Luther, Martin

Luther, Martin (1483–1546), founder of the German Reformation. In 1505 he entered a monastery of the Augustinian Hermits and in 1508 was sent to teach moral philosophy at the newly-founded university of Wittenberg. He became professor of biblical exegesis here in 1511, retaining this position until his death.

Initially Luther seems to have adopted a form of biblical exegesis and theology of justification similar to that of Nominalism, allowing man a definite, if limited, role in his own justification. In the years 1512–19 he came to believe that man is unable to respond to God without Divine grace, and that he can be justified only through faith, by the merits of Christ imputed to him: works and religious observance are irrelevant. This development was apparently linked with what is referred to as the ‘Turmerlebnis’ (‘Tower Experience’).

On 31 Oct. 1517 Luther's 95 theses were posted on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg. They were written largely in response to J. Tetzel's preaching on the indulgences granted by Leo X for contributions towards the renovation of St Peter's, Rome. Although stating little that was exceptional, they came to be viewed as a manifesto for reform. Luther was tried (in his absence) in Rome on charges of heresy and summoned before Card. Cajetan at Augsburg. He fled to Wittenberg under the protection of the Elector Frederick III of Saxony. At the Leipzig Disputation in 1519 Luther confronted J. Eck; here he denied the primacy of the Pope and the infallibility of General Councils. In 1520 he published three major treatises. The first, addressed to the German princes, laid the foundation for a programme of lay reform by rejecting the distinction between the ‘spiritual’ and ‘temporal’ orders and encouraged the princes to abolish tributes to Rome, the celibacy of the clergy, and many other Catholic practices and institutions. The second criticized the subjection of the laity to the institution of the Church which Luther identified with the denial to the laity of Communion in both kinds, the doctrine of transubstantiation, and the Sacrifice of the Mass. The third proclaimed the liberation of Christians from the obligation to perform good works. Meanwhile Luther was condemned in the bull ‘Exsurge Domine’ (12 Jun. 1520); he burnt the bull and was excommunicated in 1521. He was summoned before the Diet of Worms, refused to recant, and was put under the ban of the Empire. He spent the next eight months at the Wartburg, where he began his translation of the Bible into German (the NT was published in 1522). After his return to Wittenberg, he discarded his habit in 1524 and married in 1525.

Although his pamphlet advising the princes to wage war against the peasants who had risen in revolt (see PEASANTS' WAR) cost him some popular support, the religious and political situation continued to favour the spread of his views. The Diet of Speyer (1526) established the right of the princes to organize national Churches. Differences among the Reformers were, however, becoming evident. At the Colloquy of Marburg (1529) the division between Luther and U. Zwingli over the nature of the Presence of Christ in the Eucharist proved unbridgeable: Luther argued that after the consecration the substances both of the Body and Blood of Christ and of the bread and wine coexist in union with each other (consubstantiation), Zwingli that the Presence of Christ was purely symbolic. Though Luther approved of the comparatively conciliatory ‘Augsburg Confession’ (1530), his final years were darkened by controversy.

Apart from the treatises of 1520, Luther published a large number of works. They include the Small and Large Catechisms (1529), biblical commentaries, and hymns, many of which are still in use. Some of his ideas were modified by the Lutheran Church after his death (see LUTHERANISM), but in the 20th cent. his ‘theologia crucis’ was reappropriated.