Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 22:14, 14 May 2007

Early life

Part of a series on
Lutheranism
Background Christianity Start of the Reformation Reformation Protestantism
Doctrine and theology Bible Old Testament New Testament Creeds Apostles' Creed Nicene Creed Athanasian Creed Book of Concord Augsburg Confession Apology of the Augsburg Confession Luther's Small / Large Catechism Smalcald Articles Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope Formula of Concord Distinctive theological concepts Theology of Martin Luther Justification Law and Gospel Sola gratia Sola scriptura Christology Sanctification Two kingdoms catholicity Two states of the Church Priesthood of all believers Divine Providence Marian theology Theology of the Cross Sacramental Union Other relevant topics Homosexuality
Sacraments and worship Baptism Eucharist Confession Confirmation Matrimony Anointing of the Sick Holy Orders Divine Service Matins Vespers Liturgical calendar Calendar of saints Lutheran hymn Lutheran hymnwriters Normative principle Lutheran art
Organization Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference Global Confessional & Missional Lutheran Forum International Lutheran Council Lutheran World Federation Denominations Lutheranism by region
Movements History of Lutheranism Crypto-Lutherans Gnesio-Lutherans Lutheran orthodoxy Pietists Radical Pietism Haugeans Laestadians Finnish Awakening Old Lutherans Neo-Lutherans High church Lutherans Confessional Lutheranism
Key figuresMissionaries John Campanius Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg Hans Egede Johann Heinrich Callenberg Johann Phillip Fabricius Paul Henkel John Christian Frederick Heyer Karl Graul Martti Rautanen Wilhelm Sihler F. C. D. Wyneken Hans Paludan Smith Schreuder Lars Olsen Skrefsrud Ludwig Ingwer Nommensen Onesimos Nesib Paul Olaf Bodding Johann Flierl Christian Keyser Jens Christensen Bible Translators Martin Luther Casiodoro de Reina Kjell Magne Yri Onesimos Nesib Aster Ganno Kristian Osvald Viderø Jákup Dahl Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg Johann Phillip Fabricius William Tyndale John Rogers George Constantine Jozef Roháček Johannes Avetaranian Guðbrandur Þorláksson Ludvig Olsen Fossum Hans Egede / Paul Egede Otto Fabricius Nils Vibe Stockfleth Olaus Petri / Laurentius Petri Martti Rautanen Primož Trubar Jurij Dalmatin Ludwig Ingwer Nommensen Sebastian Krelj Mikael Agricola Norwegian Bible Society Swedish Bible Society Samuel Ludwik Zasadius Stanislovas Rapolionis Laurentius Andreae Hans Tausen Olaf M. Norlie Jonas Bretkūnas Hans Paludan Smith Schreuder Antonio Brucioli Mikołaj Jakubica Matthias Bel Johann Ernst Glück William F. Beck Theologians Martin Luther / Katharina von Bora Philip Melanchthon Johannes Bugenhagen Johannes Brenz Justus Jonas Hans Tausen Laurentius Petri Olaus Petri Mikael Agricola Matthias Flacius Martin Chemnitz Johann Gerhard Abraham Calovius Johannes Andreas Quenstedt Johann Wilhelm Baier Philipp Spener David Hollaz August Hermann Francke Henry Muhlenberg Lars Levi Laestadius Charles Porterfield Krauth C. F. W. Walther Søren Kierkegaard Albrecht Ritschl Wilhelm Herrmann F. W. Stellhorn Rudolf Otto Ernst Troeltsch Rudolf Bultmann Paul Tillich Hermann Sasse Dietrich Bonhoeffer Wolfhart Pannenberg Robert Jenson
v t e

Luther was born to Hans and Margarethe Luther (Ziegler) on November 10, 1483 in Eisleben, Germany. He was baptized the next morning on the feast day of St. Martin of Tours. His family moved to Mansfeld in 1484, where his father operated copper mines. Hans Luther was determined to see his eldest son become a lawyer. He sent Martin to schools in Mansfeld and in 1497, Magdeburg, where he attended a school operated by a lay group called the Brethren of the Common Life. In 1498, he attended school in Eisenach.

At the age of seventeen in 1501 he entered the University of Erfurt. The young student received his Bachelor's degree after just one year in 1502. Three years later, in 1505, he received a Master's degree. According to his father's wishes, Martin enrolled in the law school of that university, but with much doubt about what would happen afterwards.

According to Luther, the course of his life changed during a thunderstorm in the summer of 1505. A lightning bolt struck near him as he was returning to school. Terrified, he cried out, "Help! Saint Anna, I will become a monk!" He left law school, sold his books, and entered the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt on July 17, 1505.

Monastic and academic life

Luther dedicated himself to monastic life, devoting himself to fasts, long hours in prayer, pilgrimage, and frequent confession. Luther tried to please God through this dedication, but it only increased his awareness of his own sinfulness. He would later remark, "If anyone could have gained heaven as a monk, then I would indeed have been among them." Luther described this period of his life as one of deep spiritual despair. He said, "I lost hold of Christ the Savior and Comforter and made of him a stock-master and hangman over my poor soul."

