▍ Luther posted the door of the outline.
Because this letter contains 95 main points, it is called "the Ninth Five-Year Plan" by later generations. The main content of the discussion is whether the Pope and the Catholic Church are qualified to forgive people's sins by issuing "atonement vouchers" and what kind of sins can be forgiven.
Five hundred pounds. Today, several years later, all over the world are commemorating Martin Luther and his 95 papers, which some people call "the beginning of the modern world".
What is the magic of this "outline", which can be in 500? Years later, it will still be commemorated by the whole world?
A Question of Origins
Martin Luther's original intention of posting this poster was only to discuss related theological academic issues, not to write a "short essay" questioning the authority of the Catholic Church or even creating his own Sect.
In the outline, Martin Luther didn't even directly accuse the Vatican and the Pope, but also tried every means to maintain the unity and orthodoxy of the Catholic Church, pointing all the blame at those who "promoted the redemption ticket".
▍ Two priests are selling atonement vouchers, while the Pope is watching on horseback. There is a cross around the Pope and more atonement vouchers are hung, which means that this practice has been recognized by the Roman church.
At first, things were not as turbulent as the later generations imagined, and everything followed the usual routine of theological academic discussion in that era: someone raised a topic, the proposer listed his views and discussion points in the form of an article, and those who wanted to refute it argued orally or in writing.
More importantly, as a form of "amnesty" commonly used by the Catholic Church, there have been many discussions and even monographs on whether the "atonement voucher" conforms to Catholic teachings and to what extent it can forgive sins.
At that time, Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, the highest spiritual authority in the Catholic world and then Pope of Rome, only regarded the storm caused by Martin Luther as another ordinary "monk quarrel" after hearing about the events in Germany.
▍ Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, formerly known as Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici.
When Martin Luther's Austrian Monastery ordered his monks not to express their opinions on this issue, the Pope, who came from a bank family in medici family, completely put this boring theological problem behind him.
On the contrary, many lower-level Catholic clergy found Martin Luther's "Outline" arrogant and rebellious, and dared to openly question the formal system of the holy church. In particular, the main purpose of issuing atonement vouchers was to raise money for the most splendid St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome (namely "St. Peter's Cathedral").
▍ St Peter's Cathedral
Therefore, inspired by the spirit of apologetics, bishops, monks and theological professors in many areas began to write a large number of articles to refute the views in Martin Luther's On the Outline.
Luther, on the other hand, continued to write articles to refute his views and then refute them back. Even then, the smell of gunpowder was confined to the inner circle of Catholic theology research.
Until the day when The Ninety-Five Theses spread throughout the Catholic world and gained wide support.
Article 95 ▍ Outline
The masses need you.
Martin Luther never dreamed that his "purely academic" discussion article could be so popular.
The day after the ninety-five Outline was posted at the entrance of the cathedral, it was the "All Saints' Day" for Catholicism to commemorate all saints. Many wittenberg citizens and even foreigners gather in all the saints' churches in wittenberg for worship.
▍ wittenberg Schloss Kelche
People who read the outline nailed to the church gate were quickly attracted by its "outrageous" content. A few days later, the manuscript of the Outline began to appear in Germany, and its Latin manuscript and German translation were also sent to the printing house of Wittenberg University for printing to meet the urgent needs of Germany as a whole.
In more than two weeks, the "Outline of the Ninth Five-Year Plan" spread all over Germany, and four weeks later, almost all western Europe knew about it.
As a result of these events, the sales volume of the "atonement ticket" of the Holy See dropped sharply, and the financial situation of the Holy See became increasingly difficult.
However, German vassals and the public like this situation. The lords, Saxon candidates and ordinary people in Martin Luther's region supported Luther and regarded him as a hero who stood up for Germany against the arrogant Italians, especially after Martin Luther was summoned by the Vatican and scolded by the cardinal.
