While Luther was in hiding, the tide of the reform was flowing fast in Wittenberg, but unavoidably, some difficulties arose in connection with the reforms. Some of Luther’s associates had drawn up and unfolded an innovative church order. By December, Karlstadt had celebrated what he called an ‘evangelical’ communion. The revolutionary priests led the mass without religious robes and in the local language and without the Latin chant. Unlike in the Roman church, the priests gave bread and wine to the worshippers. Some monasteries were in disarray. A number of priests became convinced that they should marry because Luther had taught that there was no higher calling than to be a Christian in the world. Some of the priests who left the convent found it difficult to fit easily into the society and most who were used to the traditional conventions and restraints could not adapt themselves to the freer religious order. Soon, there was a riot leading to iconoclasm, which is the breaking of religious images.
As a result of these disturbances, the Elector cautioned that they should go slower. Some friends in defiance of the Elector requested Luther to come out of hiding. During his flying visit, Luther did not reject the new order but advocated a middle course which should be followed cautiously because of the consideration for the weak. He encouraged members to ask questions, pass judgment and be involved in the appointment of evangelical preachers and supervisors of church property. Luther’s timely break from hiding and the dousing of tension which he handled expertly provoked the town to send him an official invitation to return to Wittenberg. For some reasons, in spite of the ban on Luther, the Emperor and the Roman Catholic authorities could not take any action against him. Just before Worms, Pope
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Leo X took ill and died. A new pope Adrian VI was elected on January 9, 1922, He was not in love with Luther but he was more engrossed in reforming the Roman curia to prove Luther and the critics wrong. He also died within eighteen months. Adrian was succeeded by Clement VII who was soon embroiled in protracted conflict with the Emperor. These and the political instability in the Empire made it difficult for the Roman Church to take coordinated action against the reformer. Luther felt compelled to go to town. Much against the desires of some ecclesiastical and civil authorities, including the Elector, Luther reappeared in March 1522. He went back to the church, visiting parishes while he became more concerned with exegesis of the scriptures and how to bring the gospel to laypeople in the context of a reformed theology. His attempts at contextualisation and making scriptures accessible to the people were so successful it was reported that a Catholic scholar lamented: ‘tailors and shoemakers, even women and other simple idiots were debating texts with priests and monks.
As the reform gathered more momentum, there was a sense in which ecclesiastical law seemed to have been suspended. The papal and local episcopal sanctions had been disobeyed without punishment. Luther soon demonstrated that he was not a fugitive friar, but a resolute reformer when he settled down to marry in 1525. His wife Catherine von Bora was an ex-nun. The wedding was a quiet affair and rather casual but the marriage was said to have served as a model for many others. Interestingly, after the marriage, the Archbishop of Mainz sent a splendid gift to Catherine as a contribution towards their house-hold budget and Luther thanked him.
4.0 CONCLUSION
As children were born to Luther he became more committed to his family.
He remained at Wittenberg University as a professor and teacher in scripture but he also demonstrated that he was a genuine pastor whose care for souls was reflected in his letters and concern. In much latter years he suffered poor health but he was still burdened with the looming division within the Reformation movement. He however remained a busy man to the end of his days with students, colleagues, members of his congregation and the needy going in and out of his large house for counselling and support.
Now, what happened to the reformation with this apparent retirement of Luther? What happened to German’s Protestantism? What did the Catholic authority do to check the spread of Lutheranism? An attempt will be made to answer these questions in the next module.
5.0 SUMMARY
The following are the major points you have learnt in this unit:
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Luther refused to recant his stand at the Diet of Worms.
Luther’s famous declaration ended with the phrase “Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise. So help me God”.
Luther was later condemned after the princes and supporters sympathetic to his cause had left the Diet.
An edict condemning Luther was then issued.
The edict gave Luther twenty days to recant or be excommunicated from the Church.
On his way back from Worms, Luther was kidnapped as arranged by his friends for his safety.
He was then locked up in a castle at Wartburg.
It was during this period that Latin translated the Bible to German and wrote other books.
Luther later married Catherine von Bora who was an ex-nun.
6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
Narrate briefly Luther’s journey to Wartburg and the advantages that arose from the episode.
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING
Bowker, J. (Ed.). (1997). The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions, New York: Oxford University Press.
Cameron, E. (1991). The European Reformation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Chaunu, P. (Ed.). (1989). The Reformation. Gloucester: Alan Sutton.
Gonzalez, J. L. (1985). The Story of the Church, The Reformation to the Present. New York: HarperCollins.
Ganzer, K. & Bruno, S. (2002). Dictionary of the Reformation, New York:
Crossroad Publishing.
Greengrass, M. (1998). The Longman Companion to the European Reformation. c.1500–1618 London: Longman.
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Hillerbrand, H. J. (Ed.). The Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Reformation. 4 Vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McGrath A. E. (2003). Christian Theology: An Introduction. Malden &
Berlin: Blackwell.
Pettergree, A. (Ed.). (1992). The Early Reformation in Europe. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Robinson, J. (Ed.). (1904). Readings in European History Vol. II. Boston
& New York: Ginn & Co.
Scribner, R. W. (1981). For the Sake of Simple Folk: Popular Propaganda for the German Reformation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stephen, T. (2005). A Short History of Christianity. Grand Rapids: William Eerdmans.
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