A Mighty Fortress Is Our God: Luther as a Man of Conflict (1520s)

A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR GOD:

LUTHER AS A MAN OF CONFLICT

(1520s)

From the moment of his conversion in 1519, Martin Luther was thrust into the consuming fires of controversy. Luther provoked conflict whether in the pulpit or in print, in disputation or on trial, whenever he preached or whatever he wrote. As this Reformer proclaimed God’s Word, he never mumbled his message or minced his words. Rather, his voice thundered the truth and his pen roared like a lion. Whenever he made bold affirmations of the truths of Scripture, Luther never equivocated or apologized. Such conviction was bound to generate conflict.

Never one to back down, Luther was convinced that wherever the truths of Scripture were under attack, it was precisely there that he had to stand the strongest. He declared: “If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, ¹ Throughout his ministry, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.”

Luther readily stepped forward, like a loyal soldier manning his post, to fight the good fight of faith.

With an acute self-awareness, Luther understood that God made him to contend for the faith: “I am rough, boisterous, stormy, and altogether warlike. I am born to fight against innumerable monsters and devils. I must remove stumps ² Luther was and stones, cut away thistles and thorns, and clear wild forests.” uniquely endowed with the unflinching courage to confront these difficulties. As a result, conflict followed this heroic Reformer throughout his days.

One decade in Luther’s life proved to be most turbulent. The 1520s threw him headlong into the furnace of fiery trials, as he was the subject of a papal bull, stood trial for heresy, was confined in Wartburg Castle, witnessed the Peasants’ Revolt, entered into public debate with Erasmus, was threatened by the Black Plague, and suffered the death of his young daughter. Yet, as a hammer beats glowing-hot steel into form, these trials shaped and strengthened Luther into the resilient leader that the Protestant movement would desperately need.

This chapter will focus on Luther as he faced the many conflicts that arose during the demanding decade of the 1520s. Despite the mounting controversies that confronted him, this theological titan emerged from the flames without the smell of smoke upon him.

Polemical Author (1520)

Once converted, Luther was consumed with an unquenchable desire to know the truth. In these early days, his doctrinal convictions were already growing deeper, especially regarding the unbiblical faith and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. From August to November 1520, Luther wrote three polemical works that confronted the doctrinal errors of Rome. These provocative works, Philip Schaff writes, were “the hardest blows ever dealt by human pen to the system of ³ Their daring arguments immediately catapulted Luther to the front popery.” lines of spiritual conflict.

In August, Luther authored To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation. In the preface, he announced, “The time for silence is past, and the time to speak ⁴ The papacy and church councils, Luther believed, had utterly failed has come.” to make the reforms the church needed, so Luther called on the German nobility to step forward to make these changes. The pope and the priesthood, he argued, had built artificial walls around themselves in order to protect their position from necessary reform. Rome had claimed that only the pope and priests possessed the power to correctly interpret the Bible. Luther vehemently resisted this position, boldly asserting the priesthood of all believers. He wrote:

It is pure invention that pope, bishops, priests and monks are to be called the spiritual estate, while princes, lords, artisans, and farmers are called the temporal estate…. All Christians are truly of the spiritual estate, and there is among them no difference except that of office….

Their claim that only the pope may interpret Scripture is an outrageous fancied fable.

In October, Luther wrote his second polemical treatise of 1520, On theBabylonian Captivity of the Church. This theological work attacked the jugular vein of the Catholic Church by critiquing Rome’s doctrine of the sacraments in light of the Bible. He was especially critical of the Roman doctrine of the Mass. His first critique addressed the Roman hierarchy’s practice of withholding the cup from the laity and reserving it only for the clergy. Luther insisted that both the bread and the wine, as signs of the remission of sin, should be given to the laity. The people have already received the thing signified and therefore should not be denied the sign. Luther further argued against transubstantiation—the belief that the substance of the bread and wine are changed into the literal body and blood of Christ while retaining the characteristics of bread and wine—and against the continual repetition of the sacrifice of Christ in the Mass. In its unbiblical theology of the sacraments, Rome had carried the church away from the Scriptures and held her captive according to the whims of the pompous papacy. Luther daringly wrote: “What is asserted without the Scriptures or proven revelation may be held as an opinion, but need not be believed.”

The following month, Luther wrote a third polemic, On the Freedom of aChristian. This document laid out the foundational Reformation doctrine that justification is through faith alone in Christ alone. He claimed that this ⁷ In this cornerstone truth “contains the whole of Christian life in a brief form.” work, Luther also underscored the Christian liberty of the believer in Christ, arguing that living however one prefers apart from the law of Christ is not a kind of freedom, but a kind of bondage. This small book was published with an open letter to Pope Leo X, which read:

Even Antichrist himself, if he should come, could think of nothing to add to [the papacy’s] wickedness…. A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all…. He needs no works to make him righteous and save him, since faith alone abundantly confers all those things … and all sin is swallowed up by the righteousness of Christ.

