Luther, MARTIN, the greatest of the Protestant Reformers of the 16th century, was born at Eisleben on the 10th November 1483. His father was a miner in humble circumstances; his mother, as Melanchthon records, was a woman of exemplary virtue (exemplar virtutum), and peculiarly esteemed in her walk of life. Shortly after Martin's birth his parents removed to Mansfeld, where their circumstances ere long improved by industry and perseverance. Their son was sent to school; and both at home and in school his training was severe. His father sometimes whipped him, he says, 'for a mere trifle till the blood came,' and he was subjected to the scholastic rod fifteen times in one day! Luther's schooling was completed at Magdeburg and Eisenach, and at the latter place he attracted by his singing the notice of a good lady of the name of Cotta, who provided him with a comfortable home during his stay there. Here under Trebonius he made good progress in Latin. In 1501, when he had reached his eighteenth year, he entered the university of Erfurt, with the view of qualifying himself for the legal profession. He went through the usual studies in the classics and the schoolmen, and took his degree of Doctor of Philosophy, or Master of Arts, in 1505, when he was twenty-one years of age. Ere this, however, the death of a friend, and the terror of a thunderstorm, had deeply impressed him; and he was led to the study of the Scriptures. Not content with the gospels and epistles in the lectionaries, and failing to find elsewhere a complete Bible (though the whole Vulgate had been translated into German before his time; see BIBLE, Vol. II. p. 127), he had recourse to the Vulgate in the university library. His heart was touched, and he resolved to devote himself to a spiritual life. He separated himself from his friends and fellow-students, and withdrew into the Augustinian convent at Erfurt. Here he spent the next three years of his life—years of peculiar interest and significance; for it was during this time that he laid, in the study of the Bible and of Augustine, and with the assistance of his life-long friend Staupitz, the foundation of those doctrinal convictions which were afterwards to rouse and strengthen him in his struggle against the papacy. He describes very vividly the spiritual crisis through which he passed, the burden of sin which so long lay upon him, 'too heavy to be borne,' and the relief that he at length found in the clear apprehension of the doctrine of the 'forgiveness of sins' through the grace of Christ.
In the year 1507 Luther was ordained a priest, and in the following year he removed to Wittenberg, destined to derive its chief celebrity from his name. He became a teacher in the new university founded there by the Elector Frederick of Saxony. At first he lectured on dialectics and physics, but his heart was already given to theology, and in 1509 he became a Bachelor of Theology, and commenced lecturing on the Holy Scriptures. His lectures made a great impression, and the novelty of his views already began to excite attention. 'This monk,' said the rector of the university, 'will puzzle our doctors, and bring in a new doctrine.' Besides lecturing, he began to preach, and his sermons reached a wider audience, and produced a still more powerful influence. They were printed and widely circulated in Germany, France, and England, so that the doctrines of salvation by free grace were diffused throughout Europe. His words, as Melanchthon said, were 'born not on his lips, but in his soul,' and they moved profoundly the souls of all who heard them. In 1511 he was sent on a mission to Rome, and he has described very vividly what he saw and heard there. His devout and unquestioning reverence—for he was yet in his own subsequent view 'a most insane papist'—appears in strange conflict with an awakened thoughtfulness and the moral indignation at the abuses of the papacy beginning to stir in him. It was when climbing on his knees the steps of the so-called judgment-seat of Pilate that the words, 'the just shall live by faith,' flashed upon his soul and drove him to his feet.