Johann von Staupitz, Luther's superior, concluded that the young monk needed more work to distract him from excessive introspection and ordered him to pursue an academic career. In 1507 he was ordained to the priesthood, and in 1508 began teaching theology at the University of Wittenberg. He received a Bachelor's degree in Biblical studies on March 9, 1508, and another Bachelor's degree in the Sentences by Peter Lombard in 1509. On October 19, 1512, he was awarded his Doctor of Theology and, on October 21, 1512, was received into the senate of the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg, having been called to the position of Doctor in Bible. He spent the rest of his career in this position at the University of Wittenberg.

Justification by faith

Main article: Theology of Martin Luther

From 1510 to 1520, Luther lectured on the Psalms, the books of Hebrews, Romans and Galatians. As he studied these portions of the Bible, he came to understand terms such as penance and righteousness in new ways. He began to teach that salvation is a gift of God's grace in Christ received by faith alone. The first and chief article is this, Luther wrote, "Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, died for our sins and was raised again for our justification… therefore, it is clear and certain that this faith alone justifies us… nothing of this article can be yielded or surrendered, even though heaven, earth, and everything else falls."

The Indulgence Controversy

The 95 Theses

On October 31, 1517, Luther wrote to Albert, Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg, protesting the sale of indulgences in his episcopal territories and inviting him to a disputation on the matter. He enclosed the 95 Theses, a copy of which, according to tradition, he posted the same day on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. Luther objected to a saying attributed to Johann Tetzel, a papal commissioner for indulgences: "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs"; and he insisted that since pardons were God's alone to grant, those who claimed indulgences absolved buyers from all punishments and granted them salvation were in error. Christians, he said, must not slacken in following Christ on account of such false assurances. The 95 Theses were quickly translated from Latin into German, printed, and widely copied, making the controversy one of the first in history to be fanned by the printing press. Within two weeks, the theses had spread throughout Germany; within two months throughout Europe. In contrast, the response of the papacy was painstakingly slow.

Response of the papacy

Cardinal Albert of Hohenzollern, Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg, with the consent of Pope Leo X, was using part of the indulgence income to pay his bribery debts, and did not reply to Luther’s letter; instead, he had the theses checked for heresy and forwarded to Rome.

Leo responded over the next three years, “with great care as is proper”, by deploying a series of papal theologians and envoys against Luther. Perhaps he hoped the matter would die down of its own accord, because in 1518 he dismissed Luther as "a drunken German" who "when sober will change his mind".

Widening breach

Luther's writings circulated widely, soon reaching France, England, and Italy as early as 1519. Students thronged to Wittenberg to hear Luther. He published a short commentary on Galatians and his Work on the Psalms. At the same time, he received deputations from Italy and from the Utraquists of Bohemia. Ulrich von Hutten and knight Franz von Sickingen offered to place Luther under their protection.

This period of Luther's career was one of the most creative and productive. Three of Luther's best known works were published in 1520: To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, Prelude on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church and Freedom of a Christian.

Excommunication and Diet of Worms

On June 15, 1520, the Pope warned Martin Luther with the papal bull Exsurge Domine that he risked excommunication unless he recanted 41 sentences drawn from his writings within 60 days.

That fall, Johann Eck proclaimed the bull in Meissen and other towns. Miltitz attempted to broker a solution; but Luther, who sent the pope a copy of On the Freedom of a Christian in October, publicly set fire to the bull and decretals at Wittenberg on December 10 1520, an act he defended in Why the Pope and his Recent Book are Burned and Assertions Concerning All Articles. Luther was finally excommunicated by Leo X on January 3, 1521, in the bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.

Enforcement of the ban now fell to the secular authorities. Luther appeared, as ordered, on April 17, 1521, before the Diet of Worms, which Emperor Charles V had opened on January 22. Johann Eck, speaking on behalf of the empire as assistant of the Archbishop of Trier, presented Luther with a table filled with copies of his writings and asked him if the books were his and if he still taught what they contained. Luther requested time to think about his answer, which was granted. Luther prayed, consulted with friends and mediators and gave his response to the diet the next day:

Unless I shall be convinced by the testimonies of the Scriptures or by clear reason ... I neither can nor will make any retraction, since it is neither safe nor honourable to act against conscience. God help me. Amen.

Over the next five days, private conferences were held to determine the fate of Luther, who left Worms on 26 April. The emperor presented the final draft of the Edict of Worms on May 25, 1521, declaring Martin Luther an outlaw, banning his literature, and requiring his arrest: "We want him to be apprehended and punished as a notorious heretic".

Exile at the Wartburg Castle

The Emperor had granted Luther a safe-conduct for his return to Wittenberg. Frederick the Wise, who had arranged for Luther's safe-conduct, arranged for him to be taken into safe custody on his way home by a company of masked horsemen; he was then carried to Wartburg Castle at Eisenach, where he stayed for about a year. He grew a beard and wore the clothing of a knight, and assumed the pseudonym Junker Jörg (Knight George).

His time at Wartburg was another productive period in his career, as he hunched over a desk in a tower room and translated the New Testament from Greek into German. Luther intended this to be read not by professional churchmen but by the ordinary man on the street. What Luther had to do was translate the idioms of everyday German into a written form comprehensible to people who spoke quite different dialects from each other. The forms spoken at the time are known as Middle High German and Middle Low German. He was also especially keen to get details, so for research for example, he would visit the slaughterhouses to check that he was getting the details of the Old Testament sacrifices right.

It was printed in September 1522, and sold 5,000 copies in 2 months. He issued an essay on the practice of Confession, Concerning Confession, in which he rejected laws by the church forcing people to go to private confession, although he affirmed the value of private confession and absolution.

