A Brief History of Martin Luther, Part 9

Luther Burns The Papal Bull:

Luther, expecting the bull, turned the tables on the Pope, who was the heretic according to the Scriptures. He wrote a Latin and German tract “Against the bull of Antichrist,” calling it a “cursed, impudent, devilish bull.” His ferocious anger against the bull bordered on frenzy. He went so far as to say that no one who adhered to the bull could be saved. So, Luther resolved on a symbolic act that would cut off all possibility of retreat. The Pope had ordered all of his books burned, without distinction, to be burnt, and they actually were burnt at several places. Luther wanted to show that he could burn books, too. Returning fire for fire, Luther gave notice of his intention, and on December 10, 1520, at 9 AM, in the presence of a large number of professors and students, he committed the papal bull to the flames with these words of Joshua, “As thou [the Pope] hast vexed the Holy One of the Lord, may the eternal fire vex thee!" (Joshua 7:25). The spot where this happened can still be seen today.

Burning the Pope’s bull was the most audacious and evocative act of his entire life. For by it he defied the greatest power on earth, a power before which emperors, kings and princes bowed in reverence and awe. It was the signal of absolute separation from Rome and it destroyed the effect of all future papal bulls on half of Western Europe. It liberated Luther and the whole Protestant whole from the unbearable tyranny of the papacy.

A Brief History of Martin Luther, Part 8

The Disputation of Leipzig:

The agreement between Militz and Luther was short-lived. Before the matter could be settled by a German bishop, it was revived by a violation of promise by both sides. A disputation between Luther and Eck was held in a large hall of the Castle of Pleissenburg at Leipzig, under the sanction of Duke George of Saxony. The debates were in Latin, but Luther broke out occasionally in his more vigorous German. The primary interest of the disputation hinged on the authority of the Pope and the infallibility of the Church. Eck maintained that the Pope is Peter’s successor and Christ’s vicar by divine right. Luther argued that this claim is contrary to Scripture, to the ancient church and to the Council of Nicaea and rests only on the decrees of Roman pontiffs. Luther concluded his argument saying, “I am sorry that the learned doctor only dips into the Scripture as the water-spider into the water - nay, that he seems to flee from it as the Devil from the Cross. I prefer, with all deference to the Fathers, the authority of the Scripture, which I herewith recommend to the arbiters of our cause."

Both parties claimed victory, but Luther was quite dissatisfied and felt that the whole event had been a waste of time. However, he had made a deep impression on many of the students at Leipzig, who soon transferred to Wittenberg. In the end, Luther always benefited more from the controversies than his enemies did.

The real importance of the debates is that it marks a progress in Luther’s liberation from the papal system. From this time on, he embarked on a ground-breaking crusade against the Roman Church until the anarchical dissentions among his own followers drove him back to a more conservation position. Nevertheless, after the Leipzig debate, Luther lost all hope of reforming the Roman Church. He was now fully prepared for a bull of excommunication.

This begins the great stormy period of his life which culminated in the Diet of Worms. Having recently learned from the book of Laurentius Valla, republished by Ulrich von Hutten, that the Donation of Constantine, by which this emperor conferred on Pope Sylvester and his successors the temporal sovereignty not only over the Lateran Palace, but also over Rome, Italy, and the whole West, was a baseless forgery of the dark ages. He therefore issued in rapid succession his three most effective reformatory works: "Address to the German Nobility," the "Babylonian Captivity of the Church," and the, "Freedom of a Christian Man."

After the Leipzig debate, Eck went to Rome and did everything possible to secure the condemnation of Luther and his followers. He was finally able to secure the bull of excommunication on June 15, 1520. 

A Brief History of Martin Luther, Part 7

The 95 Theses:

After some serious reflection, and without consulting any of his friends, Luther resolved upon a public act of unforeseen consequences. He chose the orderly and usual way of a learned academic disputation. So, on the memorable 31^st of October, 1517, he fastened to the doors of the castle-church at Wittenberg, ninety-five Latin Theses on the subject of indulgences, and invited a public discussion. At the same time he sent notice of this to Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz, and to Bishop Hieronymus Scultetus, to whose diocese Wittenberg belonged. He chose the eve of All Saints’ Day (Nov. 1), because this was one of the most frequented feasts, and attracted professors, students, and people from all directions to the church, which was filled with precious relics.

