tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/95-theses-38743/articles95 Theses – The Conversation2019-10-29T12:58:32Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1248612019-10-29T12:58:32Z2019-10-29T12:58:32ZBefore Martin Luther, there was Erasmus – a Dutch theologian who paved the way for the Protestant Reformation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298761/original/file-20191025-173558-1tmxpep.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Desiderius Erasmus, a Dutch humanist and theologian.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Quentin_Massys-_Erasmus_of_Rotterdam.JPG">Quentin Matsys </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Martin Luther, a German theologian, is often credited with starting the Protestant Reformation. When he nailed his 95 Theses onto the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany on Oct. 31, 1517, dramatically demanding an end to church corruption, he <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/protestantism-after-500-years-9780190264796?q=%22remembering%20the%20reformation%22&lang=en&cc=us#">split Christianity</a> into Catholicism and Protestantism. </p>
<p>Luther’s disruptive act did not, however, emerge out of nowhere. The Reformation <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/erasmus-the-reformer/oclc/247822964&referer=brief_results">could not have happened</a> without Desiderius Erasmus, a Dutch humanist and theologian. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://undpress.nd.edu/9780268033873/transforming-work/">scholar of medieval Christianity</a>, I have noticed that Erasmus does not get much attention in conversations on the Reformation. And yet, in his own time, when Christianity was facing many controversies, he was accused of paving the way for Martin Luther and even of being a heretic. His contemporaries charged him with “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN9780802059765">laying the egg that Luther hatched</a>.” </p>
<h2>Who was Erasmus?</h2>
<p>Born in A.D. 1467, about 20 years before Luther, Erasmus grew up in the Netherlands. The world of his youth, like that of Martin Luther’s, was almost entirely defined by medieval Christianity. Educated by monks, Erasmus joined the religious life. He studied Christian theology at the University of Paris and followed this interest even after he left the university.</p>
<p>At the same time, <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/literary-and-educational-writings-1-and-2-2">Erasmus was greatly inspired by the classics</a>. For Erasmus, ancient Greek and Roman authors – while technically pagan – were “the very fountain-head” of “almost all knowledge.” </p>
<p>Because of his love of the ancients, he is <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/From_humanism_to_the_humanities.html?id=VGPuAAAAMAAJ">often called a Renaissance humanist</a>, or, more appropriately, a Christian humanist. At a time when training in Greek and Latin was highly valued, Erasmus’ remarkable abilities made him much sought after. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298998/original/file-20191028-113991-utgh2d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298998/original/file-20191028-113991-utgh2d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298998/original/file-20191028-113991-utgh2d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298998/original/file-20191028-113991-utgh2d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298998/original/file-20191028-113991-utgh2d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298998/original/file-20191028-113991-utgh2d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298998/original/file-20191028-113991-utgh2d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298998/original/file-20191028-113991-utgh2d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Hans Holbein’s portrait of Erasmus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/rl/original/DP164857.jpg">Robert Lehman Collection, 1975</a></span>
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<p>With the support of wealthy patrons, he traveled around Europe, teaching at universities, writing books and meeting many prominent people. In England, he formed a close, intellectual friendship with the English author and fellow humanist <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/286334/utopia-by-thomas-more/">Thomas More</a>, whose book “Utopia” was about an imaginary society.</p>
<p>Together with More, Erasmus helped launch the career of one of the greatest artists of the 16th century, Hans Holbein, who <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/459080">painted</a> both of their portraits. Erasmus’ portrait, along with many other masterpieces by Holbein, is now held at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. </p>
<h2>Erasmus paves way for Luther</h2>
<p>Luther famously used the printing press to publish polemical tracts that attacked the church and called for changes. The rapid and broad distribution of his ideas accelerated the Reformation. </p>
<p>It was Erasmus, however, who provided a model for Luther in how to take advantage of this new technology, how to use print as “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/printing-press-as-an-agent-of-change/7DC19878AB937940DE13075FE839BDBA">an agent of change</a>.” </p>
