Reformation
Luther did not care about a reform in the Church, but salvation. From the Letters of St. Paul, he developed his reflections, all geared to the justification of faith as the sole basis for extrapolating the teachings he had received.According to him, "God does not judge us sins and by works, but by faith." Luther found peace in a renewed sense of penitence, designed from the justification for the Christian faith, regardless of its merits.
The Conflict
Luther opposed the theory of salvation by merit, not allowed to give value to charity, unlike Christians, who understood as absolution granting indulgences as a practice of devotion.
Luther rebelled in 1517, because the preaching of the Dominican Tetzel who sold indulgences, published his 95 theses denouncing the false security given to the faithful. According to the theologian, only God could forgive, not the pope, and the one Church source of salvation lay in the Gospel.
Around this new position, started in Germany a conflict between the Dominicans and Augustinians. The Leo papacy interfered, repudiating the position of Luther, who rejected the infallibility of the papacy and the functionality of the distant sacraments of faith.The dispute lasted until 1519, culminating with a Roman warning to Luther about the consequences of his statements. Still, the Augustinian theologian rejected the Roman primacy and authority of councils, proposing Scripture as the only value, denying the dogmatic tradition and rejecting the existence of purgatory.
Final Break with the church
Although Luther's strength came from his own conviction, he received support from many in Germany: the humanists, as Hutten and Melanchthon, young students berg Wittem- and Erfurt, cities such as Nuremberg and Constance and finally the nobility ambitious of Church property.
Consequently, an individual revolt was transformed into a general schism. In Germany, the conditions favorable to the spread of Lutheranism became more pronounced due to the weakness of the imperial power, the ambitions of the princes, the social tensions that pitted peasants and lords, city and nobility and deep nationalism, hostile to Italian influences. Moreover, the Church abuses, not much larger than in other regions, provoked riots in pamphleteer level and the young Ulrich von Hutten, who has been manifested against religious orders.
Thinking of Luther
The thought of Luther was based on three major treaties 1520: The Papacy of Rome, saying that the pope had no divine authority and is also submitted to God; The Address to the German Christian Nobility, which defined the doctrine of the universal priesthood, saying that Scripture was intelligible to all the faithful and defend free inquiry against ecclesiastical authority, and finally the Treaty of Christian Freedom, in which Luther criticized sacraments as means of imposing priestly authority.
As a result of these new positions, Luther suffered repression from the Vatican. On June 15, 1520, the bull Ex-surge Domine, which sentenced 41 of her proposals was for him burned in public. Later (January 3, 1521), the bull Decet Romanum Pontificem condemned Luther and his supporters. Still, he maintained their positions, supported by hostile princes Charles V, Emperor. The Diet of Worms , meeting voters princes of the Holy Empire of April 15, 1521, condemned Luther, but the penalties are not performed.
Luther became sympathetic to the German princes, and to leave Worms, received the Frederick protection Saxe in Watburg, where translated into German New Testament. In 1529, Charles V convened the Spira Diet , proposing tolerate Lutheranism where already there, but denying its spread. Five principalities and 14 cities protested (this is the origin of the term Protestantism ) against that sanction.
In 1530, the Emperor, feeling the Christian fragmentation in their fields, called the Diet of Augsburg , aiming to reconcile, under its aegis, Protestants and Catholics. Melanchthon, Luther's supporter, proposed in the Augsburg Confession 28 conciliatory articles, but they were not accepted. Given the impossibility of agreement, the Catholic princes and the Emperor heeded convictions of Worms, in an attempt to permanently eliminate the Lutheran Protestantism. On the other hand, the Protestant princes, to defend themselves, formed a military league Smalcade (1531).
After years of struggle, in 1555 the Protestants won, and signed the peace who granted freedom of religion in the Holy Empire and took the German princes to secularizarem Church property; Furthermore, the subjects were to follow the religion of his principality, under penalty of expulsion and confiscation of property. Prevailed thus the luteranismo.
Social consequences of the Lutheran Reformation
While supporting the idea of Christian liberty Luther subjected to legitimate authorities, refusing to support uprisings like the Knights, supported by Franz von Sickingen, turned against the possessions of the German bishops, and the revolt of the peasants (1524-1525 ). The latter was led by Thomas Munzer, originally a disciple of Luther, who founded the Zwickau community: without priests, even without liturgy.
Thus, the Anabaptists , as they were called, demanded the immediate establishment of the kingdom of God on earth, ie, the suppression of property and the distribution of wealth; in fact, they proposed religious and social reforms, using violence to assert their convictions.Luther, an aggressive speech against Hordes Criminal Looting and Peasants (May 1525), condemned the riots and urged the nobles to repression. In 1525, peasant troops were overcome, and Munzer executed.
Break with the Humanists
Humanists believe in the natural goodness of man and the value of its positive acts associated with the divine order. Luther, however, said the total inability of sinful man.Erasmus published in 1524, De Libero Arbitrator, defending the freedom of man, the value of his works and the idea that original sin corrupted but not annihilated human nature.Luther responded brutally, in De Servo Arbitrator, that freedom of the Christian was to recognize his total disability.
The Lutheran Theology
Lutheran ideas emerged of justification by faith, and later evolved into a broader set exposed in the works of Melanchthon, Luther's disciple.
The basic statement, however, remained: faith, free gift of God, was a full explanation. The only source of faith was the Scripture;therefore, to be attained God through the Holy Spirit, it was necessary to interpret it. The biblical convictions should be considered the distance from human authorities (popes, councils and priests). The certainty of salvation still lay in the reception of two sacraments of God: the baptism , contact between man and God, and the communion , the union of man with Christ, a way to glorify God. Lutheranism also rejected the celibacy of the clergy, religious life, the belief in images and the existence of purgatory. As for the Eucharist, Luther refused to believe in transubstantiation (materialization of the body of Christ), only accepting transubstantiation (the spirit of Christ).
Luther established the dogmatic and liturgical simplicity, using the German language and promoting the laity in evangelizing service .
Luther established the dogmatic and liturgical simplicity, using the German language and promoting the laity in evangelizing service .
In the organization of the Reformed Church, the theologian was taken to grant the ordering power to the princes, being tolerant beginning: "The state should leave each free to believe what you can believe." Then, before the proliferation of sects, headed to the restricted formula Cujus regio ejus religio : "Who rules imposed religion." Thus, he abandoned the Catholic conception of the Church's superiority over the state and called for their submission.
Lutheranism, than Germany, has spread in the Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Norway and Denmark).
Category: General history