No one accepted the challenge. No discussion took place. The professors and students of Wittenberg all agreed with the practice of indulgences. But history itself seems to have taken up the discussion and defense. Within a few weeks, the Theses were copied, translated, printed and spread throughout Germany and Europe. The speedy circulation of the Theses was due to the perfect freedom of the press. There was no censorship or copyrights. Luther’s Theses found an enthusiastic response from liberal scholars and enemies of monastic obscurantism, from German patriots who longed for freedom from Italian rule, and from thousands of ordinary Christians waiting for a man who would give utterance to their feelings of anger against existing abuses, and to their desire for a pure, scriptural religion.

On the other hand, the Theses were strongly attacked and condemned by the Episcopal and clerical hierarchy. Luther, then still a poor emaciated monk, was at first frightened by the unexpected effect. Many of his friends worried. One told him, “You tell the truth, good brother, but you will accomplish nothing; go to your cell, and say, God have mercy upon me." The main opponents of Luther were Tetzel of Leipzig, Conrad Wimpina of Frankfurt-on-the-Oder, and the more learned and formidable John Eck of Ingolstadt, formerly a friend of Luther, but now his irreconcilable foe. They injured their case in the public eye by their weak defense. They could produce no support for their doctrine and practice of indulgences from Scripture or the Greek and Latin Fathers. They relied solely upon exaggerated views on the Pope’s authority. They even went so far as to advocate papal infallibility, which was still an open question in the Roman Church, and remained so until 1870.

Luther gathered nerve. He felt that he had begun this business for the glory of God and was ready to sacrifice even his life for his honest conviction. He now began to develop his formidable polemical power, especially in his German writings. He had full command over the vocabulary of common sense, wit, irony, slander and abuse. Unfortunately, he often resorted to coarse and vulgar expressions which, even in that semi-barbarous age, offended men of culture and taste.

He debated fiercely against the authority of the Pope. This brought him into a direct conflict with the Pope, though he still hoped for a favorable hearing from Leo X, whom he personally respected. He dedicated to Leo a defense of his Theses in May of 1518.

By October, 1518 he was summoned to appear before the papal legate, Cardinal Cajetan. They had three interviews (Oct. 12, 13, 14). Cajetan assured Luther of his friendship, but still demanded a retraction of his errors and absolute submission to the Pope. Luther resolutely refused. Cajetan threatened him with excommunication, already with the papal mandate in his hand. Cajetan dismissed Luther with the words,”Revoke or do not come into my presence again.”

Luther made his escape from Augsburg, with the aid of an escort provided by friends. He rode a worn-out horse. He reached Wittenberg on the first anniversary of his 95 Theses. He immediately published a report of his conference and wrote a letter to the Elector exposing Cajetan’s unfairness. Before he left Augsburg, he left an appeal to the Pope with Cajetan – “for the Pope ill-informed to the Pope to be better informed.” He quickly appealed to the Pope for a general council, and thus fully expected the papal sentence of excommunication.

But before this final judgment, one more attempt was made to silence Luther. Pope Leo sent his nuncio, Karl von Militz. On his journey, Militz discovered a wide-spread and growing sympathy with Luther. He held a conference with Luther in the house of Spalatin at Altenburg on January 6, 1519. He was very polite and friendly. He blamed Tetzel for the scandal that the Theses had caused. He used all his powers of persuasion to convince Luther not to divide the Holy Catholic Church.

Militz and Luther agreed that the matter should be settled by a German bishop instead of going to Rome. Luther promised to ask the pardon of the Pope, and to warn the people against the sin of separating from the holy mother-church. After this agreement they partook of a social supper, and parted with a kiss. Miltitz must have felt very proud of his masterpiece of diplomacy.

In a letter to the Pope, dated March 3, 1519, Luther expressed deep humility and denied that he ever desired to injure the Roman Church, which was over every other power in heaven and on earth, save only Jesus Christ the Lord over all. Yet he repudiated the idea of retracting his conscientious convictions.

At the same time, Luther continued a careful study of history and found no trace of popery and its extravagant claims before the hallowed Council of Nicaea. He also discovered that the Papal Decretals and the Donation of Constantine were forgeries. He wrote Spalatin on March 13, 1519, saying, “I do not know whether the Pope is Antichrist himself or his apostle; so wretchedly is Christ corrupted and crucified by him in the Decretals.” 

