taught that faith and reason were antithetical in the sense that questions of faith could not be illuminated by reason. He wrote, "All the articles of our Christian faith, which God has revealed to us in His Word, are in presence of reason sheerly impossible, absurd, and false.

As well as being aware of his own failing, he became increasingly concerned about malpractice within the church, which he felt was not in keeping with Biblical scripture. Inhe visited Rome on behalf of Augustinian monasteries and was shocked at the level of corruption he found. InMartin Luther first protested to the Catholic church about the sale of indulgences.

Buying an indulgence gave the person full or partial remission of temporal punishment due for sins which have already been forgiven. Martin Luther argued that is was faith alone that could provide the remission of sin and not monetary payments to the church. On 31 OctoberLuther posted ninety-five theses, criticising practices of the church on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg.

He also posted a handwritten copy to the Archbishop of Magdeburg, Albert of Mainz. The 95 theses of Martin Luther were critical of many practices relating to baptism and the sale of indulgences for the remittance of sin. The church was also slow to respond to the criticisms of Martin Luther. This happens when Christian liberty—which he gives to us—is rightly taught and we are told in what way as Christians we are all kings and priests and therefore lords of all.

Martin Luther, The Freedom of a Christian The significance of these written challenges caused the church to eventually respond. Access complete market analysis. Unlock exclusive artist performance data. Art History. Book Reviews. Search History. Diet of Worms. Luther throughout his life always revealed a great common sense, and he always retained his humorous understanding of practical life.

He reflected an awareness of both the material and spiritual worlds, and his flights of poetic theology went hand in hand with the occasional coarseness of his polemics. His wit and thought were spontaneous, his interest in people of all sorts genuine and intense, his power of inspiring affection in his students and colleagues never failing.

He was always remarkably frank, and although he became first the center of the Reform movement and later one of many controversial figures in it, he retained a sense of self-criticism, attributing his impact to God. Great personal attraction, absolute dedication to his theological principles, kindness and loyalty to his friends, and an acute understanding of his own human weakness—these were the characteristics of Luther when he came face to face with the power of the papacy and empire at Worms in He was led to a room in which his collected writings were piled on a table and ordered to repudiate them.

He asked for time to consider and returned the next day and answered: "Unless I am proved wrong by the testimony of Scripture or by evident reason I am bound in conscience and held fast to the Word of God. Therefore I cannot and will not retract anything, for it is neither safe nor salutary to act against one's conscience. God help me. Return to Wittenberg.

In Luther returned to Wittenberg, where he succeeded in cooling the radical reforming efforts of his colleague Karlstadt and continued the incessant writing which would fill the rest of his life. In he had written three of his most famous tracts: To The Christian Nobility of the German Nation, which enunciates a social program of religious reform; On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, on Sacraments, the Mass, and papal power; and Of the Liberty of a Christian Man, a treatise on faith and on the inner liberty which faith affords those who possess it.

The Lutheran Bible, which was "a vehicle of proletarian education" as well as a monument in the spiritual history of Europe, not only gave Luther's name and views wider currency but revealed the translator as a great master of German prose, an evaluation which Luther's other writings justify. Besides these works, Luther had other matters at hand.

His name was used now by many people, including many with whom he disagreed. The Reformation had touched society and its institutions as well as religion, and Luther was drawn into conflicts, such as the Peasants' Rebellion of — and the affairs of the German princes, which drew from him new ideas on the necessary social and political order of Christian Germany.

Luther's violent antipeasant writings from this period have often been criticized. Luther came to rely heavily upon the princes to carry out his program of reform. In Luther married Katherine von Bora, a nun who had left her convent. From that date until his death, Luther's family life became not only a model of the Christian home but a source of psychological support to him.

Luther's theological writings continued to flow steadily. Often they were written in response to his critics or in the intense heat of debate with Protestant rivals. Among those great works not brought about by conflict should be numbered the Great Catechism and the Small Catechism of and his collection of sermons and hymns, many of the latter, like Ein Feste Burg, still sung today.

Debates with Theologians. In — Luther entered into a discussion of free will with the great Erasmus. Luther's On the Will in Bondage remained his definitive statement on the question. In Luther turned to the question of Christ's presence in the Eucharist in his Confession concerning the Lord's Supper, which attracted the hostility of a number of reformers, notably Ulrich Zwingli.

In Luther's ally Melancthon arranged a discussion between the two, and the Marburg Colloquy, as the debate is known, helped to close one of the early breaches in Protestant agreement. Inwhen Charles V was once again able to turn to the problems of the Reformation in Germany, Luther supervised, although he did not entirely agree with, the writing of Melancthon's Augsburg Confessionone of the foundations of later Protestant thought.

From on Luther spent as much time arguing with other Reformation leaders on matters of theology as with his Catholic opponents. Luther's disputes with other theologians were carried out with the same intensity he applied to his other work: he longed for Christian unity, but he could not accept the theological positions which many others had advanced.

He was also fearful of the question of a general council in the Church. In he wrote his On Councils and Churches and witnessed in the following years the failure of German attempts to heal the wounds of Christianity. On the eve of his death he watched with great concern the calling of the Council of Trentthe Catholic response to the Reformation.

In the s Luther was stricken with diseases a number of times, drawing great comfort from his family and from the lyrical, plain devotional exercises which he had written for children.