Return to Wittenberg

Around Christmas 1521 Anabaptists from Zwickau entered Wittenberg and caused considerable civil unrest. Thoroughly opposed to their radical views and fearful of their results, Luther secretly returned to Wittenberg on March 6, 1522, and the Zwickau prophets left the city. For eight days in Lent beginning on March 9, Invocavit Sunday, and concluding on the following Sunday, Luther preached eight sermons that would become known as the Invocavit Sermons. In these sermons Luther counseled careful reform that took into consideration the consciences of those who were not ready or willing yet to embrace reform. Luther took great concern to protect the faith of the most fragile believer insisting that what carried the gospel to them must not be taken away by his fellow reformers.

Luther worked patiently to reintroduce the practice of receiving Holy Communion in both kinds, that is, receiving both the consecrated bread and wine, rather than the practice of denying the wine to lay people. The canon of the mass, giving it its sacrificial character, was now omitted. Since the former practice of penance had been abolished, communicants were now required to declare their intention to commune and to seek consolation in Christian confession and absolution. This new form of service was set forth by Luther in his Formula missæ et communionis (Form of the Mass and Communion, 1523), and in 1524 the first Wittenberg hymnal appeared with four of his own hymns, including A Mighty Fortress and the first hymn he wrote for congregational singing, Dear Christians One and All Rejoice. Since, however, his writings were forbidden in that part of Saxon ruled by Duke George, Luther declared, in his Temporal Authority: to What Extent It Should Be Obeyed, that the civil authority could enact no laws for the soul.

Marriage and family

On April 8, 1523, Luther wrote to Wenceslaus Link: "Yesterday I received nine nuns from their captivity in the Nimbschen convent." Luther had arranged for Torgau burgher Leonhard Koppe on April 4 to assist twelve nuns to escape from the Cistercian monastery in Nimbschen near Grimma in Ducal Saxony. Koppe transported them out of the convent in herring barrels. Three of the nuns went to be with their relatives, leaving the nine that were brought to Wittenberg, one of whom was Katharina von Bora. All except Katharina were married shortly afterwards.

In May and June 1523, it was thought that she might marry a Wittenberg University student, Jerome Paumgartner, but his family most likely prevented it. Dr. Caspar Glatz was the next prospective husband put forward, but Katharina had "neither desire nor love" for him. She made it known that she wanted to marry either Luther himself or Nicholas von Amsdorf. Initially, Luther did not feel that he was fit to be a husband considering he was excommunicated by the Pope and outlawed by the Emperor. In May or early June 1525, it became known in Luther's circle that he intended to marry Katharina. Forestalling any objections from friends against Katharina, Luther acted quickly, and they married on the evening of Tuesday, June 13, 1525. Luther affectionately called her "Katy". Over the years they had six children, three boys and three girls, and lived in Luther's former Augustianian monastery in Wittenberg which had been given to Luther by the Elector as a home.

Peasants' War

The Peasants' War (1524–1525) was in many ways a response to the preaching of Luther and others. Revolts by the peasantry had existed on a small scale since the 14th century, but many peasants mistakenly believed that Luther's attack on the Church and the hierarchy meant that the reformers would support an attack on the social hierarchy as well, because of the close ties between the secular princes and the princes of the Church that Luther condemned. Revolts that broke out in Swabia, Franconia, and Thuringia in 1524 gained support among peasants and disaffected nobles, many of whom were in debt. Gaining momentum and a new leader in Thomas Münzer, the revolts turned into an all-out war, the experience of which played an important role in the founding of the Anabaptist movement. Initially, many thought Luther supported the peasants, condemning the oppressive practices of the nobility that had incited them to revolt. As the war continued, and especially as atrocities at the hands of the peasants increased, the revolt became an embarrassment to Luther, who strongly condemned the peasants. In Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants (1525), he encouraged the nobility to crush the revolt. Many of the revolutionaries considered Luther's words a betrayal. Others withdrew once they realized that there was neither support from the Church nor from its main opponent. The war in Germany ended in 1525 when rebel forces were destroyed by the armies of the Swabian League.

Catechisms

In 1528, Luther took part in a formal visit of parishes and schools in Saxony to determine the quality of pastoral care and Christian education the people were receiving. He wrote in the preface to The Small Catechism,

Mercy! Good God! what manifold misery I beheld! The common people, especially in the villages, have no knowledge whatever of Christian doctrine, and, alas! many pastors are altogether incapable and incompetent to teach.

In response, he prepared The Small and Large Catechisms. They are instructional and devotional material on the Ten Commandments; the Apostles' Creed; the Lord's Prayer; Baptism; Confession and Absolution; and the Lord's Supper. The Small Catechism was supposed to be read by the people themselves, the Large Catechism by the pastors; both remain popular instructional materials among Lutherans. Luther, who was modest about the publishing of his collected works, thought his catechisms were one of two works he would not be embarrassed to call his own:

Regarding to collect my writings in volumes, I am quite cool and not at all eager about it because, roused by a Saturnian hunger, I would rather see them all devoured. For I acknowledge none of them to be really a book of mine, except perhaps the one Bondage of the Will and the Catechism.

