James danger harvey biography of martin luther

Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, —93, Fortress Press. Retrieved 14 May Luther and His Times. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, Church History. JSTOR New York: Penguin,40— Luther The Reformer. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Publishing House, New York: Penguin,44— Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, —93, — New York: Cambridge University Press,88— Retrieved 13 July Archived from the original on 15 June Albert offered seven thousand ducats for the seven deadly sins.

They compromised on ten thousand, presumably not for the Ten Commandments". Bainton, Roland. These "Anti-theses" were a reply to Luther's Ninety-five Theses and were drawn up by Tetzel's friend and former professor, Konrad Wimpina. Quisquis ergo dicit, non citius posse animam volare, quam in fundo cistae denarius possit tinnire, errat. In: D.

Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Uitgeverij Bert Bakker, LutherFrankfurt Hunter Publishing, Inc. Retrieved 7 February The Renaissance and Reformation MovementsSt. Reformation — Concordia Seminary, St. Archived from the original on 19 August Retrieved 28 March Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation. New York: Oxford University Press, Oswald and Helmut T.

Lehmann edsVol. Johnauthor of Revelationhad been exiled on the island of Patmos. Dickens cites as an example of Luther's "liberal" phraseology: "Therefore I declare that neither pope nor bishop nor any other person has the right to impose a syllable of law upon a Christian man without his own consent". Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, Luther's Works55 vols.

Louis and Philadelphia: Concordia Pub. House and Fortress Press, —50— Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Retrieved 17 May ; Bainton, Mentor edition, Eine Biographie in German. Munich: C. Retrieved 17 May ; Mullett, — On one occasion, Luther referred to the elector as an "emergency bishop" Notbischof. Lutheran Reformation. Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod.

Retrieved 7 October Philadelphia: Fortress Press,—; Bainton, Mentor edition, Arand, "Luther on the Creed. Hans J. The Library of Congress. Retrieved 2 June World Digital Library. Journal of Hebrew Scriptures. ISSN Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft. William Orme London:Boston, "a new edition, with notes and an appendix by Ezra Abbot".

New York: Appleton. Studia Instrumentorum. Retrieved 23 March Es ist eine unbedingte Notwendigkeit, dass der Deutsche zu seinen Liedern auch ein echt deutsches Begleitinstrument besitzt. Liederheft von C. Archived from the original on 14 October Leaver, "Luther's Catechism Hymns. Leaver, "Luther's Catechism Hymns: 5. Franz Pieper Christliche Dogmatik3 vols.

A sleep of the soul which includes enjoyment of God says Luther cannot be called a false doctrine. Klug, ed. Louis: CPH; "Sufficit igitur nobis haec cognitio, non egredi animas ex corporibus in periculum cruciatum et paenarum inferni, sed esse eis paratum cubiculum, in quo dormiant in pace. Archived from the original on 10 October Retrieved 15 August Pieper writes: "Luther speaks more guardedly of the state of the soul between death and resurrection than do Gerhard and the later theologians, who transfer some things to the state between death and resurrection which can be said with certainty only of the state after the resurrection" Christian Dogmatics, footnote Karl Friedrich Theodor Lachmann — p.

Tode ruhe, leugneten auch die nicht, welche ihr Wachen behaupteten :c. Ueberhaupt ist mit Luthers Ansehen bey der ganzen Streitigkeit nichts zu gewinnen. Christopf Stephan Elsperger Gottlieb p. Homo enim in hac vita defatigatus diurno labore, sub noctem intrat in cubiculum suum tanquam in pace, ut ibi dormiat, et ea nocte fruitur quiete, neque quicquam scit de ullo malo sive incendii, sive caedis.

Anima autem non sic dormit, sed vigilat, et patitur visiones loquelas Angelorum et Dei. Ideo somnus in futura vita profundior est quam in hac vita et tamen anima coram Deo vivit. Hac similitudine, quam habeo a somno viventia. Emphasis added. The siege was lifted on 14 Octoberwhich Luther saw as a divine miracle. Sonntag, Minneapolis: Lutheran Press,23— Sonntag, Minneapolis: Lutheran Press,11— Luther's Works — There he writes: "Dear God, should it be unbearable that the james danger harvey biography of martin luther church confesses itself a sinner, believes in the forgiveness of sins, and asks for remission of sin in the Lord's Prayer?

