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History and Culture into Literature

Martin Luther (1483-1546)

Martin Luther was born in 1483 in the He defended himself well, but this did
German principality of Saxony. After not save him from exclusion from the
graduating from university, he became Church and the proscription of his wri-
a monk and pursued his course in ad- tings.
vanced theological studies and recei- However, even though he was excom-
ved his doctorate in Theology from the municated, Luther could not be preven-
University of Wittenberg in 1512. ted from proceeding in his teaching
After his studies and his personal medi- and in his translation of the Bible into
tations, Luther reached the conclusion German, which proved a historic work
that people are saved because of their with a tremendous influence on the
faith in God, and not because of the German language, life and religion. The
good actions that they perform. text and his composition of hymns and
With Luther’s ideas, the essential theo- prayers also contributed to the cohe-
logy of Protestantism was born. Luther sion of German culture and growing
strongly disagreed with the Church’s nationalist sentiment.
practice of selling ‘indulgences’, whi- Luther died in 1546, while other Prote-
ch allowed people to pay the Church stant movements were being created
in order to spend less time in Purga- throughout Western Europe.
tory for the sins they had committed.
While the Church never stated that
God’s forgiveness could be obtained
through an indulgence, unscrupulous
agents made such promises to ordinary
people in exchange for money. Luther,
worried that these people could have
their salvation endangered by these
false claims, wrote ninety-five theses
attacking indulgences and fastened
them to the door of All Saints’ Church
in Wittenberg on 31 October 1517.
The theses soon caused controversy in
Rome. Luther had first to respond to a
papal bull (an official document issued
by the Pope) condemning many of his
teachings, and then face excommuni-
cation.
Engraving (1880) representing
the sales of indulgences.

© De Agostini Scuola SpA – Novara

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