On Luther's return from Rome he was made a Doctor of the Holy Scriptures, and his career as a Reformer may be said to have commenced. The system of indulgences had reached a scandalous height. The idea that it was in the power of the church to forgive sin had gradually grown into the notion that the pope could issue pardons of his own free will, which, being dispensed to the faithful, exonerated them from the consequences of their transgressions (see INDULGENCE). The sale of these pardons had become an organised part of the papal system. Money was largely needed at Rome to feed the extravagances of the papal court; and its numerous emissaries sought everywhere to raise funds by the sale of 'indulgences': the principal of these was John Tetzel, a Dominican friar, who had established himself at Jüterbog (1517). Luther's indignation at the shameless traffic which this man carried on finally became irrepressible: 'God willing,' he exclaimed, 'I will beat a hole in his drum.' He drew out ninety-five theses on the doctrine of indulgences, which on 31st October he nailed up on the door of the church at Wittenberg, and which he offered to maintain in the university against all impugners. The general purport of these theses was to deny to the pope all right to forgive sins. This sudden and bold step of Luther was all that was necessary to awaken a widespread excitement. Tetzel was forced to retreat from the borders of Saxony to Frankfort-on-the-Oder, where he drew out and published a set of counter-theses, and publicly committed those of Luther to the flames. The students at Wittenberg retaliated by burning Tetzel's theses. The elector refused to interfere, and the excitement increased as new combatants—Hochstratten, Prierias, and Eck—entered the field. Eck was an able man, and an old friend of Luther's, and the argument between him and the Reformer was especially vehement. In 1518 the latter was joined by Melanchthon, who became one of his dearest and most trusted friends.
At first the pope, Leo X., took little heed of the disturbance; he is reported even to have said when he heard of it that 'Friar Martin was a man of genius, and that he did not wish to have him molested.' Some of the cardinals, however, saw the real character of the movement, which gradually assumed a seriousness evident even to the pope; and Luther received a summons to appear at Rome, and answer for his theses (1518). Once again in Rome it is unlikely he would ever have been allowed to return. His university and the elector interfered, and a legate was sent to Germany to hear and determine the case. Cardinal Cajetan was the legate, and he was but little fitted to deal with Luther. He would enter into no argument with him, but merely called upon him to retract. Luther refused, and fled from Augsburg, whither he had gone to meet the papal representative. The task of negotiation was then undertaken by Miltitz, a German, who was envoy of the pope to the Saxon court, and by his greater address a temporary peace was obtained. This did not last long. The Reformer was too deeply moved to keep silent. 'God hurries and drives me,' he said; 'I am not master of myself: I wish to be quiet, and am hurried into the midst of tumults.' Dr Eck and he held a memorable disputation at Leipzig (1519), in which the subject of argument was no longer merely the question of indulgences, but the general power of the pope. The disputation, of course, came to no practical result; each controversialist claimed the victory, and Luther in the meantime made progress in freedom of opinion, and attacked the papal system as a whole more boldly. Erasmus and Hutten joined in the conflict, which waxed more loud and threatening.
In 1520 the Reformer published his famous address to the 'Christian Nobles of Germany.' This was followed in the same year by a treatise On the Babylonish Captivity of the Church. In these works, both of which circulated widely, and powerfully influenced many minds, Luther took firmer and broader ground; he attacked not only the abuses of the papacy and its pretensions to supremacy, but also the doctrinal system of the Church of Rome. 'These works,' Ranke says, 'contain the kernel of the whole Reformation.' The papal bull containing forty-one theses was issued against him; the dread document, with other papal books, was burned before an assembled multitude of doctors, students, and citizens at the Elster Gate of Wittenberg. Germany was convulsed with excitement. Eck (who had been the chief agent in obtaining the bull) fled from place to place, glad to escape with his life, and Luther was everywhere the hero of the hour. Charles V. had at this time succeeded to the empire, and he convened his first diet of the sovereigns and states at Worms. The diet met in the beginning of 1521; an order was issued for the destruction of Luther's books, and he himself was summoned to appear before the diet. This was above all what he desired—to confess the truth before the assembled powers of Germany. He resolved—having received a safe conduct—to obey the summons, come what would. All Germany was moved by his heroism; his journey resembled a triumph; the threats of enemies and the anxieties of friends alike failed to move him. 'I am resolved to enter Worms,' he said, 'although as many devils should set at me as there are tiles on the housetops.' His appearance and demeanour before the diet, and the firmness with which he held his ground and refused to retract, all make a striking picture. He was not allowed to defend his opinions. 'Unless I be convinced,' he said, 'by Scripture and reason, I neither can nor dare retract anything, for my conscience is a captive to God's word, and it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. There I take my stand. I can do no otherwise. So help me God. Amen.'
