Marten Luther's Influence on European History

 

Marten Luther (1483-1546) is one of the most famous European historical figures. This is because he was the first real "revolutionary" of his time

At the time of Marten Luther, the Catholic Church ruled supreme in all religious assets of life and also had a great influence in the politics of the European continent. The Catholic Church controlled many aspects of life because of this great religious influence.

Religion at the time was one of the most important things in the lives of many people. Life in Europe at the time was generally short (you were really old when you were 50) and people thought a lot about religion and life beyond death. Because the Catholic Church represented the society of God on the world, all people who were believers were a part of it.

The Catholic Church, being the only Religious institution, had written down a number of Dogma's that were made canon and that were not to be broken. Any questioning of these dogmas was considered to be a heretic activity, punishable by death by burning alive.

Religious zeal at the time was far more fanatical then most areas today (excluding most Arab nations) and this resulted in persecution of infidels and heretics. Infidels were to be converted or would be killed. In Europe, especially the Jewish people were a prime target for persecution by the religious authorities and it did not take much to enrage the masses against the infidels (such as the black plague sparked off mass murders of Jewish people).

Although there had been heretics and people who did not recognize the dogmas, these had been persecuted and usually executed. Good examples of these groups were the Cathars, the Aligenzes, and the Waldenzes

The religious zeal also led to the persecution of those not "pure" in the canon of the church, leading to the persecution of converted Jews, Arabs and other people.

Very important Dogma's at the time were:

- The Pope is the representative of God and can therefore not make mistakes. Anything a Pope does or says is the will and deed of god and can therefore not be opposed.

- Only the Catholic Church can bring salvation to ones soul. Someone's sins can only be cleansed by the Catholic Church and its priests.

- The world is the center of the Universe

Because not many people could read, the Church authority was unchallenged because the people were dependant on the clergy for information from the Bible, the book that forms the basics of Christian Religion.

I have called Marten Luther a "revolutionary", although this is probably not completely correct. Marten Luther can better be called a "reformer" who wanted to reform the Catholic Church. In the Next chapter I will discuss the problems that had arisen within the Catholic Church.

 

The Catholic Church of the Late Middle Ages faced several internal problems. There were 4 problems that plagued the Catholic Church and lead to Luthers influence on European History.

The problems were:

1) A doubting of the infallible of Popes.
A large number of incompetent (corrupt, warlike, etc) Popes had damaged the view of the Pope as infallible. As a result of this, many people resisted the position of the Pope as Gods' spokesman on Earth. Especially the struggle between Popes both in Avignon and Rome, which lasted over 50 years, damaged the official status of the Pope.

2) The Investiture and corruption.
As with every very important and powerful organization or government, corruption also plagued the Catholic Church. The most damaging of these corruptions was the Investiture. The Investiture allowed the selling and bargaining of Church posts to the highest bidders and the assignment of Church posts to friends and relatives. This resulted in many unworthy people becoming a part of the clergy and even lead to more and more corruption and chaos within the Catholic Church. This also resulted in a drop in morals in Monasteries (celibate was required, but the corruption and investiture worked against this) and the Church and damaged the church in the eyes of the common people.

Although there had been attempts to combat the corruption, these attempts had either been rebuffed or had been overturned soon after the reforms had been put into place.

3) The Selling of Indulgences,
The selling of Indulgences allowed people to buy letters that would ensure them complete redemption from all their sins. No matter what sin or crime one had committed, they could be "forgiven" for the right sum of money. This was the Highpoint of the corruption that plagued the Catholic Church and showed the lesser clergy and the men of integrity what had become of the Church.

4) New discoveries.
The years around the 1500's were shocked by many discoveries about the world. Discoveries like these included that the world is round, that the world was not the center of the universe and printing.

Canon prescribed that the world was flat and that one could fall off. This had been described in the Holy Bible and challenged the story of creation to some extent. Canon also dictated that the world was the center of the Universe because humanity must be the most important thing on the world and in the Universe. It is said that God made humanity to be the highlight of His creation.

Printing allowed the people to read what was written because it lowered the price of books and this lead to greater number of people learning to read. Because a greater number of people were able to read, this allowed the people to read pamphlets about the current situation and it also allowed people to read the bible for themselves.

Printing would play a very important role in the impact Marten Luther had on European History and on Europe at that time.

 

Marten Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Church. By doping this he allowed them to be read by everyone. This ultimately made him a revolutionary. Although I first called Marten Luther a revolutionary, it was not his intention to become that. Marten Luther wanted the Catholic Church to reform back to the basics of Christianity and to use the Bible and the true Words of God as their foundation.

Luther was a priest that studied the Bible and came to his personal conclusion that the dogmas of the Church were not correctly with the teachings of the Bible and Christ.