At that time, Saxony elected Hou Friedrich III. When he was in office, his telephone number was 1486- 1525, nicknamed "the wise man", and he was the protector of Martin Luther.
From then on, Martin Luther suddenly changed from an ordinary monk with nothing to a pioneer of religious reform and even a representative of the whole German region.
152 1 year, Charles V, the new holy Roman emperor and devout Catholic, called the imperial parliament in the ancient city of Vorms, and called the governors and representatives of various empires to attend the meeting.
▍ The statue of Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire, painted by Titian in 1548, is now in the old art museum in Munich.
The main purpose of this meeting is to summon Martin Luther to the scene and ask him to publicly withdraw his views and repent. At the meeting, Martin Luther got the support of the governors headed by Frederick III elected by Saxony and refused to confess publicly.
It is said that at the end of the meeting, Martin Luther left a sentence "I am standing here, I have no choice, God bless me, Amen" (Hier Steheich, ich Kannicht Anders, Gotthelfermir). Amen), and then turned to leave.
▍ Luther delivered a speech in the Parliament of Vorms.
Since then, the German vassals under the rule of the Holy Roman Empire began to split and openly confront each other. Countries, cities, monarchs and people who believe in the new teachings put forward by religious reformers such as Luther have waged arguments and wars with the Vatican and its supporters again and again.
Europe, which was originally unified under the Catholic church, actually split into two camps: Catholicism and Protestantism. All this is derived from the ninety-five theses.
However, is the success of Martin Luther's reform really due to his extraordinary wisdom, courage and perseverance?
From ordinary monks to pioneers of reform
The movement against the orthodox teachings of the Holy See and Catholicism and trying to reform or "restore" Christianity existed seven or eight hundred years before Martin Luther.
The contents of these "reforms" are mainly questioning the authority of the Holy See and the Pope, opposing the worship of the Virgin Mary, saints and saints, opposing the monopoly of the church on the interpretation of doctrines, demanding that the Bible is the only authority and that any believer has the right to interpret the Bible, and so on.
However, pioneers of religious reform, such as Valledo in France, Jan Huss in Bohemia (now part of Czech Republic) and wycliffe in Britain, all took the "mass line" and strongly advocated spreading teachings among ordinary believers and carrying out reforms, without paying much attention to the "upper line".
John wycliffe translated the Latin Bible into Middle English, which is the famous Wycliffe Bible in the English-speaking world.
In the end, these popular reform movements are either increasingly marginalized and unable to escape from the world in the case of persecution; Or it was suppressed after being listed as a heresy by the Vatican, and then cut off the inheritance.
Fortunately, Martin Luther happened to live in Germany from 65438 to the beginning of the 6th century. At that time, the political situation of the whole holy Roman Empire was very delicate. Frederick III, the vassal of Saxony, had a strong personal influence. He brought the Rhine Mongbo and other big princes under his command and played an important role in the election of the holy Roman emperor.
▍ The portrait of Luther painted by the painter Lucas Cranach 1529.
The appearance of Martin Luther and his 95 theses coincides with Saxony's intention to choose candidates. This allows him to use this theological article, which seems to oppose the Vatican's oppression of Germany, to arouse public opinion, attract like-minded governors to resist the newly appointed young emperor, and further resist the Vatican, thus improving Saxony's independence and right to speak.
And Martin Luther has gained the further trust of the rulers represented by Saxony, and is willing to be used by the rulers and monarchs of all parties, as long as they can provide him with protection.
During the period of the Imperial Parliament of Vorms, Martin Luther was "mysteriously kidnapped" and was actually secretly protected by Frederick III in Fort Walter.
▍ Waterburg is located in Thuringia, Germany and belongs to Eisenach. It is a Romanesque building. It was built by Ludwig de springer in 1073 and listed as a world cultural heritage in 1999.
There, Martin Luther only further inherited his previous "pioneer of reform" thought, further opposed the traditional teachings of the Catholic Church on sacraments, etiquette, beliefs, the Virgin Mary, saints and the Bible, and completely founded a new Christian Sect, which was later called "Lutheranism".
