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Martin Luther: Reluctant Rebel

Background to Reform | Early Years | The Reformer | Church Leader | Later Years | After Luther

Life After Luther

There is no universal agreement on the approximate or exact date the Protestant Reformation ended. Historically, the Peace of Westphalia is considered to be the event that ended the Reformation. It has also been said that the Reformation ended in the mid 18th century. Some argue that the Reformation never ended as new groups splintered from the Catholic Church as well as all the various Protestant churches that exist today. The Roman Catholic Church responded with the so-called Counter-Reformation initiated by the Council of Trent. In general, Northern Europe, with the exception of most of Ireland, came under the influence of Protestantism. Southern Europe remained Roman Catholic, while Central Europe was a site of a fierce conflict, culminating in the Thirty Years' War, which left it devastated.
About April 1546 - Two months after Luther's death, a heartbroken Katharina wrote her sister that everyone with any sort of heart must be mourning her dead husband. She could not eat or sleep, and she was so disoriented that she was unable to write or dictate her letter in an orderly manner. To her Martin Luther was "this dear and precious man."
Emperor Charles Strikes a Non-Fatal Blow

November 1546 - The Schmalkaldic War broke out between the forces of Emperor Charles V and the Lutheran Schmalkaldic League. With the troops of Emperor Charles advancing, Wittenberg University was temporarily dissolved. Philipp Melanchthon and his family fled 32 miles west to the city of Zerbst in Anhalt and Katharina Luther and her children followed him. Katharina returned to Wittenberg a few weeks later. Again she turned her home into a hostel, taking in both professors and students to provide an income. With the help of Melanchthon, who was appointed as her guardian, she attempted to win back her confiscated property and rights. She petitioned Christian II, the King of Denmark, to continue sending the annual payments of fifty Gulden received by her husband, to which he agreed.

April of 1547 - Katharina again fled Wittenberg, this time to Braunschweig, intending to go to Copenhagen to seek asylum with the king of Denmark. But the wagon with her and the children had to turn back north of Lüneburg, about 184 miles northwest of Wittenberg. ​​

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​April 24, 1547 - At the Battle of Mühlberg in Saxony, the Catholic princes led by Emperor Charles V and the Duke of Alba decisively defeated the Schmalkaldic League of Protestant princes under the command of Elector John Frederick I of Saxony and Landgrave Philip I of Hesse. Over 7,000 men died or were wounded and 1,000 were taken prisoner.
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Mühlberg, Germany
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May 19, 1547 – So as not to lose time by laying siege to Wittenberg, Emperor Charles chose to negotiate with Elector John Frederick. To save his wife and sons, and to prevent Wittenberg from being destroyed, John signed the Capitulation of Wittenberg, and resigned his title in favor of his cousin Maurice. Two days later Charles V entered Wittenberg. A rumor spread that while he stood in front of Luther's tomb in the Castle Church he was urged to have Luther's body dug up burned and his ashes scattered. Reportedly Charles replied, "I don't make war against dead men."
​
Late fall, 1547 - At the close of the war Katharina was able to return to Wittenberg, only to find the buildings and lands of the Black Cloister torn apart and laid waste. Her farm animals had been stolen or killed. The two flights exhausted the family's cash reserves, but with hard work Katharina got back on her feet. She obtained scholarships for her sons from the Dukes of Prussia and Württemberg.

May 15, 1548 - After defeating the Protestant Schmalkaldic League Emperor Charles V established a provisional ruling on the religious strife between Lutherans and Catholics known as the Augsburg Interim. It ordered Protestants to readopt traditional Catholic beliefs and practices, including the seven Sacraments, transubstantiation and the authority of the pope . But, it allowed for Protestant clergymen the right to marry and for the laity to receive both bread and wine at communion.. It is considered the first significant step in the process leading to the political and religious legitimization of Protestantism.

Despite the fact that Philip Melanchthon was willing to compromise for the sake of peace, the Augsburg Interim was rejected by a significant number of Lutheran pastors and theologians. Many Catholic princes did not accept the Interim because of their concern for rising imperial authority. The pope refused to recognize the Interim for over a year as he saw it as an infringement of his jurisdiction. Charles V tried to enforce the Interim in the Holy Roman Empire, but was only successful in territories under his military control.

October 1551 – Due to increased debts Katharina took out a mortgage on her farm in Zulsdorf, near Leipzig.

January 1552 - Elector Maurice of Saxony, known as the "Judas of the Reformation" for changing sides at Mühlburg, switched sides again. Under his leadership, he and his fellow German princes formed an alliance with Henry II of France and chased Charles V out of Germany and back to his ancestral home in Austria.