How can one know what sin is without the law and conscience? And how will we learn what Christ is, what he did for us, if we do not know what the law is that he fulfilled for us and what sin is, for which he made satisfaction? Luther's Works 41, —, —, — There he said about the antinomians: "They may be fine Easter preachers, but they are very poor Pentecost preachers, for they do not preach de sanctificatione et vivificatione Spiritus Sancti"about the sanctification by the Holy Spirit," but solely about the redemption of Jesus Christ" Luther, Only the Decalogue Is Eternal, 33— Luther, Only the Decalogue Is Eternal76, — Luther, Only the Decalogue Is Eternal, Luther, Only the Decalogue Is Eternal75, —, — Luther, Only the Decalogue Is Eternal Luther, Only the Decalogue Is Eternal"The law, therefore, cannot be eliminated, but remains, prior to Christ as not fulfilled, after Christ as to be fulfilled, although this does not happen perfectly in this life even by the justified.

This will happen perfectly first in the coming life. Luther, Only the Decalogue Is Eternal,43—44, 91— Schaaf, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, —93, 3: Holy Hatred: Christianity, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust. New York: Palgrave Macmillan,; Mullett, Luther's Last Battles. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B.

Eerdmans Publishing Company. Early Yiddish in Non-Jewish Books". In Katz, Dovid ed. Pergamon Press. OCLC Retrieved 22 February — via Google Books. Oxford University Press. Outreach Judaism. Retrieved 20 July A short life-history years after his death". PMID Sermon No. Luther and the Reformation. Admonition against the Jewsadded to his final sermon, cited in Oberman, Heiko.

A complete translation of Luther's Admonition can be found in Wikisource. Nottingham: IVP,p. The Cambridge companion to Martin Luther. Cambridge companions to religion. Cambridge University Press. Hoc est verum. Martin H. Bertram St. Kaiser, p. No judgment could be sharper. Baylor University. Archived from the original on 22 April Retrieved 22 April New York: Penguin Books Ltd,pp.

Hillerbrand writes: "His strident pronouncements against the Jews, especially toward the end of his life, have raised the question of whether Luther significantly encouraged the development of German anti-Semitism. Although many scholars have taken this view, this perspective puts far too much emphasis on Luther and not enough on the larger peculiarities of German history.

Luther's Last Battles: Politics and Polemics — Philadelphia: Fortress,; Rupp, Gordon. Martin Luther75; Siemon-Netto, Uwe. Lutheran Witness In: Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte Vol. Christopher Probst. The Theologian. Retrieved 20 March Strommen et al. Archived from the original PDF on 18 April Retrieved 25 March American Historical Review. The Church of England.

Retrieved 9 April Listen to this james danger harvey biography of martin luther 1 hour and 32 minutes. This audio file was created from a revision of this article dated 17 Julyand does not reflect subsequent edits. Martin Luther at Wikipedia's sister projects. Bibliography Resources about Martin Luther. Johanne Chrysostomo edition. Luther MonumentWashington D.

Luther MonumentWorms. History of Lutheranism. Johann Gerhard J. Dannhauer J. Baier Thirty Years' War. David Hollatz Christian Scriver V. Goeze Salzburg Protestants Landlers. Andreae P. Spener J. Petersen A. Francke J. Buddeus J. Bengel G. Grundtvig August Tholuck Zillertal Valley expulsion. Hengstenberg F. Philippi F. Hedberg Carl Paul Caspari C.

Krauth L. Kahnis Theodosius Harnack C. Luthardt F. Vilmar F. Stahl A. Old Lutheran schism Background J. Guericke G. Huschke Free churches. Martin Stephan J. Grabau Wilhelm Sihler F. Wyneken C. Walther H. Preus F. Stellhorn Synodical Conference of North America. Confessional Lutheranism Homosexuality. Lutheran hymnody. Siionin Virret Virsikirja. Passion Hymns.