Luther's German Bible

Luther translated the Bible into German to make it more accessible to the common people, a task he began alone in 1521 during his stay in the Wartburg castle, publishing The New Testament in September 1522 and, in collaboration with Johannes Bugenhagen, Justus Jonas, Caspar Creuziger, Philipp Melanchthon, Matthäus Aurogallus, and George Rörer, the whole Bible in 1534. He worked on refining the translation for the rest of his life. The Luther Bible contributed to the emergence of the modern German language and is regarded as a landmark in German literature. The 1534 edition was also profoundly influential on William Tyndale's translation, a precursor of the King James Bible.

Liturgy and church government

Luther’s German Mass of 1526 provided for weekday services and for catechetical instruction. He strongly objected, however, to making a new law of the forms and urged the retention of other good liturgies. While Luther advocated Christian liberty in liturgical matters in this way, he also spoke out in favor of maintaining and establishing liturgical uniformity among those sharing the same faith in a given area. In other words, freedom was to be tempered by loving concern for the fellow Christian lest he be offended or confused. He saw in liturgical uniformity a fitting outward expression of unity in the faith, while in liturgical variation, an indication of possible doctrinal variation. He did not consider liturgical change a virtue, especially when it might be made by individual Christians or congregations: he was content to conserve and reform what the Church had inherited from the past. Therefore Luther, while eliminating and condemning those parts of the mass that taught that the Eucharist was a propitiatory sacrifice and the Body and Blood of Christ by transubstantiation, retained the use of historic liturgical forms and customs.

Eucharist controversy

Luther's views on the Eucharist, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, were put to the test in October 1529 at the Marburg Colloquy, an assembly of Protestant theologians gathered by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, to establish doctrinal unity in the emerging Protestant states. Agreement was achieved on most points, the exception being the nature of the Eucharist, an issue crucial to Luther.

The theologians, including Zwingli, Karlstadt, Jud, and Œcolampadius, differed among themselves on the significance of the words of institution spoken by Jesus at the Last Supper: "This is my body which is for you", "This cup is the new covenant in my blood" (1 Corinthians 11:23–26). Luther insisted on the Real Presence of the body and blood of Christ in the consecrated bread and wine, but the other theologians believed God to be only symbolically present: Zwingli, for example, denied Jesus's ability to be in more than one place at a time. But Luther, who affirmed the doctrine of Hypostatic Union, that Jesus is one and the same as God, was clear:

For I do not want to deny in any way that God’s power is able to make a body be simultaneously in many places, even in a corporeal and circumscribed manner. For who wants to try to prove that God is unable to do that? Who has seen the limits of his power?

Despite these disagreements on the Eucharist, the Marburg Colloquy paved the way for the signing in 1530 of the Augsburg Confession and for the formation of the Schmalkaldic League the following year by leading Protestant nobles such as Philip of Hesse, John Frederick of Saxony, and George, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach. According to Luther, agreement in the faith was not necessary prior to entering political alliances. Nevertheless, interpretations of the Eucharist differ among Protestants to this day.

Augsburg confession

Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, convened an Imperial Diet in Augsburg in 1530 with the goal of uniting the empire against the Ottoman Turks, who had besieged Vienna the previous autumn.

To achieve unity, Charles required a resolution of the religious controversies in his realm. Luther, still under the Imperial Ban, was left behind at the Coburg fortress while his elector and colleagues from Wittenberg attended the diet. The Augsburg Confession, a summary of the Lutheran faith authored by Philipp Melanchthon but influenced by Luther, was read aloud to the emperor. It was the first specifically Lutheran confession included in the Book of Concord of 1580, and is regarded as the principal confession of the Lutheran Church.

Philip of Hesse controversy

In 1939, Luther became involved in controversy surrounding the bigamy of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, who wanted to marry one of his wife's ladies-in-waiting. Luther ruled that polygamy was acceptable, noting that the patriarchs of the Old Testament had had more than one wife, and so Philip entered into the second marriage in secret. Philip's sister made news of the marriage public a few weeks later, scandalizing Germany.

Luther and antisemitism

There is little doubt among historians that Luther's anti-Jewish rhetoric may have contributed to, or at the very least foreshadowed, the actions of the Nazis, although the extent to which it played a direct role is debated. Hans J. Hillerbrand writes in the Encyclopaedia Britannica that many scholars take the view that Luther "significantly encouraged the development of German anti-Semitism," but he argues that this puts too much emphasis on Luther and not enough on other factors in Germany's history.

In his 60,000-word pamphlet On the Jews and Their Lies (1543), Luther spoke of the need to set synagogues on fire, destroy Jewish prayerbooks, forbid rabbis from preaching, seize Jews' property and money, smash and destroy their homes, and ensure that these "poisonous envenomed worms" be forced into labor or expelled "for all time." According to historian Robert Michael, he also seemed to sanction their murder, writing "We are at fault in not slaying them." The German philosopher Karl Jaspers said of it: "There you already have the whole Nazi program," while Paul Johnson calls it the "first work of modern anti-Semitism, and a giant step forward on the road to the Holocaust."

The coarseness of the language made the material particularly attractive to the Nazis. Four centuries after its publication, a first edition of the pamphlet was given to Julius Streicher, editor of the Nazi newspaper Der Stürmer, by the city of Nuremberg in honor of his birthday in 1937. The newspaper described the pamphlet as the most radically anti-Semitic tract ever published, a view shared by contemporary scholars. In Mein Kampf, Hitler named Luther as one of the great historical "protagonists" he most admired. On the Jews and Their Lies was publicly exhibited in a glass case at the Nuremberg rallies and was quoted in a 54-page explanation of the Aryan Law by Dr. E.H. Schulz and Dr. R. Frercks. The Nazi Bishop Martin Sasse of Thuringia hailed Luther as "the greatest anti-Semite of his time," and said that it was a happy cooincidence that Kristallnacht fell on Luther's birthday.

