H. G. Haile Luther's Hymns During The Reformation

For my primary source, I decided to choose a letter found in Narrative of the Anabaptist Madness: The Overthrow of Munster, the Famous, Metropolis of Westphalia by Hermann von Kerssenbrock. Although this was a letter in a book written by Herman von Kerssenbrock, it was actually written by Bernard Rothman; a radical preacher that strained the boundaries of what religious reformed looked like at that time. Rothman was born in Swabisch Hall around 1495 in southwestern Germany. A furrier by trade, Rothman often travelled to different parts Livonia around the Baltic Sea. In the places that Rothman would stop for business, he would also begin to preach radical ideas about need for church reform and Anabaptism in general. Putting a more controversial spin on the teachings of Luther, Rothman would sometimes cause riots in the towns that he stayed in, and because of this, he was often banned from the places he traveled. Eventually, Rothman gained an officially role of preacher in Stockholm in 1527, but he was soon expelled from their as well for his radical preaching. Relocating to and being expelled from places such as Lubek, Denmark, Wittenberg, and East Frisia, Rothman reached out to Luther to receive a letter of commendation. Luther refused to supply Rothman with this based on the fact that he did not agree with Rothman’s preaching iconoclasm, his allegorical interpretation of the Eucharist, and, most prominently his apocalyptic

G. Schwiebert and Martin Luther: His Life and Work by Hartmann Grisar. In his review, he points out that Grisar “criticizes adversely many Catholic controversialists, and writes frankly of ecclesiastical abuses.” Like Grisar, Bainton is able to recognize the abuses of the Catholic doctrines. However, he is not offensive in his critique and therefore is able to keep the reader engaged in his premise. Bainton and Schwiebert are similar in their use of illustrations. In G. Evert Arden review of Schwiebert’s book he denotes, “One of the most interesting features of Schwiebert's volume is the liberal use of photographs, woodcuts, drawings, and maps scattered throughout the entire book.” Likewise, Schwiebert is praised by Sellery for his expertize on the Lutheran movement. In fact, Sellery states that Schwiebert “offers the reader the most comprehensive Protestant account of the Lutheran revolt in English.” While this may be an accurate assessment, Sellery also acknowledges that Bainton is “a productive scholar in his field.” Although not the most comprehensive work, Bainton’s efforts to provide a scholarly evaluation of Luther’s life is evident by his illustrations and extensive quoting of

Back in Rome, two major Churches were made, but at different times, these Churches are known as The Church of England and Lutheran , both churches were were very different in many ways though due to how they were originally created and their beliefs.

This led to several rebellions, which were silenced for a short time until they could not be repressed anymore. Finally, in 16th century, Martin Luther and other reformers challenged Roman Catholic authority and their corruption of the church, which is now known as the Protestant Reformation. The revolts happened in many different countries the western world, however, they all had fundamental ideas in common. Two changes they called for were the end of the church’s hierarchy, and the emphasis of everyone being able to access and individually learn the original Biblical scriptures in their vernacular language (Taruskin, pg. 207-208). Even though the focus of this revolution was not about music, the ideals ended up influencing church music. Many composers, including Martin Luther, endeavored to make music more accessible by translating it into the common, everyday language, shifting the singing in church services to the congregation rather than just having the choir sing, and making music simpler for everyone to grasp. Luther wrote music in the form of chorales and strophic union hymns that were taken from Gregorian chant (Taruskin, pg. 206-210). In response to the Protestant Reformation, the Counter-Reformation emerged out of the Catholic Church. Music took on a more inspirational quality, and its primary goal was to “affect” the listener. Polychoral music was very popular, in addition to the concerted style (Taruskin, pg.

Due to the advancement of printing technology, specifically Gutenberg 's printing press around 1450, notated music could be produced at a much higher capacity. The printing of liturgical books, however, did not commence until 1473, but it rapidly increased until Ottaviano Petrucci had printed 59 volumes of sheet music by 1523.1 Nevertheless, the process was slow and tedious. Grout and Palisca note:

Three important changes that Luther made to his 'new reformed ' Church were: writing hymns in German so people could sing praises to the Lord, allowing the clergies to get married, and having Lutheranism taught in the vernacular, also known as the common language.

