Mostafa mezher biography of martin luther

In January ofLuther was officially excommunicated by the Pope. Two months later, he was ordered to appear before Emperor Charles V in Worms, Germany, for a general assembly of the Holy Roman Empire, a convention known as the "Diet of Worms" pronounced "dee-it of Vorms". On trial before the highest Roman officials of the Church and State, again Martin Luther was asked to renounce his views.

Just as before, with no one able to provide irrefutable scriptural evidence, Luther stood his ground. As a result, Martin Luther was issued the Edict of Worms, banning his writings and declaring him a "convicted heretic. During his seclusion, Luther translated the New Testament into the German language, giving lay people the opportunity to read God's Word for themselves and distribute Bibles among the German people for the first time.

Although a bright spot in his spiritual quest, this was a dark time in Luther's emotional life. He is reported to have been deeply troubled by evil spirits and demons as he performed the translation. Perhaps this explains Luther's statement at the time that he had "driven the devil away with ink. Under the threat of arrest and death, Luther boldly returned to Wittenburg's Castle Church and began to preach there and in the surrounding areas.

His message continued to be one of salvation by faith alone along with freedom from religious error and papal authority. Miraculously avoiding capture, Luther was able to organize Christian schools, write instructions for pastors and teachers Larger and Smaller Catechismcompose hymns including the well-known "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God"put together numerous leaflets, and even publish a hymnbook during this time.

Shocking both friends and supporters, Luther was married on June 13, to Katherine von Bora, a nun who had abandoned the convent and taken refuge in Wittenburg. Together they had three boys and three girls and led a happily married life in the Augustinian monastery. As Luther aged, he suffered from many illnesses including arthritis, heart problems, and digestive disorders.

However, he never quit lecturing at the University, writing against abuses of the Church, and fighting for religious reforms. Inthe famous Augsburg Confession the primary confession of faith of the Lutheran Church was published, which Luther helped to write. The emperor forbade any of his subjects from helping Luther or his supporters. Luther, however, firmly believed that he was neither a troublemaker nor a heretic since he had never opposed indulgences or the papacy by using force.

Instead, he stated that it was God's Word—meaning the scriptures—which Luther had taught, preached, and wrote about that actually weakened the papacy. Occupied by threats from the Turks, the French, and rebels against his rule in Spain, Charles was unable to stop agents of Frederick the Wise from secretly taking Luther to Wartburg Castle. Luther hid there for almost a year, disguised as Knight George.

Luther stayed in the castle and wrote many of the works that would define his career. In his treatise De votis monasticis On monastic vowshe claimed that vows taken by Catholic monks and nuns were not binding, and he questioned the value of monks living in solitude and contemplation. In solitude, Luther thought, the Christian was open to attacks from Satan, the Christian concept of evil.

The first edition appeared in September with prefaces explaining each book according to Luther's own views. His Old Testament translation was completed a decade later. Luther's German Bible became one of the influences on the modern German language. Unrest in Wittenberg made Luther return there in March The discontent was caused by men, like Luther's former debate partner Andreas von Karlstadt, who had pushed to the limit Luther's idea that all religious authority came from the Bible.

Since the Bible states that God condemned image worship and called upon prophets to destroy these objects, many people saw themselves as prophets called by God to destroy Catholic crucifixes carved images of the crucified Christ on the cross and statues of saints. The resulting violence and destruction threatened social order. Supported by Frederick, Luther decided to put a stop to it.

Luther convinced Karlstadt that the Reformation would best be served by gradual and reasoned opposition to the church. Karlstadt, who had publicly declared that things were moving too slowly, heeded Luther's advice. Luther calmed down the mood at Wittenberg and returned to Wartburg Castle. In MarchKarlstadt began to once again spread a more radical doctrine than Luther, and Luther was forced to return to Wittenberg.

Luther, realizing that his message had been well received but badly interpreted, decided to start his own church. Although Luther spoke out strongly against the corruptions and practices of the Catholic Church, he did not believe in violence as a solution to the problem. Luther wanted order to be maintained, both within society and within the church, and he did not advocate violent methods to achieve peace and harmony.

Luther was alarmed that some wanted to use the sword to spread reform. Men like Franz von Sickingen — disagreed with Luther. Sickingen started the rebellion called the Knights' Revolt. Under the system of feudalism during the Middle Agesknights were warriors who swore allegiance to lords and kings and followed a strict code of honor called chivalry; see "Feudalism" in Chapter 1.

Knighthood continued in many parts of Europe during the Renaissance and Reformation period. Sickingen and Ulrich von Hutten —a humanist knight who later helped write the Letters of the Obscure Men, were both lower nobles of the Holy Roman Empire. Like many nobles, they believed that the papacy should be under the control of the Holy Roman Emperor.