At the heart of the debate about the legacy of Luther's work on the Jews is whether it is anachronistic to view his sentiments as a precursor of racial anti-Semitism, when he may simply have been expressing contempt for Judaism as a religion. Scholars argue that, even if his views were merely anti-Judaic, the violence of them lent a new element to the standard Christian suspicion of Judaism. Sociologist Ronald Berger writes that Luther is credited with "Germanizing the Christian critique of Judaism and establishing anti-Semitism as a key element of German culture and national identity." Historian Paul Rose argues that Luther caused a "hysterical and demonizing mentality" about Jews to enter German thought and discourse, a mentality that might otherwise have been absent.

A minority of commentators argue that this is too simplistic an analysis. Writing in Lutheran Quarterly, Johannes Wallmann writes that Luther's writings against the Jews were largely ignored in the 18th and 19th centuries, and journalist and lay Lutheran theologian Uwe Siemon-Netto argues that it was because the Nazis were already anti-Semites that they revived Luther's work on the Jews. "To suggest that Lutheran theology turned Germans into Nazis is a false charge that simply cannot be substantiated by the facts." Luther and Reformation historian Martin Brecht argues that there is a "world of difference" between Luther's belief in salvation, which depended on a faith in Jesus being the messiah, and a racial ideology of anti-Semitism."

Some Lutheran church bodies have distanced themselves from this aspect of Luther's work. In 1983, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, denounced Luther's "hostile attitude" toward the Jews. In 1994, the Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America announced: "As did many of Luther's own companions in the sixteenth century, we reject this violent invective, and yet more do we express our deep and abiding sorrow over its tragic effects on subsequent generations."

Luther, the Pope, and the Council of Trent

Luther was known for his bitter attacks on the Pope, which grew more vitriolic in his later years. In the context of the opening of the Council of Trent in 1545, he wrote a pamphlet entitled, Against the Roman Papacy an Institution of the Devil. One commentator observed:

Perhaps no one in history abhorred the Church and all she stands for more than Martin Luther. His diatribes against the papacy and the structure of the Church in general are well known. Popes, bishops, and cardinals are referred to as "Roman sodom." One of Luther's pamphlets is entitled "Against the Papacy Established by the Devil" (1545). He once blessed a group of followers, saying: "May the Lord fill you with His blessings and with hatred of the Pope.

Luther on witchcraft

Luther shared some of the superstitions about witchcraft that were common in his time. He believed that it was inimical to Christianity. In his Small Catechism, he taught that it was a sin against the second commandment, and that, with the help of the devil, witches were able to steal milk simply by thinking of a cow. Luther advocated the biblical punishment for those who practiced witchcraft, and he is reported to have said in a "table talk" that he would burn them himself:

On 25 August 1538 there was much discussion about witches and sorceresses who steal chicken eggs out of nests, or steal milk and butter. Doctor Martin said: "One should show no mercy to these ; I would burn them myself, for we read in the Law that the priests were the ones to begin the stoning of criminals."

Final years and death

Luther had been suffering from ill health for years, including constipation, hemorrhoids, dizziness, fainting spells, and roaring in the ears. From 1531–1546, his health deteriorated further. The years of struggle with Rome, the antagonisms with and among his fellow reformers, and the scandal which ensued from the bigamy of the Philip of Hesse incident, in which Luther had played a leading role, all may have contributed. In 1536, he began to suffer from kidney and bladder stones, and arthritis, and an ear infection ruptured an ear drum. In December 1544, he began to feel the effects of angina.

His physical health made him short-tempered and even harsher in his writings and comments. His wife Katie was overheard saying, "Dear husband, you are too rude," and he responded, "They teach me to be rude."

His last sermon was delivered at Eisleben, his place of birth, on February 15, 1546, three days before his death. It was "entirely devoted to the obdurate Jews, whom it was a matter of great urgency to expel from all German territory," according to Léon Poliakov. James Mackinnon writes that it concluded with a "fiery summons to drive bag and baggage from their midst, unless they desisted from their calumny and their usury and became Christians." Luther said, "we want to practise Christian love toward them and pray that they convert," but also that they are "our public enemies ... and if they could kill us all, they would gladly do so. And so often they do."

Luther's final journey, to Mansfeld, was taken due to his concern for his siblings' families continuing in their father Hans Luther's copper mining trade. Their livelihood was threatened by Count Albrecht of Mansfeld bringing the industry under his own control. The controversy that ensued involved all four Mansfeld counts: Albrecht, Philip, John George, and Gerhard. Luther journeyed to Mansfeld twice in late 1545 to participate in the negotiations for a settlement, and a third visit was needed in early 1546 for their completion.

The negotiations were successfully concluded on February 17, 1546. After 8:00 p.m., he experienced chest pains. When he went to his bed, he prayed, "Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God" (Ps. 31:5), the common prayer of the dying. At 1:00 a.m. he awoke with more chest pain and was warmed with hot towels. He thanked God for revealing his son to him in whom he had believed. His companions, Justus Jonas and Michael Coelius, shouted loudly, "Reverend father, are you ready to die trusting in your Lord Jesus Christ and to confess the doctrine which you have taught in his name?" A distinct "Yes" was Luther's reply. (It was believed at the time that sudden cardiac arrest or stroke was a sign that Satan had taken a man's soul; Luther's companions stressed that he had gradually weakened and commended himself into God's hands.)

