Martin Luther Letter to German Nobility Author The man Who created this letter was known as Martin Luther. He was a clergy man from Germany and a professor of theology. His worry that he would never be good enough to earn salvation in the way’ the Catholicism taught, he searched for answers and came to the conclusion that one does not go to heaven simply through good works. He learned through the scripture that humans are, and never will be, perfect enough to pass through the gates of heaven.
But through the the Lord Jesus who, though he was perfect himself, bore the wrath of God, died on a cross, and was risen three says later. Luther could then rest in the fact that although he was a sinful man, he had been saved by God’s mercy and could rest in that fact that he would never have to be perfect and could hope is His coming. This primary source outfit the view tot a man who has come to see faith as he thinks is correct and who is striving to open the eyes of his fellow believers. Place and Time Martin Lather’s Address of the Christian Nobility was written in 1520 in Germany.
This was the beginning of the Protestant Reformation of which he was ere involved. It was during the Renaissance and people were beginning to second guess the catholic church. Especially princes of lands because they did not like having to be under the ultimate rule Of a “Holy Roman Emperor. ” This would become important to Lather’s journey because, after he was deemed a “criminal” and had to keep on the moue, these nobles would Offer his shelter in their castles while he fought to live and spread what he believed to be the true Gospel.
A presumption that readers may bring to the text is that Luther was just another insane believer of God. Now in the 21st century, there has been a back lash at religion. People prefer to think “logically’ and believer everything scientists tell them. Students of history may brush off important texts having to do with Christianity due to this aversion towards it and therefore have a distorted view of it. No particular part of the text would be objectionable, just the fact the it has to do with Christian salvation. ROR Knowledge The only prior knowledge that I can think of that might bear weight on the interpretation of this document is the protestant Reformation. As we talked bout in class, the Protestant Reformation was brought on by, one could say, a thirst for power by some and a search for true salvation by others. It is important to remember while analyzing this primary source that Luther was one of the first to actually say something so “on-catholic” a survive. He was not the true first but the first to be able to delve more into understanding the scripture rather than taking What the church said and believing it Without question.
Audience This source was created in order to spark debate with people higher in the church hierarchy. This does not really affect the reliability of the source because its author, Martin Luther, had written it in order to controversy on purpose. His intent was to make people think about what he had to say and send the world of Christianity into nearly completer chaos. This document is to the point and honest because of what it was created to do. Reason Lather’s address to the Christian nobility was written at the time that it was because he was in the midst of a movement called the protestant Reformation.
Not only was he battling the ever present feeling that what he was doing for lavational would never be good enough, he was also having to deal with a corrupt church system. The occasion for its creation was to spark controversy and debate. Luther vented to discuss his ideas and hoped to change the church from the inside out. He did not vent to be rid of the church, he only wanted to fix it. For him, salvation and peace Of mind for all Christendom his at stake. He wrote it in order to do his Christian duty and help other believers in the ever present search for God.
He thought that the church hierarchy were hypocritical and made no sense. He wanted to make Christianity a religion worth following and thought that Catholicism was not meeting the criteria and teaching things that were not true and good. As he said himself, “The Romantics have, with great adroitness, drawn three walls round themselves, with which they have hitherto protected themselves, so that no one could reform them, whereby all Christendom has fallen terribly. ” The Main Idea The main idea that the source is trying to convey is that Christianity is not a religion you can build a hierarchy upon.
He stresses that the Catholic church has lilt a wall around itself and has been made in-accelerates to people outside of it, Also it is reluctant to retort. Luther thinks that it is important to the ‘Walls” to be torn down. He refers to them as the walls of Jericho and says, Now may God help us, and give us one of those trumpets that overthrew the walls of Jericho, so that we may blow down these walls of straw and paper, and that we may set free our Christian rods for the chastisement of sin, and expose the craft and deceit of the devil, so that eve may amend ourselves by punishment and again obtain God’s favor. Which clearer shows his devotion to finding God and teaching people about Him. The text is trying to make people high up in the church reconsider how they view their religion. The strategy he uses to do this is making Bible analogies As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, Luther makes reference to Jericho in his quest to ‘bring down the walls” Of the Roman Catholic Church. He carries this out by going step by step through the prose of training them down” the metaphorical walls and With each wall he makes a point Of What it Will do for
Christianity. Significance This source is important because it is a documentation of a letter written by the first man to challenge the catholic church and live to tell the tale. It marks the launching of the reformation when it really began to snowball and shows the way Luther was feeling about the importance of his, and others, faith. A history student should take away an understanding of how things were beginning to change in the realm of Christianity during the Renaissance period and how it eventually affected how we today live and view religion.
