Why did Martin Luther break from the Church? What was the impact of this break?

Answer 1

Luther was upset with the corruption in the Catholic Church, and wanted to reform it, but the Pope was unwilling to listen to Luther and the Pope excommunicated him for heresy. The impact can still be seen today with the many different denominations of protestantism popping up every day. Protestants have never been able to be unified like the Catholic Church has been for about 2,000 years. The impact in the 1500's was a series of religous wars mainly in Germany (the Holy Roman Empire) between Catholic and Protestant.

Answer 2

There were many reasons Luther broke with Catholicism. My favourite is that, as a monk, he found he just couldn't hack it; the burden of original sin was so great that he couldn't believe that he would ever, ever be able to do enough penance. Then he seized on the bit in Romans about justification being by faith alone, picked it up and ran. Go Martin!

Then he went cranky and intolerant, and starting talking about how peasants and Jews were hateful unto God, and us ex-Lutherans start finding it impossible to make excuses for him.

Answer 3

Huge, HUGE question. Suggest go to Martin Luther on Wikipedia and spend a few hours reading.....

Answer 4

Martin Luther disagreed with many belief's of the Catholic religion. The Lutherans were the first Protestant religion. The Lutheran religion led to the beginning of more Protestant religions.

Answer 5

The Church of the time was unbelievably corrupt, using the sale of indulgences and simony to raise money for gilded cathedrals while much of Europe starved.

Answer 6

In 1513, he began his first lectures on the Psalms. In these lectures, Luther’s critique of the theological world around him begins to take shape. Later, in lectures on Paul’s Epistle to the Romans (in 1515/16) this critique becomes more noticeable. It was during these lectures that Luther finally found the assurance that had evaded him for years. The discovery that changed Luther’s life ultimately changed the course of church history and the history of Europe. In Romans, Paul writes of the “righteousness of God.” Luther had always understood that term to mean that God was a righteous judge that demanded human righteousness. Now, Luther understood righteousness as a gift of God’s grace. He had discovered (or recovered) the doctrine of justification by grace alone. This discovery set him afire.

In 1517, he posted a sheet of theses for discussion on the University’s chapel door. These Ninety-Five Theses set out a devastating critique of the church’s sale of indulgences and explained the fundamentals of justification by grace alone. Luther also sent a copy of the theses Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz calling on him to end the sale of indulgences. Albrecht was not amused. In Rome, cardinals saw Luther’s theses as an attack on papal authority. In 1518 at a meeting of the Augustinian Order in Heidelberg, Luther set out his positions with even more precision. In the Heidelberg Disputation, we see the signs of a maturing in Luther’s thought and new clarity surrounding his theological perspective – the Theology of the Cross.

After the Heidelberg meeting in October 1518, Luther was told to recant his positions by the Papal Legate, Thomas Cardinal Cajetan. Luther stated that he could not recant unless his mistakes were pointed out to him by appeals to “scripture and right reason” he would not, in fact, could not recant. Luther’s refusal to recant set in motion his ultimate excommunication.

Throughout 1519, Luther continued to lecture and write in Wittenberg. In June and July of that year, he participated in another debate on Indulgences and the papacy in Leipzig. Finally, in 1520, the pope had had enough. On June 15th the pope issued a bull (Exsurge Domini – Arise O’Lord) threatening Luther with excommunication. Luther received the bull on October 10th. He publicly burned it on December 10th.

In January 1521, the pope excommunicated Luther. In March, he was summonsed by Emperor Charles V to Worms to defend himself. During the Diet of Worms, Luther refused to recant his position. Whether he actually said, “Here I stand, I can do no other” is uncertain. What is known is that he did refuse to recant and on May 8th was placed under Imperial Ban.

This placed Luther and his duke in a difficult position. Luther was now a condemned and wanted man. Luther hid out at the Wartburg Castle until May of 1522 when he returned to Wittenberg. He continued teaching. In 1524, Luther left the monastery. In 1525, he married Katharina von Bora.

From 1533 to his death in 1546 he served as the Dean of the theology faculty at Wittenberg. He died in Eisleben on 18 February 1546.

Answer 7

Impact was looney fundies and evangelicals!

Answer 8

It has to do with the "abuse of indulgences"