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Previous reform movements in the [[Roman Catholic Church]] were small-scale and did not disrupt the medieval Church. Luther was the first to definitively break the unity of Roman Catholic Christendom. His Lutheran Church broke with the pope, but became subservient to the state. He reshaped German religious culture through rejection of Catholic liturgy and celibacy; he created a new Lutheran liturgy using his very popular hymns and his translation of the Bible into German helped to shape the German language.  

Previous reform movements in the [[Roman Catholic Church]] were small-scale and did not disrupt the medieval Church. Luther was the first to definitively break the unity of Roman Catholic Christendom. His Lutheran Church broke with the pope, but became subservient to the state. He reshaped German religious culture through rejection of Catholic liturgy and celibacy; he created a new Lutheran liturgy using his very popular hymns and his translation of the Bible into German helped to shape the German language.  

From the perspective of [[Roman Catholic]] scholars, Luther remains a monk who overeacted and caused a great deal of needless trouble.  To [[Mainline]] Protestants, Luther was a great reformer --a witness to and agent of Jesus Christ who God mysteriously chose to bestow a gift of deep insight into scripture and the true nature of the Catholic church, not unlike the kind of conversion experience given to [[St. Paul]]<ref>[[James Atkinson]], ''Martin Luther: Prophet to the Church Catholic'', (1983) , ISBN 0-8028-1260-0, pp.43-58</ref>. "Luther, and with him all the Reformers of the sixteenth century, German, Swiss, and British alike, believed that God spoke to them in the Scriptures in exactly the same way He had spoken to his prophets and apostles.<ref>''Martin Luther:Prohpet to the Church Catholic'', [[James Atkinson]], Eerdmans, 1983, ISBN 0-8028-1260-0, p.143</ref>"

To [[Mainline]] Protestants, Luther was a great reformer --a witness to and agent of Jesus Christ who God mysteriously chose to bestow a gift of deep insight into scripture and the true nature of the Catholic church, not unlike the kind of conversion experience given to [[St. Paul]]<ref>[[James Atkinson]], ''Martin Luther: Prophet to the Church Catholic'', (1983) , ISBN 0-8028-1260-0, pp.43-58</ref>. "Luther, and with him all the Reformers of the sixteenth century, German, Swiss, and British alike, believed that God spoke to them in the Scriptures in exactly the same way He had spoken to his prophets and apostles.<ref>''Martin Luther:Prohpet to the Church Catholic'', [[James Atkinson]], Eerdmans, 1983, ISBN 0-8028-1260-0, p.143</ref>" From the [[Roman Catholic]] perspective, Luther remains a monk who overeacted to the problems of the day and caused a great deal of needless trouble. 

[[Image:Luther-Cranach.jpg|thumb|225px]]

[[Image:Luther-Cranach.jpg|thumb|225px]]

=== Years in the Catholic Monastery ===

=== Years in the Catholic Monastery ===

On February 27, 1507, after two years in the Monastery, Luther was ordained a Roman-Catholic priest. In later life he recounted how wonderfully awesome an experience his first celebration of Mass as a Roman-Catholic priest was.  In the fall of 1508, his Monastery superior Johann von Staupitz requested that Luther begin graduate studies in theology at the then new University of Wittenberg. Sometime after 1509, Luther was sent to Rome on monastic business and became, what is now famously so, disappointed by what he saw as a terrible worldliness.<ref name=Jones/>

 

