what if martin luther had not stood up to the catholic church
Martin Luther and Reformation – Catholic and Other Religions in Europe 1500-1600s
Martin Luther was born on November x, 1483, in Eisleben, Saxony, Frg. Luther's father, a hard-working miner, wanted his son to be a lawyer. So in 1501, Luther began studying law at the University of Erfurt and graduated with a BA in 1505.
1 mean solar day in 1505, Luther was defenseless in a thunderstorm and was thrown to the ground when a bolt of lightning struck nearby. Like most men and women of this time, Luther believed that God could come to the assist of humans. In the storm, he cried out, "Help, St. Anne, and I will go a monk." Truthful to his discussion, that same year Luther ceased studying law and joined the monastery in Erfurt. Luther was a model monk, and in 1507 he has ordained a priest. A year later, Luther was selected from among his peers to teach at the University of Wittenberg. As a monk Luther had struggled to understand the true nature of godliness. The church thought that the functioning of religious ritual and good deeds was necessary to ensure the soul's salvation. Luther worked difficult to satisfy the church and save his soul. But he worried that his actions might not satisfy God.
Luther's fears vanished, however, when he read St. Paul's letter to the Romans: "He who through faith is righteous shall live." (Romans i:17). To Luther, Paul'southward message seemed clear: the path to God is through faith alone, forgiveness was not something the church could grant, not was it something individuals could attain on their ain. Instead, it was given by God to each person who accepted him. This theory became known as "justification past faith", meaning that a person could be made just or good, by his or her religion in God.
Luther'due south conventionalities in justification by organized religion led him to question the Catholic Church building's practices of self-indulgence. He objected non only to the church's greed but to the very thought of indulgences. He did non believe the Catholic Church had the power to pardon people sins. Rather, Luther idea that salvation could be achieved merely through God's mercy. No one needed to seek or buy salvation through the church building.
Past nailing his theses to the church door, Luther was not acting like a heretic. He was simply inviting other scholars to respond to his ideas in a debate, an ordinary method of learning at universities of his days. At beginning, no one accepted Luther'southward invitation. Over the next few years, yet, his 90-5 Theses sparked a religious motility to reform the Catholic Church. Because the reformers were protesting against what they felt to be the abuses of the Catholic Church, they came to be known as Protestants. And because they wanted to reform the Catholic Church, that is, better it by making changes, their movement is known equally the Reformers.
Luther's Ninety-Five Theses were soon translated from Latin into German language. Within a year, his ideas were known throughout Europe. As i historian put it, they spread "…equally if angels from heaven themselves had been their messengers." Encouraged by his success, Luther wrote hundreds of essays between 1517 and 1546, in which he stresses justification past faith and criticised church abuses. Finally, in 1520 Pope Leo X issued a bull – a statement of the Pope'due south authority – condemning Luther and banning his works. Defying the Pope, Luther publicly burned the bull. The break with the church was then complete. In Jan 1521 Pope Leo Ten excommunicated Luther.
Meanwhile, through all this process, Luther explained all his Ninety-Five Theses and the reason for his objections. He showed the practices equally proof of how greedy and corrupt the Cosmic Church had become. Luther challenged the church building to ascertain itself – if it could. He read over one of his thesis: "Why does non the Pope, whose riches are at this day more ample than those of the wealthiest of the wealthy, build one basilica of St. Peter's with his own coin, rather than with that of poor believers?" Luther's Xc-5 Theses were really an invitation to scholars to debate certain church issues. He had no idea that his challenge to the church would light a fire of protest and change that would sweep across Europe, and crusade the reaction of Pope Leo X to excommunicate him from the Cosmic Church.
However, Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, decided to give Luther 1 final chance. In 1521 at a meeting of Worms, Germany, the Emperor demanded that Luther recant, or accept back, his instruction. Facing church officials and an excited assembly of people, Luther refused. He said in office, "I do not accept the authorization of Popes and councils. My censor is convict to the word of God. I cannot and I will non recant anything. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise.
God assistance me. Amen." A near-riot broke loose. Luther strode out, his hands raised in triumph. Still the Emperor subsequently alleged him an outlaw whom anyone could kill without punishment. Fortunately for Luther, he had a powerful friend in Frederick the Wise, Prince of Saxony. The Prince bundled a pretend to kidnap of Luther and hid him away for about a year in the castle at Wartburg. Here, Luther translated the Bible from Greek into High german. His translation allowed the Germans people to read the word of God without having to rely on the estimation by the priest. Luther continued to write work in which he attacked the church or discussed books of the Bible. His teaching eventually inspired a new Protestant organized religion called Lutheranism. This new faith would continue to oppose the in one case anointed Catholic Church.
Why did Luther's ideas, which challenged the centuries-former Catholic Church, succeed? First, many people recognized the widespread corruption within the church building and were eager for reform. 2nd, Luther wrote and spoke with conviction. His words were immensely appealing to the people. The printing press, developed in Europe about 1450, also contributed to Luther's success. Printed pamphlets containing unbound essays on current topics could spread new ideas chop-chop to many people. By 1523 nigh a 1000000 copies of Luther's pamphlets were in circulation. As the Reformation spread, it gained the support of European peasants. In 1524 and 1525, arguing that everyone was equal under God, a group of poor German language peasants took up arms confronting their wealthy landowners. Known equally the Peasant War, this defection was badly organized and lacked strong leadership. Government armies quickly crushed the uprising. The peasants were surprised and disappointed to detect that Martin Luther did not support them in the Peasant State of war. In the pamphlet called Confronting The Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants Luther criticized the rebels for seeking economic proceeds in the proper name of God. As a result, Luther lost the support of many social reformers.