In June, Leo issued the papal bull Exsurge Domine. The bull condemned many of Luther’s points in his Ninety-Five Theses and called on him to repent within sixty days of receipt upon threat of excommunication. The bull began: “Arise, O Lord, and judge Thy cause. A wild boar has invaded Thy vineyard.” Forty-one of Luther’s beliefs were judged by Rome to be “heretical, or scandalous, or false, or offensive to pious ears, or seductive of simple minds, or ¹⁰ In September, the Catholic theologian Johann repugnant to Catholic truth.”

Eck posted the bull throughout Saxony.

Luther received it in October without flinching, saying: “This bull condemns ¹¹ He called it “the Bull of Antichrist” and declared it to be “a Christ Himself.” ¹² On December 10, sixty days after he had cursed, impudent, devilish bull.” received it, Luther took the bull in hand and marched outside the city wall of Wittenberg, followed by several hundred fellow professors and students. Under a large oak tree, he defiantly burned it, as well as various books of church law and Eck’s writings.

This audacious act created a permanent break with Rome. Historian Thomas Lindsay writes, “It is scarcely possible for us in the twentieth century to imagine the thrill that went through Germany, and indeed through all Europe, when the ¹³ Luther was now the news spread that a poor monk had burnt the Pope’s Bull.” chief antagonist against a thousand years of the dead religious tradition of Rome.

Defiant Stalwart (1521)

On January 3, 1521, the papal bull became official, and Luther was excommunicated. Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony, demanded in February that Luther be given the opportunity to publicly defend himself, with the hope that he would be reinstated. The Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, obliged and summoned Luther to an imperial diet in the city of Worms. In reality, this hearing before the civil and ecclesiastical powers would be a heresy trial for this dangerous Reformer.

Luther’s friends and supporters warned him not to go to this meeting. They reminded him of the Bohemian professor and preacher Jan Hus, who in 1415 had declared the same truth of sola fide. Hus had been invited to the Council of Constance to “discuss” his teachings. Hus was granted safe passage, but when he arrived, he was asked one question: “Will you recant?” No opportunity for debate was given. When Hus refused to recant, he was strapped to a stake, wood was placed around him, and he was burned. Luther, despite these warnings, retorted, “Although I had known there were as many devils ready to spring upon me as there were tiles on the house-roofs, I would joyfully have sprung into their midst.”

On April 2, 1521, Luther departed Wittenberg for Worms. This Bible steeped professor literally preached his way across Germany en route to his hearing. This preaching tour included stops at Erfurt, Eisenach, Gotha, and Frankfurt. When he arrived in Worms on April 16, he found a groundswell of public support. This previously obscure university teacher was fast becoming a champion of the people. All the while, however, the rage of Rome was escalating.

Luther entered Worms as a triumphant figure. Riding in an open carriage, he was preceded by an imperial herald and followed by men on horseback. A crowd of thousands gathered to cheer him. At the beginning of the official proceedings on April 17, Luther was ushered into the solemn assembly. At the end of the hall, Emperor Charles V was seated on a throne-like chair. Spanish troops, decked out in their parade best, guarded the emperor. Beside the emperor was Eck, acting as the chief prosecutor for Rome. Also present was the papal nuncio, Jerome Aleander, along with electors, bishops, princes, knights, barons, archbishops, cardinals, legates, and representatives of great cities in the German lands.

In the midst of this gathering was a table with a pile of Luther’s books. Some of his writings were about the Christian faith. Other works attacked the papacy, and still others attacked individuals. Luther had naively presumed that this venue would provide him with a platform to explain his doctrinal views. Instead, he was rebuked for daring to stand in opposition to the teachings of the church. Eck sharply confronted Luther: Martin, how can you assume that you are the only one to understand the sense of Scripture? Would you put your judgment above that of so many famous men and claim that you know more than they all? You have no right to call into question the most holy orthodox faith instituted by Christ the perfect lawgiver, proclaimed throughout the world by the apostles, sealed by the red blood of the martyrs, confirmed by the sacred councils, defined by the Church in which all our fathers believed until death and gave to us as an inheritance, and which now we are forbidden by the pope and the emperor to discuss lest there be no end of debate.

Eck pressed Luther with two questions: “Are these your books? And will you recant?” The moment of crisis had come. Realizing the seriousness of the inquiry, Luther requested a day to marshal his defense. The next day, April 18, he addressed this elite council and issued his now-famous confession: Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound to the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. I cannot do otherwise.

Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.

In this dogmatic stance, Luther declared an unwavering commitment to solaScriptura. He maintained that the teaching of the church must not be based upon creeds, councils, or clerics. Neither must the truth be determined by common sense, human intuition, or mystical revelation. What the church teaches, Luther contended, must rest exclusively upon the testimony of Scripture alone.

