| Luther,Martin (1483-1546) |
| A German Augustinian monk, Martin Luther is best known as the man who sparked the Protestant Reformation, because he was outraged by the contemporary immoralities in the Roman Catholic Church at home and in the Holy city of Rome. He was also an extraordinarily productive writer. Between the years of 1516 to 1546, he published an article on religion every other week, totaling more than sixty thousand pages. He wrote theology, hymns, poetry, liturgies, sermons, preaching aids, commentaries, translations, and polemics. It has been estimated that during his writing life, his published writings made up twenty percent of all the literature being published in Germany at the time. Luther was a priest who hated fulfilling the functions of a priest. He got terribly nervous when he had to serve mass, trembling and knocking things over and stuttering through the prayers. As a teacher, he was unusual because he didn't like to lecture. He would claim he didn't understand passages of the scripture and ask his students to explain them to him. After he took his famous stand against the Church and its practice of selling indulgencies, he was excommunicated by the Pope. In defiance, Luther burned the papal bull of excommunication. In 1520, the pope Leo X, ordered Luther's books burned. Again Luther defied the pope. The church summoned Luther to the Diet of Worms and banned him from the Holy Roman Empire. Luther had to leave the University of Wittenberg and go into exile. In isolation, he became more productive than ever, and in addition to his own writing, he completed the first translation of the Bible into German. He tried to go beyond a literal translation, and used words that would be understood by common Germans. He said, "[The translator] must ask the mother at home, children in the street, the common man in the market and look them in the mouth, and listen to how they speak, then translate accordingly." And he said, "God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars." Supporters of Luther called themselves 'Protestants'--and recieved the emperor's guarantee of "freedom from molestation". In 1525, in a final act of defiance, Luther married a former Catholic nun, Katherine Von Bora. Luther's actions are the heady spectacle of one man against the formidable power of the Catholic Church. His successful conversion of one-half of the Christian world as well as his zeal, passion and tenacity place him among the true heroes of Christianity. ~The Writer's Almanac |
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