On his return from Worms he was seized, at the instigation of his friend, the Elector of Saxony, and safely lodged in the old castle of the Wartburg. The affair was made to assume an aspect of violence, but in reality it was designed to secure him from the destruction which his conduct at Worms would certainly have provoked, he having been placed under the ban of the empire. He remained in this shelter for about a year, concealed in the guise of a knight. His chief employment was his translation of the Scriptures into his native language. He composed various treatises besides, and injured his health by sedentary habits and hard study. His imagination became morbidly excited, and he thought he saw and heard the Evil One mocking him while engaged in his literary tasks: the blot from the inkstand that he hurled at him is still shown on the wall of his chamber. The subject of the personality and presence of Satan was a familiar one with Luther, and he has many things about it in his Table-talk.
The disorders which sprang up in the progress of the Reformation recalled Luther to Wittenberg. He felt that his presence was necessary to restrain Carlstadt and others, and, defying any danger to which he might still be exposed, he returned in 1522 to the old scene of his labours, rebuked the unruly spirits who had acquired power in his absence, and resumed with renewed energy his interrupted work. He strove to arrest the excesses of the Zwickau fanatics, and counselled peace and order to the inflamed peasants, while he warned the princes and nobles of the unchristian cruelty of many of their doings, which had driven the people to exasperation and frenzy. At no period of his life is he greater than now in the stand which he made against lawlessness on the one hand and tyranny on the other. He vindicated his claim to be a Reformer in the highest sense by the wise and manly part which he acted in this great social crisis in the history of Germany. In this year also he published his acrimonious reply to Henry VIII. on the seven sacraments. Although he had been at first united in a common cause with Erasmus, estrangement had gradually sprung up between the scholar of Rotterdam and the enthusiastic Reformer of Wittenberg. This estrangement came to an open breach in the year 1525, when Erasmus published his treatise De Libero Arbitrio. Luther immediately followed with his counter-treatise, De Servo Arbitrio. The controversy raged loudly between them; and in the vehemence of his hostility to the doctrine of Erasmus Luther was led into various assertions of a very questionable kind, besides indulging in wild abuse of his opponent's character. The quarrel was an unhappy one on both sides; and it must be confessed there is especially a want of generosity in the manner in which Luther continued to cherish the dislike which sprang out of it. In the course of the same year Luther married Katharina von Bora, one of nine nuns who, under the influence of his teaching, had emancipated themselves from their religious vows. The step rejoiced his enemies, and even alarmed some of his friends like Melanchthon. But it greatly contributed to his happiness, while it served to enrich and strengthen his character. All the most interesting and touching glimpses we get of him henceforth are in connection with his wife and children.
Two years after his marriage he fell into a dangerous sickness and depression of spirits, from which he was only aroused by the dangers besetting Christendom from the advance of the Turks. Two years later, in 1529, he engaged in his famous conference at Marburg with Zwingli and other Swiss divines. In this conference he obstinately maintained his peculiar views as to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper (q.v.), and, as in the controversy with Erasmus, distinguished himself more by the inflexible dogmatism of his opinions than by the candour and comprehensiveness of his arguments, or the fairness and generosity of his temper. Aggressive and reforming in the first stage of his life, and while he was dealing with practical abuses, he was yet in many respects essentially conservative in his intellectual character, and he shut his mind pertinaciously after middle life to any advance in doctrinal opinion. The following year finds him at Coburg, while the diet sat at Augsburg. It was deemed prudent to entrust the interests of the Protestant cause to Melanchthon, who attended the diet, but Luther removed to Coburg, to be at hand for consultation. The drawing up of the Augsburg Confession (q.v.) marks the culmination of the German Reformation (1530); and the life of Luther from henceforth possesses comparatively little interest. He survived sixteen years longer, but they are years marked by few incidents of importance. He died at Eisleben on 18th February 1546, and was buried at Wittenberg.