<p>Erasmus began publishing his books widely beginning in 1500, about 50 years after the first printed books appeared in Germany. He helped create an audience for Luther’s writings by popularizing Christian topics, such as how to be a good Christian and how to interpret the Bible. <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691165691/erasmus-man-of-letters">Many of his books were best-sellers</a> during his lifetime. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298762/original/file-20191025-173548-1caw34k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298762/original/file-20191025-173548-1caw34k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298762/original/file-20191025-173548-1caw34k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298762/original/file-20191025-173548-1caw34k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298762/original/file-20191025-173548-1caw34k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298762/original/file-20191025-173548-1caw34k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298762/original/file-20191025-173548-1caw34k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Martin Luther nails his 95 Theses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Luther95theses.jpg">Ferdinand Pauwels</a></span>
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<p>Erasmus also prepared the way for one of Luther’s most radical ideas: that the Bible belongs to everyone, including common people. Luther translated the Bible into German in 1534 so that everyone could read it for themselves.</p>
<p>This idea can be found in Erasmus’ guide to reading the Latin Bible, “Paraclesis,” which he published in 1516 in Latin. Here he <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/the-new-testament-scholarship-of-erasmus-2">vividly describes</a> his own dream of the future, that common people would use the Bible in their everyday lives. </p>
<p>“I would to God the plowman would sing a text of scripture at his plow and that the weaver at his loom would drive away the tediousness of time with it,” he wrote.</p>
<h2>Not a supporter of radical change</h2>
<p>Although Erasmus was sympathetic to Luther’s critique of church corruption, he wasn’t ready for the kind of radical changes that Luther demanded.</p>
<p>Erasmus wanted a broad audience for his books, but he wrote in Latin, the official language of the church. Latin was a language that only a small number of educated people, typically priests and the nobility, could read. </p>
<p>Erasmus had criticized the church for many of the same problems that Luther later attacked. In one of his most famous books, The “Praise of Folly,” he <a href="https://www.bartleby.com/library/prose/1914.html">mocked priests</a> who didn’t read the Bible. He also attacked the church’s use of indulgences – when the church took money from people, granting them relief from punishment for their sins in purgatory – as a sign of the church’s greed. </p>
<p>When Luther started getting into trouble with church authorities, Erasmus defended him and wrote him letters of support. <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Erasmus_Reader.html?id=kBaNBgAAQBAJ">He thought</a> Luther’s voice should be heard. </p>
<p>But he did not defend all of Luther’s teachings. Some, he felt, were too divisive. For example, Luther preached that <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/iustitia-dei/B793BE71FC1887876C09E73769B3AF98">people are saved</a> only by faith in God and not by good deeds. Erasmus did not agree, and he did not want the church to split over these debates. </p>
<p>Throughout his life, Erasmus forged his own approach to Christianity: knowing Christ by reading the Bible. He called his approach the “<a href="https://www-worldcat-org.colorado.idm.oclc.org/title/erasmus/oclc/614381485&referer=brief_results">Philosophia Christi</a>,” or the philosophy of Christ. He thought that learning about Jesus’ life and teachings would <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/literary-and-educational-writings-5-and-6-2">strengthen people’s Christian faith</a> and teach them how to be good.</p>
<p>Erasmus’ ability to defend different points of view, the church’s and Luther’s, seems to have been particular to him. He wanted concord and peace within the church. Scholar Christine Christ von-Wedel <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/erasmus-of-rotterdam-3">describes him</a>, therefore, as a “representative and messenger of a free and open-minded Christianity founded on scripture.”</p>
<p>After his death in 1536, his reconciliation of different views became impossible. The Reformation <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674088054">began a splintering</a> that persists today. </p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katherine Little does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Martin Luther is credited with initiating the split in Christianity that came to be called the Protestant Reformation. But don’t count out Erasmus, an early proponent of similarly radical ideas.Katherine Little, Professor of English Literature, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/850582017-10-30T09:24:58Z2017-10-30T09:24:58ZWhat Martin Luther’s Reformation tells us about history and memory<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192062/original/file-20171026-13355-8447yj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Luther95theses.jpg">Ferdinand Willem Pauwels/Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The story we tell of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago is a window on how the past speaks to the present, and how the present imposes itself on the past.</p>
