why do you think martin Luther's ideas might have been so attractive to the common person ? long answer please

Answer 1

For the same reason Hitler's ideas were attractive. The church had taught anti-semitism for many hundreds of years and fear of reason was rampant. The average person feared the growth of science ( and still does ). The protestant church was basically taking advantage of fear hatred and superstition. Unfortunately they still do today.

Here are some typical Martin Luther Quotes:

"I should have no compassion on these witches; I should burn them all."

"Many demons are in woods, in waters, in wildernesses, and in dark poolly places ready to hurt...people."

"Our bodies are always exposed to Satan. The maladies I suffer are not natural, but Devil's spells."

"Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has: it never comes to the aid of spritual things, but--more frequently than not --struggles against the Divine Word...."

"Reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed. Faith must trample underfoot all reason, sense, and understanding, and whatever it sees must be put out of sight and ... know nothing but the word of God."

"Snakes and monkeys are subjected to the demon more than other animals. Satan lives in them and possesses them. He uses them to deceive men and to injure them."

"This fool [Copernicus] wishes to reverse the entire science of astronomy; but sacred scripture tells us that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and not the earth."

"We are at fault for not slaying them [the Jews]."

"We know, on the authority of Moses, that longer than six thousand years the world did not exist."

"What shall we do with...the Jews?...set fire to their synagogues or schools and bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them."

"Whoever wants to be a Christian should tear the eyes out of his reason."

"So tenaciously should we cling to the world revealed by the Gospel, that were I to see all the Angels of Heaven coming down to me to tell me something different, not only would I not be tempted to doubt a single syllable, but I would shut my eyes and stop my ears, for they would not deserve to be either seen or heard."

"An earthly kingdom cannot exist without inequality of persons. Some must be free, some serfs, some rulers, some subjects."

Answer 2

They weren't.

Luther appealed to a number of princes, who wanted to run their own show, without interference from the church.

The princes provided cover for Luther, and made sure their subjects followed the official, new party religion.

A number of civil wars followed, as not everyone agreed with the new set of beliefs.

Soon, other "Luthers" popped up. Then more princes, and more civil wars.

As for scripture, almost nobody knew how to read back then, and those who could, knew Latin, which was the official and world wide scholarly language.

The Bible had been translated into Latin since the 4th century, and had also been printed and very widely circulated, as Gutenberg's first work, back in the 15th century.

It wasn't until Luther et al, decided to formulate the false doctrine of "Sola Scriptura" that the Bible in other languages ever became an issue, and that was mainly because the newcomers insisted on substantially modifying what the Catholic church had long ago, authoritatively decided to be true.

Answer 3

Simple. Prior to Martin Luther the common person could only speak to god through an intermediary; a priest. Once Protestantism took root as a result of Luther's thoughts and teachings, anyone could have a direct and personal relationship with their god. And in the fyi department...

No other religion except Catholicism has this intermediary. In fact, prior to the birth of Christianity, everyone, Pagan, Jew, the whole shebang had personal relationships with their gods. So in a very fundamental way, Catholicism took a step backwards in the interpersonal relationship between humans and deity department.

Answer 4

well according to history class...

luther's take on christiany involved much less work than being catholic.
'dont want to do good'? 'dont have to!, faith alone!
dont like latin? me neither, lets speak english!(which the catholic church later added)
bible doesnt quite float your boat? heres my verison!
fasting? fasting for lent? screw that!

but seriously, there were less practices, making it almost a 'lite' verison of catholicism. also he didnt put in donations to the church, which was a reason why many heads of state joined him and 'protested' hence protestantism

Answer 5

They made better sense and followed the scriptures as opposed to the whims of the established church.

Answer 6

Do your own homework.