Luther had laid the ax to the root of the papal tree. Charles condemned Luther as a heretic and pronounced the death penalty upon him. Luther was granted twenty-one days of safe conduct to put his affairs in order. The diet ordered that all his books be burned. The conflict surrounding Luther’s life had shifted into high gear.

Bible Translator (1521–22)

As Luther traveled back to Wittenberg, he was confronted by a group of armed horsemen, who rode out of the forest and apprehended him. Unbeknownst to Luther, Frederick the Wise had arranged for Luther to be abducted for his own protection. He was taken to Wartburg Castle near Leipzig. He arrived on May 10 and hid in obscurity for the next eleven months. He further protected his anonymity by growing his hair and a beard and dressing as a knight, calling himself Junker Jorg, or Knight George.

On May 26, 1521, the twenty-one days of safety allotted to Luther expired. Emperor Charles V signed the Edict of Worms, formally condemning the rebellious Reformer. The emperor declared his teachings heretical. Luther was placed under the official ban of the Holy Roman Empire. Despite the threat, this time of confinement proved to be one of the most productive periods of his life. Luther spent the time profitably by translating Erasmus’ recently collected Greek New Testament (1516) into German. Luther wrote:

I shall be hiding here until Easter. In the meantime I shall finish the postil and translate the New Testament into German, an undertaking our friends request. I hear you are also working on this. Continue as you have begun. I wish every town would have its interpreter, and that this book alone, in all languages, would live in the hands, eyes, ears, and hearts of all people.

In February 1522, the Second Imperial Diet of Nuremberg declared the ban on Luther to be unenforceable and it was lifted. After eleven months in hiding, Luther was safe to leave Wartburg Castle. He returned to Wittenberg in March 1522 and discovered the city in an uproar. The people, long suppressed, were revolting against the political and ecclesiastical authorities. To subdue this rebellion, Luther mounted the pulpit and resumed his preaching duties. He also traveled throughout central Germany, preaching the rediscovered gospel of grace. But the conflict in which Luther found himself was not subsiding, but only increasing.

On September 21, 1522, Luther published his newly translated German New Testament. His countrymen quickly purchased this text, and in the first two months, five thousand copies were sold, to every class of people. This text was one of the few German books that the average person could afford to buy. So broad was the appeal of Luther’s Bible throughout Saxony that it helped form the basis of the modern German language. Virtually overnight, Luther had become the most influential figure in his country.

Luther’s Bible stoked the Reformation fires, causing its gospel-centered truths to spread like wildfire across the land. The impact of this German Bible spread far beyond the borders of Germany, igniting flames in the Netherlands, Sweden, Ireland, and Denmark. This new Bible had a direct influence on the man now known as the “Father of the English Bible,” William Tyndale, who had fled from England to Continental Europe to meet with the influential Reformer. By the time Luther published his German New Testament, Tyndale was traveling to Wittenberg in order to learn how to best translate the Scriptures into his own native language.

As the Protestant movement expanded, Luther was asked to explain how such a powerful work had come to realization. Without hesitation, Luther responded:

I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept, or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything.

Expository Preacher (1522)

In Wittenberg, Luther’s commitment to the primacy of the Word of God was clearly seen in his pulpit ministry. Affirming this high calling, Luther said, “If I could today become a king or emperor, I would not give up my office as ¹⁹ On an average Sunday, Luther preached twice, and on some preacher.” ²⁰ The day began Sundays, he said, “Often I preached four sermons on one day.” with an early worship service in which Luther delivered a sermon on an epistle. At the mid-morning service, he gave another sermon on one of the Gospels. This was often followed by an afternoon message on the Old Testament.

In addition, Luther usually preached two to three times during the week. On religious holidays, he often preached twice a day. His resilient drive in the pulpit is seen in the staggering number of sermons he delivered. He preached 117 Sunday sermons in Wittenberg in 1522 and 137 sermons the next year. There were additional sermons that he delivered on the road. That is an average of two hundred formal sermons per year, or almost four per week, or a sermon about ²¹ In all, Luther preached about seven thousand sermons between every two days. 22 Some 2,300 of these survive. 1510 and 1546.

Luther’s preaching began to make inroads against the traditions of Rome. On March 6, 1523, the Diet of Nuremberg ordered Luther to stop publishing his sermons. The diet outlawed the preaching of anything but Roman Catholic doctrine. But Luther could not be stopped in his proclamation of the Word. On June 1, 1523, Luther published a description of Protestant public worship as it was celebrated in Wittenberg. Previously, the entire service, including the sermon, was in Latin, a language unknown to the common parishioner. Luther insisted that the sermon be delivered in German so that it would be understood. Likewise, the congregational singing was to be in German. Luther called for German musicians and poets to develop songs to be used in church that would be understood by the congregation in their language.

