Martin Luther and the German Reformation - Essay Example

Sexual immorality among clergy was common. Lay people had little knowledge about their faith and many clerics were poorly prepared for their task, having obtained posts by buying them or nepotism. Catholic believers often had a lack of assurance about their own salvation. There were also problems with authority - church or state, which should prevail? Papal authority was challenged and a desire for reform became general. When it did come it was certainly in part due to theological differences, but the power vacuum that existed in Europe at the time, with doubts as to who was really in charge, played its part too.

Printing was becoming widespread and with it new ideas soon spread too, including some that could be described as revolutionary. The Papacy Giovanni de Medici had achieved the Papacy in 1513 as Leo X. Within 2 years he had used up the funds in the papal treasury, in particular on extensive building schemes and as sponsor of artists. Seeking ever more funds he began to sell offices within the church, creating 31 new cardinals for instance and living a life of absolute luxury. Printing was becoming widespread, but the Vatican was a strong censor, only allowing documents they approved of.

At the ending of the Lateran Council in 1517 a prophecy was made by Pico della Mirandola , a lay man ( cited on ‘Origins of the Reformation’, undated) . This had stated that if the pope did not heal the wounds of the church then God would act and remove the rotten limbs. Instead, in order to raise funds for the construction of St Peter’s in Rome, Leo made matters worse by instigating a huge sale of indulgences. An indulgence can be defined as payment a sinner must make to God. Luther was more concerned with an individual’s faith in God’s gift of salvation rather than the length of his purse.

Luther In October 1517 Martin Luther, then an Augustinian monk, was a doctor of theology and a professor of Biblical studies at the University of Wittenberg. He was a man who thought deeply about his faith and finally reached the point where he rejected all church practices based solely upon tradition and not upon the true nature of God. At this point he came up with 95 theses which he made public by sticking them on the door of the church in Wittenburg. (Stupperich, The History of Christianity, 1977, page 362).

This act was the spark which lit the fires of reform already prepared by his predecessors such as Wycliffe and Has. He was not only letting people know what he thought , but was openly challenging the Church. He refused to recant and in 1519 , according to Stuppervich ( page 362, denied the papacy’s authority. In 1521 he was finally excommunicated. Luther was attacking certain practises, including the sale of indulgences, but was really attacking the wealth of the church in material terms, which contrasted with the truths of the Gospels.

Luther was forced to flee from Wittenberg , but returned in 1522 in order to try and bring some calm to the reformers there. He began to reform church services, introducing a freer way of worship rather than the rather rigid ways that had become normal practice. He saw salvation as being up to God, not the following of particular practices. It seems likely that Luther wanted reform rather than revolution, but his followers took things rather further than he had originally envisaged. That being said by 1537 he