On Theology and the Christian Life: The Reformation: A Brief History

For some, October begins the season of harvest. For others, October marks the swift slide to Christmas. Children think only of candy that will rot the teeth. While Halloween has staked out its place as the punctuation mark for the month of October, many are unaware that the flag of that great reformer, Martin Luther, was already firmly planted in place. October 31, 1517, is considered to be the genesis of what we know now as the Reformation. Martin Luther certainly knocked upon a door — the door of the castle church in Wittenberg — but neither to trick nor to look for a treat. His knock was to dispute a serious theological matter.

Luther died February, 1546. A year before his death, he wrote a brief chronicle of his life, and therefore the course of the Reformation, with which his life was so intimately intertwined. This snap-shot account is referred to as the “Preface to the Complete Edition of Luther’s Latin Writings” and appears in Volume 34 of the American Edition of Luther’s works, pgs. 327-328. For the occasion of the Reformation and in October, I will summarize this writing from Martin Luther so as to give you, dear Christian reader, a truncated look into those great events that brought the Gospel to light again in the Christian Church.

“Martin Luther wishes the sincere reader salvation!” This greeting from Luther wonderfully summarizes his entire aim, namely, the salvation of souls through the pure preaching of the Gospel. In the beginning of this preface Luther laments that many insisted on publishing every work he had written from 1517 up to 1545. Especially lamentable were the earliest of his works; ones he wished would be “buried in perpetual oblivion, so that there might be room for better ones.”

He implored that his earliest writings be read “judiciously, yes, with great commiseration” because “of the fact that (he) was once a monk and a most enthusiastic papist when (he) began the cause” of the Reformation. In other words, he had not yet discovered the Gospel and “was so drunk, yes, submerged in the pope’s dogmas, that (he) would have been ready to murder all, if (he) could have, or to co-operate willingly with the murders of all who would take but a syllable from obedience to the pope.” He concluded, “So great a Saul was I.” What a confession he made! It is often thought that Luther was an arrogant, bullish and outspoken man. No doubt, he was outspoken and certainly bullish when it came to the defense of the truth, but arrogance seems to me to be a false charge. He was incredibly aware of his own sin and weakness. The above confession illustrates this well enough.

Luther warns anyone who reads his earliest writings that they “will find how much and what important matters I humbly conceded to the pope, which I later and now hold and execrate as the worst blasphemies and abomination.” He specifically has in mind what he wrote on indulgences. Thus, works like “The 95 Theses” (the document most associated with the Reformation, though not very reflective of Luther’s later theology), “The Sermon on Indulgences and Grace,” and “The Explanations of the Ninety-Five Theses” “in which, to the pope’s honor,” Luther laments, “I developed the idea that indulgences should indeed not be condemned, but that good works of love should be preferred to them.”

For those who don’t know, a papal indulgence was a “transfer of credit from the merits of the saints” that one paid for “to remit penalties for sin imposed by (the pope) on earth. During the decade in which Luther was born a pope had declared that the power of indulgences extended to purgatory for the benefit of the living and the dead alike. Some bulls of indulgence went still further and applied not merely to reduction of penalty but even the forgiveness of sins” (Roland H. Bainton, “Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther,” 31-32).

It is such “blasphemies and abomination” that Luther “conceded to the pope” in the earliest years of the Reformation. As an example of this, in Thesis 71 Luther wrote “Let him be anathema and accursed who denies the apostolic character of the indulgences.” Likewise, he writes in Thesis 89 “What the pope seeks by indulgences is not money, but rather the salvation of souls.” Nevertheless, even as Luther granted the character of apostolicity to the indulgences and spoke highly of why the pope allowed them, he recounts that these writings caused him to be “accused by the pope, and cited to Rome, and (that) the whole papacy (rose) up against me alone.”

These writings occasioned the 1518 meeting at Augsburg, held by Pope Maximilian I at which “Cardinal Cajetan served as the pope’s legate.” Cajetan urged Luther to revoke what he had written. Thanks to Luther’s prince, Frederick the Wise, Luther was granted safe conduct to and from the meeting, and Luther did not revoke his writings. Maximilian died in 1519 and “thereupon the storm ceased to rage a bit.” Luther will later recount to us how in two years’ time “contempt of excommunication or papal thunderbolts arose” but we’ll leave the story here for now.

It should be concluded that, of course, Luther did not concede to the pope for long on the question of indulgences and he later wrote “(Indulgences are not) to be tolerated, not only because it is without God’s Word, not necessary, and not commanded, but because it is contrary to (the chief article of faith). Christ’s merit is not acquired through our work or pennies, but through faith by grace, without any money or merit — not by the authority of the pope, but rather by preaching a sermon, that is, God’s Word” (“Smalcald Articles, 1531,” II.2.24). To Christ alone be all glory and honor. Amen.

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Pastor Marcus Williams

St. Paul Lutheran Church, Havre

Zion Lutheran Church, Chinook