Martin Luther was a Hero

Exactly 494 years ago, on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther pinned his 95 Theses to the door to the church in Wittenburg, Germany. Little did he know, his declaration against the sale of indulgences would ignite a revolution that divided the Christian faith. Martin Luther was an Augustinian monk who, initially, was a devout Catholic. He whipped himself and slept in the snow in penance for his sins. In order to console the distraught Luther, he was made professor of theology at the University of Wittenburg. After reading the works of St. Peter, Luther came to realize that God was not vengeful and harsh but loving and forgiving. Meanwhile in Rome, Pope Leo X needed money to fund St. Peter's Basilica. He enlisted the help of Johan Tetzel to preach about purchasing indulgences, a document which granted forgiveness for all sins committed and those that will be committed and exemption from Purgatory. When his pupils began buying the indulgences, cried out against the corruption of the indulgences saying in Thesis 86: Why does not the pope, whose wealth is to-day greater than the riches of the richest, build just this one church of St. Peter with his own money, rather than with the money of poor believers? Luther acts of retaliation resulted in his excommunication and banishment, yet he was true hero for translating the Bible, retaliating against the corrupt Church, and allowing people to interpret the Bible their own way. 


Luther translated the Bible into German in 1522, enabling people the common people, who did not understand Latin, to read Scripture. This gave them a personal relationship with God, rather than relying on priests to tell them what the Bible says. The common people were empowered because the Church could no longer use people's ignorance of the Bible to their advantage. Luther's translation of the Bible into German vernacular was the not the first, but it was the most successful.  He studied the way Germans in the streets talked and used their words so that the Bible was comprehensible to commoners. Luther's Bible unified the German language.With the help of the printing press, Luther's Bible spread through out Germany. This influenced the the translation of the Bible into other vernaculars such as English, (The King James Bible of 1611) and even translations in Scandinavia and the Netherlands. 

Martin Luther's reforms allowed the people to have a personal relationship with religion. Today there are numerous branches of Christianity, from Methodist to Baptist to Coptic. Before Martin Luther, there was only Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic. He argued that there was no need for priests and sacraments, and that your own relationship with God would give you salvation. This expanded freedom of thought contributed to the scientific revolutions of the 17th and 18th centuries. 

Martin Luther fought against the sale of indulgences, simony, and the extravagance of the Roman Catholic Church.  The Church used indulgences, pieces of paper which forgave sins, as means to fund their own building projects and wealthy life style. Pope Leo X used the Church's money for his own purposes and then raised more money for St. Peter's Basilica with the common people's indulgences money. Simony was the sale of positions, rich people could buy positions in the clergy. Pope Leo X was not even a priest when he was elected, his father bought his cardinal-ship from the Pope. Martin Luther brought to light the Church abuses through his writing. During the Cathalic Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church retaliated against the Protestant Reformation by banning indulgences and simony. Not only did Luther establish a new religion, but he also reformed the Church.