Dylan Fujii
September 17, 2008
History of the Modern World
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was born in the town of Eisleben on November 10, 1483. His parents were Hans and Margaret Luther. Luther was born into peasantry but his father worked hard to raise the family’s status. Hans Luther started out as a miner, and later became the owner of several mines, and an entrepreneur. Because of his father’s higher status, Martin was able to get an education. He went to a Latin school in Mansfeld in 1490. In 1497, he continued to study Latin in Magdeburg and in 1498 in Eisenach. Martin faced two options for success; the law or the church. It was Hans Luther that encouraged his son to be a lawyer. In 1501, Martin enrolled in the University of Erfurt. During his time at Erfurt he earned a bachelor of arts degree in 1502 and Master of arts degree in 1505. It seemed Martin would become a successful lawyer, and bring prosperity, just like his father started.
On July 2, 1505, Luther was returning to Erfurt after visiting his family, when he was caught in a severe thunder storm. In terror, he flung himself to the ground, vowing to become a monk if God let him survive. After he survived, to his father’s disapproval and friends’ dismay, Martin Luther entered the Reformed Congregation of the Eremetical order of St. Augustine at Erfurt. According to Luther, his decision was based on fear. “I had been called by heavenly terrors, for not freely or desirously did I become a monk, much less to gratify my belly, but walled around the terror and agony of sudden death I vowed a constrained and necessary vow.” Another theory of why Martin decided to be a monk was the brutality of his father’s disciplinary beatings that made him want to run away to the monastery. During his early years of being a monk, Luther also said, “I was a good monk, and kept strictly to my order, so that I could say that if the monastic life could get a man to heaven, I should have entered.” Luther officially became a priest in 1507. Then he reconciled with his father and studied advanced theological studies at Erfurt.
In 1508, Luther was sent to the University of Wittenberg in order to lecture in the arts. He lectured about medieval texts such as the Book of Sentences. One of the highlights of his time spent at Wittenberg was witnessing Johan Tetzel sell indulgences promising that, with a fee, the person and all his dead ancestors will go to heaven. Luther was outraged by this because it meant poor peasants could not go to heaven. A contributor to Luther’s anger towards the church for doing this is probably that he was born a peasant, but was one of the rare cases where his family moved up in status. He posted 95 theses protesting against indulgences and other church related atrocities on the door of the church castle at Wittenberg. Luther preached only faith can get someone into heaven. This was justified by St. Paul’s text: “I began to understand that Justice of God…to be understood passively as the whereby the merciful God justifies us by faith…At this I felt myself to be born anew, and to enter through open gates into paradise itself.”
Martin Luther faced persecution for speaking out against the church. Fredrick the Wise, in defense of Luther, said “One stipulated that no German of any rank should be taken for trial outside Germany, and the other that none should be outlawed without cause and without a hearing” (Here I Stand, 130). He was called by Charles V to a diet at the city of Worms on April 16, 1521. There, Luther was asked to recant his theses’ that got him expelled from the Catholic Church. On April 18, after a day of meditation, Luther refused to recant, saying, “Here I stand I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.” The Edict of Worms declared him a heretic and outlawed his teachings and writings.
Martin Luther’s ideas were highly controversial. Europe was divided into people for or against Luther’s teachings. Aleander, a supporter of Luther said the highly exaggerated statement, “nine tenths of Germany cried, ‘Luther’, while the other one tenth cried, ‘Death to the Pope!’” (Here I Stand, 130). Luther’s 95 theses’ sparked excitement for other people who were also not content with the church. Following his example, many other protestant branches were formed such as Calvinists and Anabaptists. The irony of this is Martin Luther wanted Christians to be united, yet his contribution to the religion had the exact opposite effect.
During the last years of his life, Luther fell ill. He died in his home town of Eisleben in 1546. Luther was buried in the city of Wittenberg, leaving behind a legacy as the father of the reformation.
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