Entry 3: Martin Luther

Part of the 95 theses written by Luther that caused this tremendous revolution.

The 95 theses is what really started all of the uproar in the church. Religiously speaking Luther began to question the Catholic church. The church had become tyrannical in Luther’s eyes and he believed that things needed to change. Not every person had an equal stake in the church and Luther had an issue with this. Once Luther began looking into the church more closely he found that the sacraments did not match up with the ones in the bible. I found it very interesting that the bible only spoke of two sacraments for heaven while the church had seven, and yet Luther was the only one questioning this. Clearly this was an issue for Luther and he wanted change. The fact that the Catholic church was working so incredibly hard to silence Martin Luther certainly makes it seem as though they knew he had a valid argument and could show other people how the church was working. I think this also gave Luther the confidence to continue questioning the church. 

As a cultural revolutionary Martin Luther made his mark using the printing press to spread his ideas. He was described as the first propagandist because of the printing press. Martin Luther began teaching at Wittenberg due to his friendship with the founder Frederick “The Wise”. Here is where Luther gained support from the students. I believe this is where Luther gained the biggest support. The younger generation was starting to see Luther’s ideas on religion and gained young supporters who were eager to make changes. Luther believed that ordinary Christians could make a difference, you did not have to be the Pope or part of his army of priests and this gave ordinary people excitement and confidence in themselves when it came to faith. The written work of Luther spread through Europe and he became the figure of a revolution through his bravery and questioning of the current religious set up. Luther also gave Germans a translation of the bible. Now common people were able to read the bible instead of just the educated. There was a great following with this revolution, which lead to the attack of peasants and Judaism as well as the Catholic Church.

This is a statue of Martin Luther at the University of Wittenberg.

  

Politically speaking, Martin Luther’s impact reached as far as the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. Charles V wanted to stop the spread of Luther’s works because he was an extremely devout Catholic and wanted to preserve that faith which Luther is attacking. Luther was granted the opportunity to defend himself at the next parliament in front of Charles V and other highly placed individuals including Frederick. The fact that Luther was standing up to Charles V gained Luther immense support from common people all over German speaking lands. It had to be very difficult for Luther going to this meeting knowing that death was a very real possibility. Even though those close to Luther attempted to talk him out of this meeting he still went through with it and I think this made people believe in Luther even more. Overall Luther had powerful political leaders very scared and that gave power to Luther’s followers, as shown when Wittenberg was seized. 

This is a picture of Frederick the Wise, who was key in Martin Luther's success.