August 2, 1552  - Weary from three decades of religious civil war, Charles V agreed to the Peace of Passau guaranteeing Lutheran religious freedoms. The Protestant princes taken prisoner during the Schmalkaldic War were released. The Peace effectively ended Charles V's lifelong quest to reunify the Catholic Church.

Summer 1552 – An outbreak of the Black Plague forced Wittenberg University to move to Torgau. Katie Luther was determined to stay in the Black Cloister as long as possible. Finally, in September, the plague came to her house. Hans was at school in Königsberg and Martin may have been studying in Wittenberg. Katie boarded a carriage with Paul and Margaretha and headed for Torgau. Along the way, something startled the horses and they shied. Katie attempted to jump from the carriage to settle the horses and protect her children. Jumping from the carriage she fell, ending up in a ditch full of freezing water.

Paul and Margaretha managed to get their mother to Torgau. But the fall and her injuries, along with shock from the cold water lead to paralysis. Katie was bedridden for three months, attended by Margaretha, Paul brought her happy news when he announced his marriage to Anna von Warbeck.

In her last days, Katie frequently entrusted her children to God’s care and the faith her husband had fought so hard for. Finally, the injuries and accompanying illness became too much and she died, one month shy of her 54th birthday..

​Legend claims that as she lay dying, she was asked about her faith. She replied that she would “cling to Christ as a burr to a dress”. Katie was buried in Torgau's Saint Mary's Church, 47 miles from her husband's tomb in Wittenberg.
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Left: House in Torgau where Katharina von Bora Luther died. Above: Parlor in the Katharina Luther death house.
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St. Mary's Church in Torgau, where Kathatina von Bora Luther was buried.
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Tomb of Katharina Luther in Torgau's St. Mary's Church. Translated, the inscription reads: "ANNO 1552, the 20th DECEMBER. The blessed widow Katharina left behind by Martin Luther passed away peacefully here in Torgau."
After the death of Katharina, the Black Cloister in Wittenberg was sold back to the university. 

At the time of Katie's death her surviving children were adults.
  • Hans studied law and became a court adviser.
  • Martin studied theology, but never had a regular pastoral call. 
  • Paul became a physician and fathered six children. The male line of the Luther family continued through him to Johann Ernest Luther, a grandson of the great reformer, who was married at St. Michael's Church in Zeitz, Germany. He and his wife Martha had eight children and established the Zeitz line of the Luther family. His headstone is embedded in the wall of the cloister at the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul. There are still descendants of Martin Luther living in Zeitz today. 
  • Margareta married Georg von Kunheim, a member of a wealthy, noble Prussian family. She died at age 36, but her line continued into the 20th century. It includes German President Paul von Hindenburg (1847–1934).
The descendants of Martin Luther are called “Lutherides”. They consist of descendants of Martin Luther and Katharina von Bora, as well as of the collateral relatives, The association has around 350 members all over the world. It was founded in 1926 in Eisenach. There are probably several thousand descendants of Luther and there exist branches in the USA and in the Netherlands, where a descendant of the Reformer from Schulpforta emigrated to in 1735. Most of them, including the line in the Netherlands, descend from Martin Luther's youngest son Paul (1533-1593), who was a doctor and the personal physician of Duke John Frederick II from Saxony.  However, the Luther family name died out November 3, 1759 when great-great-grandson Martin Gottlob Luther, an attorney in Dresden passed away.
January 1552 - Princes' War: Led by Elector Maurice of Saxony, many Protestant princes formed an alliance with Henry II of France at the Treaty of Chambord. In return for French funding and assistance, Henry was promised lands in western Germany. Emperor Charles V was driven out of Germany to his ancestral lands in Austria, Elector Maurice returned to Saxony. No longer seen as a traitor, both Protestants and Catholics rendered him equal respect. The emperor exhorted both parties to maintain peace in his empire.

July 9, 1553 - At the Battle of Sievershausen in Germany, Elector Maurice defeated his former ally Albert, But he was badly wounded in the stomach and died in a field camp at the age of 32. 

