Todd, John M. - Luther - A Life

366 Pages·2003·1.04 MB·English

Luther: A Life
return to religion-online
62
Luther: A Life by John M. Todd
John M. Todd is the author of a number of books, including Reformation, and John Wesley and the Catholic
Church. Luther: A Life was published in 1982 by The Crossroad Publishing Company. This book was prepared
for Religion Online by Harry W. and Grace C. Adams.
(ENTIRE BOOK) The author intends to present the portrait of a man of extraordinary
accomplishment in the fields of religion, politics, linguistics and ecclesiology, but also as an
ordinary man whose letters and reported conversations reveal his struggle with the ordinary
issues of a person of his time.
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1: Young Luther
As the oldest child in a stable middle class family, Luther endured a childhood of strict discipline
at home, school and church that left him with a sense of inferiority, and emerged into university
life at a time of great intellectual ferment that challenged the entire educational system as well as
the corruptions of a politically powerful church. In the process he proved himself a gifted scholar.
Chapter 2: The New Brother
Following his baccalaureate graduation, Luther experienced depression which lifted after he
aborted entering the study of law to enter the Augustinian novitiate at Erfurt. His father relented
in his opposition to this radical vocational change, and Luther prospered in the structural rhythm
of monastic and academic life as he received his master’s degree and moved toward ordination as
a priest.
Chapter 3: The New Priest
After a comfortable accommodation to monastic life, Luther entered preparation for ordination as
a priest, but was plagued by depression about his relationship with God, feeling he could never
make himself worthy of God’s love. Meanwhile, he was promoted both within the order and in
his academic pursuits toward a doctorate in theology.
http://www.religion-online.org/cgi-bin/relsearchd.dll/showbook?item_id=801 (1 of 4) [2/4/03 4:02:11 PM]
Luther: A Life
Chapter 4: Wittenberg
After being appointed lecturer in philosophy at the new University of Wittenberg, Luther
received a baccalaureate in biblical studies and qualified to lecture in Bible. He was reassigned to
Erfurt, and following a trip to Rome on monastery business, was elected a sub-prior in the
Augustinian order and awarded the doctorate in theology at the early age of twenty-eight.
Chapter 5: The Reverend Don, 1512-16
A general sense of unease -- social, political and especially spiritual -- was found everywhere in
Germany, and found expression in Luther’s periodic depressions in spite of his career
advancements and popularity as a preacher. Luther only found relief in his struggle with what he
saw as a demanding, angry God when he encountered God as the loving and gracious Father of
the scriptures, thereby setting the stage for an angry confrontation with the church that had caused
him and others so much pain.
Chapter 6: First Encounters, 1516
At Wittenberg Luther emerged in multiple roles -- as religious superior, university lecturer,
translator, preacher, friend and author. However, it was the need for reformation of academic and
church life that evoked his deepest and most profound responses, coming as they did from his
own personal struggle for freedom before God.
Chapter 7: Crisis
In publishing his theses for debating the selling of indulgences, Luther gave voice to popular
discontent with the church and, though not a new issue, it evoked a strong note of alarm from the
church hierarchies and concern by Luther’s friends for his safety.
Chapter 8: Demands from Rome
While the publication of Luther’s 95 theses was intended only for scholarly debate, his challenge
to papal authority not only evoked a strong ecclesiastical charge of heresy, but found sympathetic
support from the laity, anti-clericals, German nationalists, humanists and the poor and ordinary
people who heard him preach, and culminated in his defense by his sovereign, Frederick the
Elector of Saxony.
Chapter 9: What Is the Church?
After the 95 Theses Luther published a vast array of sermons and lectures including The
Explanation of his theses in an atmosphere of public and private controversy that escalated into
papal charges and a debate at Leipzig with Eck. Eventually Luther ended up challenging the
pope, the authority of the church, and in fact the entire structure of European society, in his
appeal To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation.
Chapter 10: Towards the Summit
http://www.religion-online.org/cgi-bin/relsearchd.dll/showbook?item_id=801 (2 of 4) [2/4/03 4:02:11 PM]
Luther: A Life
Amid general social unrest the demand for church renewal and reform expanded in a flurry of
writings by Luther that evoked an equally strong response from Rome issuing in Luther’s
excommunication and a papal bull commanding his appearance for trial at the Diet at Worms.
Chapter 11: Worms and Wartburg
The Diet at Worms was essentially a call for Luther to recant, and his defiant refusal based on
scriptural authority evoked a papal excommunication followed by a staged kidnapping by his
friends to place him in protective custody at Wartburg Castle. A flood of his writings poured
from there into the rising social unrest covering issues like the mass, clerical vows and freedom
as well as a translation of the New Testament from Greek into German, and catapulted him into
the leadership of the impending Reformation.