They had watched helplessly as their land holdings declined in the economic turbulence of early sixteenth-century Europe. As the cost of living continued to increase due to inflation, many nobles began to attack merchants' caravans. Some of these robber knights, including Sickingen, started hiring themselves out as mercenaries soldiers paid to fight in wars.

In Emperor Maximilian I declared Sickingen to be an outlaw. Maximilian was afraid to punish his friends in the lower nobility and was unwilling to lose his military experts, so he did not take proper action to support his declaration. Sickingen's military campaign was a dismal failure, and the Spanish government did. When Luther returned to Wittenberg from Wartburg Castle in Decemberhis message had already begun to take hold in religious practice.

Greek scholar and Renaissance humanist Philip Melanchthon performed the Lord's Supper by distributing the ceremonial wine and bread to the laity unordained church members. Melanchthon administered the ceremony in the spirit of Luther's concept of consubstantiation. Luther believed that, according to Scripture, the body and blood of Jesus of Nazareth called the Christ are present in the bread and wine taken during the service.

This view was similar to the Roman Catholic teaching, known as transubstantiation, which holds that the bread and wine are transformed when held aloft by the priest during the service. The difference between Luther's theory and the Catholic teaching was that Luther refused to accept the role of the priest in changing the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ.

He felt that only the mostafa mezher biography of martin luther of God, as found in the Scripture, mad this change possible. The liturgy of Melanchthon's ceremony was similar to that of the traditional Catholic ceremony, but Melanchthon performed the first distinctly Protestant service. Other supporters of Luther, however, took more radical and experimental views.

Seeing themselves as prophets, the three began preaching on the streets of Zwickau. While Luther did not deny that God could speak through common men, the fact that the three were proven to be alcoholics and liars did not help Luther's message. Luther spoke out against the Zwickau "prophets," and reemphasized his message about scriptural authority.

This event, coupled with his disagreements with Karlstadt, led to Luther forming his own church. He was forced to send many of his troops home without payment. Later that year, Sickingen was introduced to the ideas of Luther by Hutten. Moved by Luther's religious beliefs, Sickingen attempted to present his sword a token of a knight' oath of loyalty to Luther at the Diet of Worms.

Although he politely declined the gesture, Luther did dedicate a later writing to Sickingen. Luther's refusal of the sword did not curb Sickingen's own religious zeal. He was determined to spread the gospel the word of God delivered by Jesus Christ by waging war. In Sickingen attacked the western German city of Trier, including the home of the local archbishop.

The military governor known as a margravePhilip of Hesse known as Philip the Magnanimous; —was a strong supporter of Luther and did not agree with Sickingen's methods. Seeing violence as a threat to property and mostafa mezher biography of martin luther, Philip joined with the archbishop of Trier in seeking assistance from the Swabian League.

The league was an alliance of cities, princes, knights, and church officials in Swabia, a region in southwestern Germany. It had been formed in the fourteenth century to protect trade and maintain peace in the region. Sickingen and his forces were driven out of the city and toward their own homes. One by one, the castles, or homes, of Sickingen and other knights fell under attacks from Swabian League forces.

Sickingen was killed in when his castle was destroyed. Hutten fled to Zurich, Switzerland, where he died of syphilis a contagious disease spread by sexual contact or inherited from an infected parent. In the summer of the Swabian League continued to attack the castles of the robber knights, destroying a total of thirty castles. The actions of the Swabian League would serve as a rehearsal for the much more destructive Peasants' War of the mids.

A reform-minded native of the Low CountriesAdrian VI was the only non-Italian pope elected in the sixteenth century. The next non-Italian pope was John Paul of Poland, who was elected in Although Adrian had supported Luther's excommunication, Adrian agreed with some of Luther's charges against the Catholic Church. Adrian appointed a Reform Commission and indicated he would act on their recommendations.

After only twenty months as pope, Adrian died of the plague, and with him died the hopes of peaceful reform within the Catholic Church. Many Catholics celebrated the death of Adrian, fearing the changes he had been poised to introduce. Clement VII —; reigned —34a Medici, was named as Adrian's successor, but he never had the courage to implement reform in the church.

During the reign of Adrian VI and the early years of Clement's reign, a series of three Imperial Diets were held in Nuremberg, Germany, between and One of the central aims of the Diets was to discuss Luther and how to enforce the Edict of Worms declaring Luther an outlaw. The issue soon became secondary to the impending threat of the Ottomans.

The city of Belgrade present-day capital of Serbia was an important fortress city in the Balkans countries in eastern Europe and had been sacked in When the island of Rhodes in the eastern Mediterranean was overtaken by the Ottomans, attention shifted from Luther to the potential fall of the Holy Roman Empire. Ferdinand found it difficult to persuade the German princes and nobles to take definitive measures against Luther and his followers.