A Brief History of Martin Luther, Part 6

Luther Angered By The Indulgences:

Luther was provoked to speak out against this profane practice when Tetzel, the famous hawker of indulgences came to Jüterbog, a few hours from Wittenberg. Tetzel was born somewhere between 1450 and 1460. He began his career as a preacher of indulgences. Protestant writers depict him as an ignorant, noisy, impudent, and immoral charlatan, who was not ashamed to boast that he saved more souls from purgatory by his letters of indulgence than St. Peter did by his preaching. Roman Catholic historians defend him as a learned and zealous servant of the church. His private character was certainly tainted, if we are to credit the papal nuncio, Karl von Miltitz, who had the best resources of information, and charged him with avarice, dishonesty, and sexual immorality.

Tetzel traveled with great pomp through Germany, proclaiming everywhere the indulgences of the Pope. He was received like an angel from heaven. Priests, monk, magistrates, men, women and children marched in great processions with songs and candles to meet him and his fellow monks. Tetzel displayed the papal Bull on a velvet cushion. This was placed on a high altar where a red cross draped in a silk banner bearing the papal arms was set up in front of it. Beneath the cross was placed a large iron chest for the indulgence money. Tetzel here spoke those notorious words: “A soul flies from Purgatory as soon as the penny tinkles in the box."

The common people made no distinction between the guilt of sin and its punishment, so they eagerly embraced this rare offer of salvation from punishment. The Elector of Saxony would not allow Tetzel to set up his trade in his territory for fear that he might take too much money from his subjects. So this is why Tetzel set up his trade on the border of Saxony, at Jüterbog.

Luther had experienced remission of sins as a gift of free grace. This was diametrically opposed to the system of forgiveness by payment of money. It was a conflict of principles.

Thus, he could not be silent when the traffic of indulgences came so near to the borders of his sphere of ministry. As a preacher, a pastor, and a professor, he felt it to be his duty to protest against such measures: to be silent was to betray his theology and his conscience. 

A Brief History of Martin Luther, Part 5

Luther Becomes a Professor at Wittenberg:

Luther was called by Staupitz to Wittenberg and arrived there in October, 1508. He was called back to Erfurt in autumn of 1509. He was sent to Rome in 1510. He returned to Wittenberg in 1511 and stayed there till a few days before his death in1546. He first lectured on scholastic philosophy. But he soon devoted himself exclusively to theology, which was much more congenial to his taste. By contemporary standards, he was well equipped for his position. By modern standards he was quite ill-equipped. Although he was a Doctor of Divinity, for several years he relied almost exclusively on the Latin version of the Scriptures. Very few professors knew Greek, and still less knew Hebrew. Luther had acquired a superficial idea of Hebrew at Erfurt. The Greek he learned at Wittenberg, we do not know exactly when. His labor in translating the Bible forced him into a closer familiarity with the original languages, though he never attained to mastery.

Luther began his theological teaching with David and Paul. These became the pillars of his theology. His first original work in German was an exposition of the seven Penitential Psalms. This was in 1517. It was a suiting introduction to his Theses, for in these he set forth true evangelical repentance. In this exposition he set forth the doctrines of sin and grace and the comfort of the gospel for the understanding of the common people.

Luther did not have any idea yet of reforming the Catholic Church – and still less did he plan to separate from it. He considered himself a good Catholic even in 1517. He still prayed devoutly to the Virgin Mary from the pulpit, and he believed in the intercession of the saints. He celebrated mass fully believing in the repetition of the sacrifice of the cross and the miracle of transubstantiation.

Christ began his public ministry with an ejection of the traffickers of the temple court. Likewise, the Reformation began with a protest against the traffic in indulgences that profaned and degraded the Christianity.

According to the Roman legal code indulgence was a term of amnesty from punishment. In ecclesiastical Latin it meant the temporal (not eternal) remission from the punishment of sin on the condition that money was given to the Church or to some charity. The practice of indulgences grew out of a custom of the Northern and Western barbarians to substitute pecuniary compensation for punishment or an offense. The church favored this custom in order to avoid bloodshed, but did wrong in applying it to religious offenses. After the Crusades, the granting of indulgences degenerated into a regular traffic, and became a source of ecclesiastical and monastic wealth. Most of the profits went into the papal treasury. The idea of buying and selling the remission of punishment and release from purgatory had roused protest from earnest minds long before Luther, but without much effect.