5-2 Short Essay: Luther and the Catholic Church Emily Keith Professor Stephen Campbell HIS: 374 Southern New Hampshire University April 7, 2024
1 As mentioned by numerous people in this week's discussion on the Reformation, it was a pivotal time in Western Europe during the 16th century. Significant religious and social changes marked it. At the heart of this transformation was the Protestant Reformation, one of the significant reformers, Martin Luther, who challenged the authority of the Catholic Church. Luther's criticisms of the church were based on indulgences as they represented a controversial practice that challenged fundamental aspects of Christian doctrine and spirituality. "Luther was disturbed by what seemed to him a combination of the worst of both institutional corruption and misguided popular beliefs. He wrote a letter to Archbishop Albert laying out his ideas ... as ninety-five theses, or scholarly points of argument, against indulgences."1 Martin Luther's posting of the "95 Theses" in 1517 on Halloween to the door of the Wittenberg church marked the beginning of the Reformation and a theological dispute that listed various issues between Luther and the Catholic Church.2 One of Luther's central points of contention for the Catholic Church was the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Luther vehemently argued that salvation came through faith in Jesus Christ alone, not through good works or indulgences, as the Catholic Church taught. The Church claimed indulgences could reduce or eliminate the earthly punishment due to sins, granting access to God's forgiveness. However, Luther believed that individuals could not earn their salvation through acts of devotion or charitable acts but rather through a relationship with God. In Luther's ninety-five theses, he states, "32. They will be condemned eternally, together with their teachers, who believe themselves sure of their salvation because they have letters of pardon. 33. Men must be on their guard against those who say that the pope's pardons are that inestimable gift of 1 Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks, Early Modern Europe, 1450-1789 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2022), https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/books/9781009184632, p. 178. 2 Johann Peter Kirsch, "The Reformation," Catholic Encyclopedia: The Reformation, 1911, https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12700b.htm.
2 God by which man is reconciled to Him; 34. For these 'graces of pardon' concern only the penalties of sacramental satisfaction, and these are appointed by man. "3 His beliefs challenged the teachings of the Catholic Church and led to one of the Reformation's fundamental and core disagreements. Secondly, Luther objected to the idea that the Pope held the power to grant indulgences and remit sins. In his Theses, Luther emphasized the importance of Scripture over papal authority, asserting that only God had the authority to forgive sins. "75. To think that the papal pardons so great that they could absolve a man even if he had committed an impossible sin and violated the Mother of God-this is madness."4 This disagreement highlighted the theological differences between Luther's belief in salvation by grace through faith alone and the Catholic Church's emphasis on the role of the clergy in administering sacraments and granting absolution.