Inwhen Ferdinand insisted upon action, officials at the diet produced a document citing grievances against the church. A general council was called, and it issued an order stating that Catholic traditions would be observed until a church council met and made a final decision. Without a firm action or decree against them, Luther and his followers were able to continue winning supporters.

Mostafa mezher biography of martin luther: Introduction. Businesses attach importance

The city was therefore essentially the center of the Holy Roman Empire. Nuremberg was also important to the humanist movement. A number of prominent humanistic thinkers lived there. Luther had visited the city twice inso many there had received early exposure to his ideas. The popularity of his message began to mostafa mezher biography of martin luther, and between and the city hired a number of church officials who had been Luther's students at Wittenberg.

As Lutheranism continued to become more popular, city officials saw a chance to break from the authority of the Catholic Church. Having been given full rights to decisions regarding the city's churches by Pope Leo X inNuremberg all but sealed its authority in religious matters by officially adopting Lutheranism in The city government already controlled the social aspects of life in Nuremberg and felt that control of the church was a logical next step.

Nuremberg's decision to adopt Lutheranism served to fan the flames of reform, which quickly spread across all of Europe. The German Peasants' War was the greatest uprising of early German history. The conflict involved most of south Germany and parts of central Germany. Its high point was from January to Junebut preliminary activity and aftershocks extended from May to July Until April the rebellion was not based on military action; it was more a form of social protest than a call to violent conflict.

Large gatherings and marches of commoners supported an armed boycott of clerical and lay lords. While there were scattered attacks on monasteries and castles, the aim was to acquire goods and money, not to kill or capture. To fully understand the German Peasants's War, the social, religious, and economic realities of the period have to be examined.

Most of the unrest was centered in the urbanized regions of the Holy Roman Empire, where a majority of the empire's food was grown. For years, noble landlords and clerics had been overworking and exploiting peasants who worked on farms, violating their rights and village customs. Artisans and common workers complained they were kept from markets of their choice by nobles and forced to sell food to their overlords at extremely low prices.

In areas of upper Germany, populations were rapidly increasing while crops had been failing for more than two decades. With barely enough food to feed the population, misery and frustration spread. While crops were failing in some areas, most of western Europe had been experiencing an economic upswing since This fact did little to improve the life of the common landowner, but it increased the wealth of the nobility.

A sharp division among the social classes quickly emerged. Landholding peasants controlled village government, dominated landless peasants, and subjugated common workers. In turn, however, the incomes of landholding peasants were reduced by landlords who collected rent, government officials who took taxes, and churchmen who expected tithes.

Peasants were allowed to hold land, but they could not own it. Money was kept by the clerics, aristocrats, and nobles. Peasant landowners were given certain rights and privileges, but they were tightly controlled by those at the top. At the bottom was the common worker, who barely had enough to feed his family and had no personal wealth. As these injustices continued to mount, groups of peasant landowners across southern and central Germany began to unite in protest.

The peasants had a number of complaints against the nobility. Local, self-ruled governments were rapidly being replaced by district officials. Towns and urban areas were being absorbed into larger territories and placed under the Holy Roman Empire. Wishing to create uniform rule and custom, officials of the empire replaced local laws with Roman law.

In some areas, the practice of serfdom was once again instituted. Serfdom was a part of feudalism, a social and economic system in the Middle Ageswhich required peasants to work all their lives for a landowner with no possibility of being freed see "Feudalism" in Chapter 1. This change angered many peasants, who were also upset that noblemen were attempting to exclude them from hunting game in the local forests and meadows and from fishing in the local waterways.

Selling game and fish was a traditional source of extra income for peasants, and the nobles' attempts to stop peasants from hunting and fishing directly affected the economic situation of many commoners. Peasants were also subjected to additional labor by the aristocrats who owned the land, keeping many peasants from making additional money to feed their families.

Others objected to the excessive rents charged to live on the aristocrats' lands, and to the arbitrary penalties for offenses not mentioned in the law. New taxes on wine, beer, milling, and the slaughtering of farm animals greatly angered the peasants, who were also expected to pay the church a tithe, even when crops had failed. Overtaxed and overworked, underpaid and underfed, the peasants began to revolt.

In the early s peasants staged armed uprisings against monasteries and castles.

Mostafa mezher biography of martin luther: In Search of Moral Imagination That

In the Black ForestUpper Swabia, and Alsace, attacks were made on monastic landlords, demonstrating the widespread anger toward tithes. Other uprisings, also centered on monastic orders, occurred in and On May 30, peasants in the Black Forest region rebelled against the overlord, claiming they would no longer provide feudal services or pay feudal dues.

In June laborers stopped working in the southern region of the Black Forest. Here the peasants were angered by the recent limits placed on local governmentand when the local ruler would not negotiate, peasant groups began to march through the Black Forest and called for rebellion. The movement soon began to gain support and increase in size.

