Martin Luther

Philip Melanchthon records that Luther was born at Eisleben on 10 November. His mother remembered the day and the hour but not the year; his brother said that the family took it to be 1483. Melanchthon adds that Luther entered the house of the Augustinian friars at Erfurt and came to Wittenberg in 1508 (Melanchthon, Life of Luther part 1). Luther himself wrote in 1545 that he had hated the phrase “the justice of God” in Romans until he understood it, from the words that the just live by faith, as the justice by which God makes the believer just (Luther, Preface to the Latin Writings (1545) on Romans 1:17) (Romans 1:17).

His dispute with Rome began with Luther’s Ninety-five Theses. Pope Leo X declared him a heretic in January 1521 (Leo X, Decet Romanum Pontificem section II), and the Edict of Worms called him a member cut off from the church (Edict of Worms § 26); see Luther Is Excommunicated and Outlawed at Worms. His later work appears under Luther Translates the Bible into German, the German Peasants’ War and Luther and Zwingli Meet at Marburg. Melanchthon told the students of Wittenberg that before four o’clock on 18 February 1546 Luther commended himself to God and died amid his prayers (Melanchthon, Life of Luther part 2, announcement of Luther’s death); the life adds that he was in his sixty-third year (Melanchthon, Life of Luther part 1).

In the timeline

Luther’s Ninety-five Theses

On 31 October 1517 Martin Luther sends the archbishop of Mainz ninety-five theses questioning what indulgences can do. Whether he also posted them on the Castle Church at Wittenberg that day is disputed. The controversy that follows becomes the Reformation.

Luther Is Excommunicated and Outlawed at Worms

Leo X condemns forty-one of Luther’s propositions in 1520 and excommunicates him in January 1521. Before Charles V at Worms that April, Luther refuses to retract unless convinced by Scripture or evident reason. An imperial edict outlaws him, and he is hidden in a Saxon castle.

Luther Translates the Bible into German

In hiding over the winter of 1521–22, Luther translates the New Testament into German; it is printed at Wittenberg in September 1522. The Old Testament follows in parts, and the complete Bible appears in 1534.

The German Peasants’ War

In 1525 peasants in Swabia, Franconia and Thuringia rise, arguing their demands from the gospel in twelve printed articles. Luther first blames lords and peasants alike, then urges the rulers to strike the rebels down. Thomas Müntzer is taken at Frankenhausen in May.

Luther and Zwingli Meet at Marburg

In October 1529 Philip of Hesse brings Luther and Zwingli together at Marburg. They sign fourteen articles of agreement and a fifteenth recording that they could not agree whether Christ’s body and blood are bodily present in the bread and wine.

The Augsburg Confession

At the Diet of Augsburg seven princes and two cities present the emperor Charles V with a statement of their faith in twenty-eight articles, drawn up by Philip Melanchthon. Lutheran princes and cities bind themselves to it again in the Book of Concord of 1580.

Martin Luther

In the timeline

Primary sources

Scripture

History of the Life and Acts of Martin Luther

Preface to the Complete Edition of the Latin Writings

Decet Romanum Pontificem

Edict of Worms