September 25, 1555 - Peace of Augsburg was the first permanent legal basis for the coexistence of Lutheranism and Catholicism in Germany, by the Diet of Augsburg. The Peace allowed the princes to select either Lutheranism or Catholicism as the religion of their domain and permitted those who adhered to the other church could sell their property and migrate to a territory where that denomination was recognized. The legislation officially ended conflict between Catholics and Lutherans, though it made no provisions for other Protestant denominations,

December 4, 1563 - Final session of the Council of Trent which took place between 1545 and 1563 in Trento (Trent) and Bologna, northern Italy. It was one of the Roman Catholic Church's most important councils. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation, it has been described as the embodiment of the Counter-Reformation. ​ Charles V had wanted abuses looked at first in an attempt to please the Protestants and hopefully tempt them back to the church. Once they were back they could look at doctrine. Paul III did not want this as reforms could financially damage him and concessions could diminish his authority.
  • Nicene Creed accepted as the basis of Catholic faith.
  • Canon of Old and New Testament books was fixed;
  • Tradition was accepted as a source of faith.
  • Latin Vulgate was declared adequate for doctrinal proofs.
  • The nature and consequences of original sin were defined.
  • Bishops must reside in their respective territories, The church effectively abolished plurality of bishoprics.
  • Christ is entirely present in both the consecrated bread and the consecrated wine in the Eucharist but left to the pope the practical decision of whether or not the chalice should be granted to the laity.
  • The mass was a true sacrifice.
  • The Council denied the Lutheran idea of justification by faith. They affirmed the Doctrine of Merit, which allows human beings to redeem themselves through Good Works, and through the sacraments.
  • They affirmed the existence of Purgatory and the usefulness of prayer and indulgences in shortening a person's stay in purgatory.
  • They reaffirmed the belief in transubstantiation and the importance of all seven sacraments.
  • They reaffirmed the authority of scripture and the teachings and traditions of the Church.
  • They reaffirmed the necessity and correctness of religious art and he usefulness of images, but indicated that church officials should be careful to promote the correct use of images and guard against the possibility of idolatry.

By the end of the century, many of the abuses that motivated the Protestant Reformation disappeared, and the Roman Catholic Church reclaimed many of its followers in Europe. The council, however, failed to heal the schism that divided the Western Christian church.

1618–1648 - The Thirty Years War was in reality a series of wars fought by various nations for various reasons, including religious, dynastic, territorial, and commercial rivalries. Its destructive campaigns and battles occurred over most of Europe

Although the struggles that created it erupted some years earlier, the war is held to have begun in 1618, when the future Holy Roman emperor Ferdinand II attempted to impose Roman Catholicism on his domains, and the Protestant nobles of Bohemia and Austria rose up in rebellion. After a five-year struggle Ferdinand won. In 1625 King Christian IV of Denmark saw an opportunity to gain valuable territory in Germany to balance his loss of Baltic provinces to Sweden. Christian’s defeat finished Denmark as a European power, but Sweden’s Gustav II Adolf invaded Germany and won many German princes to his anti-Roman Catholic cause.

Meanwhile the conflict widened, fueled by political ambitions of the various powers. Poland pushed its own ambitions by attacking Russia and establishing a dictatorship in Moscow. The Peace of Polyanov in 1634 ended Poland’s claim to the Russian throne but freed Poland to resume hostilities against its archenemy, Sweden, which was deeply embroiled in Germany. Here, in the heartland of Europe Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, and Calvinism vied for dominance. 

The principal battlefield for all these conflicts was the towns and principalities of Germany, which suffered severely. During the war, many of the contending armies were mercenaries, many of whom could not collect their pay. Thus began the “wolf-strategy” that typified this war. The armies plundered as they marched, leaving cities, towns, villages and farms ravaged.

When the contending powers finally met in the German province of Westphalia to end the bloodshed, the balance of power in Europe had been radically changed. Spain had lost not only the Netherlands but its dominant position in western Europe. France was now the chief Western power. Sweden had control of the Baltic. The United Netherlands was recognized as an independent republic. The member states of the Holy Roman Empire were granted full sovereignty. The long-standing notion of a Roman Catholic Europe, headed spiritually by a pope and temporally by an emperor, was permanently ended, and the essential structure of modern Europe as a community of sovereign states was established. When the war ended the map of Europe had been irrevocably changed.

May and October 1648 - Peace of Westphalia, a series of treaties, ended the Thirty Years' War 

It's two main tenets were:
  • All parties would now recognize the Peace of Augsburg of 1555, by which each prince had the right to determine the religion of his own state, the options being Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism and Calvinism.
  • Those Christians living in principalities where their denomination was not the established church were guaranteed the right to practice their faith in public during allotted hours and in privacy.
The treaty also effectively ended the Papacy's  political power. Pope Innocent X declared the treaty "null, void, invalid, iniquitous, unjust, damnable, reprobate, inane..."

Roman Catholics and Protestants alike, ignored him...

​If a pebble dropped in a pool of water sends out ripples, then the Reformation was like a fiery meteor slamming into a body of water, sending out waves of titanic proportions.  In their aftermath those waves have shaped the lives of people and nations. They redirected economic, political, and social pathways. They created inroads where there were none, and washed over those who tried to stop it.  Its waves continue to surge today. 