The military phase of the Peasants' War, from April onward, was largely one-sided. Violence was usually squelched by the Swabian League and German princes. During this phase the rebel bands were successful in stealing the wealth of various monasteries, as well as destroying a number of castles belonging to aristocratic nobles. Some towns were forcibly occupied, but executions of nobles were extremely rare.

The battles were usually slaughters in which commoners were killed. In Maysix thousand people were killed in Frankenhausen, Thuringia; eighteen thousand were killed in Alsace. Limited peasant uprisings continued into the seventeenth century, but the main rebellion essentially ended in Many factors contributed to the violence of the German Peasants' War.

As already noted, anger toward the church and aristocratic nobles was central to the rebels' discontent. Several written works voiced these concerns and were adopted by the movement. The most significant were the Twelve Articles and the Federal Ordinance. The Twelve Articles were written in Marchone month before the armed uprisings took place.

This work expressed an opposition to tithes, and the authors used scriptural references to support their argument. The opening part of the Twelve Articles made the same point Luther had made years earlier, that any disorder resulting from the preaching of the gospel that is, Lutheran gospel should be blamed on those who resist it, not on those who preach it.

According to this view, any violence or unrest that resulted from the Peasants' War was not the fault of the peasants. Instead, those who refused to hear their complaints were responsible. The peasants believed they were charged by God to rebel and fight for their rights. In addition to the Twelve Articles, there were other Reformation pamphlets that called for an end to the tithe and demanded that parishes have the right to choose and dismiss pastors.

They insisted that pastors preach the Scripture as written in the Bible and not as it is interpreted by church officials. The Federal Ordinance was a more complicated document because there were so many different versions. Some of these versions expressed different ideas about how the existing social and political structures should be changed.

In versions found in Upper Swabia and the Black Forest, the authors wanted self-governing groups, or confederations, of local communities "towns, villages, and rural regions" to be formed. Such a political and social organization was patterned on the Swiss Confederation of neighboring Switzerland see "Switzerland" in Chapter 4. Switzerland had grown in size and power by absorbing smaller neighboring confederations on its borders.

Some Germans even hoped to break away from Germany completely and become part of the Swiss Confederation. In this system, peasants who owned land would be able to participate in the local governmentessentially making them equal to the nobles and aristocrats who sat on the assemblies. It was unusual, but by no means unheard of, for peasants to participate in representative assemblies during this time.

The rebels were not united under a common political goal; their ideas varied from region to region, and therefore there was not a united movement to change the political structure of Europe as a whole. Concerns were more regional, and desires for reform were usually tied to that region. Religious concerns were also addressed in the Federal Ordinance.

An appeal was made to fourteen leading Reformation theologians, such as Luther, Melanchthon, and Zwingli, to decide if the rebels had scriptural support for their rebellion. Luther denounced them passionately, claiming they had not correctly interpreted his beliefs or the gospel itself. Luther called for authorities to end the rebellion by any means necessary.

Some peasants felt that Luther had betrayed them and returned to the Catholic Church. While Luther felt the peasants had legitimate concerns and complaints, he felt the solution was to be found in the Gospels, not through violence. He thought that if a leader was to become a better Christian, he would become a better ruler. Despite his public statements against the rebellion, most German princes both Lutheran and Roman Catholic connected the Lutheranism movement with the German Peasants' War.

Early opponents of Luther had claimed that his appeal to the princes and the mostafa mezher biography of martin luther to rebel against clerical authority would cause anarchy total lack of order across Europe. These opponents had also said that Luther's ideas would challenge the very rule of the princes and nobles he asked to support him. With the uprisings ofmany German princes believed these predictions were coming true.

As a result, princes of all religious affiliations began to take greater control over the religious practices within their realms. As criticism of the movement increased, Lutheranism was required to become more organized to defend itself against the attacks of opponents. Little is known about his family background. He studied at the universities of Leipzig and Frankfort on the Oder Between and he was at Wittenberg, where he came into contact with Martin Luther.

In and he preached at Zwickau. In April his radical beliefs caused him to be removed from his position as preacher at Zwickau. Later in he traveled to Bohemia; he preached at Prague and in November wrote his Prager Manifest Prague protestthe first of his surviving documents. Here he also introduced the first liturgy text used in worship services written in German the Catholic liturgy was written in Latin, the official language of the church, and could not be understood by common people.

His Allstedt reform program was successful, and he soon enjoyed a wide following in the town and surrounding countryside, which led to conflict with local Catholic lords. In late September city authorities expelled both reformers following their involvement in a rebellion. In March a new revolution in the city led to the formation of a new government.

At the age of ten she had been placed in a convent by her father after he remarried. Young girls who were not wanted by their parents were frequently placed in convents to become "brides of Christ. Along with twelve other nuns, she hid in an empty barrel used to transport smoked herring a kind of fish and escaped on the eve of Easter Three of the nuns who had escaped were accepted back by their families, but Katherine and the eight remaining nuns could not return home.

