Martin Luther King Essay, Research Paper
Martin Luther had a very spiritual renewal after he was in a horrid accident. He then decided to go to a monastery to pay his respects to God for letting him live.
And his inner torment was not eased by the fact that his father disapproved of his
Martin Luther did this despite his father?s pleads for Luther not to go. When Luther went of to the monastery his father felt his son had dishonored him. Martin Luther was very active in trying to cleanse his soul of any sins he had committed. He would shut himself in for days without food or drink until he had said the amount of prayers that were prescribed. He allowed his prayers to torment him by repeating prayers until he got a headache (to feel God had forgiven him).
An errand to Rome shook him further. He did not notice the glories of the Renaissance or the reminders of antiquity: instead, he saw the worldliness and levity of the clergy, both high and low.
Luther concentrated on the inner meaning and underlying unity of the Scripture.
The words that greatly troubled Martin that he read in the bible were ?righteous?(meaning conforming in disposition and conduct to a standard of right and justice) and ?righteousness? (meaning the quality of being righteous) struck Luther quite hard. After Luther thought about these words and their relevance to God he felt more at ease. On All Saints? Day in 1517 Luther made a journey toward Kemberg to speak out against indulgences. One of his friends, Jerome Schurff, advised Luther not to do this for it would not be tolerated. Luther knew what he had to do and continued on his journey to speak out against indulgences. This began the dispute between Luther and the Catholic Church.
Martin Luther had an idea that the Catholic Church had built three walls to protect itself from reform. He thought the first wall was ?they had affirmed and maintained that the temporal power had no jurisdiction over them.? Luther?s conception was that a person?s spirituality should be ranked above the church?s power. This meant a person should not have to go through the Church?s elaborate ceremonies in order to be close with God. A person should rely on the Bible to be more in touch with the Lord. Luther?s interpretation of the second wall was that the Church had claimed that no one could analyze the scriptures except the Pope. Luther disagreed with this pillar because people were reading the scriptures through how the Pope interpreted the readings. This also could mean that perhaps the Pope was changing around the words, leaving writing out, or maybe placing new writings in. The third wall was that only the Pope could call a council, to protect the catholic leaders from others threatening with a council. This guarded the Pope and his beliefs from being prosecuted by people with different views. By the Pope being the only person with the power to call a council, the Pope built an intangible shield around him.
Indulgences were introduced during Martin Luther?s time of reformation. Luther’s thoughts tumbled out of the classroom into the marketplace in 1517 when plenary indulgences were being hawked by a Dominican, Tetzel, near Wittenburg. opposing the manner in which indulgences (release from the temporal penalties for sin through the payment of money) were being sold in order to raise money for the building of Saint Peter’s in Rome
Archbishop Albert stated that indulgences had four major privileges. The first grace that would be obtained if one purchased, indulgence would be the forgiveness of all sins. This meant that a person could go straight to heaven with a clean soul, and did not have to spend time in Purgatory. The second grace would be a special confessional letter given to you after you bought an indulgence. This letter gave a person unheard of privileges. The most important grace would be the third grace it was; ?the participation in all possessions of the church universal.? This meant that a person would be prayed for at every mass at every church throughout the world automatically. The last grace would be the forgiveness of sins for the people who are already deceased, and in Purgatory. The Archbishop falsely stated that the Church had the power to forgive sins instead of God.
Johann Tetzel goes into depth to try and give people an idea of how many sins they commit in a day. He states that one sin is equivalent to seven years in Purgatory. He scares people by making them think of how many sins they commit in a day, week, month, year, lifetime it sums up to a lot of time in purgatory. He made it seem like purgatory was a terrible place to burn in pains. He effectively advertises the indulgences so that every one would buy them and if you didn?t buy indulgences it was truly thought of as foolish. Indulgences do not forgive all sins though; Johann contradicts the selling of indulgences to forgive sins by saying the Pope can only forgive some sins.
Faithful to academic custom, Luther nailed 95 propositions (or theses) in Latin on the door of the castle church as an open invitation to a debate on their merits. They began with a popular attack on the venality of Rome, passed through the doubts as to the Pope’s right to remit punishment inflicted by God, and finished by asserting that nothing but contrition could remit spiritual guilt and nothing else was necessary.
Martin Luther appears to be quite angry with the Church in his ?95 Theses?. One of the subjects that he attacks is the position of the Pope. He states that the Pope does not have the power to forgive sins. He claims that the Pope can not free sinners from punishment. He looked down upon the pope for spending time and money on building great statues instead of using that money and time to do acts of mercy. Luther strongly preaches that indulgences can?t take the place of good works. Luther also strongly emphasizes that Christians have the benefits of the Church without purchasing a letter or indulgences. He also told the people that they should be using their money to give to the needy and not wasting it on buying pardons. In hard times, Luther believes that Christians should strive towards Christ. Martin Luther was courageous to make these attacks on the Church, he was one of the few people who stood up to the Church and its wrong doings.