Harshad arora biography of martin luther

We have created you, fed you, cared for you and left you our temporal goods. Why do you treat us so cruelly and leave us to suffer in the flames, when it takes only a little to save us? The illegitimacy of indulgences on behalf of the dead is why Luther decided to post the 95 Theses. This single act, though not particularly unusual or defiant, would reverberate across countries, across continents, and across centuries.

This was the act which sparked the Protestant Reformation, and it was the Protestant Reformation that brought light into darkness and recovered the core truths of the gospel obscured by medieval religion. Luther wanted to have an earnest theological discussion about whether issuing indulglences on behalf of the dead was was Biblical or approved by the Pope.

At this point he did not question indulgences altogether, or purgatory, or the primacy of the Pope. In fact, he defended the Pope, and assumed the Pope would put a stop to this shady sale of indulgences. Luther was not trying to cause trouble. This was an academic and theological issue, and his 95 Theses were written in Latin, not the language of the people.

Without his knowledge or permission, these Theses were translated by some of his students from Latin to German and distributed. Thanks to the new technology of the printing press, within 2 weeks nearly every village in Germany had a copy. The ideas soon took hold, and storm clouds began to loom on the horizon. All at once, as if reading it for the first time, Luther came to understand the full meaning of Romanswhich says.

Salvation is by grace through faith — not by prayers or fasting or pilgrimages or sacraments. Righteousness before God was not earned by our works, but was a gift from God to us received by faith! Luther was overjoyed — But this Gospel truth of salvation by grace alone through faith alone and not of works immediately brought Luther into even greater contention with Catholic doctrine.

What was he to do? Should he ignore Scripture to obey the church, or should he challenge the church to obey Scripture? Rather than being subject to both sacred Scripture and sacred tradition, as the church taught, Luther believed that we are to be subject to Scripture alone — and that Scripture has the authority to correct the traditions when they are in error.

He said:. A war of words ensued. A papal bull, or edict, called Luther to repent and threatened him with excommunication. On December 10,Luther burned it. This was tantamount to treason. Luther wrote more theological works, many of which spoke against the sacramental system of the Roman church. On April 17,Luther was summoned to the Diet of Worms — an imperial council held in Worms, Germany which harshad arora biography of martin luther decide the fate of this troublesome monk.

The Holy Roman Emperor, Charles the 5 th presided over the affair. The Roman officials demanded to know if these were his writings and whether or not he would recant. Luther had expected to debate his ideas, not be forced to recant them. He asked for a day to consider the matter. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in Western and Christian history.

Luther was ordained to the priesthood in He came to reject several teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Churchin particular the view on indulgences. Luther attempted to resolve these differences amicably, first proposing an academic discussion of the practice and efficacy of indulgences in Ninety-five Theseswhich he authored in InPope Leo X demanded that Luther renounce all of his writings, and when Luther refused to do so, excommunicated him in January When Luther died inPope Leo X's excommunication was still in effect.

Luther taught that salvation and, consequently, eternal life are not earned by good deeds; rather, they are received only as the free gift of God's grace through the believer's faith in Jesus Christ. Luther's theology challenged the authority and office of the pope by teaching that the Bible is the only source of divinely revealed knowledge, [ 5 ] and opposed sacerdotalism by considering all baptized Christians to be a holy priesthood.

It fostered the development of a standard version of the German languageadded several principles to the art of translation, [ 7 ] and influenced the writing of an English translation, the Tyndale Bible. In two later works, Luther expressed anti-Judaistic viewscalling for the expulsion of Jews and the burning of synagogues. Luther was baptized the next morning on the feast day of Martin of Tours.

Inhis family moved to Mansfeldwhere his father was a leaseholder of copper mines and smelters [ 20 ] and served as one of four citizen representatives on the local council; inhe was elected as a town councilor. He had several brothers and sisters and is known to have been close to one of them, Jacob. Hans Luther, Martin's father, was determined to see Martin, his eldest son, become a lawyer.

He sent Martin to Latin schools in Mansfeld, then Magdeburg inwhere he attended the Brethren of the Common Lifea school operated by a lay groupand Eisenach in Luther later compared his education there to purgatory and hell. Inat age 17, Martin entered the University of Erfurtwhich he later described as a beerhouse and whorehouse. In accordance with his father's wishes, Luther enrolled in law but dropped out almost immediately, believing that law was an uncertain profession.