They found refuge at Wittenberg, where Luther was teaching. Their situation was typical of a mounting problem: former nuns who were not wealthy and did not live with their families could not find husbands to support them. After two years, Luther decided to marry Katherine himself. Nothing of this mostafa mezher biography of martin luther can be yielded or surrendered, even though heaven and earth and everything else falls Mark InJohann Tetzela Dominican friarwas sent to Germany by the Roman Catholic Church to sell indulgences to raise money in order to rebuild St.

Peter's Basilica in Rome. Albrecht obtained permission from Pope Leo X to conduct the sale of a special plenary indulgence i. On 31 OctoberLuther wrote to his bishop, Albrecht von Brandenburg, protesting against the sale of indulgences. He enclosed in his letter a copy of his "Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences", [ a ] which came to be known as the Ninety-five Theses.

Hans Hillerbrand writes that Luther had no intention of confronting the church but saw his disputation as a scholarly objection to church practices, and the tone of the writing is accordingly "searching, rather than doctrinaire. Peter with the money of poor believers rather than with his own money? Luther objected to a saying attributed to Tetzel that, "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory also attested as 'into heaven' springs.

Christians, he said, must not slacken in following Christ on account of such false assurances. The Latin Theses were printed in several locations in Germany in Luther's writings circulated widely, reaching FranceEnglandand Italy as early as Students thronged to Wittenberg to hear Luther speak. He published a short commentary on Galatians and his Work on the Psalms.

This early part of Luther's career was one of his most creative and productive. Archbishop Albrecht did not reply to Luther's letter containing the Ninety-five Theses. He had the theses checked for heresy and in December forwarded them to Rome. As Luther later notes, "the pope had a finger in the pie as well, because one half was to go to the building of St.

Peter's Church in Rome".

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Pope Leo X was used to reformers and heretics, [ 61 ] and he responded slowly, "with great care as is proper. First, the Dominican theologian Sylvester Mazzolini drafted a heresy case against Luther, whom Leo then summoned to Rome. Anne's PrioryLuther defended himself under questioning by papal legate Cardinal Cajetan. The pope's right to issue indulgences was at the centre of the dispute between the two men.

More than writing his theses, Luther's confrontation with the church cast him as an enemy of the pope: "His Holiness abuses Scripture", retorted Luther. In Januaryat Altenburg in Saxony, the papal nuncio Karl von Miltitz adopted a more conciliatory approach. Luther made certain concessions to the Saxon, who was a relative of the Elector and promised to remain silent if his opponents did.

From that moment, he devoted himself to Luther's defeat. On 15 Junethe Pope warned Luther with the papal bull edict Exsurge Domine that he risked excommunication unless he recanted 41 sentences drawn from his writings, including the Ninety-five Theseswithin 60 days. That autumn, Eck proclaimed the bull in Meissen and other towns. Von Miltitz attempted to broker a solution, but Luther, who had sent the pope a copy of On the Freedom of a Christian in October, publicly set fire to the bull and decretals in Wittenberg on 10 December[ 74 ] an act he defended in Why the Pope and his Recent Book are Burned and Assertions Concerning All Articles.

The enforcement of the ban on the Ninety-five Theses fell to the secular authorities. On 17 AprilLuther appeared as ordered before the Diet of Worms. This was a general assembly of the estates of the Holy Roman Empire that took place in Wormsa town on the Rhine. Johann Eck, speaking on behalf of the empire as assistant of the Archbishop of Trierpresented Luther with copies of his writings laid out on a table and asked him if the books were his and whether he stood by their contents.

Luther confirmed he was their author but requested time to think about the answer to the second question. He prayed, consulted friends, and gave his response the next day:. Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselvesI am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted, and my conscience is captive to the Word of God.

I cannot and will not recant anything since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. At the end of this speech, Luther raised his arm "in the traditional salute of a knight winning a bout. Martin, there is no one of the heresies which have torn the bosom of the church, which has not derived its origin from the various interpretation of the Scripture.

The Bible itself is the arsenal whence each innovator has drawn his deceptive arguments. It was with Biblical texts that Pelagius and Arius maintained their doctrines. Arius, for instance, found the negation of the eternity of the Word—an eternity which you admit, in this verse of the New Testament— Joseph knew not his wife till she had brought forth her first-born son ; and he said, in the same way that you say, that this passage enchained him.

When the fathers of the Council of Constance condemned this proposition of Jan Hus— The church of Jesus Christ is only the community of the electthey condemned an error; for the church, like a good mother, embraces within her arms all who bear the name of Christian, all who are called to enjoy the celestial beatitude. Luther refused to recant his writings.