Chapter 12: In Command
The Wittenberg Luther found on leaving his refuge disturbed him deeply and led him to voice
caution to the forces of change in both church and secular life, and to produce a flow of pastoral
writings on all manner of subjects intended to restore order to Germanic society. Meanwhile, he
published his translation of the New Testament into German from the Greek text and struggled to
preserve a middle ground against voices from both left and right.
Chapter 13: The New World
The major life changes brought about by his leadership in the reforming of the church and his
leaving the Augustinian order issued in Luther’s rather sudden decision to marry, which was
difficult for some to accept. He adjusted happily to marriage and the birth of a son, at the same
time being drawn into the Peasant’s War on the ruler’s side with writings so filled with anger that
his influence was compromised.
Chapter 14: Into Battle Again
Following his happy adjustment to marriage, Luther addressed Erasmus’ critiques in an
acrimonious exchange that diminished their common concern for freedom. Meanwhile, the
ongoing disruptions in state and church caused by the Reformation pulled Luther more and more
into public involvements, often at great danger and inconvenience.
Chapter 15: The German Prophet
Although kept at a distance from the Imperial Diet at Augsburg, Luther exhausted himself
sending letters, theological arguments and pastoral counsels to Melancthon and others involved at
the Diet. The Emperor’s siding with the Pope’s representatives unleashed Luther’s rage and led to
his sanctioning military self-defense by the German princes if attacked by the Emperor in
attempting to enforce his anti-reform position.
Chapter 16: The Shining of the Sun
http://www.religion-online.org/cgi-bin/relsearchd.dll/showbook?item_id=801 (3 of 4) [2/4/03 4:02:11 PM]
Luther: A Life
Following the conclusion of the Peace of Nuremberg which established the political future of
Germany and the organizational future of Christianity, Luther settled into his new life as patriarch
and family man, and devoted himself to Bible translation and clarification of the German Mass
and liturgy, relying on an incarnational theology and practical spirituality to guide him.
Meanwhile, major societal adjustments to the Reformation were taking place throughout northern
Europe, and especially in England under Henry VIII and in Switzerland with Calvin. With
increasing health problems and depression Luther gradually entered into old age.
Chapter 17: The Old Man
Luther’s final ten years were marred by infirmities and ill health which exacerbated his anger and
led to outbursts of rage in tongue and pen, both in his continuing struggle with the papacy and in
his depression over the excesses in public morality. Nevertheless, his wife and friends continued
to support him faithfully, and the peaceful death longed for finally claimed him in his sixty-third
year.
Epilogue
A review of the lasting contributions of Luther’s remarkable life and achievements.
Appendix
A brief account of the theory and practice of indulgences.
On Sources and Further Reading
A bibliography for background and research.
Viewed 1932 times.
http://www.religion-online.org/cgi-bin/relsearchd.dll/showbook?item_id=801 (4 of 4) [2/4/03 4:02:11 PM]
Luther: A Life
return to religion-online
Luther: A Life by John M. Todd
John M. Todd is the author of a number of books, including Reformation, and John
Wesley and the Catholic Church. Luther: A Life was published in 1982 by The
Crossroad Publishing Company. This book was prepared for Religion Online by
Harry W. and Grace C. Adams.
Acknowledgements
Thanks are due to many people for help in respect of a book which has
taken five years to write. First to my publisher for being so patient. It is
dangerous to make a contract with an author who is also a publisher; he
tends to have a cavalier attitude when it comes to delivery dates. Over
the years Hamish Hamilton’s editors, first Raleigh Trevelyan and
latterly Jane Everard, have been of great assistance in helping me to get
the text into the right shape. Then with great pleasure, I must thank
Professor George Yule of Aberdeen University who read my typescript
and made many particular and a few general suggestions of great

importance, and Professor Gordon Rupp who very kindly ran his critical
eye over the proofs.
I give some account of sources in my Note at the end of the book. But I
must mention here the great kindness of Fortress Press, Philadelphia, in
allowing me to quote freely from many of the fifty-four volumes of their
translation of Luther’s Works. Their edition, together with all its
numerous introductions and annotations, has been of inestimable value
to me.