An apoplectic stroke deprived him of his speech, and he died shortly afterwards at 2:45 a.m., February 18, 1546, aged 62, in Eisleben, the city of his birth. He was buried in the Castle Church in Wittenberg, beneath the pulpit.

A piece of paper was later found on which he had written his last statement. The statement was in Latin, apart from "We are beggars," which was in German.

1. No one can understand Vergil's Bucolics unless he has been a shepherd for five years. No one can understand Vergil's Georgics,

unless he has been a farmer for five years.

2. No one can understand Cicero's Letters (or so I teach), unless he has busied himself in the affairs of some prominent state for twenty years.

3. Know that no one can have indulged in the Holy Writers sufficiently, unless he has governed churches for a hundred years with the prophets, such as Elijah and Elisha, John the Baptist, Christ and the apostles.

Do not assail this divine Aeneid; nay, rather prostrate revere the ground that it treads.

We are beggars: this is true.

See also

• "A Mighty Fortress is Our God"
• Christianity
• Christianity and anti-Semitism
• Jesus
• Real Presence
• Consubstantiation
• Erasmus' Correspondents
• Huldrych Zwingli
• John Calvin
• Luther's Seal
• Lutheranism
• Protestant Reformation

Notes

 This article incorporates text from a publication in the public domain: Jackson, Samuel Macauley, ed. (1914). New Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (third ed.). London and New York: Funk and Wagnalls. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