In 1524, another Diet of Nuremberg convened and renewed the ban on Luther. But by this time, this towering figure was so popular that it was unlikely that he could be arrested without setting off a riot. At this time, Luther also published a songbook for the German church. He personally wrote many of the words and adapted tunes from popular music. Luther’s goal was to give maximum exposure to the Word in the minds and hearts of the people who had been living in spiritual darkness.

Reformed Theologian (1524–25)

Later in 1524, a new conflict erupted around Luther. On September 1, the leading humanist of the day, Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466–1536), published an attack on Luther’s view on the bondage of the human will in spiritual matters. The Freedom of the Will was a frontal attack on the Reformer’s belief in the total depravity of the unregenerate nature. This treatise by Erasmus declared an open war against Luther’s Reformed teaching on the radical corruption of the human heart and will.

Despite the fall of Adam, Erasmus stated, sinful man still possesses some ability to exercise saving faith. He wrote, “By free choice… we mean a power of the human will by which a man can apply himself to the things which lead to ²⁴ This foremost thinker reasoned eternal salvation, or to turn away from them.” that fallen man is weakened by inherited sin, but his powers of choice remain operative. God and man are equal partners in salvation, he said. Each makes a contribution to the new birth: God supplies the grace and man supplies the faith. In making this argument, Erasmus reasoned the way the semi-Pelagians did in response to Augustine a thousand years earlier. Erasmus argued, “What end do all the myriad of commandments serve if it is not possible for a man in any ²⁵ He maintained that whatever God way to keep what is commanded?” commands fallen man to do, man must surely retain the natural ability to do.

Luther, however, offered no immediate response. His silence led many to believe that Erasmus had won the dispute without a shot fired by Luther. The great German theologian waited an entire year before publishing his reply. In December 1525, Luther issued what would be his magnum opus, On theBondage of the Will. This work proved to be so significant that the great Princeton theologian Benjamin B. Warfield lauded it as “the manifesto of the ²⁶ J.I. Packer hailed it as “a brilliant and exhilarating Protestant Reformation.” performance, a masterpiece,” and “the greatest piece of theological writing that 27 On the Bondage of the Will, Packer concluded, ever came from Luther’s pen.” “stands unsurpassed among Luther’s writings.”

This brilliant tome addresses the moral inability of an unregenerate person to believe the gospel of Christ. In the preface, Luther thanked Erasmus for going to ²⁹ Instead of troubling him as others had done with “the root of the controversy.” peripheral issues “about the papacy, purgatory, indulgences, and other ³⁰ Erasmus challenged Luther on the central matter: “I give you hearty fooleries,” praise and commendation on this further account—that you alone, in contrast with all others, have attacked the real thing, that is, the essential issue.” Erasmus had attacked the vital nerve of the Protestant view of salvation, and Luther rose to defend the core truth that salvation is all of grace.

The doctrine of justification by faith alone has been called the “article upon which the church stands or falls.” But a deeper issue lies beneath the surface: What is the source of the faith that justifies? Put another way: Does saving faith originate within man? Does an unregenerate man, dead in sin and blinded by Satan, possess the capacity to believe upon Christ? Or, must saving faith be given by God as a gift of sovereign grace? Luther was convinced of the latter.

Luther asserted that saving faith requires that a person realize he can do nothing to save himself. An unsaved individual should know that he cannot believe apart from sovereign grace. The capacity to trust Jesus Christ, he argued, must come from God:

No man can be thoroughly humbled until he knows that his salvation is utterly beyond his own powers, devices, endeavors, will, and works, and depends entirely on the choice, will, and work of another, namely, of God alone. For as long as he is persuaded that he himself can do even the least thing toward his salvation, he retains some self-confidence and does not altogether despair of himself, and therefore he is not humbled before God, but presumes that there is—or at least hopes or desires that there may be—some place, time, and work for him, by which he may at length attain to salvation. But when a man has no doubt that everything depends on the will of God, then he completely despairs of himself and chooses nothing for himself, but waits for God to work; then he has come close to grace, and can be saved.

Luther’s view was essentially that of Augustine, who had taught a millennium earlier. He agreed with the fifth-century bishop of Hippo regarding the total corruption of man’s nature. This condition, Luther insisted, necessitates the divine initiative in pursuing sinners. Unconverted man, Luther taught, cannot believe in Christ unless efficacious grace works in him and enables him to exercise faith. Luther wrote:

A man without the Spirit of God does not do evil against his will, under pressure, as though he were taken by the scruff of the neck and dragged into it, like a thief… being dragged off against his will to punishment; but he does it spontaneously and voluntarily. And this willingness of volition is something which he cannot in his own strength eliminate, restrain or alter. He goes on willing and desiring to do evil; and if external pressure forces him to act otherwise, nevertheless his will within remains averse to so doing and chafes under such constraint and opposition.

