Blog Post #3 Luther Wins His Battle for Human Freedom from the Authority of the Church: The Church is Split!
Notice that Luther relies on scripture and reason in guiding his thoughts. The use of reason is a hallmark of Renaissance thinking. When Luther gives his answer at the Diet of Worms (1521) he sets in motion a chain of events that leads to a break with the Catholic Church. He refuses to recant his teachings and sets himself squarely in opposition to the authority of the Pope and the Church.
Interestingly, as soon as Luther refuses to recant, many different groups rally around him for their own reasons and take sides in the dispute. Is Luther leading this revolt against Church authority or is he merely providing the intellectual context for a revolution that was inevitable as a result of changes taking place in Europe due to the Renaissance?
Luther is kidnapped and protected by Prince Frederick III to guard him against being killed by the forces of Charles V and the Pope. As Luther hides out, Germany explodes in violence. Nobles revolt against the Pope, peasants revolt against the nobles, all while Luther hides out in Frederick’s castle translating the Bible into German for the people of Germany. Catholic Churches are desecrated and sacked, monasteries are looted, priests are roughed up, the whole social order is upended. In the quest for freedom from the oppression of church authority, the people have taken Luther’s words and used them to justify a revolution against the strictures of society.
Luther feels responsible for the massive bloodshed that is unleashed by his response at the Diet of Worms. His words are used as the justification for the slaughter. Ultimately Luther won, as the princes of Germany were allowed to choose who they would follow, the Pope or Luther. The Augsberg Confession of 1531 guaranteed that the split in the Church would not easily be healed and the Peace at Augsberg (1555) guaranteed that the split would be permanent.
Is Luther a revolutionary? Is he really interested in leading a revolution or is he a man of ideas, a thinker who simply provided the spark that ignited the fuel of injustice that was already present? How influential do you think he was in the course of world history? How essential is Luther to the struggle for human freedom against oppressive bureaucracies? Does he represent something more than the split in the Christian church? How important are the ideas of Luther to the world today?
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