Philosophy proved to be unsatisfying to Luther because it offered assurance about the use of reason but none about loving Godwhich Luther believed was more important. Reason could not lead men to God, Luther felt, and he thereafter developed a love-hate relationship with Aristotle over Aristotle's emphasis on reason. Human beings could learn about God only through divine revelationhe believed, leading him to view scripture as increasingly important.

On 2 Julywhile Luther was returning to university on horseback following a trip home, a lightning bolt struck near him during a thunderstorm. He later told his father that he was terrified of death and divine judgment, and he cried out, "Help! Saint AnnaI will become a monk! He withdrew from the university, sold his books, and entered St. Augustine's Monastery in Erfurt on 17 July Luther himself seemed saddened by the move.

Those who attended a farewell supper walked him to the door of the Black Cloister. Luther dedicated himself to the Augustinian orderdevoting himself to fastinglong hours in prayerpilgrimageand frequent confession. He said, "I lost touch with Christ the Savior and Comforter, and made of him the jailer and hangman of my poor soul. Johann von Staupitzhis superior, concluded that Luther needed more work to distract him from excessive introspection and ordered him to pursue an academic career.

The following year, inLuther began teaching theology at the University of Wittenberg. On 21 OctoberLuther was received into the senate of the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg[ 37 ] succeeding von Staupitz as chair of theology. Inhe was made provincial vicar of Saxony and Thuringiawhich required him to visit and oversee eleven monasteries in his province.

From toLuther lectured on the Psalms, and on the books of Hebrews, Romans, and Galatians. As he studied these portions of the Bible, he came to view the use of terms such as penance and righteousness by the Catholic Church in new ways. He became convinced that the church was corrupt and had lost sight of what he saw as several of the central truths of Christianity.

The most important for Luther was the doctrine of justification —God's act of declaring a sinner righteous—by faith alone through God's grace. He began to teach that salvation or redemption is a gift of God's graceattainable only through faith in Jesus as the Messiah. Luther came to understand justification as entirely the work of God.

This teaching by Luther was clearly expressed in his publication On the Bondage of the Willwhich was written in response to On Free Will by Desiderius Erasmus Against the teaching of his day that the righteous acts of believers are performed in cooperation with God, Luther wrote that Christians receive such harshad arora biography of martin luther entirely from outside themselves; that righteousness not only comes from Christ but actually is the righteousness of Christ, imputed to Christians rather than infused into them through faith.

The first and chief article is this: Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, died for our sins and was raised again for our justification Romans — He alone is the Lamb of God who harshad arora biographies of martin luther away the sins of the world Johnand God has laid on Him the iniquity of us all Isaiah All have sinned and are justified freely, without their own works and merits, by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, in His blood Romans — This is necessary to believe.

This cannot be otherwise acquired or grasped by any work, law, or merit. Therefore, it is clear and certain that this faith alone justifies us Nothing of this article 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". Pope Leo X was used to harshad arora biographies of martin luther 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 target 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 violence 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 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 spirituality, 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. 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 increase, 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.

Harshad arora biography of martin luther

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. 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 nobility 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 harshad arora biography of martin luther 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. Luther regarded the decision as having two benefits: he could please his father by taking a wife and upset the pope by getting married while he was still a priest.

Luther quickly settled into married life. The couple had six children, and Luther proved to be a tender husband and father. He was one of the first reformers to publicly support marriage for priests, and he greatly admired his wife. Katherine had a talent for stretching her husband's meager income. She also started a boarding house and ran a successful farm.

She brewed an excellent beer, which Luther greatly enjoyed, and she was not afraid to voice her opinion to her husband. Although always respectful, Katherine was known to openly disagree with Luther. As his respect for his wife and daughters grew, Luther became more vocal in his recognition of women's talents. He was one of the first advocates of schooling for girls, helping qualified women find jobs as elementary teachers.

Although he supported the right to education, Luther still believed that women should take care of the home and children and should not be allowed to be ministers or accept public responsibilities. The unstable political situation in the Holy Roman Empire contributed to the success of the Reformation movement. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V was continually threatened by the Ottoman Turks, so his military forces were busy fighting the war against the Turks in eastern Europe and were not available to keep order during the revolts in Germany.

Some historians argue that if Charles had not been so preoccupied with the Ottomans, he would have stopped the reform movement. Political and military events of were therefore important to the continued spread of the Reformation throughout Europe. Once again Charles V's brother, Archduke Ferdinand, presided in the emperor's absence. While they were meeting, reports of continued Ottoman aggression reached the council.

