Protestant movement

9.2 Martin Luther and

Reformation movement was Martin Luther
The central figure of the
dominated the Protestant
(1483-1546). His character and ideas
movement. What happened within his
soul affected the whole
Reformation movement, giving it a thrust and a direction. The
The
Reformation originated from his religious thinking. It became a wave for
prevailing political and socio-econbmic condition of Germany. He took
history as it came to him'. He was deeply influenced by the contemporary
cultural milieu as well as religious movements. Luther was the son of a
Saxon industrialist of Eisleben. The capitalist father wanted him to be
a lawyer which would earn for him a high social status Luther wen
reliqioL endrs
againt the wishes of his father and became an Augustian iar. This
ASSi g
monastic order put emphasis on learning and disputation. Up to 1508
Luther was a student at the university of Erfurt. In that year he became
a professor at the newly established university of Wittenburg. For ten

years after 1508 Luther was engrossed in studies and thinking.

Apparently Martine Luther was very simple, calm and composed
Behind his facade of simplicity was a mind full of emotions, mental
hardness and a wisdom to see things minutely. At Erfurt he deeply
studied the hominalism of william Occam. To the nominalists
everything
is matter of form rather than reality. This theological knowledge gave
a
him new insight into reason and revelation. In the world of faith there
is a constant struggle between good and evil. Luther reposed his faith
in the humanist learning of the post-Renaissance period. He wanted
more education for the people, more language schools and progress in
the study of history. Gabriel Biel, St. Paul and St. Augustine taught him
the basic idea that man was capable ot receiyingth grace of God.
Original sin is not a cause for dahnnation fasting, pYayer, penitence
pilgrimage and charity could not save man. Man is helpless before God.
This helpless man receives the grace of God, Luther's basic idea is
solafide Which leads to salvation, everything else is unnecessary, The
cardinal principle of the Reformation is this absolute belief in God. By
obeying God and Christ man can attain salvation, "The conception of
an angry God faded before that of a God of mercy. Human struggle to
earn salvation gave way to a total passivity athd trust and faith in Christ
The result was a doctrine whose implications were devastating for the
church and for traditional Christian belief and practice.
Three formulas epitomise Luther's teaching-solafide (by faith alone),
sola scriptura (by scripture alone) and sola gratia (by grace alone). These
define a relationship between man and God. Solafide emphasizes the
insignificance of reason and the primacy of revelation. The burden of
Lutheran thesis is that man is saved or justified by faith alone. This is
the cornerstone of Lutheran Protestantism. Since man is justified by faith
alone, salvation is an inscrutable process over which man has no control.
Sola scriptura means that the
only source of religious truth is the word
of God revealed in the
scripture. Sola gratia means that knowledge ot
divine things only comes through grace alone. God is merciful, man does
not need the church or
the clergy for his salvation. This was a
doctrine full of immense revolutionary
the Roman church was
possibilities. For the last fifteen hundred years
considered essential for salvation of man. Luther
declared that these two
institutions-the church and the clergy were
unnecessary. An intermediary between
Luther declared that all man and God was unwanted.
believers were
has sacriliced
himself for the good of priests themselves. Jesus Christ
hope. A complete faith in mankind and he was the ray or
is the Jesus would be sufficient for a believer. He
leading light for the restless
the soul,. The Bible in
message of chirst to the vernacular spread
evels read the common people of
Bible and Europe. People at du
spread the message
contained in it.Luu er
thought that the sinful man would find peace and solace in the teachings
of Christ.
In 1517 Luther launched his protest movement with his famous
Ninety Five Theses. The ideas he elaborated in these theses were intimately
connected with his religious thinking. The Popes were turning Rome
into a city of palaces. "The city of God' was busy with administration,
diplomacy and war. They needed huge money for these purposes. Money
was collected by selling indulgences all over Europe. The living purchased
indulgences for the dead. Luther was vehemently opposed to this as, he
thought, the Popes had no powerto freea soul from sin in the purgatory.
If man can communicate with God, indulgences were superfluous. In
1519 he was involved in a debate with Johannes Eck where he opposed
followed in the footsteps of
both the Papacy and the church. Luther
of man's
Wycliffe and John Huss. They raised the important questions
equality, degenerationof the church and insatiable greed for money.
address to
In 1520-21 he published his three famous writings-An
the Babylonish captivity of
the Christian nobility of the German nation,
Man. In them Luther attacked
the Church and the Liberty of a Christian
on which the medieval
church had rested.
every important assumption
matters of doctrine. In denying
He challenged the Papal infallibility in
distinction between spiritual and
the sacraments Luther destroyed the
'the detestable tyranny of
temporal spheres. Thus ending, as he put it,
revolution. Luther
the clergy over the laity'. Rice and Grafton call it a
one
envisaged a priesthood of all believers. They had one baptism,
like that
Gospel and one faith. He denied that the Mass was a sacrifice,
faith
of Christ. He denied the doctrine of transubstantiation. God gave
individual
directly to the individual. No mediator was necessary. The
human soul stood alone before its creator and saviour.
Lutheran ideas contained the concept of free will and the theory of
predestination. But this free will had no role in the matter of salvation.
Bondage of the will' explains Luther's position in this respect. Man is

the servant of God, only God's will can change his status, his personal
efforts are irrelevant. In his early life Luther perceptibly believed in the
theory of predestination, later a little change came over it. Man is helpless
before his creator, he cannot understand his will. The v.il of God is
reflected through Jesus. Scripture can help man, faith and love can take
him to predestined fate. The freedom of a Christian is not political or
social, it is internal. This freedom comes from absolute faith in God.
 To Luther man's real identity is spiritual. His doctrine attacked the
very existence of the church, confession and services remained but the
emphasis was on the reading of the Bible. Liturgy was not radically
changed as Luther himself was not very sure about it. His fundamental
doctrine is solafide i.e., by faith alone. The rituals of the church were
of secondary importance. To maintain order in state and society he

preached the ruler should be obeyed, the clurch and the clergy should
be controlled by him. From the medieval period a demand fora protector
king was becoming prominent. Luther asked the German princes to
confiscate the property and the wealth of the Roman church. The duty
of the church was spiritual, administration was none of its business. The
ruler was competent to reform and rule over the church.
Luther's Protestant movement was not confined to Germany. Slowly
it spread to other parts of Europe. Luther thought that his success was
the reflection of the will of God. Historians believed that the peculiar
political, socio-economic and religious condition of Germany were
congenial for the spread of Protestantism. It was this congenial condition
that made his movement a success. The anti-clericalism, the degeneration
of the clergy, political conflict and the pitiable condition of the peasantry
prepared the backdrop of his movement. Not only in Germany, in the
whole of Christendom there was a crisis of conscience. The Roman
church had miserably failed as a spiritual and worldly
organization. In
Germany, Italy and England the religious minded men found solace and
comfort in mysticism. There is no doubt that Luther himself was much
influenced by mysticism. The Post-Renaissance humanist
the spread of Lutheranism.
learning helped