1. Ewald Plass, "Monasticism", in What Luther Says: An Anthology (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959), 2:964.
2. ^ Hillerbrand, Hans J. "Martin Luther," Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2007.
3. Erwin Fahlbusch and Geoffrey William Bromiley, The Encyclopedia of Christianity (Grand Rapids, MI: Leiden, Netherlands: Wm. B. Eerdmans; Brill, 1999–2003), 1:244.
4. Tyndale's New Testament, trans. from the Greek by William Tyndale in 1534 in a modern-spelling edition and with an introduction by David Daniell (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989), ix–x.
5. Roland Bainton, Here I Stand: a Life of Martin Luther (New York: Penguin, 1995), 269.
6. Bainton, 223.
7. Martin Luther, "On the Jews and Their Lies," Tr. Martin H. Bertram, in Luther's Works ed. Franklin Sherman (ed), Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971, 47:268–72 (hereafter cited in notes as LW).
8. The Cambridge Companion to Martin Luther, ed. Donald K. McKim (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 58; Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, s.v. "Anti-Semitism," by Michael Berenbaum (accessed January 2, 2007).
9. Martin Brecht, Martin Luther, trans. James L. Schaaf (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–93), 1:3–5.
10. Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s.v. "Martin Luther" by Ernst Gordon Rupp (accessed 2006).
11. Brecht, 1:48.
12. Schwiebert, E.G. Luther and His Times. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1950. ISBN 0-570-03246-6, p.136.
13. Bainton, 40–42.
14. James Kittelson, Luther The Reformer (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Publishing House, 1986), 53.
15. Kittelson, 79.
16. Bainton, 44–45.
17. Brecht, 1:93.
18. Brecht, 1:12–27.
19. Markus Wriedt, "Luther's Theology," in The Cambridge Companion to Luther (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 88–94.
20. Martin Luther, The Smalcald Articles in Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2005), 289, Part two, Article 1.
21. Bainton, 60; Brecht, 1:182; Kittelson, 104.
22. Brecht, 1:204–205.
23. Luther, Martin (2006). Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 18 September 2006.
24. Martin Treu, Martin Luther in Wittenberg: A Biographical Tour (Wittenberg: Saxon-Anhalt Luther Memorial Foundation, 2003), 31.
25. Papal Bull Exsurge Domine.
26. Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1910), 7:99; W.G. Polack, The Story of Luther (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1931), 45.
27. The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, ed. Samuel Macauley Jackson and George William Gilmore, (New York, London, Funk and Wagnalls Co., 1908–1914; Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1951) s.v. "Luther, Martin," hereafter cited in notes as Schaff-Herzog, 71.
28. Lewis W. Spitz, The Renaissance and Reformation Movements, Revised Ed. (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1987), 338.
29. Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation, ed. Hans J. Hillerbrand, s.v. "Luther, Martin," (by Martin Brecht, tr. Wolfgang Katenz) New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 2:463.
30. Schaff-Herzog, "Luther, Martin," 72.
31. Edict of Worms, translated by De Lamar Jensen and Jacquelin Delbrouwire.
32. Martin Luther, "Preface," Small Catechism.
33. LW 50:172–173. Luther compares himself to the mythological Saturn, who devoured most of his children. Luther wanted to get rid of many of his writings except for the two mentioned. The Large and Small Catechisms are spoken of as one work by Luther in this letter.
34. Tyndale's New Testament, xv, xxvii.
35. Tyndale's New Testamemt, ix–x.
36. Schaff-Herzog, “Luther, Martin,” 73.
37. ^ Schaff-Herzog, "Luther, Martin", 74.
38. LW 37:223–224.
39. Ronald Berger, Fathoming the Holocaust: A Social Problems Approach (New York: Aldine De Gruyter, 2002), 28.
40. Paul Lawrence Rose, Revolutionary Antisemitism in Germany from Kant to Wagner (Princeton University Press, 1990), quoted in Berger, 28).
41. William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1960).
42. Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1987), 242.
43. ^ Richard Steigmann-Gall, The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945 (New York:Cambridge University Press, 2003), 33. "On the Jews and Their Lies is one of the most notorious antisemitic tracts ever written, especially for someone of Luther's esteem."
44. ^ James Carroll, Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews — A History (N.P.:Mariner Books, 2002, 367.
45. ^ Leon Poliakov, History of Anti-Semitism: From the Time of Christ to the Court Jews (N.P.: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003), 216.
46. ^ cited in Franklin Sherman, Faith Transformed: Christian Encounters with Jews and Judaism, ed. John C Merkle (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2003), 63-64.
47. Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1993, 2000), 8–9.
48. Hillerbrand, Hans J. "Martin Luther," Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2007. Hillerbrand writes: "is strident pronouncements against the Jews, especially toward the end of his life, have raised the question of whether Luther significantly encouraged the development of German anti-Semitism. Although many scholars have taken this view, this perspective puts far too much emphasis on Luther and not enough on the larger peculiarities of German history."
49. Graham Noble, "Martin Luther and German anti-Semitism," History Review (2002) No. 42:1-2.
50. Luther, "On the Jews and Their Lies,"LW 47:268-271.
51. Michael, Robert. "Luther, Luther Scholars, and the Jews," Encounter, 46 (Autumn 1985) No.4:343.
52. Martin Luther. On the Jews and Their Lies, cited in Robert Michael, "Luther, Luther Scholars, and the Jews," Encounter 46 (Autumn 1985) No. 4:343-344.
53. Johnson, Paul. A History of the Jews, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, latest edition 2001, p. 242.
54. Shirer, 236.
55. Marc H. Ellis. Hitler and the Holocaust, Christian Anti-Semitism", (NP: Baylor University Center for American and Jewish Studies, Spring 2004), Slide 14.
56. Noble, 1-2.
57. Noble, 1-2.
58. In The 12-Year Reich: A Social History of Nazi German 1933-1945, historian Richard Grunberger observed: "The thoughts of such cultural heroes as Luther and Wagner provided ideal underpinning for the official anti-Semitic ideology ." Richard Grunberger, The 12-Year Reich: A Social History of Nazi German 1933-1945 (NP:Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971), 465, and William Shirer, in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, wrote: "In his utterances about the Jews, Luther employed a coarseness and brutality of language unequaled in German history until the Nazi time." William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (NP:Simon and Schuster, 1960), 236.
59. In The World Must Know, the official publication of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the museum's project director Michael Berenbaum writes that Luther's reliance on the Bible as the sole source of Christian authority fed his fury toward Jews over their rejection of Jesus as the messiah (Berenbaum, 8-9). For Luther, salvation depended on the belief that Jesus was the son of God, a belief that Jews do not share. Earlier in his life, Luther had argued that the Jews had been prevented from converting to Christianity by the proclamation of what he believed to be an impure gospel by Christians, and he believed they would respond favorably to the evangelical message if it were presented to them gently. He expressed concern for the poor conditions in which they were forced to live, and insisted that anyone denying that Jesus was born a Jew was committing heresy. Graham Noble writes that he wanted to save Jews, in his own terms, not exterminate them, but beneath his apparent reasonableness toward them, there was a "biting intolerance," which produced "ever more furious demands for their conversion to his own brand of Christianity" (Noble, 1-2). When they failed to convert, he turned on them. Berenbaum quotes Luther's apparent support for the idea that Christians may be justified in killing Jews: "We are at fault in not slaying them. Rather we allow them to live freely in our midst despite their murder, cursing, blaspheming, lying and defaming." (Martin Luther. On the Jews and Their Lies, cited in Robert Michael, "Luther, Luther Scholars, and the Jews," Encounter 46 (Autumn 1985) No. 4:343-344.)
60. Berger, 28.
61. Rose as quoted in Berger, 28.
62. Roland Bainton, 297; Russell Briese, "Martin Luther and the Jews," Lutheran Forum (Summer 2000):32; Brecht, Martin Luther, 3:351; Mark U. Edwards, Jr. Luther's Last Battles: Politics and Polemics 1531-46 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983), 139; Eric Gritsch, “Was Luther Anti-Semitic? ” 12 Christian History No. 3:39; James M. Kittelson, Luther the Reformer, 274; Richard Marius, Martin Luther, 377; Heiko Oberman, The Roots of Anti-Semitism: In the Age of Renaissance and Reformation (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984), 102; Gordon Rupp,Martin Luther, 75; Siemon-Netto, Lutheran Witness, 19.
63. Johannes Wallmann, "The Reception of Luther's Writings on the Jews from the Reformation to the End of the 19th Century", Lutheran Quarterly, n.s. 1 (Spring 1987) 1:72-97.
64. Siemon-Netto, The Fabricated Luther, 17-20.
65. Siemon-Netto, "Luther and the Jews," Lutheran Witness 123 (2004) No. 4:19, 21.
66. Brecht, 3:351.
67. Those expressing the minority viewpoint include:
    • Roland Bainton, 297.
    • Russell Briese, “Martin Luther and the Jews,” Lutheran Forum (Summer 2000):32.
    • Brecht, Martin Luther, 3:351.
    • Mark U. Edwards, Jr. Luther’s Last Battles: Politics and Polemics 1531–46 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983), 139.
    • Eric Gritsch, “Was Luther Anti-Semitic?” 12 Christian History No. 3:39.
    • James M. Kittelson, Luther the Reformer, 274.
    • Richard Marius, Martin Luther: The Christian Between God and Death (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999), 377.
    • Heiko Oberman, The Roots of Anti-Semitism: In the Age of Renaissance and Reformation (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984), 102.
    • Gordon Rupp, Martin Luther, 75.
    • Siemon-Netto, "Luther and the Jews," Lutheran Witness 123 (2004) No. 4:19, 21.
68. Q&A: Luther's Anti-Semitism at Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod. Retrieved December 15 2005.
69. Declaration of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to the Jewish Community, April 18 1994, retrieved December 15 2005.
70. LW 41:259-376.
71. Emanuel Valenza, "Christ Among Us? No. Heresy and Revolution, Yes!" The Angellus March 1985, Volume VIII, Number 3, citing The Catholic Encyclopedia 1913 ed. s.v. "Luther." Vol. 9. http://www.sspx.ca/Angelus/1985_March/Christ_Among_Us.htm
72. Susan C. Karant-Nunn and Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks, Luther on Women: A Sourcebook, (Cambridge: Cambridge U. Press, 2003), 228.
73. Martin Luther, Luther's Little Instruction Book, Trans. Robert E. Smith, (Fort Wayne: Project Wittenberg, 2004), Small Catechism 1.2.
74. Sermon on Exodus, 1526, WA 16, 551 f.
75. "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" (Exodus 22:18).
76. WA Tr 4, 51-52, no. 3979 quoted and translated in Karant-Nunn, 236. The original Latin and German text is: "25, Augusti multa dicebant de veneficis et incantatricibus, quae ova ex gallinis et lac et butyrum furarentur. Respondit Lutherus: Cum illis nulla habenda est misericordia. Ich wolte sie selber verprennen, more legis, ubi sacerdotes reos lapidare incipiebant. Cf. also WA 1, 403 & 407; LW 26, 190; LW 30, 91; LW 2, 11; WA Tr 2, 504-05, no. 2529b; WA Tr 3, 131-32, no. 2982b; WA Tr 3, 445-46, no. 3601; WA Tr 4, 10-11, no. 3921; WA Tr 4, 43-44, no. 3969; WA Tr 4, 416, no. 4646; WA Tr 4, 222, no. 6836. All are quoted and translated in Karant-Nunn, 230-237.
77. Edwards, 9.
78. Spitz, 354.
79. Poliakov, Léon. From the Time of Christ to the Court Jews, Vanguard Press, p. 220.
80. Mackinnon, James. Luther and the Reformation. Vol. IV, (New York: Russell & Russell, 1962, p. 204.
81. Luther, Martin. Admonition against the Jews, added to his final sermon, cited in Oberman, Heiko. Luther: Man Between God and the Devil, New York: Image Books, 1989, p. 294.
82. Oberman, Heiko, Luther: Man Between God and the Devil. New York; Doubleday, 1990, 3-4
83. cf. Brecht, 3:369–379.
84. Kellermann, James A. (translator) "The Last Written Words of Luther: Holy Ponderings of the Reverend Father Doctor Martin Luther". February 16, 1546.
85. Original German and Latin of Luther's last written words is: "Wir sein pettler. Hoc est verum." Heinrich Bornkamm, Luther's World of Thought, tr. Martin H. Bertram (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1958), 291.