<p>It is a story everyone, more or less, is familiar with. On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther, a member of an obscure house of Augustinian friars in Wittenberg, went to the door of the town’s Castle Church and nailed to it a sheet containing 95 Theses. This <a href="http://www.luther.de/en/95thesen.html">revolutionary document</a>, attacking corrupt teaching on indulgences and the papal authority lying behind it, was the foundational text of Protestantism. Luther’s bold action in publicising it was the starting pistol for a revolt that threw Germany into turmoil, and which soon <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09b4ylt">permanently divided Europe as a whole</a>.</p>
<p>To this day, Luther’s action has inspired both admiration and emulation. Perhaps the most powerful moment came on July 10 1966, when <a href="https://archive.org/stream/mylifewithmartin00kingrich#page/n313/mode/2up/search/magnificent+symbolic+gesture">Martin Luther King Jr. marched to the door</a> of Mayor Daley’s City Hall in Chicago and nailed up a set of demands for social and racial justice. His wife, Coretta King called it: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>A magnificent, symbolic gesture that rang down the centuries from his namesake.</p>
</blockquote>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192068/original/file-20171026-13367-ihd6ez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192068/original/file-20171026-13367-ihd6ez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192068/original/file-20171026-13367-ihd6ez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192068/original/file-20171026-13367-ihd6ez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192068/original/file-20171026-13367-ihd6ez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192068/original/file-20171026-13367-ihd6ez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192068/original/file-20171026-13367-ihd6ez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192068/original/file-20171026-13367-ihd6ez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Legacy. An event that echoes down the centuries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/summer1978/16125056543/in/photolist-qyV8wg-5Ta5k6-75PMmL-9DzZLH-5TepPU-qEsKmA-ahKWZ3-DNeFys-dPNmgg-eMyo21-SdEXcQ-98anXK-pLoPkv-ahKXLW-SsG9oQ-ahH9Gt-cvSBes-J7ftik-98dJAb-662jzm-r2rKns-xJhnJ-ahHak2-dzqow8-98dJA7-8XvS2g-9HWd6M-9HW66M-98anXH-d6u4RW-9HYXr1-gwY7YH-e2VnYB-xJhow-aghVTJ-dQej58-77cNUB-2fNeEr-9HYZQ9-WN6w2t-qMhQV2-aFe4sq-e2VnKv-bdzPNB-e3245d-dehuuY-daPnMK-Dttppx-exumbL-qSdRk2">RV1864/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<h2>Myth and the man</h2>
<p>The posting of the 95 Theses is a key moment in the popular historical consciousness. It is an irresistible meme celebrating liberty of conscience and righteous protest against the abuse of power. It is the symbolic heart of commemorations to mark “the start” of the Reformation, taking place in Germany and across the world this year.</p>
<p>In truth, it probably never happened. The <a href="https://www.luther2017.de/en/martin-luther/history-stories/on-the-doors-of-the-wittenberg-churches/">posting of the theses was first recorded</a> in the mid-1540s, by associates of Luther not in Wittenberg in 1517. Luther himself, in a voluminous body of often autobiographical writing, never mentioned it. </p>
<p>We know he sent (“posted” in the alternative sense) the Theses to the Archbishop of Mainz on October 31, 1517. But <a href="http://www.historyguide.org/earlymod/mainz_letter.html">in that letter</a> – and various others sent over subsequent months – Luther insisted the wide distribution of the Theses was none of his doing. In fact, he said that he had deliberately held back from initiating a public debate to give the authorities a chance to reform the practice of selling indulgences.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192065/original/file-20171026-13315-y7mptd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192065/original/file-20171026-13315-y7mptd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192065/original/file-20171026-13315-y7mptd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192065/original/file-20171026-13315-y7mptd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192065/original/file-20171026-13315-y7mptd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192065/original/file-20171026-13315-y7mptd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192065/original/file-20171026-13315-y7mptd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192065/original/file-20171026-13315-y7mptd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Mainz cathedral.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mainz-cathedral-83432284?src=em3J3Il4S5bIpu0ZSMfjxw-1-29">Scirocco340/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Quite possibly, later commentators assumed the Theses were posted because this was the normal procedure for initiating a disputation. It was a <a href="http://www.lutheranquarterly.com/uploads/7/4/0/1/7401289/lq-95theses-leppin_wengert.pdf">regular part of scholarly life</a>, laid down in the Wittenberg University statutes of 1508. Faculty deans were to ensure that theses (discussion points) were placed in advance on the doors of all city churches. The actual posting was a chore undertaken, not by senior professors like Luther, but by low-ranking officials – most likely using wax or glue rather than nails. </p>