Culto Cristiano. Grundtvig Britt G. History of Christianity. Early Christianity Spread. Authority control databases. Toggle the table of contents. Martin Luther Theological work. Cathedral Church of St. MaryErfurtHoly Roman Empire. Part of a series on. Repristination E. Erik Raymond. Scotty Smith. Justin Taylor. Trevin Wax. Learn More. Advertise on TGC.

Lewis Justin Taylor. Other Blogs. A New Old Blog. Top Books I Enjoyed in Fear Not, I Am with You. How to stand tall in our troubled times. He asked how one could be a Christian and doubt that God could raise the dead. Afterhowever, Luther taught that horror before death was a natural part of the human condition because death was a penalty for sin.

According to Luther, a Christian could be terrified of death and yet trust God's graciousness despite this doubt and uncertainty. In Luther realized that he was intensely at odds with the church, but he felt it was his duty to defend his views and protect his growing group of supporters. He wrote powerful assaults on the papacy. In his An den christlichen Adel deutscher Nation Appeal to the Christian Nobility of the German Nationhe asked the princes to take the duty of church reform over from the pope.

He said that there was a "universal priesthood of all believers," who had a direct relationship with God. Those who were baptized in the faith were of equal standing with priests and had every right to address concerns about the state of their religion. He further argued that the clergy should be allowed to marry, a belief that shook Christendom to its foundations.

In De captivitat Babylonica ecclesiae Babylonian captivity of the churchhe rejected the Catholic sacraments, or holy rites, of confirmation, marriage, ordination, and extreme unction the act of anointing a person with oil before death. He claimed they had no scriptural basis and were merely conspiracies to keep Christians trapped within control of the church.

He redefined penance to be a mutual assurance of divine forgiveness between Christians, and he argued for keeping only the traditional rites of baptism the ceremony in which a person is blessed as a Christian and communion. At this time, there was considerable controversy among reformers about communion.

James danger harvey biography of martin luther: Martin Luther King Jr. (born

Many debated whether there was a real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the bread and wine that was partaken during the ritual. Luther believed that the body and blood of Christ james danger harvey biography of martin luther combined with the substance of the bread and wine known as consubstantiationinstead of the wine and bread being transformed into the actual body and blood known as transubstantiation.

In Von der Freiheit eines Christenmenschen The freedom of the ChristianLuther held that the true Christian did good works not because of heavenly reward, but out of spontaneous gratitude to God for salvation. In Pope Leo issued Exsurge domine, the bull decree written by Eck. The bull threatened Luther with excommunication if he did not recant his writings.

On January 3,the pope issued another bull, titled Decet Romanum Pontifecem It is fitting that the popeand Luther was officially excommunicated from the church. Charles knew that the pope had objected to his election, and he wanted to gain favor with the church. On the other hand, Charles did not want to offend Frederick the Wise, Luther's supporter, or any other German prince.

The emperor needed their help in his war against France see " Italian Wars dominate Renaissance" Chapter 2. Wanting to gain as much German favor as possible, Charles agreed to Frederick's request that Luther be given a hearing at the Imperial Diet of Worms. Luther arrived in Worms and began studying with Jewish scholars to improve his Hebrew.

He was working on a translation of the Old Testamentand he found that translating a Hebrew text directly to German would be more accurate than using a Greek james danger harvey biography of martin luther as his master source. Luther was a firm believer in using original sources, a major theme of Renaissance humanism. When Luther presented himself before the council at Worms at 4 P.

What he encountered was not what he had expected. Luther was led to a room in which his collected writings were piled on a table. He was ordered to renounce them. He asked for time to consider, then left the room. He returned the next day to appear before Charles V. Luther gave this response to the council's command to renounce his views: "Unless I am proved wrong by the testimony of Scripture or by evident reason I am bound in conscience and held fast to the Word of God.

Therefore I cannot and will not retract anything, for it is neither safe nor salutary to act against one's conscience. God help me. One of Luther's students described his teacher at this period: "He was a man of middle stature, with a voice which combined sharpness and softness: it was soft in tone, sharp in the enunciation of syllables, words, and sentences.

