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Martin Luther, To the Christian Nobility and Freedom of a Christian
Luther was one of the most respectable and notable theologians and a revolutionist in the reformation era. He therefore impacted on the thinking of religious. However, he broke up from the doctrine of the church after seeing some hypocrisy in the structural problems of hierarchy that faced the church. The two letters “to the Christian Nobility” and “freedom of Christian” were written in 1520 and criticize hypocrisy in the church that led to his break out from the Catholic Church.
Luther break-off from the Catholic Church doctrine was compelled by the actions that the monks did. Their actions did not much what they preached to the congregation. In the open letter “To the Christian Nobility,” Luther shows his dissolution by saying,
Now it is oft times a knave, and even the devil himself, who rules this scrinium, and they boast that it is ruled by the Holy Spirit! Thus they deal with Christ’s unfortunate people. They give them many laws and themselves keep none of them, but others they compel either to keep them or else to buy release.
The will of pope has been turned into a canon law that people are required to follow. Luther was opposed to the idea of studying for degrees and theologies as opposed to the Bible. He says “the Bible come first, and is put aside when the bachelor’s degree is reached, and the Sentences come last.” The pope is the person who gives directives which according to him is contravening to the will of God. He sees pope as being a hypocrite and urges people to follow the Holy Scripture. He says, “
“Hypocrites of the pope”! It is said that there is no better temporal rule anywhere than among the Turks, who have neither spiritual nor temporal law, but only their Koran; and we must confess that there is no more shameful rule than among us, with our spiritual and temporal law, so that there is no estate which lives according to the light of nature, still less according to Holy Scripture.
Another reason that compelled Luther to break out of the catholic doctrine is monks and the family of theologians not preaching according to the Holy Scriptures but rather preaching their own opinions. He says, “as we find among the theologians more of heathen and human opinion than of the holy and certain doctrine of Scripture.” Most of the bishops, priest and doctors do not go into theology because of divine intervention rather they are forced to preach which is against the word of God. He says, ‘True, they now try to force the Holy Ghost into pope, bishops and doctors, although there is no sign or indication whatever that He is in them.”
The number of reading materials that the theologians are exposed to is too huge to help them or guide them towards the scriptures of God. He notes, “The much literature written by our forefathers has destructed the studying of the Holy Scriptures.” The monks and theologies are overburden which does not make sense. He says “we read them only to be absorbed in them and never come to the Scriptures”
Furthermore, Luther was objected to the vow of chastity of clergy. The priests are living in despair as they wish to engage in matrimony or sexual practices to wear out their lust. The vows restrain them but many of them are not abiding by the vows. Therefore, according to Luther this is a hypocrisy that made him to move out of the Catholic Church. He therefore agitated for priests to marry since they have a weakness or else they should not vow when they are below thirty years. He says, “Neither boy nor maid should take the vow of chastity, or of the “spiritual life,” before the age of thirty years”. Luther was of the opinion that only people who have a calling from God should be the ones to be clergies. Therefore he says, “If you do not trust God to support you in the world, how will you trust him to support you in the Church? Alas, unbelief and distrust spoil everything and lead us into all misery, as we see in every estate of life!”
Luther was also no at same wavelength on how the Roman Catholic theological leaders acted. In the letter “The freedom of Christian, Luther addresses Bishop Leo and informs him on how they are corrupt and how they pretend to be servants of Lord. He is not happy with the fact that Christians must accept their authority before they can qualify to be considered as priests. He is a person who believes that we are all equal in the eyes of God, and that nobody should be denied freedom as all of us are sinners. The coming of our lord Jesus and his death showed that we are sinners and by the grace of God we can be forgiveness. On this, Luther wrote, “They “pretend that you are lord of the world, allow no one to be considered a Christian unless he accepts your authority, and prate that you have power over heaven, hell and purgatory alike.” He further wrote to Leo stating, “tongue near cheek. Surely, you do not believe that you are an infallible interpreter of Scripture”
In conclusion, Luther break from the Roman Catholic Church was based on multiplicity of reasons. A recap of some of them; the doctrine of the church which gave a lot of power to clergy that mislead their followers, corruption, hypocrisy in the clergy, lack of goodwill to the followers, among many other reasons .Therefore, it is clear that the letters send a message to the clergy in the catholic church that over the century has remain a pivotal point of focus in the debate on reformation of church. Martin Luther therefore, is one of the pioneers in the reformation of the Roman Catholic Church and emergent of protestant.
Works Cited
Martin Luther. “To the Christian Nobility”
Martin Luther. “To Freedom of a Christian”
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