Martin Luther. The man who split from the Roman Catholic Church in the sixteenth century. In the name of reform, he created his own church, which came to be known as Lutheran. For him, all Christians possessed the Holy Spirit, so they could interpret the Bible contrary to the pope. This has resulted in hundreds of divisions and denominations within Christianity. Unfortunately, many do not know Luther’s story, so this article will analyze the lead up to 1517.
Background to Germany
Mickey Mattox notes some important details that influence our understanding of Luther’s context of Wittenberg, Germany. Mattox says that that city constantly contested religious authority even before Luther. He cites the recent book by Natalie Krentz, who said, “Between 1500-1510 little Wittenberg had been placed under interdict by its bishop at least five times, usually because of conflicts over monies allegedly owed to the bishop.” This helps make some sense out of why the German people followed Luther’s rebellion so quickly.
Not only that, but prior to Luther, some Germans wanted more religion, a fresh energy or improvement in it, and better sermons. This is catalogued in the books Imperial Cities and the Reformation and Luther and the Reformation of the Later Middle Ages. This helps make sense out of why Germany listened intently to Luther’s cry for reform.
Luther’s Early Life
Martin Luther was born in Eisleben, Germany, in 1483 to some harsh parents. Luther says of them, “The serious and austere life that they [his parents] led with me caused me to enter a monastery and become a monk” (92). Martin remembered taking a walnut from the kitchen and his mother subsequently beating him until she drew blood. On another occasion, his father whipped him to the point that he ran away from home (17). This might have influenced him later on.
In 1501, Martin left his parents and went to the University of Erfurt, where he was awarded his Master’s degree in 1505. After graduation, Martin enrolled in law school. However, he suddenly quit and went to the monastery the same year, which displeased his father greatly.
Legend has it that the reason Martin did this was because, while he was traveling, a lightning storm erupted (7). Martin thought he would die, and he promised God that if he did not die, then he would become a monk. When he survived, he chose to enroll with the Augustinians, a group of consecrated priests and brothers who attempted to follow the fifth-century Christian teacher, St. Augustine. Joining these monks seemed appropriate, since Martin’s teachers at the University of Erfurt were Augustinians.
Luther the Monk
Luther entered the monastery and made his final vows after less than a year of strict rules and study in 1506. He begged for food, prayed seven times a day, and continued to study.
During his time in the monastery, Martin was filled with anxiety over sin. Leppin says, “His view of Christ was colored with overtones of fearful expectation” (3). However, Luther’s problems of conscience were not out of the ordinary. Michael Root noted to me in an email correspondence that this scrupulosity was actually common to the “intense humility [and] piety common in the late fourteenth/early fifteenth century.”
Root goes on that “Gasparo Contarini, later a cardinal, [had a similar struggle] at about the same time as Luther. Unlike Luther, Contarini turned to the authority of the Church as an essential aspect of a resolution” (see the work of Hubert Jedin in In Kirche des Glaubens, Kirche der Geschichte. Ausgewählte Aufsätze und Vorträge, 1. 167-80). Another contemporary of Luther, this time within the Augustinian order, Johannes von Paltz, “shared Luther’s despair over good works, but he saw a solution to this in the Church’s merciful institution of indulgences.” (Root cites this book by Berndt Hamm.)
In 1508, Luther earned a Bachelor’s in Sacred Scripture and in 1509 a Bachelor’s in the “Sentences,” which was a textbook of systematic theology by Peter Lombard. Luther was heavily trained in the ideas of William of Occam while in Erfurt. This teaching was called nominalism and “differed from the teaching of Thomas Aquinas” (Leppin, 4). This prompted scholar Joseph Lortz to say, “Within himself Luther wrestled with and overthrew a Catholicism that was not Catholic” (The Reformation in Germany, 1:200). In 1510, Luther switched monasteries from Erfurt to Wittenberg, and he earned a doctorate in Scripture in 1512.
While studying in the new monastery, Luther’s confessor was a priest named Staupitz, the vicar general of the Augustinians. He helped Luther with seeing Christ as more of a consoling figure than a judging figure. Staupitz was a father figure to Luther in every sense of the term.
Staupitz potentially was the impetus for Luther getting into the writings of St. Bernard of Clairvaux and Johann Tauler. Modern scholar Franz Posset argues that Bernard was one of the influences on Luther’s “faith alone” teaching later. Modern scholars like Steven Ozment argue that the “faith alone” idea has some roots in the German mystics as well, such as the Dominican Johann Tauler. Whatever position you take on Bernard and Tauler compared to Luther, there are points of connection and disconnection between them.
Staupitz saw potential in Luther and urged him to become a professor. Luther replaced Staupitz at the University of Wittenberg. This university was a rather new school, having been founded in 1502 by Prince Frederick the Wise, so it was presumably an exciting position for Luther to take. While teaching, the young German monk lectured on what he learned in his private research.
Luther the Professor
When he lectured on Scripture, Luther studied Paul’s letter to the Romans among other things, which will be significant later. Professor Luther in Wittenberg adapted well to this more active way of life at Wittenberg. Luther says in 1516,
I am a preacher at the monastery, I am a reader during mealtimes, I am asked daily to preach in the city church, I have to supervise the study [of novices and friars], I am a vicar (and that means I am eleven times prior), I am caretaker of the fish [pond] at Leitzkau, I represent the people of Herzberg at the court in Torgau, I lecture on Paul, and I am assembling [material for] a commentary on the Psalms (LW, vol. 48, Letters I).
What a startling number of activities! Luther was overseeing eleven monasteries! Franz Posset argues that Luther’s scruples were resolved while as a monk, and this quote seems to suggest as much.
As seen, Luther was incredibly smart. He received a ton of degrees and became a professor. He had the leadership abilities to be prior of eleven monasteries. He seems to have had an impressive footprint in Germany, which would make sense out of the number of Germans who later followed him.
To summarize, Martin Luther came from a country that was struggling with the Church. He had a harsh upbringing, his education might not have been as Catholic as it sounded, and he struggled with the Faith. The rest of Luther’s life ended in an unfortunate way, and this is his backstory.