He spoke neither too quickly nor too slowly, but at an even pace, without hesitation, and very clearly… If even the fiercest enemies of the Gospel had been among his hearers, they would have confessed from the force of what they heard, that they had witnessed, not a man, but a spirit. Charles was unmoved by Luther's statements, seeing them as a threat to the stability of the church.

Nevertheless, Charles waited to condemn Luther publicly until after he had secured enough financial support to continue his military campaigns against the French and the Ottomans. Charles had been advised that Luther was extremely popular with the German masses, as well as with scholars throughout Europe, so he knew he had to bide his time. Finally, after receiving assurances from his allies, Charles issued an edict on May 26,that declared Luther to be an outlaw.

The emperor forbade any of his subjects from helping Luther or his supporters. Luther, however, firmly believed that he was neither a troublemaker nor a heretic since he had never opposed indulgences or the papacy by using force. Instead, he stated that it was God's Word—meaning the scriptures—which Luther had taught, preached, and wrote about that actually weakened the papacy.

Occupied by threats from the Turks, the French, and rebels against his rule in Spain, Charles was unable to stop agents of Frederick the Wise from secretly taking Luther to Wartburg Castle. Luther hid there for almost a year, disguised as Knight George. Luther stayed in the castle and wrote many of the works that would define his career. In his treatise De votis monasticis On monastic vowshe claimed that vows taken by Catholic monks and nuns were not binding, and he questioned the value of monks living in solitude and contemplation.

In solitude, Luther thought, the Christian was open to attacks from Satan, the Christian concept of evil. The first edition appeared in September with prefaces explaining each book according to Luther's own views. His Old Testament translation was completed a decade later. Luther's German Bible became one of the influences on the modern German language.

Unrest in Wittenberg made Luther return there in March The discontent was caused by men, like Luther's former debate partner Andreas von Karlstadt, who had pushed to the limit Luther's idea that all religious authority came from the Bible. Since the Bible states that God condemned image worship and called upon prophets to destroy these objects, many people saw themselves as prophets called by God to destroy Catholic crucifixes carved images of the crucified Christ on the cross and statues of saints.

The resulting violence and destruction threatened social order. Supported by Frederick, Luther decided to put a stop to it. Luther convinced Karlstadt that the Reformation would best be served by gradual and reasoned opposition to the church. Karlstadt, who had publicly declared that things were moving too slowly, heeded Luther's advice.

Luther calmed down the mood at Wittenberg and returned to Wartburg Castle. In MarchKarlstadt began to once again spread a more radical doctrine than Luther, and Luther was forced to return to Wittenberg. Luther, realizing that his message had been well received but badly interpreted, decided to start his own church. Although Luther spoke out strongly against the corruptions and practices of the Catholic Church, he did not believe in violence as a solution to the problem.

Luther wanted order to be maintained, both within society and within the church, and he did not advocate violent methods to achieve peace and harmony. Luther was alarmed that some wanted to use the sword to spread reform. Men like Franz von Sickingen — disagreed with Luther. Sickingen started the rebellion called the Knights' Revolt. Under the system of feudalism during the Middle Agesknights were warriors who swore allegiance to lords and kings and followed a strict code of honor called chivalry; see "Feudalism" in Chapter 1.

Knighthood continued in many parts of Europe during the Renaissance and Reformation period. Sickingen and Ulrich von Hutten —a humanist knight who later helped write the Letters of the Obscure Men, were both lower nobles of the Holy Roman Empire. Like many nobles, they believed that the papacy should be under the control of the Holy Roman Emperor.

They had watched helplessly as their land holdings declined in the economic turbulence of early sixteenth-century Europe. As the cost of living continued to increase due to inflation, many nobles began to attack merchants' caravans. Some of these robber knights, including Sickingen, started hiring themselves out as mercenaries soldiers paid to fight in wars.

In Emperor Maximilian I declared Sickingen to be an outlaw. Maximilian was afraid to punish his friends in the lower nobility and was unwilling to lose his military experts, so he did not take proper action to support his declaration. Sickingen's military campaign was a dismal failure, and the Spanish government did. When Luther returned to Wittenberg from Wartburg Castle in Decemberhis message had already begun to take hold in religious practice.

