Continued
from previous post –
Martin
Luther's advent
Martin
Luther, a man both solemn and passionate, is an Augustinian friar
teaching theology at the university recently founded in Wittenberg by
Frederick the Wise, the elector of Saxony. Obsessed by his own
unworthiness, he decides finally, that no amount of virtue or good
behavior can be the basis of salvation (as proposed in the doctrine
known as justification by works). If the Christian life is not to be
meaningless, he argues, a sinner's faith must be the only merit for
which God's grace might be granted. This doctrine was based on St.
Paul's teachings. Martin Luther developed sizable follower-ships
amongst his companions in the Church and out side. They began to
protest against the claims made by prevalent authority that Popes
have ecclesiastical
powers over people. Later on,
that group was called Protestants. These Protestants
tend to deny that Peter and those claimed to be his immediate
successors had universally recognized supreme authority over all the
early churches. The same Protestants said that Rome's prominence may
be seen as only moral, and political not ecclesiastical, and that
emergence of the Roman pontiff to supreme power and prominence
happened by natural (man made) circumstance rather than divine
appointment.
Luther
therefore becomes a passionate believer in an alternative doctrine,
justification by faith, for which he finds evidence in the writings
of St
Paul. In a way,
Martin Luther encouraged devotion against intelligent method for
salvation, the doctrine that proposes justification of work. This
doctrine says, virtue and good behavior or righteousness is
responsible for salvation. St. Paul had recommended that devotion for
Jesus is more important than righteousness. This he recommended in
time when they were interested in collecting as many people around
Jesus as possible by way of a market strategy to promote creed of
Jesus; that helped them in garnering maximum support for his
Christianity. Eventually religion of Christianity grew phenomenally
in Europe. Actually, this was a total deviation from the real
teachings of Jesus but nobody bothered about it as nobody was really,
interested in Jesus and his teachings. Everybody in the Church was
interested in business of religion. Therefore, Martin Luther got big
support from interested parties such as king of England particularly
because that king had a grudge against the papal authority, which had
put him to task on the matter of his marrying many women and not
because that king has anything to do with what Martin had in his
plans.
Nothing
could be farther from the concept of justification by faith than
Tetzel's
impudent selling of God's grace. Luther has often argued against the
sale of indulgences in his sermons. Now he takes a more public stand.
He writes out ninety-five propositions about the nature of faith and
contemporary church practice. Both Tetzel and Luther were far away
from Jesus and his teachings but now they being against each other a
fight of propaganda began amongst them. The tone of these 'theses',
as they come to be known, is academic. However, the underlying
effect, apart from overt criticism of indulgences
is that, truth is to be sought in scripture rather than in the
teaching of the church. By nailing his theses to the door of All
Saints' in Wittenberg, as Luther does on 31 October 1517, he is
merely proposing them as subjects for debate.
This
raised tremendous turmoil in Europe as three ideologies (Indulgence
of Tetzel,
devotion to scriptures of Luther and original philosophy of Jesus,
righteousness) conflicting with each other began to confuse common
European faithful and it continues to create conflicting in that
continent for many centuries. Instead of launching a debate in
Wittenberg, the ninety-five theses spark off a European conflagration
of unparalleled violence. The Reformation ravages western Christendom
for more than a century, bringing violent intolerance and hatred,
which lasts in some Christian communities down to the present day. No
sectarian dispute in any other religion has matched the destructive
force, the brutality and the bitterness, which begins in Wittenberg
in 1517. Church stoutly stood by the Indulgence of Tetzel
and intellectuals in favor of Martin Luther.
Luther
is as surprised as anyone else is by the eruption, which now engulfs
him - slowly at first but with accelerating pace after a year or two.
Its violence derives from several unusual elements. The
papacy is determined to suppress this disrespect for papal authority.
Luther's writings are burnt in Rome in 1520; his excommunication
follows in 1521. This is the predictable part; the unexpected
elements are the groundswell of support in Germany, nourished by a
deep resentment of papal interference; and the effect of the
relatively new craft of printing. Printing technique was developed
during this time. The Europeans had copied the idea of printing paper
from Chinese; only difference was that they in Germany had mechanized
the whole process so that multiple copies of the same print became
possible. A new market for books developed simultaneously and people
were interested in reading the new material. There was not much to
read and so whatever little was printed became popular in literate
people. In that, Luther's ninety-five theses attracted their
attention and as a result, his thoughts spread like wild fire in all
Germany. A fierce debate develops, with pamphlets pouring from the
presses - many of them from Luther's pen. Within six years, by 1523,
Europe's printers produce 1300 different editions of his tracts. In
these circumstances, it was impossible for the issue to be swept
under the carpet. Any action taken against Luther in person is
certain to provoke a crisis - though in the early years his safety
depends heavily on the protection of Frederick the Wise, proud of his
university and reluctant to hand over to Rome its famous theologian,
however controversial he was. Now in the new situation Pope has to
answer more public than what was in early days. The number of owlish
persons had increased tremendously due to printing. Facing them all
was not so easy.
Continues in the
next post –
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