Edited by Gerald Boerner
Commentary:
After the conversion of Emperor Constantine in the 4th century, the Christian faith under the control of the Catholic Church and its Popes. Not until the beginning of the 16th century did someone (Martin Luther) successfully challenge the Catholic Church’s teaching. But as a German Theologian and Augustinian Monk, Luther emerge to question the Church’s policy on Indulgences, among other things. This resulted in many of the churches in northern Europe, except for Poland, leaving the Catholic Church and adopted a Protestant faith based upon the direct reading of the bible and individual worship and responsibility.
To express his objections, this monk, Martin Luther, sent a list of 95 theses (points of question) to his Archbishop. He nailed a copy to the church door in Wittenberg as was the custom by the faculty at the seminary where he taught. This proved to be the start of a much larger movement — The Protestant Reformation.
As an immediate consequence of his action, he was excommunicated by Pope Leo X and faced a trial for his offenses before the Diet of Worms. He was found guilty which resulted in “…declaring Luther an outlaw, banning his literature, and requiring his arrest…” The cascaded into the Reformation. Luther did much to democratize the Christian Church produce the dichotomy of Catholic vs. Protestant that we have today.
So, let’s start our exploration in the opening battle of the Protestant Reformation… GLB
These Introductory Comments are copyrighted:
Copyright©2011 — Gerald Boerner — All Rights Reserved[ 3083 Words ]
Quotations Related to Martin Luther:
“Be a sinner and sin strongly, but more strongly have faith and rejoice in Christ.”
— Martin Luther
“Be thou comforted, little dog, Thou too in Resurrection shall have a little golden tail.”
— Martin Luther
“Blood alone moves the wheels of history.”
— Martin Luther