Greek scholar and Renaissance humanist Philip Melanchthon performed the Lord's Supper by distributing the ceremonial wine and bread to the laity unordained church members. Melanchthon administered the ceremony in the spirit of Luther's concept of consubstantiation. Luther believed that, according to Scripture, the body and blood of Jesus of Nazareth called the Christ are present in the bread and wine taken during the service.

This view was similar to the Roman Catholic teaching, known as transubstantiation, which holds that the bread and wine are transformed when held aloft by the priest during the service. The difference between Luther's theory and the Catholic teaching was that Luther refused to accept the role of the priest in changing the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ.

He felt that only the world of God, as found in the Scripture, mad this change possible. The liturgy of Melanchthon's ceremony was similar to that of the traditional Catholic ceremony, but Melanchthon performed the first distinctly Protestant service. Other supporters of Luther, however, took more radical and experimental views. Seeing themselves as prophets, the three began preaching on the streets of Zwickau.

While Luther did not deny that God could speak through common men, the fact that the three were proven to be alcoholics and liars did not help Luther's message. Luther spoke out against the Zwickau "prophets," and reemphasized his message about scriptural authority. This event, coupled with his disagreements with Karlstadt, led to Luther forming his own church.

He was forced to send many of his troops home without payment. Later that year, Sickingen was introduced to the ideas of Luther by Hutten. Moved by Luther's religious beliefs, Sickingen attempted to present his sword a token of a knight' oath of loyalty to Luther at the Diet of Worms. Although he politely declined the gesture, Luther did dedicate a later writing to Sickingen.

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Luther's refusal of the sword did not curb Sickingen's own religious zeal. He was determined to spread the gospel the word of God delivered by Jesus Christ by waging james danger harvey biography of martin luther. In Sickingen attacked the western German city of Trier, including the home of the local archbishop. The military governor known as a margravePhilip of Hesse known as Philip the Magnanimous; —was a strong supporter of Luther and did not agree with Sickingen's methods.

Seeing violence as a threat to property and spirituality, Philip joined with the archbishop of Trier in seeking assistance from the Swabian League. The league was an alliance of cities, princes, knights, and church officials in Swabia, a region in southwestern Germany. It had been formed in the fourteenth century to protect trade and maintain peace in the region.

Sickingen and his forces were driven out of the city and toward their own homes. One by one, the castles, or homes, of Sickingen and other knights fell under attacks from Swabian League forces. Sickingen was killed in when his castle was destroyed. Hutten fled to Zurich, Switzerland, where he died of syphilis a contagious disease spread by sexual contact or inherited from an infected parent.

In the summer of the Swabian League continued to attack the castles of the robber knights, destroying a total of thirty castles. The actions of the Swabian League would serve as a rehearsal for the much more destructive Peasants' War of the mids. A reform-minded native of the Low CountriesAdrian VI was the only non-Italian pope elected in the sixteenth century.

The next non-Italian pope was John Paul of Poland, who was elected in Although Adrian had supported Luther's excommunication, Adrian agreed with some of Luther's charges against the Catholic Church. Adrian appointed a Reform Commission and indicated he would act on their recommendations. After only twenty months as pope, Adrian died of the plague, and with him died the hopes of peaceful reform within the Catholic Church.

Many Catholics celebrated the death of Adrian, fearing the changes he had been poised to introduce. Clement VII —; reigned —34a Medici, was named as Adrian's successor, but he never had the courage to implement reform in the church. During the reign of Adrian VI and the early years of Clement's reign, a series of three Imperial Diets were held in Nuremberg, Germany, between and One of the central aims of the Diets was to discuss Luther and how to enforce the Edict of Worms declaring Luther an outlaw.

The issue soon became secondary to the impending threat of the Ottomans. The city of Belgrade present-day capital of Serbia was an important fortress city in the Balkans countries in eastern Europe and had been sacked in When the island of Rhodes in the eastern Mediterranean was overtaken by the Ottomans, attention shifted from Luther to the potential fall of the Holy Roman Empire.

