Martin Luther: Most Influential German in 16th Century

For Luther, every man that wielded a Bible could become his own priest to begin with divinity fudge. Of course, the n unmatchable-too-subtle insinuation of this idea was that man need not have an actual, positive priest in order to be saved; nor did the parking lot man need to play the game of the papal order, buy or bartering his salvation by way of "indulgences". These indulgences were "papally controlled dispensations drawn from an perennial 'treasury of merits' built up by Christ and the Saints" (Ostling, 101); an indulgence was intend to reduce or erase the amount of time a sinner would have to spend in purgatory (Olmert, 50). Luther insisted that indulgences should not be simply doled out to those who cared to make a donation to the church.

The Pope, rejecting Luther's idea, demanded that he capitulate; Luther famously refused- invoking the testimony of the Holy Scripture as well as a covenant with his own moral sense in his defense- and miraculously was allowed to live nonetheless (Ostling, 102).

And live he did, composing hymns, writing and preaching for almost thir

Luther was at once capable of poetic fluency and acerbic tirades, and his words won him influence and renown. His fortitude and stern nature earned him more admirers than detractors, and his genuine penitence before God ironically served to elevate Man himself; for Luther and his followers, no one may rightly use a priest as a medium through whom a deal with God may be struck: a person's own genuine faith was always of ultimate importance, and it was this faith that warranted God's forgiveness (Olmert, 52). decision favor with God became an immensely personal affair.

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