On the road of religious reform, Martin Luther met with good external conditions and full support, so that he did not end up with physical and mental destruction like his pioneers.
windfall
Martin Luther's "religious reform" had two other important influences on that time and later generations, namely, the Catholic "anti-religious reform" inspired by the religious reform movement and Luther's translation of the Bible.
The "anti-religious reform" of the Catholic Church is actually the wrong attribution of a series of events that seem to have time connection and causal relationship. In fact, it may be more appropriate to call it "the internal reform of the Catholic Church". Even Martin Luther's reform attempt can be counted as part of this slow-brewing reform at the beginning.
The internal reform of Catholicism began decades before Martin Luther wrote the Ninety-Five Outline. It was only because the reform process was tortuous that it gradually developed after Martin Luther, so many people mistakenly thought it was the counterattack of the Catholic Church stimulated by the Protestant Reform.
Due to the unification of Spain and the establishment of heresy court at the end of 15, many Catholic clergy with reform tendency moved to France and Italy, Catholic countries with more relaxed environment.
▍ Spain's San Ignatius Sloyola, supported by Zongbaolu III, 1540? /kloc-founded the Jesuits in Rome in 0/989.
They established monasteries there and tried to reform Catholicism internally, which was recognized and supported by the Catholic Church at the beginning of16th century. One of the most famous is the Jesuit Society, which is famous for attaching importance to scientific research, education and preaching to the world. It was the Jesuits who brought Catholicism and modern western civilization to China for the first time.
Martin Luther began to translate the Bible into his mother tongue, early Highland German, while he was secretly hidden in Fort Walter in Brandenburg.
▍ The 1534 version of Luther Bible exhibited in the former residence of Luther in Wü rttemberg.
By translating the Bible, Martin Luther further strengthened his doctrines of "justification by faith" and "all believers are priests", and encouraged people to ignore the authority of the church, pray and communicate directly with God outside the church, read the Bible independently, and interpret the passages and teachings in the Bible according to their own understanding.
But what Martin Luther didn't expect was that because everyone may have their own understanding of some words in the Bible, Protestantism has constantly produced new churches and factions in its 500-year history because of repeated word disputes.
Today, there is only one Roman Catholic church with 65.438+29 billion followers. Protestantism founded by Martin Luther and his colleagues has about 900 million followers, belonging to seven main branches and thousands of churches and factions that are not affiliated with each other.
▍ Current Catholic Pope Francis
Although in the minds of later generations, the Reformation is often associated with "social progress" such as "emancipating the mind" and "promoting the development of capitalism", in fact, since the beginning of the Reformation, it has originated independently in many areas at the same time, and various reform factions often flaunt "restoring orthodox Christianity", coupled with the creed of "Bible only" and different understanding of the details of the doctrine, these different Protestant factions have rejected the Catholic Church from the beginning.
At that time, the Dutch government, which returned to the Orthodox Church as the state religion, called on its citizens to attack ships of all "heretical" countries or cities indiscriminately. /kloc-In the 7th century, the Dutch who traded in Japan helped the shogunate expel the Spanish and Portuguese who were also Christians, and suppressed and slaughtered the Japanese Catholics.
▍ Yuanhe Great Martyrdom Map
In Britain, influenced by the Reformation, the Anglican Church controlled the king and parliament and persecuted Catholics and more radical Calvinist Puritans many times.
After the Puritans, represented by Cromwell, came to power, they tried to transform Britain into a religious society that strictly followed the teachings of the Bible, closed hotels and theaters, restricted sports activities, strictly restricted people's clothes, and even prohibited people from holding any entertainment activities at Christmas.
No matter from which aspect, Martin Luther and his "The Ninety-Five Theses" have had a tremendous impact on the shaping of the modern world beyond imagination, but Martin Luther himself did not intend to do so at first.