Ferdinand found it difficult to persuade the German princes and nobles to take definitive measures against Luther and his followers. Inwhen Ferdinand insisted upon action, officials at the diet produced a document citing grievances against the church. A general council was called, and it issued an order stating that Catholic traditions would be observed until a church council met and made a final decision.

Without a firm action or decree against them, Luther and his followers were able to continue winning supporters. The city was therefore essentially the center of the Holy Roman Empire. Nuremberg was also important to the humanist movement. A number of prominent humanistic thinkers lived there. Luther had visited the city twice inso many there had received early exposure to his ideas.

The popularity of his message began to increase, and between and the city hired a number of church officials who had been Luther's students at Wittenberg. As Lutheranism continued to become more popular, city officials saw a chance to break from the authority of the Catholic Church. Having been given full rights to decisions regarding the city's churches by Pope Leo X inNuremberg all but sealed its authority in religious matters by officially adopting Lutheranism in The city government already controlled the social aspects of life in Nuremberg and felt that control of the church was a logical next step.

Nuremberg's decision to adopt Lutheranism served to fan the flames of reform, which quickly spread across all of Europe. The German Peasants' War was the greatest uprising of early German history. The conflict involved most of south Germany and parts of central Germany. Its high point was from January to Junebut preliminary activity and aftershocks extended from May to July Until April the rebellion was not based on military action; it was more a form of social protest than a call to violent conflict.

Large gatherings and marches of commoners supported an armed boycott of clerical and lay lords.

James danger harvey biography of martin luther: James Earl Ray (March

While there were scattered attacks on monasteries and castles, the aim was to acquire goods and money, not to kill or capture. To fully understand the German Peasants's War, the social, religious, and economic realities of the period have to be examined. Most of the unrest was centered in the urbanized regions of the Holy Roman Empire, where a majority of the empire's food was grown.

For jameses danger harvey biography of martin luther, noble landlords and clerics had been overworking and exploiting peasants who worked on farms, violating their rights and village customs. Artisans and common workers complained they were kept from markets of their choice by nobles and forced to sell food to their overlords at extremely low prices.

In areas of upper Germany, populations were rapidly increasing while crops had been failing for more than two decades. With barely enough food to feed the population, misery and frustration spread. While crops were failing in some areas, most of western Europe had been experiencing an economic upswing since This fact did little to improve the life of the common landowner, but it increased the wealth of the nobility.

A sharp division among the social classes quickly emerged. Landholding peasants controlled village government, dominated landless peasants, and subjugated common workers. In turn, however, the incomes of landholding peasants were reduced by landlords who collected rent, government officials who took taxes, and churchmen who expected tithes. Peasants were allowed to hold land, but they could not own it.

Money was kept by the clerics, aristocrats, and nobles. Peasant landowners were given certain rights and privileges, but they were tightly controlled by those at the top. At the bottom was the common worker, who barely had enough to feed his family and had no personal wealth. As these injustices continued to mount, groups of peasant landowners across southern and central Germany began to unite in protest.

The peasants had a number of complaints against the nobility. Local, self-ruled governments were rapidly being replaced by district officials. Towns and urban areas were being absorbed into larger territories and placed under the Holy Roman Empire. Wishing to create uniform rule and custom, officials of the empire replaced local laws with Roman law.

In some areas, the practice of serfdom was once again instituted. Serfdom was a part of feudalism, a social and economic system in the Middle Ageswhich required peasants to work all their lives for a landowner with no possibility of being freed see "Feudalism" in Chapter 1. This change angered many peasants, who were also upset that noblemen were attempting to exclude them from hunting game in the local forests and meadows and from fishing in the local waterways.

Selling game and fish was a traditional source of extra income for peasants, and the nobles' attempts to stop peasants from hunting and fishing directly affected the economic situation of many commoners. Peasants were also subjected to additional labor by the aristocrats who owned the land, keeping many peasants from making additional money to feed their families.