<p>It is conceivable the 95 Theses were posted, perhaps in mid-November – but if so, it was an unremarkable administrative task unlikely to have been undertaken by Luther himself. In effect, it was the 16th-century equivalent of updating a university faculty webpage.</p>
<h2>Centenary story</h2>
<p>It took a long time for the image of Luther hammering at the door to capture the imagination of Europeans. It first came to the fore in 1617, when beleaguered Protestants in Germany fixed on the idea of a Reformation centenary to defy a resurgent Roman Church. </p>
<p>But interest remained patchy: there was no attempt at a realistic visual depiction of the scene before 1697. Only in the 19th century, after the third Reformation centenary of 1817, did the event which Germans called the <em>Thesenanschlag</em> become <a href="https://literaryreview.co.uk/nailing-the-myth">a regular theme of painting, poetry and novels</a>. It resonated perfectly with “great man” theories of history – and the prevalent notion that the Reformation was more about liberation and enlightenment than doctrinal niceties (few could remember what the 95 Theses actually said).</p>
<p>Historical memory in the 20th century took a darker turn. For patriotic Germans in 1917, the hammer-wielding Luther became a token of wartime struggle and defiance, and in the subsequent generation Nazis appropriated the <em>Thesenanschlag</em> as symbolic of the <a href="https://sojo.net/articles/nazis-exploited-martin-luther-s-legacy-berlin-exhibit-highlights-how">overthrow of a corrupt old order</a>. A more wholesome, liberal version of the myth has since reasserted itself, though one still sometimes tinged with anti-Catholic stereotypes (as in the commercially successful <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYyP5a_BD90">Luther movie of 2003</a>). </p>
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<h2>Low on memory</h2>
<p>All this matters because the image of Luther at the door has so much shaped our view not only of when the Reformation started but of what the Reformation was. Of course, we need “events”, periods and concepts (including “the Reformation” itself) to organise our knowledge and understanding of the past. But all too easily they become timetabled stops along the fixed tramlines of historical development.</p>
<p>Luther in 1517 was no “Protestant”. He was a reformist Catholic friar. His theses on indulgences are in some ways surprisingly <em>unradical</em>, articulating the unease many thoughtful churchmen felt about the practice. Only later, through a combination of political circumstances and Luther’s own theological radicalisation, did a breach with Rome become irreparable. At no stage can it be considered “inevitable”.</p>
<p>Anniversaries are by definition commemorative and retrospective occasions. But we should use them to ask searching questions and interrogate old verities, not just to remind ourselves of what we think we already know.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85058/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Marshall receives funding from The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p>Just what are we celebrating when we imagine an Augustinian friar nailing a document to a church door?Peter Marshall, Professor of History, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/833402017-10-25T00:17:07Z2017-10-25T00:17:07ZMartin Luther’s spiritual practice was key to the success of the Reformation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191701/original/file-20171024-30558-51qqjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Luther's 95 Theses.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Luther95theses.jpg">Ferdinand Pauwels, via Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Oct. 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his <a href="http://www.luther.de/en/95thesen.html">95 Theses</a> to the door of Germany’s Wittenberg Castle Church and inadvertently ushered in what came to be known as the Reformation. </p>
<p>In his theses, Luther explicitly attacked the Catholic Church’s lucrative practice of <a href="http://martinluther.ccws.org/indulgence/index.html">selling papal indulgences</a> that promised individuals they could purchase absolution from their sins and hasten their way into heaven. </p>