A special note of gratitude is due to my literary agent, Mark Hamilton of
A. M. Heath and Co. Ltd who has looked after me so well since the
middle fifties, to the American publisher John McHale who first turned
my mind to Luther, and to Boston College, America, who greatly daring
allowed me to teach a Luther seminar for an invaluable semester in
1972. Finally, I must salute my family: my children who, so one
daughter tells me tolerated the writing of the book and provided some
inspiration, and my wife who has, in a manner of speaking, lived
http://www.religion-online.org/cgi-bin/relsearchd.dll/showchapter?chapter_id=1053 (1 of 2) [2/4/03 4:03:14 PM]
Luther: A Life
bravely with Luther for twenty years, after only a brief sojourn with
John Wesley.
John M. Todd
15
http://www.religion-online.org/cgi-bin/relsearchd.dll/showchapter?chapter_id=1053 (2 of 2) [2/4/03 4:03:14 PM]
Luther: A Life
return to religion-online
Luther: A Life by John M. Todd
John M. Todd is the author of a number of books, including Reformation, and John
Wesley and the Catholic Church. Luther: A Life was published in 1982 by The
Crossroad Publishing Company. This book was prepared for Religion Online by
Harry W. and Grace C. Adams.
Introduction
Martin Luther was a professor at the Saxon University of Wittenberg.
An Augustinian friar, Visitor of the group of friaries in the region, often
preaching in the town church, at the age of thirty-two he was the
successful local man, He had just published his first little book, a
translation into German of the seven penitential psalms. Students
flocked to his lectures, townsfolk flocked to his sermons. All were
drawn by the flow of his quietly spoken but fiery words, full intelligence
and of feeling. The friars admired the persistence with which he kept the
Rule. A solid career lay ahead, perhaps brilliant. But so far he had
published no academic work, and seemed not specially to wish to do so.
Wittenberg was a backwater, and no one had heard of him outside his
circle.
Five years later, Luther was excommunicated and under the ban of the
Empire, and people were reading his books and pamphlets all over
Europe. Against all precedent he remained at his old posts with the
support of colleagues, the populace and the local ruler. At the age of
forty-one he married, settled with his wife in the old Friary which he
had never left, and brought up his family there. He became an institution
in Wittenberg, the most famous man and the originator of great changes
in much of northern and central Europe.
Luther suffered from chronic and intense depression. During the years
between his late twenties and early thirties he found a partial solution of
the worst of it. Connected with the solution was a fresh grasp of the
‘Myth’ which underlay European culture and percolated all the
operations of society. The realisation of this solution released a flow of
http://www.religion-online.org/cgi-bin/relsearchd.dll/showchapter?chapter_id=1054 (1 of 5) [2/4/03 4:03:36 PM]
Luther: A Life
writings and actions. Luther found himself pitted against the most
powerful organisation in Europe, the Church. A member of it, like
everyone else, he wanted to change it, to reform it. But the authorities
would not have it. Normally they would have triumphed and Luther
would have been burnt or permanently disgraced. But he voiced a
message and a complaint which found an immediate and extraordinary
response at every level of society, from that of the deepest spiritual
experience to that of the most practical economic and political realities.
From the age of forty his story was that of a man of achievement. The
prophet and priest had to turn politician and administrator. He had
planned none of it, speaking only what he saw to be true. His is a story
above all of success without really trying. It meant improvisation. From
forty to sixty-two he did his best to continue to expound his message, to
battle against the apparently irreformable old institution and to
encourage new styles. And there was the battle against enemies within
— the usual battles of a revolutionary against his supporters who want it
done another way.
A major part of the phenomenon of Luther is the extraordinary corpus
of writings, over one hundred volumes in the Weimar edition. In most
big libraries, books by and about Luther occupy more shelf room than
those concerned with any other human being except Jesus of Nazareth.
He translated the Bible and set a style for the German language. He has
something more than a minor place in the history of music. More than
2500 of his letters have survived. Together with the Table Talk they
provide a lively picture of his life. But the heart of it all is religious and
theological.
This religious content has boxed Luther off from a wide range of
readers, not least because his friends and enemies in the subsequent
centuries have made professional and technical capital out of his work.
Religion, along with highlighted excerpts from the more ribald parts of
the Table Talk, have tended to make a caricature of Luther, as though he
might be some kind of a foul-mouthed Billy Graham. Certainly, it is not
possible to avoid the technical content of his thought, any more than it is
possible to understand the lives of Cromwell, Napoleon or Churchill
without learning about military, naval and political matters; there has to
be some theology. But in Luther it is lit with imagination, perception
and humour. The power of the European Myth comes through. And
Luther recognised his own penchant both for exaggeration and for
somewhat earthly language, often caricaturing himself.