Luther compared the human will to a horse or donkey that goes in the direction its rider determines. The devil dictates the way of the unconverted, controlling his sin-bound will. By contrast, God leads the choices of the regenerate. The will of man will submit to its master—either Satan or God. If someone is led by the evil one, Luther reasoned, that person cannot obey God.

In building his case, Luther said he had many “generals” with countless soldiers at their command, who could be led into this battle. But only two such high-ranking officers were needed to defeat the vain notion of free will. These two commanders are the Apostles John and Paul, who could easily rout the lame, weak arguments of Erasmus. Rather than defend the liberty of man’s will, Luther championed God’s autonomous freedom to save whomever He pleases. In mounting this defense, Luther exposited a litany of biblical texts in convincing fashion to support the truth of the sovereign grace of God in salvation.

Political Leader (1524–25)

Beginning in the summer of 1524, Luther faced one of the most difficult experiences of his life: the Peasants’ War. At this time, the lower class of Germany was little more than slave labor for demanding landowners. They were overworked and cruelly treated. Consequently, an insurrection by the peasants erupted against the upper class and nobility in southwest Germany. This revolution was stirred up by the teachings of Luther and the many changes wrought by the Reformation. Luther’s attacks upon the tyranny of the pope, his emphasis on Christian freedom, and his insistence upon the priesthood of all believers added fuel to this class struggle.

Many of the peasants mistook their spiritual liberty in Christ for a carnal license to rise up in revolt against their masters. Thousands of common laborers took Luther’s teaching for support of their cause as they overthrew the tyrannical authorities who ruled them. In early 1525, this uprising spread throughout central Germany. Angry peasants destroyed the palaces of bishops and ransacked the castles of the nobility. They pillaged fields and farms.

This uprising forced Luther to enter the fray. On April 19, 1525, Luther released a poignant work, Admonition to Peace, in which he called the peasants to practice peaceful submission to the civil authorities. Citing Romans 13:1 and Matthew 26:52, Luther urged the riotous mob to cease using physical force in carrying out their uprising. But his words fell on deaf ears. Catholic priests were ³⁴ In a counterrevolt, imprisoned, tortured, hanged, decapitated, and burned.

Catholic princes murdered many Protestant ministers, hanging them along the sides of German roads. Rebellion reigned, and mayhem ruled.

The conflict reached new heights of brutality at the Battle of Frankenhausen on May 15, 1525. The battle was a bloodbath. Some five thousand peasants were slain in the streets and fields and another three hundred peasants were beheaded. In response, Luther penned another manifesto, Against the Murderous, ThievingHordes of Peasants, in which he charged the peasants with doing the devil’s work. He called the lower class “mad dogs” and petitioned the magistrates to 35 them. The peasants believed that Luther, their hero, “stab, kill, and strangle” had betrayed them.

Luther’s words had been so fierce that he had to defend himself in a public letter titled An Open Letter on the Harsh Book against the Peasants. He wrote, “My little book shall stand, though the whole world should stumble at it.” Here, Luther used even stronger language, contending that it was useless to reason with rebels. In the heat of their passions, anarchists will only understand the fist and sword.

In all, more than one hundred thousand peasants were killed in the uprising. Many rebels were decapitated. Countless bodies were mutilated. Widows and orphans were left destitute. Castles and convents lay in ashes. Entire villages were burnt to the ground. Cattle were killed and crops destroyed. The ruthless slaughter dealt the cause of Protestantism tremendous injury, and a large portion of the blame was laid at the feet of the great German Reformer. Through this painful conflict, Luther’s mettle was being severely tested.

Devoted Husband (1525)

In his domestic life, Luther had thrown off the unbiblical constraints of Rome. This included the church’s teaching on celibacy. In 1525, Luther, age forty-one, chose to marry Katharina von Bora, twenty-six years old, a former nun. He stated that he married her in order to “please his father, tease the pope, and vex ³⁷ He did so to “make the angels laugh and the devils weep.” ³⁸ For the the devil.” remainder of his life, Luther enjoyed a happy and rich family life. Katie would bear him six children, three boys and three girls.

Later in his life, Luther’s large family and the increasing demands of his ministry prompted Elector John the Steadfast to transfer to Luther the local monastery in Wittenberg. It was known as the Black Cloister. Luther took possession of the large house in 1532. This imposing structure was a three-story building with forty rooms on the first floor alone. Here, Luther lived with Katie and their children and hosted his many students for evening meals. His dinner dialogues with these guests were recorded and compiled into what became his famous Table Talk.

Because Luther’s theological writings spread throughout Germany and into surrounding countries, preachers, students, and laymen traveled from throughout Continental Europe, England, and Scotland to meet with him. Among those inquirers who came were such a notable as Patrick Hamilton, the first Scottish preacher captivated by Reformed truth. After introducing Luther’s theology to Scotland, Hamilton was martyred at St. Andrews in 1528.

