‘Germany in the Age of the Reformation’
Martin Luther – A Restless Monk
Lecture Autumn Week 5
Biographical introduction
· Luther’s historical significance, middling family background and legal studies
· The ‘lightning experience’ provokes a vow to lead a monastic life (1505)
· Joins observant Augustinian Order and teaches theology at Wittenberg
· His preaching duties and pastoral work alert him to problems of the Church
· Iconographic depiction reflects changing artists’ agendas
Eisleben, Eisenach, Mansfeld, Magdeburg, Erfurt; Thuringian Saxony
Georgius Spalatinus; Lucas Cranach; Hans Baldung Grien
1. Wrestling with God and salvation
· On the one hand, Luther’s thinking is steeped in the medieval theological system known as Scholasticism and its key debates:
- ‘Realism’ (Aquinas) vs ‘Nominalism’ (Ockham) re existence of ‘universals’
- within nominalism division between via moderna (e.g. Gabriel Biel) vs. Augustinianism (e.g. Gregory of Rimini) re human agency in salvation
· On the other hand, Luther is influenced by reformist movements like Christian Humanism, esp. Erasmus and his Greek Gospels
· Nearly despairs of personal ‘unworthiness’ in spite of extreme pious devotion
· Luther’s ‘breakthrough’: no human efforts, but passive receipt of God’s grace!
· Foundations of a new salvation theology: sola fide, sola gratia, sola scriptura
· 95 theses prompted by the sale of indulgences launch the ‘Lutheran affair’
Aristotle, Plato, St Thomas of Aquinas (d. 1274); William of Ockham (d. 1349); Huldrych Zwingli, Erasmus of Rotterdam (In Praise of Folly 1509; New Testament 1516); Luther’s key insight gained from ‘Romans 1:17’ and elaborated in The Freedom of a Christian Man (1520); Archbishop Albrecht of Brandenburg; Dominican preacher Johann Tetzel; Pope Leo X (1513-21)
2. Facing the challenges
· Summoned to disputations with Cajetan (Augsburg 1518) and Eck (Leipzig 1519)
· Gradual break with the papacy: key writings 1520, excommunication 1521
· Imperial ban (Edict of Worms 1521) and protective captivity (Frederick the Wise)
Ulrich von Hutten; Papal bull Exsurge Domine (15/6/1520) and formal excommunication (3/1/1521)
3. Later life
· Marriage to former nun Katharina von Bora (1525) and harmonious family life
· Putting theology into practice (Great Bible 1534; catechisms)
Assessment
· A charismatic, determined and at times stubborn personality
· Traditional (Scholasticism, monasticism) and reformist (Humanism) influences
· Engagement with Bible brings theological breakthrough (justification by faith)
· Doctrinal debate escalates into break with papacy and conflict with Emperor
BK 11/17
Friedrich Myconius: Description of Indulgence Peddling (1517)
At that time a Dominican monk named Johann Tetzel was the great mouthpiece, commissioner, and preacher of indulgences in Germany. His preaching raised enormous amounts of money which were sent to Rome. This was particularly the case in the new mining town St Annaberg, where I, Friedrich Myconius, listened to him for over two years. The claims of this uneducated and shameful monk were unbelievable. Thus he said that even if someone had slept with Christ’s dear Mother, the Pope had power in heaven and on earth to forgive as long as money was put into the indulgence coffer. And if the Pope would forgive, God also had to forgive. … He claimed that in the very moment the coin rang in the coffer, the soul rose up to heaven. Such a marvellous thing was his indulgence! In sum and substance God was no longer God, as he had bestowed all divine power to the Pope … And then there were the masters of the Inquisition, who banished and burned those saying conflicting words.
Extract from Friedrich Myconius’ (d. 1546), Historia reformationis, in: Hans. J. Hillerbrand (ed.), The Reformation in its own Words (London, 1964), 43-4.
From Luther’s 95 Theses (1517)
1. When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said repent...’, he meant that the whole life of believers should be one of penitence.
6. The Pope can remit no guilt, but only declare and confirm that it has been
remitted by God; or, at most, he can remit it in cases reserved to his discretion.
21. Hence those preachers of Indulgences are wrong when they say that a man is
absolved and saved from every penalty by the Pope's Indulgences.
27. It is mere human talk to preach that the soul flies out [of purgatory]
immediately the money clinks in the collection-box.
Online at: http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/web/ninetyfive.html (2/11/15)
Theological breakthrough (1519)
‘Meanwhile, in that year [1519] I had once again turned to the task of interpreting the Psalms … My case was this: however irreproachable my life as a monk, I felt myself in the presence of God to be a sinner with a most unquiet conscience, nor could I believe him to be appeased by the satisfaction I could offer. I did not love - nay, I hated this just God who punishes sinners … At last, as I meditated day and night, God showed mercy and I turned my attention to the connection of the words, namely - ‘The righteousness of God is revealed, as it is written: the righteous shall live by faith’ – and there I began to understand that the righteousness of God is the righteousness in which a just man lives by the gift of God, in other words by faith, and that what Paul means is this: the righteousness of God, revealed in the Gospel, is passive, in other words that by which the merciful God justifies us through faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’ At this I felt myself straightway born afresh and to have entered through the open gates into paradise itself.’
Luther, ‘Autobiographical fragment’ (1545), in: E. G. Rupp; B. Drewery (eds), Martin Luther, Documents of Modern History (London, 1970), 5-7
Before the Diet of Worms (1521)
‘Unless I am convinced by the testimony of Holy Scriptures or by evident reason – for I can believe neither pope nor councils alone, as it is clear that they have erred repeatedly and contradicted themselves – I consider myself convicted by the testimony of Holy Scripture, which is my basis; my conscience is captive to the Word of God. Thus I cannot and will not recant, because acting against one’s conscience is neither safe nor sound. God help me. Amen’ Cited in H. Oberman, Luther (1993), p. 39.