Luther took his final vows and in May 1507 he was ordained a priest. He was assigned to the town of Wittenberg, Saxony, the next year as an instructor in logic and physics at the new University of Wittenberg, with its 180 students. Luther spent nearly his entire life in Wittenberg. He was favored and protected by the government, thanks to the influence of his friend, the court chaplain Georg Spalatin (1484-1545).  He learned Greek and Hebrew and especially studied the Bible itself, as well as standard theological treatises by Scholastic thinkers Peter Lombard (c.1100-60),  John Duns Scotus (c.1265-1308), Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), Pierre d' Ailly (1350-1420) and William of Occam (1288-1347).  Above all he was influenced by [[Augustine]] 354-430), the reputed founder of his order.  He was also influenced by Nominalist theologian Gabriel Biel (c.1420-95) (his teacher's teacher), who taught that sinners could attain genuine contrition for their sins. Biel clarified the issue and Luther in 1517 came down strongly in opposition to it. The university awarded him the degree of doctor of theology in 1512 and Luther rapidly advanced in his teaching career and became a successful administrator; he preached regularly in the parish church. In 1510-11 he went to Rome on official business for five months, his only trip outside Germany.  He later said he saw Rome's corruption, but most historians believe his later animadversions were shaped by his later alienation from the papacy and by his later alignment with German nationalist anti-Italian xenophobia. He did not yet in 1511 share the anti-papal and anti-Roman mood in Renaissance Germany that he later became leader of.<ref> Mullett, ''Luther'' p 46</ref>

 

=== Years as scholar in Wittenberg ===

=== Years as scholar in Wittenberg ===

In October 1512, Luther received a doctorate of theology from the University of Wittenberg and soon after assumed a Wittenberg professorship in Bible studies endowed by his Augustinian order. Lecture notes exist for courses he taught, including ''Psalms'' (1513-1515 and 1519), ''Romans'' (1515-1516), ''Galatians'' (1516-1517), and ''Hebrews'' (1517-1518). During this time Luther rose to the level of district vicar of his Roman-Catholic Augustian Order in 1515, later even overseeing the administration of Augustianian monasteries in Saxony. Also sometime during these years, Luther later tells of having had religious experiences that were the foundations of what-have-turned-out-to-be two important theological viewpoints: (1) evangelical purpose of the Gospels (believed to have occcured around 1514) and (2) his replacement of scholastic theology with what he called the "theology of the cross" (probably 1518, but scholarship exists that makes the case for an earlier date of development). <ref name=Jones/>

In October 1512, Luther received a doctorate of theology from the University of Wittenberg and soon after assumed a Wittenberg professorship in Bible studies endowed by his Augustinian order. Lecture notes exist for courses he taught, including ''Psalms'' (1513-1515 and 1519), ''Romans'' (1515-1516), ''Galatians'' (1516-1517), and ''Hebrews'' (1517-1518). During this time Luther rose to the level of district vicar of his Roman-Catholic Augustian Order in 1515, later even overseeing the administration of Augustianian monasteries in Saxony.  

 

Luther's fears continued to harass him. Repeated bouts of depression may have arisen partly from physical causes having to do with Luther's savagely ascetic regime that was self-imposed and against the advice of his confessor. "I vexed myself with fasts and prayers beyond what was common...if I could have got to heaven by fasting, I should have merited that twenty years ago.... I afflicted myself almost to death."<ref> Mullett, ''Luther'' p 44</ref>  That is, he sought to earn heaven by self-torture. In reaction, he decided that nothing in the power of man is good enough to constitute a claim upon God. He fully explored the penitential system of the Church so that the sins which he could not expunge or eradicate might yet be forgiven, only to discover that he could not confess all of his sins. Some sins were forgotten and others not recognized, for man does not see that he is a sinner until confronted by the accusing finger of God. The mystic way of ceasing to struggle and of surrendering oneself to the wonder and the goodness of God offered no solution--for Luther, God was a consuming flame.

 

The solution to Luther's problems came through the study of the Bible; he was appointed to the chair of biblical study at Wittenberg. Luther later tells of having had religious experiences led to two important theological discoveries: (1)the evangelical purpose of the Gospels (1514) and (2) his replacement of scholastic theology with what he called the "theology of the cross" (1518, possibly earlier). <ref name=Jones/>

 

 

=== Founding of Protestantism ===

=== Founding of Protestantism ===

==External links==

==External links==

* [http://www.projectwittenberg.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/wittenberg-luther.html Project Wittenberg], extensive online collection of primary sources by Luther and his colleagues

* [http://www.projectwittenberg.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/wittenberg-luther.html Project Wittenberg], extensive online collection of primary sources by Luther and his colleagues

==References==

==References==

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