Luther's character presents an imposing combination of great qualities. Endowed with broad human sympathies, massive energy, manly and affectionate simplicity, and rich, if sometimes coarse humour, he is at the same time a spiritual genius. His intuitions of divine truth were bold, vivid, and penetrating, if not comprehensive; and he possessed the art which God alone gives to the finer and abler spirits that He calls to do special work in this world, of kindling other souls with the fire of his own convictions, and awakening them to a higher consciousness of religion and duty. He was a leader of men, therefore, and a Reformer in the highest sense. His powers were fitted to his appointed task: it was a task of Titanic magnitude, and he was a Titan in intellectual robustness and moral strength and courage. It was only the divine energy which swayed him, and of which he recognised himself the organ, that could have accomplished what he did.
View him as a mere theologian, and there are others who take higher rank. There is a lack of patient thoughtfulness and philosophical temper in his doctrinal discussions; but the absence of these very qualities gave vigour to his bold, if sometimes crude conceptions, and enabled him to triumph in the struggle for life or death in which he was engaged. To initiate the religious movement which was destined to renew the face of Europe, and give a nobler and more enduring life to the Teutonic nations, required a gigantic will, which, instead of being crushed by opposition, or frightened by hatred, should only gather strength from the fierceness of the conflict before it. To clear the air thoroughly, as he himself said, thunder and lightning are necessary. Upon the whole, it may be said that history presents few greater characters—few that excite at once more love and admiration, and in which we see tenderness, humour, and a certain picturesque grace and poetic sensibility more happily combined with a lofty and magnanimous, if sometimes rugged sublimity.
Luther's works are very voluminous, partly in Latin, and partly in German. Among those of more general interest are his Table-talk, his Letters, and Sermons. His Commentaries on Galatians and the Psalms are still read; and he was one of the great leaders of sacred song, his hymns, rugged, but intense and expressive, having an enduring power.
The most important complete editions of Luther's works are those of Wittenberg (12 vols. German; 8 vols. Latin, 1539–58); Halle, ed. by Walch (German, 24 vols. 1740–53); and Erlangen and Frankfurt (67 vols. German; 33 vols. Latin, 1826–73). A splendid new and complete edition was commenced at Weimar in the year of the fourth centenary of his birth (1883).
His Briefe, Sendschreiben und Bedenken were edited by De Wette and Seidemann (6 vols. 1825–56); the Briefwechsel, by Burkhardt (1866), and by Enders (1884 et seq.); his Politische Schriften, by Mundt (1844); his Kirchenpostille, by Francke (1844); his Tischreden, by Förstemann and Bindsell (1846–48); his Geistliche Lieder, by Wackernagel (1856), Gödeke (1883), and A. Fischer (1883). A good selection of the lesser writings is that entitled Martin Luther als Deutscher Klassiker (3 vols. Frank. 1871–83).
Of the many Lives the most important are those of Meurer (3d ed. 1870), Jürgens (3 vols. 1846–47), Köstlin (2 vols. 1875; 3d ed. 1883; also a popular ed. 1883), Plitt and Petersen (2d ed. 1883), and Kolde (1884 et seq.). There is an English life of merit by Peter Bayne (1887), and well-known essays by Carlyle, Froude, Tulloch, and others. See also Dr Charles Beard's admirable book, Martin Luther and his Reformation in Germany until the Close of the Diet of Worms (1889).
On Luther's theology there are works by Th. Harnack (1862–86), Köstlin (1863), and Lommatsch (1879). The Catholic view is fairly given by Döllinger, and in Janssen's Geschichte des Deutschen Volkes.