He is sometimes also quoted as saying: "Here I stand. I can do no other". Recent scholars consider the evidence for these words to be unreliable since they were inserted before "May God help me" only in later versions of the speech and not recorded in witness accounts of the proceedings. Over the next five days, private conferences were held to determine Luther's fate.

The emperor presented the final draft of the Edict of Worms on 25 Maydeclaring Luther an outlawbanning his literature, and requiring his arrest: "We want him to be apprehended and punished as a notorious heretic. It permitted anyone to kill Luther without legal consequence. Luther's disappearance during his return to Wittenberg was planned.

Frederick III had him intercepted on his way home in the forest near Wittenberg by masked horsemen impersonating highway robbers. They escorted Luther to the security of the Wartburg Castle at Eisenach. These included a renewed attack on Albert of BrandenburgArchbishop of Mainzwhom he shamed into halting the sale of indulgences in his episcopates, [ 86 ] and a Refutation of the Argument of Latomusin which he expounded the principle of justification to Jacobus Latomusan orthodox theologian from Louvain.

On 1 AugustLuther wrote to Melanchthon on the same theme: "Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides. In the summer ofLuther widened his "mostafa mezher biography of martin luther" from individual pieties like indulgences and pilgrimages to doctrines at the heart of Church practice.

In On the Abrogation of the Private Masshe condemned as idolatry the idea that the mass is a sacrifice, asserting instead that it is a gift, to be received with thanksgiving by the whole congregation. He assured monks and nuns that they could break their vows without sin, because vows were an illegitimate and vain attempt to win salvation. Luther made his pronouncements from Wartburg in the context of rapid developments at Wittenberg, of which he was kept fully informed.

Andreas Karlstadt, supported by the ex-Augustinian Gabriel Zwillingembarked on a radical programme of reform there in Juneexceeding anything envisaged by Luther. The reforms provoked disturbances, including a revolt by the Augustinian friars against their prior, the smashing of statues and images in churches, and denunciations of the magistracy.

Luther secretly returned to Wittenberg on 6 March He wrote to the Elector: "During my absence, Satan has entered my sheepfold, and committed ravages which I cannot repair by writing, but only by my personal presence and living word. In these sermons, he hammered home the primacy of core Christian values such as love, patience, charity, and freedom, and reminded the citizens to trust God's word rather than mostafa mezher biography of martin luther to bring about necessary change.

Do you know what the Devil thinks when he sees men use violence to propagate the gospel? He sits with folded arms behind the fire of hell and says with malignant looks and frightful grin: "Ah, how wise these madmen are to play my game! Let them go on; I shall reap the benefit. I delight in it. The effect of Luther's intervention was immediate.

After the sixth sermon, the Wittenberg jurist Jerome Schurf wrote to the elector: "Oh, what joy has Dr. Martin's return spread among us! His words, through divine mercy, are bringing back every day misguided people into the way of the truth. Luther next set about reversing or modifying the new church practices. By working alongside the authorities to restore public order, he signaled his reinvention as a conservative force within the Reformation.

Despite his victory in Wittenberg, Luther was unable to stifle radicalism further afield. There had been revolts by the peasantry on smaller scales since the 15th century. Luther sympathised with some of the peasants' grievances, as he showed in his response to the Twelve Articles in Maybut he reminded the aggrieved to obey the temporal authorities.

In Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasantswritten on his return to Wittenberg, he gave his interpretation of the Gospel teaching on wealth, condemned the violence as the devil's work, and called for the nobles to put down the rebels like mad dogs:. Therefore let everyone who can, smite, slay, and stab, secretly or openly, remembering that nothing can be more poisonous, hurtful, or devilish than a rebel For baptism does not make men free in body and property, but in soul; and the gospel does not make goods common, except in the case of those who, of their own free willdo what the apostles and disciples did in Acts 4 [—37].

They did not demand, as do our insane peasants in their raging, that the goods of others—of Pilate and Herod—should be common, but only their own goods. Our peasants, however, want to make the goods of other men common, and keep their own for themselves. Fine Christians they are! I think there is not a devil left in hell; they have all gone into the peasants.

Their raving has gone beyond all measure. Without Luther's backing for the uprising, many rebels laid down their weapons; others felt betrayed. Luther married Katharina von Boraone of 12 nuns he had helped escape from the Nimbschen Cistercian convent in Aprilwhen he arranged for them to be smuggled out in herring barrels. Some priests and former members of religious orders had already married, including Andreas Karlstadt and Justus Jonas, but Luther's wedding set the seal of approval on clerical marriage.

Not that I am insensible to my flesh or sex for I am neither wood nor stone ; but my mind is averse to wedlock because I daily expect the death of a heretic. Luther and his wife moved into a former monastery, " The Black Cloister ," a wedding present from Elector John the Steadfast. They embarked on what appears to have been a happy and successful marriage, though money was often short.