He especially disliked the selling of indulgences because these led to people leading an amoral life, something that the Bible and Christ's teachings attempted to prevent. In this many people had joined him, although these people did not manage to raise their voice as high as Luther.

Luther also wrote how he saw the Bible and the teachings of Christ and this too went straight against Church Dogma.

After Luther had nailed his Theses up on the Door of the Wittenberg Church, he was ordered to retract his theses or face the death penalty. Luther refused to retract his theses, even when faced with the prospect of the death penalty and he used his friends to distribute his theses across entire Germany.

Here they caused uproar because many people had had the same ideas but none had dared to utter them. That now a priest had attacked the problems in the Church it self was seen by many that their case was just.

His theses were becoming widely known though and several high-ranking nobles from the German Empire protected him. Printing helped spreading his ideas to the learned people from Europe, who could then explain them to the masses.

Some time went past and the Quisition wanted to see Luther dead and he was ordered to come forward on the Reichstag at Worms to stand before Emperor Karel V. Here he continued to defend his ideas but the Emperor did not want to listen to his ideas.

For his own safety he was transported, by several supporting nobles, to a remote castle where he set himself to translate the Bible from Latin to German and where he also wrote down his ideas.

By his letters, he spread his ideas throughout Europe and had many followers who were also intended to combat the corruption in the Church and the false dogma’s and to bring the people back to the real religion. Famous followers were Jean Calvin and Zwingli

The group around Luther were soon called the Protestants and his movement was called the Reformation, signalling that they wanted to reform the church. Breaking Away and Religious conflict.

The Protestants broke with the Catholic Church and spread throughout Europe to learn his teachings to the masses and they were very successful in doing so.

The Catholic Church of course tried to combat the Reformation, depicting it as heretical and trying to destroy it.

Many kings and lords in Europe were faithful followers of the Catholic Church and helped the Catholic Church in the struggle against the Reformation. Many of those Kings and lords also fought the Reformation by the law and the sword, leading to what were to become the "Religion-wars" that wracked Europe from 1500 till the 1800's.

The Reformation spread from Germany to France, The Netherlands (then formed by The Netherlands and Belgium), Scandinavia and many other countries of Europe.

In all these countries, many religious conflicts were fought and both sides performed many deeds of cruelty. Overall, the Catholic Church was in the advantage because the masses generally were on her side and so were the rulers. But the Protestants were very inspired and generally were very well organised and prepared for any catholic attack.

The Catholic leaders, understanding that something must be done to defend their faith, began in earnest to reform the Catholic Church in their own vision and try to win over the protestants to again join the Catholic Church. This was the famous "Contra-Reformation" in which the Jesuit monks played a large role.

Even though the Catholic Church reformed in many ways, many Protestants were not satisfied to join the Catholic Church and remained separate from the Catholic Church.

In the end, the Catholic Church was able to defeat many of the Protestants, although not all. The Protestants were completely destroyed in Spain, France, Portugal, Italy and several other European Countries.

On the other hand, the Protestants managed to secure their rights on religion in several countries like Germany and The Netherlands (afterwards broken in a northern (protestant) and southern (catholic) part), England (a special case) and in the Scandinavian countries and several eastern-European countries like Hungary.

From the 1800's onwards, Religion no longer played such an overall dominating role in European politics because with the period of colonisation and conquering, people were no longer putting religion above all else. The discoveries about the world, technology and biology also began working against religion and started one of the Worlds greatest debates; Religion vs. Science.

Although religion was still an important feature in life from the 1800's onwards, it was no longer as predominant and the religious wars in Europe had come to an end.

 

Europe before Luther had been an almost unified entity. Although there had been many different kingdoms, the Catholic Church had massive influence and could use this influence to combat anything revolutionary.

This happened frequently like with Galileo and many other scientists who defended theses that attacked Catholic Dogma's. The Catholic Church thus served as an obstacle to the development of science and progress in Europe.

The Catholic Church also had complete control over the minds of people, often dictating what they ought to do and believe. This lead to people being unable to choose for themselves and led to a kind of "mental enslavement"of the people, from which they were hard pressed to free themselves.

This "mental enslavement" also prevented people from taking matters into their own hand and making their own decisions, greatly hampering independent thought and social progress.

Luther's words, teachings and their results broke the Catholic Church's influence over Europe and the European People. From then on, those people who wanted to do things that the Catholic Church did not allow could go to the Protestant Countries where they could exercise their religion, beliefs and ideas freely.

When people are allowed to spread their ideas and beliefs freely, this often leads to great progress in the fields of science and society.

As a result of their complete religious freedom (even though Catholics were not really allowed to practice their beliefs), many people flocked to the Netherlands and England which became centres of the reformation and which took a lead on its competitors due to their great scientific advancements (most noticeable in England). These great scientific advancements were made possible by the immigration of wealthy and learned Protestants from persecution in other countries and the free scientific climate in England and The Netherlands.

