Martin Luther
German theologian and Augustinian friar (1483–1546) whose challenge to indulgences and papal authority began the Protestant Reformation.
Category: Figures
- November 10, 1483Birth of Martin Luther at Eisleben
Martin Luther is born at Eisleben in the County of Mansfeld, in the Holy Roman Empire. He becomes the theologian whose challenge to the Church launches the Protestant Reformation, and he dies in the same town in 1546.
- September 4, 1517Luther attacks Aristotle in theology
Luther's 97 theses against scholastic theology, dated 4 September 1517, reject Aristotle's place in theology: thesis 41 calls virtually his whole Ethics "the worst enemy of grace" and thesis 50 says Aristotle is to theology as darkness is to light.
- October 31, 1517Luther's Ninety-five Theses
Martin Luther's challenge to indulgences sparks the Protestant Reformation.
- June 1519 – July 1519Luther is drawn into the Leipzig Debate with Johann Eck
In June and July 1519 Johann Eck debates Andreas Karlstadt and then Martin Luther at Leipzig's Pleissenburg castle. It widens to purgatory, indulgences and papal authority, and leads Leo X to censure Luther in 1520.
- December 10, 1520Luther burns the papal bull Exsurge Domine at Wittenberg
Leo X's bull of 15 June 1520 condemned 41 propositions from Luther's writings and gave him sixty days to recant. On 10 December Luther burns it publicly at Wittenberg's Elster Gate, and is excommunicated in January 1521.
- April 18, 1521Luther refuses to recant at the Diet of Worms
Before Emperor Charles V's Diet at Worms, Luther refuses on 18 April 1521 to recant his books. The Edict of Worms (25 May) outlaws him and bans his writings, but is never enforced in Germany, where princes protect him.
- September 1522Luther publishes his German New Testament
Luther's German New Testament, the 'September Bible', appears in Wittenberg in September 1522. His complete Bible follows in 1534 from Hans Lufft's press, and helps move German toward a standard written form.
- August 24, 1524 – 1525The German Peasants' War rises against the lords
From August 1524 peasants rise across German lands, adopting the Twelve Articles in March 1525. Luther urges the nobles to crush them, and the rebels lose at Frankenhausen on 15 May 1525. Up to 100,000 are killed.
- September 1524 – December 1525Luther answers Erasmus on free will with On the Bondage of the Will
Erasmus defends human free will in On Free Will (September 1524). Luther replies in December 1525 with On the Bondage of the Will, arguing that sin leaves people unable to save themselves and that salvation is God's act alone.
- June 13, 1525Luther marries the former nun Katharina von Bora
Martin Luther marries Katharina von Bora, who fled Nimbschen Abbey in 1523, on 13 June 1525; a public ceremony follows on 27 June. They live in Wittenberg's Black Cloister, and the marriage becomes a model for Protestant clerical marriage.
- October 1, 1529 – October 4, 1529Luther and Zwingli fail to agree on the Eucharist at the Marburg Colloquy
Philip of Hesse hosts Luther, Zwingli, Melanchthon, Oecolampadius and Bucer at Marburg Castle on 1–4 October 1529. They agree on fourteen of fifteen points but not on Christ's presence in the Eucharist, so the Protestants stay divided.
- June 25, 1530The Augsburg Confession is presented to Charles V
On 25 June 1530 Lutheran estates present their statement of faith to Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Augsburg. Written by Melanchthon, Luther and others, it becomes the main confession of the Lutheran Church.
- 1534Luther publishes his complete German Bible
In 1534 Martin Luther completes his translation of the Old Testament, and the full Bible appears in Wittenberg. It helps establish High German as a literary language and remains widely used.
- February 18, 1546Death of Martin Luther at Eisleben
Martin Luther dies at Eisleben, his birthplace, on 18 February 1546, aged 62. The Schmalkaldic War between Charles V and the Protestant princes begins later that year.
- 1577The Formula of Concord settles Lutheran disputes
In 1576–1577 Jakob Andreä, Martin Chemnitz and others write the Formula of Concord for Elector Augustus of Saxony. About two-thirds of German Lutherans, including three electors, subscribe, and it draws a firm line against Calvinism.