ByLuther found himself increasingly occupied in organising a new church. His biblical ideal of congregations choosing their own ministers had proved unworkable. If he were forced to choose, he would take his stand with the masses, and this was the direction in which he moved. From tohe established a supervisory church body, laid down a new form of worship serviceand wrote a clear summary of the new faith in the form of two catechisms.

He also did not wish to replace one controlling system with another. He concentrated on the church in the Electorate of Saxonyacting only as an adviser to churches in new territories, many of which followed his Saxon model. He worked closely with the new elector, John the Steadfast, to whom he turned for secular leadership and funds on behalf of a church largely shorn of its assets and income after the break with Rome.

The elector authorised a visitation of the church, a power formerly exercised by bishops. For example, the Instructions for the Visitors of Parish Pastors in Electoral Saxonydrafted by Melanchthon with Luther's approval, stressed the role of repentance in the forgiveness of sins, despite Luther's position that faith alone ensures justification.

In response to demands for a German liturgyLuther wrote a German Masswhich he published in early Luther and his colleagues introduced the new order of worship during their visitation of the Electorate of Saxony, which began in Luther devised the catechism as a method of imparting the basics of Christianity to the congregations. Inhe wrote the Large Catechisma manual for pastors and teachers, as well as a synopsis, the Small Catechismto be memorised by the people.

The catechism is one of Luther's most personal works. For I acknowledge none of them to be really a book of mine, except perhaps the Bondage of the Will and the Catechism. Luther's Small Catechism proved especially effective in helping parents teach their children; likewise the Large Catechism was effective for pastors. He rewrote each article of the Creed to express the character of the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit.

Luther's goal was to enable the catechumens to see themselves as a personal object of the work of the three persons of the Trinity, each of which works in the catechumen's life. Luther's treatment of the Apostles' Creed must be understood in the context of the Decalogue the Ten Commandments and The Lord's Prayer, which are also part of the Lutheran catechetical teaching.

Luther had published his German translation of the New Testament inand he and his collaborators completed the translation of the Old Testament inwhen the whole Bible was published. He continued to work on refining the translation until the end of his life. Luther's translation used the variant of German spoken at the Saxon chancellery, intelligible to both northern and southern Germans.

Mostafa mezher biography of martin luther: Luxemburg, Rosa, · Lyall, Charles James

As such, it contributed a distinct flavor to the German language and literature. Luther did not include First Epistle of John[ ] the Johannine Comma in his translation, rejecting it as a forgery. It was inserted into the text by others after Luther's death. His tool of choice for this connection was the singing of German hymns in connection with worship, school, home, and the public arena.

Luther's hymns were frequently evoked by particular events in his life and the unfolding Reformation. Messenger's translation by the title and first line "Flung to the Heedless Winds" and sung to the tune Ibstone composed in by Maria C. Luther's hymn, adapted and expanded from an earlier German creedal hymn, gained widespread use in vernacular Lutheran liturgies as early as Sixteenth-century Lutheran hymnals also included "Wir glauben all" among the catechetical hymns, although 18th-century hymnals tended to label the hymn as Trinitarian rather than catechetical, and 20th-century Lutherans rarely used the hymn because of the perceived difficulty of its tune.

Luther's hymnic version of the Lord's Prayer" Vater unser im Himmelreich ", corresponds exactly to Luther's mostafa mezher biography of martin luther of the prayer in the Small Catechism. The hymn functions both as a liturgical setting of the Lord's Prayer and as a means of examining candidates on specific catechism questions. The extant manuscript shows multiple revisions, demonstrating Luther's concern to clarify and strengthen the text and to provide an appropriately prayerful tune.

Other 16th- and 20th-century versifications of the Lord's Prayer have adopted Luther's tune, although modern texts are considerably shorter. Luther wrote " Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir " "From depths of woe I cry to You" in as a hymnic version of Psalm and sent it as a sample to encourage his colleagues to write psalm-hymns for use in German worship.

In a collaboration with Paul Speratusthis and seven other hymns were published in the Achtliederbuchthe first Lutheran hymnal. In Luther developed his original four-stanza psalm paraphrase into a five-stanza Reformation hymn that developed the theme of "grace alone" more fully. Because it expressed essential Reformation doctrine, this expanded version of "Aus tiefer Not" was designated as a regular component of several regional Lutheran liturgies and was widely used at funerals, including Luther's own.

Along with Erhart Hegenwalt's hymnic version of Psalm 51Luther's expanded hymn was also adopted for use with the fifth part of Luther's catechism, concerning confession. He wrote for Pentecost " Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist ", and adopted for Easter " Christ ist erstanden " Christ is risenbased on Victimae paschali laudes. He paraphrased the Te Deum as " Herr Gott, dich loben wir " with a simplified form of the melody.