Luther's teachings thus had as their first results the "liberation"of the European people from their "mental bonds" and allowing them to be themselves and see other views.

Even though many people did remain faithful, they were often influenced by the religious ideals of the Protestants, opening their eyes to the problems within the Catholic Church and allowing them to think for their selves.

Luther also translate the Bible into German, allowing "normal" men (a first copy Bible did cost as much as a horse) to read the Bible itself and this was quickly exported to many other countries in Europe. The Bible became free available, removing the Catholic Clergies' power over the people and aiding in making the people more free.

Luther's teachings did not only have an impact on the mental state of the people. His teachings also had a profound effect on the future of Europe.

 

Spain

Spain started the 1500's as the leading European power.

Many people have probably heard of the Spanish Armada, the fleet Spain sent out to conquer England but which was destroyed in the English Channel. The Spanish Armada was sent out to conquer England, which had broken away from Catholicism and was now a Protestant country.

English captains managed to destroy the Spanish Armada in the English Channel due to luck and good seamanship. This naval battle scattered Spain's fleet and delivered them a crushing blow from which Spain was slow to recover.

Spain was also in serious economical problems due to the incessant wars being waged by Spanish troops in the Netherlands. The war raged on for 80 years (with several truces during this period). The continuous war efforts on land and sea began to severely hamper Spanish economical life and in the end, Spain was forced to admit defeat. The Religious wars destroyed Spain's economy and ended Spain's dominating influence in Europe.

France.

France was a strong European country as well during the 1500's. France was a country that was completely self-supporting and could draw upon vast resources.

During the religious conflicts, France was torn asunder because large parts of the population became protestant (the Huguenots). This led to an extremely bloody and brutal civil war that led to a weakening of the government and resulted into chaos.

Although France eventually recovered completely from the devastation, it was by then being severely behind England.

England.

At the beginning of the 1500's, England was a medium European power that could not vie with France and Spain. England became protestant however and this led to quarrels and war with Spain. The war was won by England in the end, eliminating Spain as a large European power.

The Religious wars broke France and Spain and it gave England control over the seas. Although England never became a continental power (for which its army was too weak), it became the dominating colonial/maritime power, leading to England's supremacy in the 17th, 18th and 19th century.

Protestantism endured the English freedom and this in turn were the first steps towards democracy that would be exported across the sea (the Americas) and on the European Continent (France, Germany), although not always with good results.

England became the model state for many people who wanted to live in freedom and tolerance and the influence it had on the French Revolution and the support it gave to freedom-movements cannot be overstated.

The Netherlands

The Netherlands began the 1500's as a vassal state of Spain. Luther's teachings (brought out by Calvin) led to a resistance movement that in the end managed to get complete independence from Spain.

During the war, pains power was broken and they were no longer a large power in Europe.

The Netherlands was to become one of the great trade counties of the world during the 17th and 18th century, leading to the Dutch Golden Age.

The Netherlands also became a safe haven for those that were fleeing because of religious persecution and this lead to a large increase in science and technology, just like in England.

Although The Netherlands never became as powerful as England, they nevertheless became an important power during the 17th and 18th century.

Germany

Germany had been destined to become the largest continental power of Europe. The number of Germans was far greater then the number of Frenchmen and Spanish and Germany was a country with vast resources that could be used.

The Religious wars splintered Germany however, leading to the disintegration of the government and allowing many different states to develop independently.

Some states were protestant, some catholic, some mixed. There were continuous civil wars during the religious war in Germany and in some places, more then 50% of the population died.

Germany never fully recovered from the wars and remained a splintered confederation of bickering nobles until Otto von Bismarck remade Germany into a strong centralized nation.

 

Europe had been splintered by Luther's teachings. The power of the Catholic Church had been greatly reduced and a new religion had been founded that would challenge Catholicism from then on.

Germany, France and Spain had been devastated by the religious wars that were caused by Luther's teachings and only France recovered to an extent. Spain and Germany only recovered from the religious wars during the 19th and 20th century.

England had gained the power over the seas and although this power was to be challenged over the years, England never lost her complete control over the seas. This gave England a decisive edge during the period of exploration and colonization that followed.

Although France and Spain already had and did remain colonial powers, England managed to become the world's leading colonial power, followed by Spain and France. Germany never had been a colonial power.

The European people had become freer in their life due to the Reformation and the Contra-Reformation that fought the corruption and problems in the Church. Although the Catholic Church still had considerable power, it no longer had complete control and influence over the people. Europe had become somewhat freer, leading to a decisive advantage over the rest of the World.

This all started with a Monk named Luther who decided to nail his theses against Catholic Church problems on the local church in Wittenberg.

If he had known what the consequences would be, we can ask ourselves, would he still have done it?
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(Posted 06-07-2001)