Luther felt like that was not the sort of thing that should be for sale. His response; he wrote 95 Thesis against the Catholic Church and nailed them to the church door for everyone to see. This led to be increasingly radical, starting from a statement that Christians are only saved through faith and the grace of God, Luther also argued the church and the pope make errors all the time. Luther denied the Catholic Church had any spiritual powers and Christians didn’t need priests to receive the grace of

Less than a hundred years after Margery Kempe’s death, Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. Lollardry was a new, popular religious movement taking

On October 31, 1517, when monk Martin Luther nailed The 95 Theses to the door of a cathedral in Wittenberg, Germany, he had no idea that he was sparking the Protestant Reformation (Greengrass 44-45). These 95 theses consisted of Luther’s complaints and disagreements with and regarding the Catholic Church, particularly on the use of indulgences – a “remission of temporal penalties for sin” sold to individuals seeking salvation (Greengrass 6, 44). The indulgences were claimed to lessen the time an individual’s soul spent in purgatory, commissioned by the Pope of the time, Leo X, and in collaboration with various bishops and archbishops (Linder 22). When Luther nailed his theses to the door, they quickly spread, spurning uproar. First, the theses were sent to Archbishop Albrecht, the superior of an indulgence-selling monk that parishioners of Luther had come into contact with. Then, the document (originally published in Latin) was translated to German and spread throughout the Holy Roman Empire. Luther verbalized many common complaints in his theses and became a sort of hero. The ability of the printing press enabled Luther’s theses to widely circulate as he was thrust into public eye and began the path of Reformation (Linder 23-24).

The main ideology of Lutheranism is that salvation can be gained by three fundamental precepts: by faith, by grace and by scripture alone. Luther felt that Salvation could not be achieved through good works such as prayer or holy living: "Good works do not make a good man, but a good man does good works." (Luther, On Christian Liberty, p.9). Faith in God is created through the belief and love for Him; salvation would rise from it nonetheless. Luther felt that it was up to every individual to interpret the Scriptures and decide for himself what was good. This was a revolutionary concept, as previously it had been only the Pope who could interpret the Scriptures. Another concept of Lutheranism was that every believer could achieve priesthood. All men who had true faith had the opportunity to serve God and were equal in His eyes. "Among Christians there shall and can be no authority; rather all are alike subject to one another." (Luther, Part Two. How Far Temporal Authority Extends, p.31). Bishops and priests in the Lutheran church were not authoritative figures but simply serving an office.

He set the chants to the different tonic scales so that when a person heard one note verse the other they could differentiate the part of the scripture being read. Being a tenor, the highest voice part for men, the chants he wrote were quite high, so that he would be able to lead them. On the other hand, Luther wanted the priest to readopt and rearrange the chants so that they were singing ability for the individual. This was the important part of Luther, just as no two

In the sixteenth century many Catholics began to leave the church for the reformed church for multiple reasons. People began to disagree with the terms of the catholic churches both political and religious. the people also wanted the power to worship their own religion of their choosing and get a more meaningful experience out of their religion. Lastly Martin Luther pushed to expose the corrupt papal using nothing more than actual words from the bible and helped drive the push into the new reformed church.

It says it in the title of the work, “Address to the Christian German Nobility” 2. He wanted them to help in his fight against the clergy. Another possible audience for this treatise could have been the common citizens of the German nation. Luther did not write this in Latin, he wrote it in German. That made it more accessible to the common people of the German nations. Also, if the majority of the people of the German nation wanted the church to be reformed then it might have had some influence on the leader’s decision. It helped Luther get more

Although there were some Catholics writing to Luther, they were outnumbered twenty to one by those writing in favor of him. All could have been different if Luther didn't use to such great effect as he did, he used the press as a weapon in personal contests with his opponents. In the early years of the reformation, the Lutherans won the battle of the books hands down. Through the press Luther could also give shape to the services and methods of the new, emerging Church.

C. Later from 1517 to 1521 Luther wrote other works on the Catholic devotion to the Virgin Mary, devotion to saints, Christianity and law, and additional topics.