Timeline

1547 --
  • April 24 - Smalcaldic League defeated by Charles V at Battle of Mühlberg,
  • John Frederick the Magnanimous taken captive in battle and exiled to Weimar
  • Wittenberg surrendered to save itself and the lives of John Frederick’s wife and sons
  • Luther’s Small Catechism is first book printed in Lithuania
1548 --
  • May 15 - Augsburg Interim published, 
  • John Frederick the Magnanimous founds Jena College
  • Adiaphoristic controversy begins
  • Leipzig Interim presented by Maurice, December
1549 --
  • Francis Xavier introduces Christianity in Japan
  • November 9 - Matthias Flacius moves to Magdeburg
  • 1550 --
  • Calvin writes the ConsensusTigurinus to merge Zwingli and Calvinist views of the Lord’s Supper
  • Charles V commands the death penalty for all heresy in the Holy Roman Empire
1551 --
  • Council of Trent holds more sessions, 1551–52
1552 --
  • August 2 - Maurice turns against Charles V, April 5, who then is forced to grant limited legal rights to Lutherans in signing the peace treaty of Passau, 
  • John Frederick the Magnanimous released from captivity (September 1), moves electoral capital to Weimar
  • December 20 - Katharina von Bora dies in Torgau, 
  • Joachim Westphal publishes treatise fully exposing Calvinist error on Lord’s Supper
1553 --
  • July 9 - Elector Maurice of Saxony is killed at the Battle of Sievershausen trying to enforce the peace treaty of Passau, 
  • Augustus I becomes Elector of Saxony
  • October 16 - Lucas Cranach the Elder dies in Weimar, 
  • Mary Tudor begins her reign, attempts to return England to Catholicism
1554 --
  • John Frederick the Magnanimous dies, March 3
1555 --
  • Peace of Augsburg allows Lutherans equal rights in Holy Roman Empire
  • October 5 - Justas Jonas dies in Eisfeld 
  • Pope Paul IV begins pontificate, makes stamping out Protestantism high priority
  • Pfeffinger publishes treatise on human cooperation in salvation, occasions Synergist controversy
1556 --
  • Charles V abdicates throne, retires to monastery in Spain
1557 --
  • February 15 - Gregory Brück dies at Jena 
  • Colloquy of Worms (to unite Lutherans and Catholics) fails
1558 --
  • Elizabeth I becomes queen of England, restores Reformation via Calvinism
  • College of Jena becomes the University of Jena; becomes stronghold of authentic Lutheranism, supplanting Wittenberg
  • April 20 - John Bugenhagen dies in Wittenberg, 
  • September 21 - Charles V dies in Spain 
1559 --
  • August 14 - Spanish explorer Tristán de Luna enters Pensacola Bay, Florida, 
  • John Knox brings Calvinism to Scotland
1560 --
  •  April 19 - Philip Melanchthon dies,
1561 --
  • Naumburg Conference attempts to unite Lutherans; effort fails when it rejects second edition of Augsburg Confession and Apology
  • Chemnitz publishes The Lord’s Supper and Judgment on Certain Controversies
1563 --
  • Council of Trent ends, settling Roman doctrine and establishing Roman Catholic Church
  • Council of Trent orders clothes to be painted on nude figures on Michelangelo’s Last Judgment panel in Sistine chapel
  • Heidelberg Catechism approved, widely adopted by Reformed churches
1564 --
  • February 15 - Galileo born 
  • February 18 - Michelangelo dies 
  • March 2 - Martin Luther (son of Martin and Katharina) dies 
  • April 23 - William Shakespeare born 
  • May 27 - John Calvin dies in Geneva 
  • Bullinger’s Second Helvetic Confession is adopted by many Reformed churches
  • Andreas Vesalius’s death sentence for dissecting human bodies commuted in exchange for his pilgrimage to the Holy Land
1565 --
  • May 14 - Nicholas Amsdorf dies in Eisenach
  • Martin Chemnitz begins writing Examination of the Council of Trent (completed 1573)
1567 --
  • March 31 - Philip of Hesse dies in Kassel
1568 --
  • Martin Chemnitz and Jacob Andreae begin work on uniting Lutheran territories and cities
1570 --
  • Pope Pius V excommunicates Queen Elizabeth
  • September 11 - John Brenz dies in Stuttgart 
  • Margarethe Luther Kuhnheim dies
1571 --
  • The Thirty-Nine Articles establishes a more Calvinist form of Reformation in England
1572 --
  • August 24–September 17 - St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of Protestant Huguenots in France
1573 --
  • Jacob Andreae publishes Six Christian Sermons
  • Roman Confutation of the Augsburg Confession finally published
1574 --
  • Crypto-Calvinists fully exposed in Wittenberg
  • Lutheranism restored by Augustus I
  • Swabian Concord published
1575 --
  • March 11 - Matthias Flacius dies 
  • October 27 - Hans Luther dies 
1576 --
  • Torgau Conference called by Elector Augustus I to begin Lutheran unity efforts
  • Formula of Concord’s “Epitome” (the “Torgau Book”) completed by Jacob Andreae
1577 --
  • Formula of Concord’s “Solid Declaration” completed at Bergen Abbey, Magdeburg
  • Francis Drake begins circumnavigating globe
1578 --
  • Chemnitz publishes Two Natures in Christ
1580 --
  • June 25 - Book of Concord published on the fiftieth anniversary of presentation of Augsburg Confession
1582 --
  • Gregorian calendar implemented by Pope Gregory XIII
1583 --
  • December–January - Conference at Quedlinburg, in which the authoritative Latin edition of the Book of Concord is approved 
1584 --
  • Latin Book of Concord published in Leipzig
1586 --
  • April 8 - Martin Chemnitz dies in Braunschweig
  • Colony of Roanoke established in Virginia
1588 --
  • English defeat Spanish Armada
1590 --
  • January 7 - Jacob Andreae dies in Tübingen 
1592 --
  • Saxon Visitation Articles published; Calvinism rooted out in Saxony
  • Galileo invents the thermometer
1593 --
  • Diet of Uppsala in Sweden upholds Lutheran doctrine
  • March 8 - Paul Luther dies
1595 --
  • Zacharias Janssen develops compound microscope
  • March 31 - René Descartes, a key leader of the Enlightenment, born 
1598 --
  • Formula of Concord subscribed in Strasbourg
  • April 13 - French King Henry IV grants religious freedom to Protestants via Edict of Nantes, 
1600 --
  • February 17 - Giordano Bruno burned at the stake for support of Copernican astronomy
  • June 25 - David Chytraeus dies in Rostock 
  • First performance of Hamlet at Globe Theater
1618 --
  • Thirty Years’ War begins