Faithful Shepherd (1527)

Other adversities soon confronted Luther. In 1527, Luther experienced a trial so severe that church historian Philip Schaff described that year simply as “the ³⁹ It was the time of Luther’s “severest spiritual and physical disastrous year.” ⁴⁰ As the leading figure of the Reformation, Luther paid a high price in trials.” the struggle for truth, and his physical condition deteriorated under the movement’s mounting demands. On April 22, 1527, Luther was so overcome by dizziness in the pulpit that he stopped preaching and was forced to retire. Other physical problems followed for the Reformer, including severe heart problems, digestive ailments, and fainting spells. He also began to wear down emotionally, suffering bouts of discouragement and depression.

On July 6, another attack struck Luther. He was entertaining friends for dinner when he felt an intense buzzing in his left ear. He had to be carried to bed, where he frantically called for water or else, he believed, he would die. Luther became so chilled that he was convinced he had seen his last night. In a desperate prayer, he surrendered himself to the will of God and prepared to meet his Maker. Though Luther remained seriously ill for days, he eventually regained his strength.

In August, the Black Plague rapidly spread among the people in Wittenberg. Many died, and others fled for their lives. The University of Wittenberg moved to Jena, Germany. Frederick urged Luther to escape to spare his own life. Adding to the danger, Katie was pregnant and they had a one-year-old child, Hans. Luther, however, considered it his moral duty to remain and minister to the sick.

Weighty trials rested heavily upon Luther’s shoulders. Death surrounded him on every side. He watched people die in his house and in the streets. He chose to transform his spacious house into a hospital to care for those suffering from the plague. Hans became desperately ill, and Luther became so heavily burdened that he could not eat for eleven days. He was deeply concerned for Katie’s safety and grew weak with despair.

In a letter to his trusted friend and coworker Philip Melanchthon, Luther acknowledged his increasing bouts of depression:

I spent more than a week in death and in hell. My entire body was in pain, and I still tremble. Completely abandoned by Christ, I labored under the vacillations and storms of desperation and blasphemy against God. But through the prayers of the saints God began to have mercy on me and pulled my soul from the inferno below.

In November, Luther wrote a theological tract titled Whether One May Fleefrom a Deadly Plague. He argued that a spiritual leader must stay with the community of believers under his care during a time of extreme duress. Certainly, the outbreak of the plague qualified as such a crisis, as extreme stress weighed heavy upon his heart and drained his body of strength. But in his weakness, Luther found new strength in God.

Hymn Writer (1527–29)

During these difficult years filled with controversy, death, and trial, Luther penned his most famous hymn, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” This magnificent work is based on Psalm 46, a worship song of unshakable trust in God. For years, Luther had translated and taught the Psalms, a book he deeply loved. This inspired collection of ancient worship songs was, in fact, the first book of Scripture that Luther had taught in the classroom. An exposition of selected penitential psalms was the subject of his first printed work.

In hard times, when Luther often found himself terribly discouraged and downcast, he would turn to Melanchthon and say, “Come, Philipp, let us sing the ⁴² They would sing it in Luther’s original version: forty-sixth Psalm.”

A sure stronghold our God is He, A timely shield and weapon: Our help He’ll be and set us free From every ill can happen.

Concerning the singing of this favorite psalm, Luther said: We sing this psalm to the praise of God, because God is with us and powerfully and miraculously preserves and defends His church and His word against all fanatical spirits, against the gates of hell, against the implacable hatred of the devil, and against all the assaults of the world, the flesh and sin.

Out of Luther’s dark distress shined this brightest light of confidence in God. Philip Schaff marvels that this monumental hymn could issue from such deep ⁴⁵ This was the travails, saying, “The deepest griefs and highest faith often meet.” case with Luther, as “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” was “born of deep tribulation and conquering faith.”

Protestant Leader (1528–29)

When the Black Plague at last cleared and the Reformation regained momentum, Luther’s influence continued to sweep across Germany. The major cities in Germany embraced the Protestant cause. Among these metropolises were Erfurt, Magdeburg, Nuremberg, Strasbourg, and Bremen. Other German principalities followed suit: Hesse, Brandenburg, Brunswick-Luneburg, Schleswig-Holstein, ⁴⁷ An impressive monument that still stands in Worms Mansfeld, and Silesia. today records the cities that joined with Luther in his Protestant cause.

In March 1529, Luther published his Small Catechism , a concise theological statement written to teach sound doctrine to the laity in Germany. This catechism, Schaff writes, is Luther’s “best work” and “bears the stamp of his religious genius, and is, next to his translation of the Bible, his most useful and ⁴⁸ This teaching document was created to address what he enduring work.” considered to be the deplorable ignorance of the people concerning biblical truth. In his estimation, German congregations were sadly untaught in even the most basic truths of Christianity. Luther lamented:

The common people, especially in the villages, have no knowledge whatever of Christian doctrine, and, alas! Many pastors are altogether incapable and incompetent to teach…. Nevertheless, all maintain they are Christians, have been baptized and receive the [common] holy Sacraments. Yet they… cannot… recite the Lord’s Prayer, or the Creed, or the Ten Commandments: they live like dumb brutes and irrational hogs; and yet, now that the Gospel has come, they have nicely learned to abuse all liberty like experts.