<p>This was far more than a simple critique of the indulgence trade. Luther <a href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-34/dr-luthers-theology.html">challenged</a> the Church’s overall authority. Over the next century, Luther’s ideas <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eeh.2016.07.007">seeded upheavals</a> and transformed the Western world by diminishing the Church’s power and introducing new spiritual possibilities for everyone.</p>
<p>In researching our book, <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-spiritual-virtuoso-9781474292429/">“The Spiritual Virtuoso,”</a> we found Luther’s personal life and spiritual practice played a key role in shaping his message and drawing enthusiastic support from ordinary people.</p>
<h2>How Luther’s message spread</h2>
<p>Luther had once been a friar in the strict monastic <a href="http://www.augustinian.org/order/">Order of St. Augustine</a>. The head of the order, Johann von Staupitz, however, believed that Luther could serve God better if he were no longer isolated from the larger society. </p>
<p>Staupitz arranged for Luther to pursue doctoral studies and join the University of Wittenberg as a professor of biblical theology. When Luther posted his theses, he was both an ordained priest and a professor. </p>
<p>Luther’s students were among the first to respond enthusiastically to his message that all Christians were equal in God’s eyes and could reach heaven based on their own faith. His students also believed that they had the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1262373">moral obligation</a> to share their new understanding, so that more people could benefit from it.</p>
<p>They spoke of reforming the church to members of the growing urban middle classes. They reached out to townspeople by <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0003122411435905">translating the Latin Bible</a> into vernacular German and encouraging education for men and women alike. </p>
<p>As the movement built up, guildsmen, merchants and aristocrats came to share Luther’s vision of an authentic, incorruptible Church grounded in spiritual equality. Prince Fredrick the Wise, the University of Wittenberg’s founder, <a href="http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5906.2012.01680.x">became one of Luther’s early advocates</a> and other princes provided him with political protection and financial help.</p>
<h2>Life as a monk</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191704/original/file-20171024-30587-1wrppy7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191704/original/file-20171024-30587-1wrppy7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=848&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191704/original/file-20171024-30587-1wrppy7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=848&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191704/original/file-20171024-30587-1wrppy7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=848&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191704/original/file-20171024-30587-1wrppy7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1066&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191704/original/file-20171024-30587-1wrppy7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1066&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191704/original/file-20171024-30587-1wrppy7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1066&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Martin Luther.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/1533_Cranach_d.%C3%84._Martin_Luther_im_50._Lebensjahr_anagoria.JPG">Lucas Cranach the Elder, via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, it was not just Luther’s ideals that contributed to his success. We found that it was also his personal story of spiritual renewal that added to his extraordinary appeal. </p>
<p>As the German states became more urban, more commercial and more affluent, the old social order was disrupted and the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1262373">Church increasingly removed</a> itself from its members’ daily dilemmas. </p>
<p>At the time, Luther, following the wishes of his father, was pursuing law. However, <a href="http://www.luther.de/en/leben/moench.html">dismayed by</a> an increasingly materialistic society, he abandoned his legal studies to enter the friary of the Augustinian hermits.</p>
<p>Luther remained a monk for nearly 20 years. During his early years in the monastery, Luther obsessed about his personal failings and sins and worked hard to excel as a monk. Beginning his day at 3 a.m., Luther tried to purify himself through practices like fasting, confession, reading scriptures late into the night and silently praying at almost every moment. </p>
<p>For penance, he fasted to the point of emaciation and would even strike himself with a whip. </p>
<h2>The spiritual virtuoso</h2>
<p>We call Luther a “spiritual virtuoso” because he completely devoted his life to religious study and practice. His intense commitment to spiritual perfection resembled the perseverance of outstanding virtuosi in fields like music, athletics or dance.</p>
<p>During his career, Luther wrote thousands of sermons and pamphlets, composed hymns, preached every week and <a href="https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/martin-luther-lessons-from-his-life-and-labor">engaged in tireless work</a> on behalf of the emerging Protestant churches. </p>
