and Erasmus wanted to restore the Roman Catholic Church to its original nature in the time of the Apostles. They believed that man is saved by both faith and his own good works. This idea was in accord with that of the late medieval Church and its belief that man is saved by the Church and his participation, as a believer, in the seven sacraments.
Lefèvre and Erasmus kept in close contact with the Catholic Church’s hierarchy and their work at reform was distinct from that of the Protestant reformers, although their influence is evident in the teachings of Luther and Zwingli as well as some of the more radical reformers.
Martin Luther (1483–1546) was born of peasant stock, and lived among the untutored folk of the remote woods and mines around the East German town of Eisleben in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. His mother and father were both devout and prayerful but also superstitious, believing in spirits that inhabited the forests, winds and water. Devils, witches and ill-tempered spirits roamed this world among the church spires and bell towers in towns where Luther learned his Psalms and marched in religious processions. His father, Hans Luther, owned a copper mine and was, therefore, wealthy enough to send Martin to school and university to become a lawyer. This would ensure that Martin would be prosperous enough to look after his parents in their old age. But after Martin was awarded a Master of Arts degree in 1505, he was caught on the outskirts of a Saxon village in a terrible thunderstorm (2 July 1505). He prayed to St Anne, the patron saint of his father’s occupation as a miner, and promised to become a monk if he survived the storm. Having duly survived, Luther kept his promise and joined the Augustinian Order on 17 July.
As a monk, Luther should not have had to worry about his afterlife, for he diligently obeyed his monastic vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. But he nonetheless feared an angry God who condemned any and all sinners to Hell. Seeing himself as nothing but a weak and sinful man, he could only imagine that God would most certainly condemn him to Hell. Urged by his senior monks to study and teach the Psalms, Luther transferred north from the University of Erfurt in Saxony to Wittenberg in 1511, and was made Professor of Theology at Wittenberg’s new university. Here he immersed himself in studying the Psalms and the Letters of St Paul, both of which dealt with sin and salvation.
Luther’s Interpretation of St Paul
In 1515, Luther began preaching on St Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Studying these biblical texts for the first time, he was astounded by Paul’s words: ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live’ (Romans 1:17) and ‘For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God’ and ‘Not of works lest any man boast’ (Ephesians 2:8–9). Luther interpreted these passages to mean that although God should be feared, man can also take succour in God’s love and mercy.
Luther also awakened to a realization that salvation and faith were given freely by the grace of God and not earned by good works. From this personal epiphany came Luther’s doctrines of salvation by faith and grace alone. His constant confessions seemed no longer necessary, for he now believed that confession and good works did not determine whether or not a man is saved. St Paul’s message of God’s love made the Roman Catholic Church’s papal bulls and indulgences seem irrelevant to Luther as avenues for salvation. He also recalled his 1510 journey to Rome, where he had observed a corrupt and arrogant Church which bore little resemblance to the true religion he felt he had discovered through St Paul’s epistles.
Since the papacy of Nicholas V in 1447–55, priests and bishops had visited an increasingly cosmopolitan and humanist Rome on Church business, and consequently many hotels were built to house them. Scores of brothels and a multitude of concubines accommodated some of these Church leaders. Many thousands of Romans participated in the prostitution trade and some cardinals, bishops and monastic orders had a hand in running several of the brothels.
Portrait of Pope Leo X c.1518, by Raffaello Sanzio
The Rome of Pope Leo X (reigned 1513–21, pictured above) disgusted Martin Luther. He felt it was bad enough that humans believed they could determine a price for divine intercession in the form of indulgences, but the blatant corruption that seemed to exist at the very heart of the Church had created for him a cognitive dissonance. Consequently, soon after his return to Saxony and Wittenberg, Luther sought inspiration and solace in the words of St Paul, and from these readings he gained the confidence that he no longer needed to accept the decretals from what he considered to be the corrupt and flawed leaders of his Church.
The Birth of Classical Protestantism
Repelled as he was by the corruption he saw, Luther’s ideas evolved into a reform of theology rather than the simple reform of abuses attempted by earlier reformers like Erasmus and Lefèvre d’Étaples. Luther’s teachings embodied three main doctrines which served as the cornerstone of classical Protestantism. The first doctrine, sola fide (by faith alone), emphasizes the necessity of faith and rejects any human effort towards salvation through reason or meritorious behaviour. The second doctrine, sola scriptura (by Scripture alone), states that the Word of God is the only truth and is revealed in Scripture, through which God reaches those with whom He has graced with faith. The third doctrine, sola gratia (by grace alone), maintains that God’s grace alone grants man the power, goodness and virtue to oppose all that is wicked and evil in nature, especially man’s nature. This set of doctrines was at the centre of Luther’s attack on the Roman Catholic Church.
Up until this point, Luther had remained in the Roman Catholic Church and in his monastic order. However, on 15 June 1520, Pope Leo X published a bull, Exsurge Domine, asserting that Luther had sixty days to recant his views or be expelled from the Church. Luther received a copy of the bull in early October and, the following month, wrote a tract entitled Against the Execrable Bull of the Antichrist, which is possibly the first time in the Reformation era that a pope was called the Antichrist – a name that would often be repeated in anti-Catholic books, sermons and artistic representations.
Soon thereafter (28 November), the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, gave Luther safe passage to travel to the German parliament, the Diet of Worms, to present his views before them. Luther arrived in Worms on 16 April 1521, and theological scholars required him to read books by accepted Church authorities, including St Thomas Aquinas, and to reconsider his own views in light of these Church teachers. Luther reflected upon these authors, but held fast to his teachings. He stood before the emperor on 18 April and said, ‘I cannot change my views. Here I stand. I can do no other.’
By this time, Luther stood alone against Church and state. He stood alone against the history of orthodox Catholic teachings. He also stood against the emperor, Charles V, who rebuked Luther by stating that as the descendant of the most Catholic rulers of the Empire, of the German nation, Spain and Austria, he was no longer willing to tolerate Luther’s heresy. He could only accede to the orthodox Roman Catholic teachings in which he had been brought up and which he had vowed to defend. Charles decreed Luther an enemy of the Empire, but allowed him safe passage back home to Wittenberg.
Soon, Pope Leo X declared Luther an excommunicant, which meant he was no longer a member of the Roman Catholic Church. In May, the Edict of Worms made him an outlaw in the Holy Roman Empire. Luther fled to the Wartburg in Saxony where he enjoyed the protection of Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, who, though a strong Catholic, was an enemy of Charles V. He was joined by thirteen monks who had also left the Augustinian Order in Wittenberg. It was only in March