RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Luther, Martin
cept of the way of salvation to the new tenet that the Church is the congregation of the faithful. Still wishing to remain on friendly terms with the elector, the pope made a last effort to reach a peaceable conclusion with Luther. A conference with the papal chamberlain K. von Miltitz at Altenburg in Jan., 1519, led Luther to agree to remain silent so long as his opponents should, to write a humble letter to the pope, and to prepare a work to testify his honor of the Roman Church. The letter was written, but was not sent, since it contained no retraction; while in a German treatise later prepared, Luther, while recognizing purgatory, indulgences, and the invocation of the saints, denied all effect of indulgences on purgatory. When, moreover, Eck challenged Luther's colleague Carlstadt to a disputation at Leipsic, Luther joined in the debate' (June 27-July 16, 1519), denying the divine right of the papacy, and holding that the " power of the keys " had been given to the Church (i.e., to the congregation of the faithful), affirming besides that belief in the preeminence of the Roman Church was not essential to salvation and maintaining the validity of the Greek Church.
There was no longer hope of peace. His writings were now circulated most widely, reaching France, England, and Italy as early as 1519, and students thronged to Wittenberg to hear Luther, who had been joined by Melanchthon in 1518, and
who now published his shorter com- 6. Develop- mentary on Galatians and his Operament of tiones in Psalmos, while at the same Views on time he received deputations from Eucharist, Italy and from the Utraquists of Bo- Priesthood, hernia. These controversies neces- Church, and sarily led Luther to develop his doc- Works, trines further, and in his Sermon von
dem hochwiirdigen Sakrament des Leichnams Christi (1519) he set forth the significance of the Eucharist (see Lord's Supper, II., 2, § 5, IV., 1, §§ 1-2), interpreting the transubstantiation of the bread as the transformation of the faithful into the spiritual body of Christ, i.e., into fellowship with Christ and the saints. The basal concept of the Eucharist, moreover, according to him, is the forgiveness of sins; and his entire theory is closely connected with his mystic view of the all-embracing participation in salvation shared by the believer with Christ and his Church. At the same time, he advocated that a council be called to restore communion in both kinds, and denied the doctrine of seven sacraments (letter of Dec. 18, 1519). He likewise stripped the priesthood of all meaning other than the general priesthood taught in the Bible, and cast doubt on the entire doctrine of purgatoryj The Lutheran concept of the Church (see Church, the Christian, IV., § 2), wholly based on immediate relation to the Christ who gives himself in preaching and the sacraments, was already developed in his Von dem Papsttum zu Rom, a reply to the attack of the Franciscan Alveld at Leipsic (June, 1520); while in his Sermon von guten Werken, delivered in the spring of 1520, he controverted the Roman Catholic doctrine of good works and works of supererogation, holding that the works of the
believer are truly good in any secular calling ordered of God.
From the time of his disputation at Leipsic,
Luther came into relations with the humanists,
particularly with Melanchthon, Reuchlin, Erasmus,
and Crotus. The last was intimately associated
with Ulrich von Hutten (q.v.), who
7. Appeal in his turn influenced Franz von Sickto the ingen (q.v.), so that, when it became
Laity for doubtful whether it would be safe for
Reform. Luther to remain in Saxony if the ban which threatened should be pronounced against him, both Franz von Sickingen and Silvester of Schauenburg invited him to their fortresses and their protection. Under these circumstances, complicated by the crisis then confronting the German nobles, Luther issued his An den christlichen Adel deutscher Nation (Aug., 1520), committing to the laity, as spiritual priests, the reformation required by God but declined by the pope and the clergy. The subjects proposed for amelioration were not points of doctrine, but ecclesiastical abuses: diminution of the number of cardinals and the demands of the papal court; the abolition of annats (see Taxation, Ecclesiastical); recognition of secular government; renunciation of claims to temporal power on the part of the pope; abolition of the interdict, abuses connected with the ban, harmful pilgrimages, the misdemeanors of the mendicant orders, many holidays which led only to disorder; the suppression of nunneries, beggary, and luxury; the reform of the universities; abrogation of the celibacy of the clergy; and reunion with the Bohemians; besides demanding a general reform of public morality and denying transubstantiation in favor of the doctrine of the true presence of the natural body of Christ in the natural bread.
The climax of Luther's doctrinal polemics was reached in his De captivitate Babyloniaca, especially in regard to the sacraments. As 8. Doctrine concerned the Eucharist, he denied of the transubstantiation, the sacrificial char- Sacraments, acter of the mass, and the withholding of the cup. In regard to baptism, he taught that it brought justification only when conjoined with belief, but that it contained the foundation of salvation even for those who might later fall. As for penance, its essence consists in the words of promise given to belief. Only these three can be regarded as sacraments, in virtue of the promises attached to them; and strictly speaking baptism and the Eucharist alone are sacraments, as being a " sign divinely instituted." I The sacrament of unction was discarded by Luther with his doubts of the authenticity of the Epistle of James. In like manner, 'the acme of Luther's doctrine of salvation and the Christian life was attained in his Von der Freiheit eines Christenmenschen. Here he required complete union with Christ by means of the Word through faith, entire freedom of the Christian as a priest and king set above all outward things, and perfect love of one's neighbor. These three works may be considered the chief writings of Luther on the Reformation. [For their English translation by Buckheim and Wace see below.]
Luther, Martin