<p>Over a century ago, the German sociologist Max Weber thought about hermits’ and monks’ isolation, self-denial and intense dedication and defined their absolute commitment <a href="http://hirr.hartsem.edu/ency/Virtuoso.htm">as a kind of virtuosity</a>.</p>
<p>Spiritual virtuosi devote themselves to comprehending and <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9780814798041/">enacting a higher spiritual purpose</a>. They are willing to sacrifice their earthly comforts and pleasures in order to reach unity with God or another higher power.</p>
<p>The essence of spiritual virtuosity is personal humility. To that end, virtuosi tend to be reluctant leaders. Because of their unease with worldly power, they are wary of having themselves confused with the message. Luther was not interested in leading a social movement or reaping material rewards. What he wanted to do was to serve God and bring God’s word to others. </p>
<p>It was the students in Luther’s movement, and the clergy who supported them, who became the key activists and organized widespread support in Wittenberg, Basel and other university towns. We call them “virtuosi activists.” Luther himself preached, lectured and debated, but he was not much troubled with strategy or organizational tactics of organizing a movement.</p>
<p>In 1530, when the emerging Protestant movement presented its <a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/creeds3.iii.ii.html">profession of faith</a> to the German emperor in Augsburg, Luther played a minor role and did not even attend the conference. Luther’s central goal was to show people how to reach toward God through personal faith. </p>
<h2>Luther’s impact</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191705/original/file-20171024-30577-1b9knov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191705/original/file-20171024-30577-1b9knov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191705/original/file-20171024-30577-1b9knov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191705/original/file-20171024-30577-1b9knov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191705/original/file-20171024-30577-1b9knov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=970&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191705/original/file-20171024-30577-1b9knov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=970&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191705/original/file-20171024-30577-1b9knov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=970&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Side of collection box of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society that served as a collection box for contributions to the Abolitionist cause.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ARemember_Your_Weekly_Pledge_Massachusetts_Anti-Slavey_Society_collection_box.jpg">Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University via Wikimedia Commons.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Protestant Reformation was the first significant social movement in modern history that was organized by activist spiritual virtuosi. Since then, other social movements have built upon Luther’s ideals of spiritual equality.</p>
<p>In the 19th century, the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20051029170656/http://americanabolitionist.liberalarts.iupui.edu/">American anti-slavery movement</a>, for example, emphasized spiritual equality of everyone before God, not just white Christians. The 20th-century human potential movement, building on the earlier work of spiritual equality, focused on the immense potential in each person and the <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9780814732878/">importance of communicating directly</a> with a higher power in many different ways. </p>
<p>Today, smaller contemporary virtuosi activists continue to enact and expand the ideas. We believe groups like the <a href="https://sojo.net">Sojourners’</a> community and the <a href="http://www.sanctuarynotdeportation.org/">Sanctuary movement</a> are examples of such work, for they spread faith in spiritual equality. </p>
<p>The rebellion against the Roman Church was wholly unanticipated and succeeded against all odds. In showing new spiritual possibilities, Luther also showed us one way to bring about social change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83340/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>On the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, two scholars explain how Luther’s personal and spiritual life contributed to his success.Marion Goldman, Professor Emeritus, University of OregonSteve Pfaff, Professor, University of WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/775402017-05-16T00:53:47Z2017-05-16T00:53:47ZOn the Reformation’s 500th anniversary, remembering Martin Luther’s contribution to literacy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169392/original/file-20170515-7005-58odc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An exhibition for the Luther monument in Worms.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Jens Meyer</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This year marks the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s famous <a href="http://www.luther.de/en/95thesen.html">95 Theses</a>, which helped spark the founding of the Reformation and the division of Christianity into Protestantism and Catholicism. </p>