Others objected to the excessive rents charged to live on the aristocrats' lands, and to the arbitrary penalties for offenses not mentioned in the law. New taxes on wine, beer, milling, and the slaughtering of farm animals greatly angered the peasants, who were also expected to pay the church a tithe, even when crops had failed. Overtaxed and overworked, underpaid and underfed, the peasants began to revolt.

In the early s peasants staged armed uprisings against monasteries and castles. In the Black ForestUpper Swabia, and Alsace, attacks were made on monastic landlords, demonstrating the widespread anger toward tithes. Other uprisings, also centered on monastic orders, occurred in and On May 30, peasants in the Black Forest region rebelled against the overlord, claiming they would no longer provide feudal services or pay feudal dues.

In June laborers stopped working in the southern region of the Black Forest. Here the peasants were angered by the recent limits placed on local governmentand when the local ruler would not negotiate, peasant groups began to march through the Black Forest and called for rebellion. The movement soon began to gain support and increase in size.

The military phase of the Peasants' War, from April onward, was largely one-sided. Violence was usually squelched by the Swabian League and German princes. During this phase the rebel bands were successful in stealing the wealth of various monasteries, as well as destroying a number of castles belonging to aristocratic nobles. Some towns were forcibly occupied, but executions of nobles were extremely rare.

The battles were usually slaughters in which commoners were killed. In Maysix thousand people were killed in Frankenhausen, Thuringia; james danger harvey biography of martin luther thousand were killed in Alsace. Limited peasant uprisings continued into the seventeenth century, but the main rebellion essentially ended in Many factors contributed to the violence of the German Peasants' War.

As already noted, anger toward the church and aristocratic nobles was central to the rebels' discontent. Several written works voiced these concerns and were adopted by the movement. The most significant were the Twelve Articles and the Federal Ordinance. The Twelve Articles were written in Marchone month before the armed uprisings took place.

This work expressed an opposition to tithes, and the authors used scriptural references to support their argument. The opening part of the Twelve Articles made the same point Luther had made years earlier, that any disorder resulting from the preaching of the gospel that is, Lutheran gospel should be blamed on those who resist it, not on those who preach it.

According to this view, any violence or unrest that resulted from the Peasants' War was not the fault of the peasants. Instead, those who refused to hear their complaints were responsible. The peasants believed they were charged by God to rebel and fight for their rights. In addition to the Twelve Articles, there were other Reformation pamphlets that called for an end to the tithe and demanded that parishes have the right to choose and dismiss pastors.

They insisted that pastors preach the Scripture as written in the Bible and not as it is interpreted by church officials. The Federal Ordinance was a more complicated document because there were so many different versions. Some of these versions expressed different ideas about how the existing social and political structures should be changed.

In versions found in Upper Swabia and the Black Forest, the authors wanted self-governing groups, or confederations, of local communities "towns, villages, and rural regions" to be formed. Such a political and social organization was patterned on the Swiss Confederation of neighboring Switzerland see "Switzerland" in Chapter 4. Switzerland had grown in size and power by absorbing smaller neighboring confederations on its borders.

Some Germans even hoped to break away from Germany completely and become part of the Swiss Confederation. In this system, peasants who owned land would be able to participate in the local governmentessentially making them equal to the nobles and aristocrats who sat on the assemblies. It was unusual, but by no means unheard of, for peasants to participate in representative assemblies during this time.

The rebels were not united under a common political goal; their ideas varied from region to region, and therefore there was not a united movement to change the political structure of Europe as a whole. Concerns were more regional, and desires for reform were usually tied to that region. Religious concerns were also addressed in the Federal Ordinance.

An appeal was made to fourteen leading Reformation theologians, such as Luther, Melanchthon, and Zwingli, to decide if the rebels had scriptural support for their rebellion. Luther denounced them passionately, claiming they had not correctly interpreted his beliefs or the gospel itself. Luther called for authorities to end the rebellion by any means necessary.

Some peasants felt that Luther had betrayed them and returned to the Catholic Church. While Luther felt the peasants had legitimate concerns and complaints, he felt the solution was to be found in the Gospels, not through violence. He thought that if a leader was to become a better Christian, he would become a better ruler. Despite his public statements against the rebellion, most German princes both Lutheran and Roman Catholic connected the Lutheranism movement with the German Peasants' War.

