Guiding Question:
- "Luther was both a radical and a conservative" Assess the validity of this statement in regard to Luther's ideas and actions.
Directions - Read through the sources provided below. For each source decide if it sounds like Luther is a Conservative Christian or a Radical Reformer. In your notes make a chart and organize each source into either category. Be sure to have a justifiable reason for your selections.
Sources:
Source 1: Martin Luther, Letter to Archbishop, 1517
As a young man, Martin Luther became increasingly bothered by the practice of granting sinners indulgences to buy their way out of punishment for their sins. In 1517, Luther decided to write up his criticisms of indulgences and to send them to the Archbishop of Mainz. The passage is an excerpt from the letter Luther sent to the Archbishop of Mainz with the 95 Theses. |
The grace of God be with you in all its fullness and power! Spare me, Most Reverend Father in Christ and Most Illustrious Prince, that I, the dregs of humanity, have so much boldness that I have dared to think of (writing) a letter to someone of your Sublimity (grandeur)…
Papal indulgences for the building of St. Peter's are circulating under your most distinguished name. I do not bring accusation against the outcries of the preachers, which I have not heard, so much as I grieve over the wholly false impressions which the people have conceived from them (the indulgences). The unhappy souls believe that if they have purchased letters of indulgence they are sure of their salvation. |
Source 2: Martin Luther, Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation Concerning the Reform of the Christian Estate, 1520
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The Romanists [traditional Catholics loyal to the papacy] have very cleverly built three walls around themselves. Hitherto they have protected themselves by these walls in such a way that no one has been able to reform them. As a result, the whole of Christendom has fallen abominably.
In the first place, when pressed by the temporal power they have made decrees and declared that the temporal power had no jurisdiction over them, but that, on the contrary, the spiritual power is above the temporal. In the second place, when the attempt is made to reprove them with the Scriptures, they raise the objection that only the pope may interpret the Scriptures. In the third place, if threatened with a council, their story is that no one may summon a council but the pope. In this way they have cunningly stolen our three rods from us, that they may go unpunished. They have [settled] themselves within the safe stronghold of these three walls so that they can practice all the knavery and wickedness which we see today. Even when they have been compelled to hold a council they have weakened its power in advance by putting the princes under oath to let them remain as they were. IN addition, they have given the pope full authority over all decisions of a council, so that it is all the same whether there are many councils or no councils. They only deceive us with puppet shows and sham fights. They fear terribly for their skin in a really free council! They have so intimidated kings and princes with this technique that they believe it would be an offense against God not to be obedient to the Romanists in all their knavish and ghoulish deceits.... |
Source 3: Martin Luther, Table Talk, 1535
As Luther gained popularity, some of his followers began to write down things that Luther said in private. These notes were known as Luther’s Table Talk and were collected and published in the 1560s. The following is presumed to be from Luther’s Table Talk in 1535. |
The main reason I fell out with the pope was this: the pope boasted that he was the head of the Church, and condemned all that would not be under his power and authority. He said, although Christ is the head of the Church, there must be a physical head of the Church upon earth. With this I could have been content, if he had taught the gospel pure and clear, and not introduced human inventions and lies. Further, he took power, rule, and authority over the Christian Church, and over the Holy Scriptures, the Word of God. No man can explain the Scriptures. The pope did and he made himself lord over the Church, proclaiming her (the Church) at the same time a powerful mother, and empress over the Scriptures. This could not be tolerated. Those who, against God's Word, boast of the Church's authority, are mere idiots. The pope gives more power to the Church, which is begotten and born, than to the Word (the bible), which has conceived, and born the Church.
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Source 4: Martin Luther, A Mighty Fortress is Our God, hymn, 1527 - 1528
Martin Luther believed that congregational hymn singing was an important part of a church service and an effective way to teach people about theology. In this tactic he anticipated modern advertisers, who recognize the power of a song or jingle in influencing people’s choices. The two hymns excerpted here show Luther’s ability to convey theological issues into song. |
A mighty fortress is our God, A sword and shield victorious;
He breaks the cruel oppressor’s rod And wins salvation glorious. The old satanic foe Has sworn to work us woe! With craft and dreadful might He arms himself to fight On earth he has no equal No strength of ours can match his might! We would be lost, rejected. But now a champion comes to fight, Whom God himself elected. You ask who this may be? The Lord of hosts is he! Christ Jesus, might Lord, God’s only Son, adored. He holds the field victorious Though hordes of devils fill the land All threat’ning to devour us, We tremble not, unmoved we stand; They cannot overpow’r us, Let this world’s tyrant rage; In battle we’ll engage! His might is doomed to fail; God’s judgment must prevail! One little word subdues him. |
Source 6: Martin Luther, Lord, Keep Us Steadfast In Thy Word, hymn 1541 - 1542
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Lord, keep us steadfast in thy Word, And curb the pope’s and Turk’s vile sword,
Who seek to topple from the stone Jesus Christ, thine only Son. Proof of thy might, Lord Christ, afford, For thou of all the lords art Lord; Thine own poor Christendom defend, That it may praise thee without end. God Holy Ghost, who comfort art, Give to thy folk on earth one heart; Stand by us breathing our last breath, Lead us to life straight out of death. |
Source 7: Martin Luther, Against the Murdering, Thieving Hordes of Peasants, Wittenberg, May 1525.
In 1524 the peasants rebelled in Southern Germany and demanded that taxes, serfdom and the sovereignty of the Scriptures be reduced. They were led into rebelling by Thomas Müntzer, a former monk who was in favor of a radical reform. Confronted by the peasants’ war, Luther called for peace, and denounced the deceitful prophets who deluded the people. He described it as the devil’s work even though he was accused of having started it with his ideas. The rebelling peasants were beaten, the repression was terrible and Müntzer was beheaded. |
The peasants forgot their place, violently took matters into their own hands, and are robbing and raging like mad dogs. It is clear that the assertions they made in their Twelve Articles were nothing but lies presented under the name of the Gospel. This is particularly the work of that devil, Thomas Müntzer, who rules at Mühlhausen. The peasants are not content with belonging to the devil themselves; they force and compel many good people to join their devilish league. Anyone who consorts with them goes to the devil with them and is guilty of all the evil deeds that they commit.
... I will not oppose a ruler who, even though he does not tolerate the gospel, will smite and punish these peasants without first offering to submit the case to judgement. He is within his rights, since the peasants are not contending any longer for the gospel, but have become faithless, perjured, disobedient, rebellious murders, robbers, and blasphemers, whom even a heathen ruler has the right and authority to punish. Indeed, it is his duty to punish such scoundrels, for this is why he bears the sword and is "the servant of God to execute his wrath on the wrongdoer," Romans 13(:4). |