Imperial officials were forced to make a decision regarding the empire's official stance towards the Reformation movement. So many churches and towns had turned "evangelical" a term used to refer to the Reformation movement in Germany; those who practiced the new religion were called "evangelicals" that Ferdinand was forced to allow people to practice their chosen religion.

In other words, the council decided that people should follow their own conscience as long as they did not break the harshad arora biographies of martin luther of God and the emperor. Although this was neither a condemnation nor an approval of the evangelicals, the council declared it would be the official policy until the general church council was able to meet and establish more specific rules and regulations.

Ferdinand and Charles both knew that taking a harsh stand against the evangelical movement could result in loss of support for their campaign against the Ottomans. The Turks were threatening Hungary, which was ruled by Ferdinand's brother-in-law, Louis IIand the council needed to act quickly. At the Diet of Speyer it was decided that twenty-four thousand troops would be sent to assist Louis against the Ottomans.

These efforts came too late, however, and the Hungarians were demolished by the Turkish forces see "Hungary" in Chapter 4. Louis was killed on August 29, along with nearly twenty thousand troops and five hundred nobles. The Turks were unable to continue their campaign, however, because most of their forces were made up of noblemen who had to return home and attend to their own estates.

While the Turks were distracting Charles in eastern Europe, the evangelical movement was winning thousands of converts in Germany. Luther continued writing pamphlets that publicized the Lutheran cause. He also composed hymns that were based on the Psalms. These hymns made evangelical worship services more inspiring and attracted additional harshad arora biographies of martin luther. It is still sung in many Protestant churches today.

In the summer ofas the evangelical movement presented mounting threats against the Catholic Church, an important event strengthened the ties between the emperor and the pope. Soldiers in Charles V's army sacked Rome when they had not been paid for their services. Charles was embarrassed by the actions of his men and the overall lack of discipline within his army.

Nevertheless, he used the situation to promise protection to the pope, who had been opposed to Charles's efforts to bring Italy into the empire. In return, the pope had to give Charles control of Rome and the Papal States territories ruled by the pope in central and northern Italy. After the new alliance was formed between the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire, the second Speyer meeting was held in March Both Charles and Clement were determined to strike a blow against the evangelical movement and its leaders.

By the evangelical movement had been weakened by internal fighting. Philip of Hesse and Duke John of Saxony — were both avid supporters of the Reformation, and they had been using their political positions to bring pressure on the Holy Roman Empire. They announced that they would withdraw support for the empire's campaign against the Ottomans if the Catholic Church did not respect the religious rights of the evangelicals.

Byhowever, the threat of Ottoman aggression had reached an alarming level. Philip and John of Saxony lost support, and with the evangelical movement splitting into different groups, imperial officials decided to act. On April 30,they repealed the Diet of Speyer compromise of and called for a return to the Catholic faith in all German provinces. Evangelical worship was no longer supported or allowed within the Holy Roman Empire.

A number of evangelicals protested the new policy, but both Ferdinand and Charles V rejected any compromise. It is because of these objections, or protests, that those allied with the evangelical movement became known as "Protestants. Philip of Hesse and other supporters began to plan a Protestant military alliance. Philip realized that the only way political unity among the Protestants could be achieved would be if there were theological unity as well.

Philip invited the leading Protestant theologians of the Roman Empire and Switzerland to his town of Marburg present-day Maribor, Yugoslavia for a meeting to be held on October 1, Luther, Melanchthon, and Zwingli all accepted. The meeting was the first time Luther had met Zwingli, who had started a successful reform movement in Switzerland and in parts of the Holy Roman Empire.

After great debate, the two men were able to agree on many key issues. They still held differing views about the meaning of communion, however, and were unable to reach a compromise. Thanks in large part to the Gutenberg press, his influence continued to grow after his death, as his message spread across Europe and around the world. We strive for accuracy and fairness.

If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! Jesus Christ. Saint Nicholas. Jerry Falwell. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Saint Thomas Aquinas. History of the Dalai Lama's Biggest Controversies. Saint Patrick. Pope Benedict XVI. John Calvin. Dalai Lama. Education At 14, Luther went north to Magdeburg, where he continued his studies. Becoming a Monk In JulyLuther had a life-changing experience that set him on a new course to becoming a monk.

Disillusionment with Rome At age 27, Luther was given the opportunity to be a delegate to a Catholic church conference in Rome. Watch Next. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below. Famous Religious Figures.