Early opponents of Luther had claimed that his appeal to the princes and the nobility to rebel against clerical authority would cause anarchy total lack of order across Europe. These opponents had also said that Luther's ideas would challenge the very rule of the princes and nobles he asked to support him. With the uprisings ofmany German princes believed these predictions were coming true.

As a result, princes of all religious affiliations began to take greater control over the religious practices within their realms. As criticism of the movement increased, Lutheranism was required to become more organized to defend itself against the attacks of opponents. Little is known about his family background. He studied at the universities of Leipzig and Frankfort on the Oder Between and he was at Wittenberg, where he came into contact with Martin Luther.

In and he preached at Zwickau. In April his radical beliefs caused him to be removed from his position as preacher at Zwickau. Later in he traveled to Bohemia; he preached at Prague and in November wrote his Prager Manifest Prague protestthe first of his surviving documents. Here he also introduced the first liturgy text used in worship services written in German the Catholic liturgy was written in Latin, the official language of the church, and could not be understood by common people.

His Allstedt reform program was successful, and he soon enjoyed a wide following in the town and surrounding countryside, which led to conflict with local Catholic lords. In late September city authorities expelled both reformers following their involvement in a rebellion. In March a new revolution in the city led to the formation of a new government.

At the age of ten she had been placed in a convent by her father after he remarried. Young girls who were not wanted by their parents were frequently placed in convents to become "brides of Christ. Along with twelve other nuns, she hid in an empty barrel used to transport smoked herring a kind of fish and escaped on the eve of Easter Three of the nuns who had escaped were accepted back by their families, but Katherine and the eight remaining nuns could not return home.

They found refuge at Wittenberg, where Luther was teaching. Their situation was typical of a mounting problem: former nuns who were not wealthy and did not live with their families could not find husbands to support them. After two years, Luther decided to marry Katherine himself. Luther regarded the decision as having two benefits: he could please his father by taking a wife and upset the pope by getting married while he was still a priest.

Luther quickly settled into married life. The couple had six children, and Luther proved to be a tender husband and father. He was one of the first reformers to publicly support marriage for priests, and he greatly admired his wife. Katherine had a talent for stretching her husband's meager income. She also started a boarding house and ran a successful farm.

She brewed an excellent beer, which Luther greatly enjoyed, and she was not afraid to voice her opinion to her husband. Although always respectful, Katherine was known to openly disagree with Luther. As his respect for his wife and daughters grew, Luther became more vocal in his recognition of women's talents. He was one of the first advocates of schooling for girls, helping qualified women find jobs as elementary teachers.

Although he supported the right to education, Luther still believed that women should take care of the home and children and should not be allowed to be ministers or accept public responsibilities. The unstable political situation in the Holy Roman Empire contributed to the success of the Reformation movement. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V was continually threatened by the Ottoman Turks, so his military forces were busy fighting the war against the Turks in eastern Europe and were not available to keep order during the revolts in Germany.

Some historians argue that if Charles had not been so preoccupied with the Ottomans, he would have stopped the reform movement. Political and military events of were therefore important to the continued spread of the Reformation throughout Europe. Once again Charles V's brother, Archduke Ferdinand, presided in the emperor's absence. While they were meeting, reports of continued Ottoman aggression reached the council.

Imperial officials were forced to make a decision regarding the empire's official stance towards the Reformation movement. So many churches and towns had turned "evangelical" a term used to refer to the Reformation movement in Germany; those who practiced the new religion were called "evangelicals" that Ferdinand was forced to allow people to practice their chosen religion.

In other words, the council decided that people should follow their own conscience as long as they did not break the laws of God and the emperor. Although this was neither a condemnation nor an approval of the evangelicals, the council declared it would be the official policy until the general church council was able to meet and establish more specific rules and regulations.

Ferdinand and Charles both knew that taking a harsh stand against the evangelical movement could result in loss of support for their campaign against the Ottomans.