Blog ||| Special Homages: Meister Eckhart / David Copperfield
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Start |||
The
Philosophical Europe ||| The Political Progress ||| European Witness ||| EU News
Blog ||| Special Homages: Meister Eckhart / David Copperfield |
|
From Hutton Webster's, Early European History (1917); edited for this on-line publication, by ELLOPOS
XXIV. THE REFORMATION AND THE RELIGIOUS WARS, 1517-1648 A.D.
» Contents of this Chapter
Page 12
POSTING OF THE NINETY-FIVE THESES, 1517 A.D.
Luther began his reforming career by an attack upon indulgences. He did not deny their usefulness altogether, but pointed out that they lent themselves to grave abuses. Common people, who could not understand the Latin in which they were written, often thought that they wiped away the penalties of sin, even without true repentance. These criticisms Luther set forth in ninety-five theses or propositions, which he offered to defend against all opponents. In accordance with the custom of medieval scholars, Luther posted his theses on the door of the church at Wittenberg, where all might see them. They were composed in Latin, but were at once translated into German, printed, and spread broadcast over Germany. Their effect was so great that before long the sale of indulgences in that country almost ceased.
BURNING OF THE PAPAL BULL, 1520 A.D.
The scholarly critic of indulgences soon passed into an open foe of the Papacy. Luther found that his theological views bore a close resemblance to those of Wycliffe and John Huss, yet he refused to give them up as heretical. Instead, he wrote three bold pamphlets, in one of which he appealed to the "Christian nobility of the German nation" to rally together against Rome. The pope, at first, had paid little attention to the controversy about indulgences, declaring it "a mere squabble of monks," but he now issued a bull against Luther, ordering him to recant within sixty days or be excommunicated. The papal bull did not frighten Luther or withdraw from him popular support. He burnt it in the market square of Wittenberg, in the presence of a concourse of students and townsfolk. This dramatic answer to the pope deeply stirred all Germany.
THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY: Table of Contents
url: www.ellopos.net/politics/european-history/default.asp
Cf. The Ancient Greece * The Ancient Rome
Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) * Western Medieval Europe * Renaissance in Italy