However, Luther'due south ideas became popular with the German language princes. Luther did not believe that the church should own holding. He also thought that rulers should appoint clergy members. Thus, Luther favoured a more powerful role for rulers and weaker church dominance. Many German princes who wanted freedom from the Pope'due south authorisation favoured Protestantism. Others remained Catholic because they depended on the support of the Pope. Eventually, the differences betwixt those German language princes erupted in war. From 1546 to 1555, war raged between the Catholic and Protestant princes. Finally, in 1555, a compromise called the Peace of Augsburg, was reached. This compromise permitted each German prince to make up one's mind which religion would exist allowed in his state. Most rulers of northern Frg chose Protestantism, and most in southern Germany remained Catholic. Many people had to move to states that allowed them to practice their own religion.
By 1560, the Reformation was established in Germany and, every bit you can see on the map above, in much of the rest of Europe.
In the early 1500s reform spread throughout Europe. Three of Martin Luther's ideas became the centre of the argue. One thought was justification by faith. The second was the thought that the Bible was the only authority for Christians, rather than the law of the Catholic Church or Papal bulls.
The third was a belief in a priesthood of all Christians denying the special powers that priests had in the Cosmic Church building. Around 1517 when Luther posted his Ninety-5 Theses, Ulrich Zwingli, a Swiss priest working in Zurich, brought the Reformation to that city. He urged Christians to study the Bible on their ain and deepen their religion.
Subsequently Zwingli's expiry, John Calvin, a Frenchman educated in law, continued to teach the ideas of the Reformation. Forced to flee French republic in 1534 where the Catholic Church had been harassing Protestants. Calvin moved to Switzerland. The metropolis of Genoa soon became the centre for a movement called Calvinism.
Calvinism differed from other movements of the Reformation in one important way. Calvin taught that God had already called, or predestined, a special group of believers for salvation. This theory is known as predestination. Luther besides accepted predestination but thought that people could never know whom God had chosen.
Calvinism emphasized existence devoted to God and leading a disciplined life. According to Calvinists, a person who could maintain such conduct was probably a fellow member of God's chosen group. Calvinist church services were apparently. No images of saints hung on the walls; no organ accompanied the singing.
Nothing appealing to the senses interfered with what the worshiper experienced every bit his or her spiritual link to God. Calvinists also followed a strict code of moral behaviour. Laughing or making noise in the church building was prohibited.
And so were fortune-telling, gambling, and even dancing at social gatherings. Councils elected by church building members enforced this code of behaviour, as well as other laws of the Calvinist church. By the time Calvin died in 1564, Calvinism had taken root in Scotland, England, France, Italy, Bohemia, Poland, and the Dutch Netherlands.
One Protestant group called the Anabaptists, lived by an even stricter moral code than that of the Calvinists. The Anabaptist movement began in Zurich effectually 1525 among a group of dissatisfied followers of Zwingli. They believed that the land was made upward of sinners.
Therefore, the Anabaptists believed, truthful Christians should withdraw from the state and class a separate community. Both Catholics and Protestants openly opposed the Anabaptists. They resented the Anabaptists claim that members of all other religious groups were sinners. Anabaptists were widely harassed, and many were executed. Those who survived fled to Poland and Holland.
Not all religious reform movements had religious causes. In 1533, Rex Henry Viii of England was excommunicated for divorcing his wife and marrying another woman. And so Henry set up a new church – the Church of England.
In 1534 the English government recognised the monarch equally the supreme caput of the new church. Although contained of the Pope, the English language church remained basically very like to the Catholic Church in its principles and practices.
Non until Henry's son Edward VI became rex in 1547 did a Protestant religion gain a potent following in England. Although this reform movement had different beliefs, they shared the same bones motivations: the desire to bring about changes in the church building. And because those changes were not coming from within the church, the reformers created their own church.
During the 1400's many priests recognised that reform needed to exist made. They realised that selling indulgences was corrupt, and they protested against such abuses. Reforms came slowly.
Yet, every bit more and more people left the Cosmic Church building to join the Protestant movement, Catholic leaders urged Pope Paul 3 to assemble a general council to discuss church reform. The Council of Trent, held from 1545 to 1563, gear up ii principal goals: to rid the church of abuses and uphold traditional Catholic beliefs. This movement within the church became known as the Counter-Reformation.
To rid the church of abuses, the church also encouraged the founding of new orders or special religious groups. Many of these were modelled after the Society of Jesus, founded by the Spanish priest named Ignatius Loyola in 1540.
Jesuits, as the members of the social club were chosen, took vows of poverty and obedience. The Jesuits were noted for their educational and missionary works. They worked tirelessly, spreading Catholicism in other sections of the globe, to the people of America, Africa, and Asia.
In addition to encouraging the spread of Catholicism, church officials tried to halt the spread of Protestantism. Their methods were oftentimes extremely harsh. For case, the official in Rome revived the Inquisition –a church court to judge and convict heretics. However, this court often abused its ability.
Many Protestants who appeared before it was tortured. Others were sentenced to death when they refused to modify their beliefs. The church building officials also established the Index of Prohibited Books.
This list of banned books included books by Calvin and Luther. The Counter-Reformation helped to correct many church cases of abuse. However, it could not stop the spread of Protestantism. Never once again would a single religion dominate Europe.
Compiled past Marko Marelich, Retired Mechanical Engineer, San Francisco, California United states of america, October 2005
Source: https://korcula.net/martin-luther-reformation/
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