Further reading

For the works of Luther himself, see List of books by Martin Luther

Original writings of Luther and contemporaries

• Project Wittenberg, an archive of Lutheran documents
• Full text of the 95 Theses
• Full text of the Smalcald Articles
• Full text of the Small Catechism
• Full text of the Large Catechism
• Excerpts from Against the Murderous, Thieving Peasants
• Prelude On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church
• Commentary on The Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55), 1521

Online information on Luther and his work

• The Musical Reforms of Martin Luther
• KDG Wittenberg's Luther site (7 languages)
• Martin Luther – ReligionFacts.com
• Memorial Foundation of Saxony Anhalt (German/English)
• Martin Luther – PBS movie
• Luther – theatrical release
• Martin Luther: The Reformer Travelling Exhibition
• New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge article on "Luther, Martin"
• Martin Luther - Eine Bibliographie (German)
• Works by Martin Luther at Project Gutenberg
• Martin Luther
• The "seat" of the Reformation - (BBC News)
• Catholic Encyclopedia: Martin Luther
• Jewish Encyclopedia: Martin Luther
• Luther, Martin in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
• Martin Luther and the German Reformation
• The Weblog about Luther's hometown Wittenberg (in English)
• Luther's Men - Discuss Theology and Beer
• Luther On Islam

Template:Persondata

• 1483 births
• 1546 deaths
• Martin Luther
• Antisemitism
• Anti-Catholicism
• Augustinians
• Bible translators
• Charismatic religious leaders
• Christian religious leaders
• Lutheran writers
• Lutheran hymnwriters
• People related to Catholic-related controversies
• Deaths by stroke
• Founders of religions
• German Lutherans
• German Christian ministers
• German theologians
• Late Middle Ages
• Lutheran saints
• Natives of Saxony-Anhalt
• People excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church
• Protestant Reformers
• Renewers of the church
• Sermon writers
• Walhalla enshrinees