The Small Catechism was designed to ground the church’s people in the doctrinal teaching they desperately needed. Luther incorporated in this teaching device what would become the three basic parts of a standard Reformed catechism. These three divisions are the Decalogue, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer. Luther also included additional sections on the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

This didactic work was followed in May 1529 by the Large Catechism. This was an expansion of the first document. Rather than utilizing the usual question and-answer format, it takes the form of a series of points that exposit theology. Even as Luther was writing these works, a doctrinal dispute was brewing between the leaders of the Reformation in Germany and the leaders in Switzerland. This dispute concerned the Lord’s Supper. There was agreement that the Roman teaching on the Lord’s Supper was to be rejected. Rome taught the doctrine of transubstantiation, meaning that the substance of the bread and wine become the actual body and blood of Christ while retaining the characteristics of bread and wine. Huldrych Zwingli, leader of the Swiss Reformers, taught that the Lord’s Supper was simply a memorial of Christ’s death. He understood the words of Christ—“This is my body”—as metaphorical, such that the bread and wine merely symbolize the body and blood of Christ.

Luther, however, pressed for more. He believed that Christ’s words must be interpreted more literally, and he held that Christ’s body and blood are actually present alongside the elements of the bread and wine (this view is sometimes called “consubstantiation,” though Luther rejected that term). Zwingli and the other Swiss theologians argued that since the physical body of Christ is at the right hand of the Father in heaven, it could not simultaneously be present in churches throughout the Christian world.

To settle the growing division, the Landgrave Philip I of Hesse, a supporter of the Reformation, called the Marburg Colloquy. On October 1, 1529, Luther and Zwingli met to resolve their differences. To clarify his positions, Luther drew up fifteen articles of faith. Zwingli agreed with Luther on fourteen of these affirmations. The fifteenth article dealt with the Lord’s Supper. These two leaders agreed on five essential points concerning this subject. But it was on the sixth point, regarding the presence of Christ in the supper, that the two Reformers could not find complete agreement. Despite this attempt at unity, Luther withheld his hand of fellowship from Zwingli. An agreement was not reached, and the Protestant movement was divided.

The breach between Luther and Zwingli could not be resolved. Historian Ludwig Häusser writes: “The passionate intolerant spirit of the monk, of unyielding ancient scholasticism which could brook no opposition, was aroused in him; the simple temperate character of the Swiss Reformer was repugnant to ⁵⁰ The breach him, and he never overcame his distrust of him and his doctrines.” would never be healed.

Despite this setback, Luther would find unity back at home. Emperor Charles V called the Diet of Augsburg in 1530 in an attempt to ease tensions between German Protestants. Luther was a fugitive from the empire at this time, and so was unable to attend, but he made his presence known through a variety of publications, and he was represented at the diet by Melanchthon. His work was rewarded when the diet adopted Melanchthon’s Augsburg Confession, which codified Luther’s doctrinal reforms and earned the approval of German princes and other leaders, becoming one of the founding documents of the Lutheran movement.

A Decade of Conflict (1520s)

The 1520s proved to be a turbulent time for Martin Luther, one in which he found himself engaged in many battles. In the face of mounting struggles, Luther fought the good fight and remained unwavering in his devotion to the truth of the Bible. Through these sufferings, he grew deeper in the truth and stronger in faith.

Luther recognized that these conflicts came by divine design to make him the theologian God desired him to be. In commenting on Psalm 119, the Reformer expressed this conviction when he wrote about what he saw as the correct way to study theology. He affirmed three nonnegotiables for learning biblical doctrine: “Here you will find three rules. They are frequently proposed ⁵¹ These three Latin throughout the psalm and thus: Oratio, meditatio, tentatio.” words translate as “prayer,” “meditation,” and “trial.” It is this third prerequisite that should arrest our attention. Luther calls tentatio“the touchstone” for learning the truth.

Luther believed that trials in the life of any believer, especially a theologian, are necessary in order to grow in the truth. He said that affliction “teaches you not only to know and understand, but also to experience how right, how true, how sweet, how lovely, how mighty, how comforting God’s Word is, wisdom ⁵² In other words, Luther maintained that theology is not beyond all wisdom.” learned only in the safety of a lecture hall, but in the flames of adversity. In fiery trials, one is humbled and broken. It is then that a leader is made most teachable. In difficult times, the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit often shines brightest. Broken hearts make for receptive minds.

Such affliction increases in intensity as the servant of God ministers the Word. Luther explained, “As soon as God’s Word takes root and grows in you, the devil will harry you, and will make a real doctor of you, and by his assaults ⁵³ Luther thanked the devil and will teach you to seek and love God’s Word.” papists for “beating, oppressing and distressing” him to the point that they turned him into “a fairly good theologian.”