1648 --
  • Thirty Years’ War ends
​
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Maurice (1521-1553), duke  and later elector of Saxony, whose clever manipulation of alliances and disputes gained the Albertine branch of the Wettin dynasty extensive lands and the electoral dignity.

Maurice succeeded his father, Duke Henry of Saxony, in 1541. Although a Protestant, he aided the Roman Catholic emperor Charles V against the forces of Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire.

In 1545, Maurice refused to join the Protestant Schmalkaldic League, although Landgrave Philip of Hesse, his father-in-law, was its leader. Maurice returned to Charles’s camp and conquered electoral Saxony. Ousted in 1547, he returned after the defeat of the Schmalkaldic League in the Battle of Mühlberg (1547) and received the electoral dignity and sizable lands.

Soon Maurice began to resent Charles’ plans to reintroduce Catholicism in Germany’s Protestant territories and the continued imprisonment of his father-in-law, Philip the landgrave of Hesse, whose freedom Charles had guaranteed. Commissioned to capture the rebellious Lutheran city of Magdeburg, Maurice seized the occasion to raise an army. In March 1552 he overran southern Germany and parts of Austria, forcing the Emperor to flee and release Philip. In August 1552 the Lutheran position was provisionally guaranteed by the Treaty of Passau. Again returning to the Emperor’s camp, Maurice campaigned against the Turks in Hungary.

​Finally, in northwestern Germany, he confronted his former ally Albert II of Brandenburg, who had rejected the Peace of Passau. He defeated Albert at Sievershausen but died of wounds sustained in the battle.
​Did you know?
  • Today, approximately 1 out every 4 Christians in the world are Protestant, and 1 out of every 5 Protestants in the world are Lutheran. Thus, approximately 1 out of every 20 Christians in the world are Lutheran.

​Reflections
  • What would you do if you found out that you had a short time to live? Would you, like Luther, plant a tree or would you do something else?
  • Think of a time you felt God was very close.
  • Think of a time you felt God was far away. 
  • If one of your best friends were to identify your greatest gifts, what would they be?
  • Name two. 
  • How can you use your gifts for ministry in your daily life?
  • What is your favorite hymn and why?
  • In the past, issues such as slavery, the holocaust, and apartheid were encouraged by selective readings of Scripture. Can you think of ways God's word is misused today?
  • How can we combat such misuse?

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