http://www.religion-online.org/cgi-bin/relsearchd.dll/showchapter?chapter_id=1054 (2 of 5) [2/4/03 4:03:36 PM]
Luther: A Life
I use the general word ‘myth’ from time to time, rather than ‘religion’,
to describe the basic assumptions which permeated the whole of society,
because ‘religion’ can sometimes suggest something apart from the rest
of life. But Christianity affected everything. The Myth was all. And

‘myth’ seemed a useful general term, because Christianity is indeed
anchored firmly to a story. However, it is also clear at this point that the
usefulness of ‘myth’ is limited. The essence of Christianity is that it
claims to be a religion to end ‘religions’, a Myth to end all myths. It is
based not just on one story among others, but on a story which its
followers held to be a description of something that happened
historically, not just true in a ‘symbolical’ sense. So it is a special Myth.
Its uniqueness is sharply illustrated by the sign which it used, at first
that of a cross, and then of a man dying crucified on the cross,
sometimes transformed, reigning triumphant from it, sometimes shown
dying an agonised death.
So when I use ‘myth’ I do so to indicate precisely the living and
universal nature of religion, the sense in which ‘Christianity’, ‘Gospel’,
‘Christ’ or ‘The New Testament’ meant something unique, something
different in kind from what they sometimes mean today, when these
terms can conjure up a vision of the superannuated part of European
culture. Already, in Luther’s time Christianity was often decadent. But
equally it was often vibrant. It was that vibrancy which gave power to
Luther and his reforming colleagues. In any case it was all-embracing.
The ‘story’ was presented to everyone, including the people of
Wittenberg, in the churches by the priests. Excerpts from ‘the books’,
the Bible, were read out. Psalms, hymns and prayers were sung or read.
The visual element was strong in a society in which many less than half
the people could read or write. Wall paintings, painted windows,
sculptures depicted particular stories and drew morals. The Church had
the complete management of the Myth as the religious authority, run
essentially by the Pope and the bishops. But life was univocal — all
things were both secular and religious. There was a dual government of
society by the State and the Church which were at the same time
colleagues and competitors of one another in the exercise of power.
They were assisted by the lawyers, the university men, the bankers,
occasionally by organised representation from the rest of society, and by
the military men. Behind it all was ‘God’ and his favour as preached
and, more important, as dispensed by the Church.
http://www.religion-online.org/cgi-bin/relsearchd.dll/showchapter?chapter_id=1054 (3 of 5) [2/4/03 4:03:36 PM]
Luther: A Life
The power which had come to the Church in this atmosphere of
universal acceptance had led to massive economic involvement on the
one hand and an ‘adaptation’ of the ideals of the Gospel on the other, an
adaptation which also included residual superstition and paganism from
pre-Christian times. The priests had begun to look and act rather like the
very priests of the old Jewish Law or even of paganism which Jesus of
Nazareth had, according to the story, come to displace for all time. And
the story itself was severely misrepresented, so Luther, and then great
numbers of his followers, concluded.
Biographies of ‘great men’ can be misleading in their selectivity. The
history of any time must include a record of the lives of the millions of
ordinary people. In the twentieth century, study of local archives,
agricultural history, industrial archaeology, sociology and many other
disciplines has sometimes given a quite different emphasis, even a
totally new meaning to the small number of public events which used to
occupy the history books, political events, wars, the lives of great men
and women. History is not the story of an elite. In some sense the ‘great’
men and women of history were only the enablers of what would
certainly have occurred in some form. And this certainly includes the
Reformation. Yet the fact remains that they did set their own personal
seal on events, and on institutions which then survived for centuries. As
persons, and makers of events and institutions they remain perennially
fascinating.
Not many people have read the story of Luther outside the ranks of
theologians and historians. Yet he changed the face of Europe as
radically as Napoleon. And while Cromwell put English history into a
new gear, Luther ushered in a whole new way of life in Europe which
had been struggling to birth for a century and more. Both Cromwell and
Luther are difficult in that not only were they convinced of divine
commission, but expressed that conviction. In Luther’s case this has
tended to make him seem some kind of fanatic. One cannot evade the
truth lying at the heart of such a suspicion; and he is sometimes touched
with what maybe called the psychopathology of genius. Yet, in many
ways he was an ordinary man. The portrait at forty-two shows a notably
human face. The letters and Table Talk reveal a man with ordinary
family problems, a normal concern with sex, expressed with that half
innocent openness so typically German. He had, too, a typical German
attitude to those in authority, realistic and conscientious.
I have tried to give a picture of this man of gigantic accomplishment, a
http://www.religion-online.org/cgi-bin/relsearchd.dll/showchapter?chapter_id=1054 (4 of 5) [2/4/03 4:03:36 PM]