It became known as the German Te Deum. Luther's hymn " Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam " "To Jordan came the Christ our Lord" reflects the structure and substance of his questions and answers concerning baptism in the Small Catechism. Luther adopted a preexisting Johann Walter tune associated with a hymnic "mostafa mezher biography of martin luther" of Psalm 67 's prayer for grace; Wolf Heintz's four-part setting of the hymn was used to introduce the Lutheran Reformation in Halle in Preachers and composers of the 18th century, including J.

Bachused this rich hymn as a subject for their own work, although its objective baptismal theology was displaced by more subjective hymns under the influence of lateth-century Lutheran pietism. Luther's hymns were included in early Lutheran hymnals and spread the ideas of the Reformation. He supplied four of eight songs of the First Lutheran hymnal Achtliederbuch18 of 26 songs of the Erfurt Enchiridionand 24 of the 32 songs in the first choral hymnal with settings by Johann Walter, Eyn geystlich Gesangk Buchleynall published in Luther's hymns inspired composers to write music.

In contrast to the views of John Calvin [ ] and Philipp Melanchthon[ ] throughout his life Luther maintained that it was not false doctrine to believe that a Christian's soul sleeps after it is separated from the body in death. In his Smalcald Articleshe described the saints as currently residing "in their graves and in heaven. The Lutheran theologian Franz Pieper observes that Luther's teaching about the state of the Christian's soul after death differed from the later Lutheran theologians such as Johann Gerhard.

Luther's Commentary on Genesis contains a passage which concludes that "the soul does not sleep anima non sic dormitbut wakes sed vigilat and experiences visions". In OctoberPhilip I, Landgrave of Hesseconvoked an assembly of German and Swiss theologians at the Marburg Colloquyto establish doctrinal unity in the emerging Protestant states.

Zwingli, for example, denied Jesus' ability to be in more than one place at a time. Luther stressed the omnipresence of Jesus' human nature. Citing Jesus' words "The flesh profiteth nothing" John 6. This is Hesse, not Switzerland. Despite the disagreements on the Eucharist, the Marburg Colloquy paved the way for the signing in of the Augsburg Confessionand for the formation of the Schmalkaldic League the following year by leading Protestant nobles such as John of SaxonyPhilip of Hesse, and George, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach.

Within three months Luther had translated the whole of the New Testament. This is an amazing feat, and is even more so considering the monumental impact that this translation would have on the German people. For the first time, an ordinary believer could read the Bible for themselves. Luther was helped by his friend and fellow reformer Phillip Melanchthon a much better Greek scholar and, having begun the New Testament in November or December ofcompleted it in March of — just before he left Wartburg Castle to return to Wittenberg.

After some revising, the German New Testament was made available in September of Luther immediately set to work on translating the Old Testament. The first five books, the Pentateuch, appeared in and the Psalms were finished in By the entire Bible had been translated. This was not the first German translation, but it was the finest and became the primary Bible of the German people.

Luther knew that for the people to return to the truth of the Gospel — that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, they needed Scripture in their own language. If Luther had done nothing else, had never preached a sermon, had never written a treatise, had never insulted a pope, had never taken a stand at Worms, his translating of Scripture into German would have propelled the Reformation onward.

Because the Bible was no longer in a foreign language, but the language of the people, the Reformation was not dependent on the works of any of the Reformers but depended instead on the Word of God. The people consumed the Word at an phenomenal rate. On Wittenberg printer sold about a hundred thousand copies in 40 years, which is an enormously large number at that age, and these copies were read and reread by millions of Germans.

I deserve nothing better; for all my wish has been to lead souls to the Bible, so that they might afterwards neglect my writings. Great God! Translating Scripture into the language of the common people would become a hallmark of the Protestant Reformation, with translations in Spanish, French, English, and other languages close behind. And take hold it did.

Thanks in large part to the preaching, teaching, and writing of Luther the theology of the Reformation spread throughout Germany and to other countries in Europe. Martin Luther, whose heart was held captive by the Word of God and who was used by God to usher in the Protestant Reformation, died on February 18, in Eisleben — the city of his birth.

Luther left us a complex and sometimes controversial legacy. But it is clear that — despite his faults — he was used greatly by God to restore Scripture to its proper place of authority in the life of the church and in the life of the individual believer. Luther was emboldened to risk his life for the truth that Scripture alone is to be our ultimate authority in all spiritual matters.

This doctrine came to be known as Sola Scriptura. It is for this reason that the Protestant Reformation was able to continue spreading even after his death. As bold a leader as Luther was, the Reformation was not about a cult of personality — it was a movement to return to the truth of Scripture. Hi, I'm Clay. I created ReasonableTheology.

Thanks for stopping by! Great informative article! I cannot wait to share it with my Sunday School kids!