<p>The 95 Theses critiqued the church’s sale of indulgences, which Luther regarded as a <a href="http://www.lutherdansk.dk/Web-babylonian%20Captivitate/Martin%20Luther.htm">form of corruption</a>. By Luther’s time, indulgences had evolved into payments that were said to reduce punishment for sins. Luther believed that such practices only interfered with genuine repentance and discouraged people from giving to the poor. One of Luther’s most important theological contributions was the “<a href="https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2016/10/the-priesthood-of-all-believers">priesthood of all believers</a>,” which implied that clerics possessed no more dignity than ordinary people. </p>
<p>Less known is the crucial role Luther played in making the case for ordinary people to read often and well. Unlike the papacy and its defenders, who were producing their writings in Latin, Luther reached out to Germans in their mother tongue, substantially enhancing the accessibility of his written ideas.</p>
<p>In my teaching of philanthropy, Luther’s promotion of literacy is one of the historic events I often discuss with my students.</p>
<h2>Early years</h2>
<p>Born in Germany in 1483, Luther followed the wishes of his <a href="http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/236142/martin-luther-by-lyndal-roper/9780812996197/">father</a> to study law. Once, while caught in a terrible thunderstorm, he vowed that if he were saved, he would become a monk.</p>
<p>Indeed, Luther later joined the austere <a href="http://augustinians.net/">Augustinian</a> order, and became both a priest and a doctor of theology. Later he developed objections to many church practices. He <a href="http://martinluther.ccws.org/treatises/index.html">protested</a> the promotion of indulgences, the buying and selling of clerical privileges, and the accumulation of substantial wealth by the church while peasants barely survived. Legend has it that on Oct. 31, 1517, Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg, the <a href="http://www.visit-luther.com/luthercities/lutherstadt-wittenberg/the-luther-connection/">town</a> where he was based.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169394/original/file-20170515-7005-fdxaq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169394/original/file-20170515-7005-fdxaq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169394/original/file-20170515-7005-fdxaq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169394/original/file-20170515-7005-fdxaq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169394/original/file-20170515-7005-fdxaq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169394/original/file-20170515-7005-fdxaq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169394/original/file-20170515-7005-fdxaq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Luther’s 95 Theses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/keren/2989215726/in/photolist-5y9vGb-ij6QZ2-947VLg-97Fvbp-4xpjR8-98p6jJ-5rNEt8-auJkMV-dmkNTG-aCsCfD-dwGi3a-9ooLyE-gVREC-qb33n-6YYCrn-apkkuE-drPTNL-fz65JT-8VFNaz-98kWei-98kVGH-8nqFTX-8pgH81-8RzGw-dwKbnL-dwDFCF-4JYgaw-dmkLjP-ayjny6-AwmGsB-dwG5PM-5zZGoA-6qoSrP-8nqFZ8-947Vvk-bnbw3B-8nqFEx-6Z3SRf-8U8PF3-9dHQGR-8nqG6T-98p5MU-6Z3SR3-9a6RRV-97FvBV-6YYCs6-6YYCre-6gthVc-8ntPJs-4xtw4h">Keren Tan</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>He was branded an outlaw for refusing to recant his teachings. In 1521, Pope Leo X <a href="http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Leo10/l10decet.htm">excommunicated</a> Luther from the Roman Church. His patron, <a href="http://reformation500.csl.edu/bio/frederick-the-wise/">Frederick of Saxony</a>, saved Luther from further reprisal and had him taken in secret to a castle, where he remained for two years. </p>
<p>It was during that time that Luther produced an immensely influential translation of the New Testament into German. </p>
<h2>Impact of Luther’s writing</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/educator/modules/gutenberg/johann/">Gutenberg’s</a> earlier introduction of the printing press in 1439 made possible the rapid dissemination of Luther’s works throughout much of Europe, and their impact was staggering. </p>
<p>Luther’s collected works run to <a href="http://fortresspress.com/product/luthers-works-volume-55-index">55 volumes</a>. It is <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/21541719">estimated</a> that between 1520 and 1526, some 1,700 editions of Luther’s works were printed. Of the six to seven million pamphlets printed during this time, more than a quarter were Luther’s works, many of which played a vital role in propelling the reformation forward.</p>
<p>Thanks to Luther’s translation of the Bible, it became possible for German-speaking people to stop relying on church authorities and instead read the Bible for themselves. </p>