Amid his mounting conflicts, Luther stands as a towering example of the steadfast loyalty to the gospel that is required by God. Ministry is never without its difficulties. There are no easy places to serve the Lord. In perilous times, Luther demonstrated the unwavering devotion needed to persevere.

Notes

Notes

1. D. Martin Luthers Werke: kritische Gesamtausgabe (Weimarer Ausgabe), ³ Band: Briefwechsel(Weimar: Verlag Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1933), 3:81–82. The Latin and German edition of Luther’s complete works, spanning 121 volumes, is known as the Weimarer Ausgabe; hereafter, it will be cited as WA.

2. Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. VII: History of the Reformation(Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1910), 193.

3. Schaff, History of the Christian Church, 7:205.

4. LW, Vol. 44: The Christian and Society I, ed. James Atkinson, (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1966), 123.

5. Denis R. Janz, A Reformation Reader(Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1999), 91, 93.

6. LW, Vol. 36: Word and Sacrament II, ed. Abdel Ross Wentz (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg, 1959), 29.

7. LW, Vol. 31: Career of the Reformer I, ed. Harold J. Grimm (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg, 1957), 343.

8. Janz, A Reformation Reader, 99, 100, 104.

9. Bruce L. Shelley, Church History in Plain Language(Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson, 1982, 1995), 237.

10. Bainton, Here I Stand, 147.

11. Ibid., 160.

12. Schaff, History of the Christian Church, 7:247.

13. Thomas Lindsay, Martin Luther: The Man Who Started the Reformation(Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus, 1997, 2004), 91.

14. The Letters of Martin Luther, ed. and trans. Margaret A. Currie (London: Macmillan, 1908), 98.

15. Bainton, Here I Stand, 181.

16. LW, Vol. 32: Career of the Reformer II, ed. George W. Forell (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1958), 113.

17. LW, Vol. 48: Letters I, ed. Gottfried G. Krodel (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1963), 356.

18. LW, Vol. 51: Sermons I, ed. Jaroslav Pelikan and Helmut T. Lehmann (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1960), 76–77.

19. Fred W. Meuser, Luther the Preacher(Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1983), 39.

20. LW, Vol. 54: Table Talk, ed. Theodore G. Tappert (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1967), 282.

21. Meuser, Luther the Preacher, 27.

22. Walther von Loewenich, Luther: The Man and His Word, trans. Lawrence W. Denef (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1986), 353.

23. Patrick Ferry, “Martin Luther on Preaching: Promises and Problems of the Sermon as a Source of Reformation History and as an instrument of the Reformation,”CTQ 54, no. 4 (1990): 266.

24. LW, Vol. 33: Career of the Reformer III, ed. Philip S. Watson (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1972), 102.

25. Luther and Erasmus: Free Will and Salvation, ed. and trans. E. Gordon Rupp (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox, 1969), 57.

26. Quoted in R.C. Sproul, Willing to Believe: The Controversy over Free Will(Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 2002), 87.

27. Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will, trans. J.I. Packer and O.R. Johnson (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 1990), 57.

28. Ibid., 41.

29. Schaff, History of the Christian Church, 7:247.

30. Ibid.

31. Luther, The Bondage of the Will, 319.

32. LW, Vol. 33: Career of the Reformer III, ed. Philip S. Watson (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1972), 62.

33. Luther, The Bondage of the Will, 102.

34. Erasmus as quoted in Schaff, History of the Christian Church, 7:445.

35. Ibid., 7:446.

36. Ibid.

37. Ibid., 7:455.

38. Martin Brecht, Martin Luther, Vol. 1: His Road to Reformation, 1483–1521, trans. James L. Schaaf (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1985–1993), 230.

39. Schaff, History of the Christian Church, 7:503.

40. Ibid.

41. James M. Kittelson, Luther the Reformer: The Story of the Man and His Career(Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1986), 211.

42. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Treasury of David: Spurgeon’s Classic Work on the Psalms(Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel, 1968), 2:380.

43. James Montgomery Boice, Psalms(Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1994), 2:388.

44. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, 2:218.

45. Schaff, History of the Christian Church, 7:503.

46. Ibid., 7:502.

47. Rudolph W. Heinze, Reform and Conflict: From the Medieval World to the Wars of Religion, AD1350–1648, Baker History of the Church, ed. Tim Dowley, vol. 4 (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 2005), 106.

48. Schaff, History of the Christian Church, 7:550.

49. LW, 54:50.

50. Ludwig Häusser, The Period of the Reformation: 1517 to 1648, ed. Wilhelm Oncken, trans. G. Sturge (London: Strahan, 1873), 151.

51. LW, 34:285.

52. Ibid. , 34:287.

53. Ibid.

54. Ibid.