<p>Luther argued that ordinary people were not only capable of interpreting the scriptures for themselves, but that in doing so they stood the best chance of hearing God’s word. He <a href="https://www.cph.org/p-667-What-Luther-Says.aspx">wrote,</a> </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Let the man who would hear God speak read Holy Scripture.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Luther’s Bible helped form a common German dialect. Prior to Luther, people from different regions of present-day Germany often experienced great difficulty understanding one another. Luther’s Bible translation promoted a single <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-04-02/martin-luther-didnt-just-reform-church-he-reformed-german-language">German vernacular</a>, helping to bring people together around a common tongue.</p>
<h2>Expanding literacy</h2>
<p>This view, combined with the wide availability of scripture, shifted responsibility for scriptural interpretation from clerics to the laity. Luther wanted ordinary people to assume more responsibility for <a href="http://www.bible.ca/history/philip-schaff/7_ch04.htm">reading</a> the Bible.</p>
<p>In promoting his point of view, Luther helped to provide one of the most effective arguments for universal literacy in the history of Western civilization. </p>
<p>At a time when most people worked in farming, reading was not necessary to maintain a livelihood. But Luther wanted to remove the language barrier so that everyone could read the Bible “<a href="https://www.cph.org/p-667-What-Luther-Says.aspx">without hindrance</a>.” His rationale for wanting people both to learn to read and to read regularly was, from his point of view, among the most powerful imaginable – that reading it for themselves would bring them closer to God.</p>
<p>For much of Luther’s life, his remarkable output in theological treatises was exceeded only by his <a href="http://fortresspress.com/product/luthers-works-volume-55-index">Bible commentaries</a>. He believed that nothing could substitute for direct and ongoing encounters with scripture, which he both advocated for and helped to shape through his detailed commentaries. </p>
<h2>Reading to interpret truth</h2>
<p>Luther had <a href="https://www.luther2017.de/en/news/universitaet-und-reformation/">many reasons</a> to favor the dissemination of learning. He was a university professor. His 95 Theses were intended as an academic disputation. His teaching and scholarship played a crucial role in the development of his theology. Finally, he recognized the crucial role students would play in carrying his movement forward. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169395/original/file-20170515-7009-18dzhqn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169395/original/file-20170515-7009-18dzhqn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169395/original/file-20170515-7009-18dzhqn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169395/original/file-20170515-7009-18dzhqn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169395/original/file-20170515-7009-18dzhqn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169395/original/file-20170515-7009-18dzhqn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169395/original/file-20170515-7009-18dzhqn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Martin Luther King Jr., namesake of the German reformer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/urbanophile/358943676/in/photolist-xHFs5-89WNBx-9rFRF6-PTQmb-fXXLTi-dehuuY-5Z1m4V-98anXx-6bRV3E-ndXHEJ-RRkZqw-98anXB-8xZpaN-dS2tZF-d7KkyY-ahKWSm-ahHaBZ-e324eh-b7US9c-dxqbkx-9btSq7-bcZHc2-FQvNN4-8w8ngR-a5Y8Wm-dNFm7h-jj366Z-7gzbUw-nQMZ7S-3JANq-4mQKbd-RbxqoW-qFFNcC-4ZuKCQ-9ipZfF-fbZCVX-nR6VJZ-89Euxq-4EX6zK-asU1VW-8ateDG-qzEsvQ-dQjVGs-pQF1vn-qSdRk2-68kz5-RwqMJh-RbwjJ1-nvxtr-ahH9Gt">the.urbanophile</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>So powerfully did Luther’s influence reverberate down through the ages that, during a visit to Germany in 1934, Rev. Michael King Sr. chose to change both his and his son’s <a href="http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_king_martin_luther_michael_sr_1897_1984/">name</a> to Martin Luther King. MLK Jr., namesake of the great German reformer, would make full use of the power of <a href="https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html">free speech</a> in catalyzing the American civil rights movement.</p>
<p>In posting his 95 Theses, Luther was encouraging a vigorous exchange of ideas. The best community is not the one that suppresses dissent but one that challenges ideas it finds objectionable through rigorous argumentation. It is largely for this reason that the founders of the <a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendments/amendment-i">United States</a> took so seriously freedom of religion, free association and the protection of a free press.</p>
<p>Luther trusted ordinary people to discern the truth. All they needed was the opportunity to interpret what they read for themselves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77540/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Gunderman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Luther translated the Greek New Testament into a common German dialect that ordinary people could read, without help from clergy.Richard Gunderman, Chancellor's Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.