What Is Luther's 95 Theses And Their Effect On German Lay People

Martin Luther’s 95 Theses and Their Effect on German Lay People

In October of 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Church. The start of the Protestant Reformation was marked by this moment and was followed by a long line of theologists that wished to follow in Luther’s revolutionary footsteps. The German lay people lost faith in an absent and oppressive religious regime and sparked civil unrest and disobedience. Luther found the unavailability of information and restriction of scripture to be a violation of what religion stood for, he saw it as a form of blasphemy. Luther’s focal point with his 95 Theses was the selling of indulgences, which allowed people to purchase salvation from the church at an extremely

Luther, upon seeing this, wrote his 95 Theses as a response, claiming that “Christians should be exorted to be diligent in following Christ, their Head, through penalties, death, and hell. And thus be confident of entering into heaven through many tribulations rather than through the false security of peace.” With these words, the Protestant Reformation was set into motion and the lay people were given the opportunity to truly believe that they were worthy of salvation even if they were not rich. The German lay people directly contributed to the profound effect of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses because they used its controversial ideas to take power away from the Catholic Church, which had oppressed them for centuries. In addition, Melanchthon and Muntzer were two people who took Luther’s words and used them in entirely different ways, contributing to the flow of

This information was largely available due to the printing press and an increase in the literacy among German common people. It began as a revolt against the Church but it quickly became a reflection of the social inequality during the period. Luther turns against the peasant people when they decide to fight for biblical law to become the secular law. Luther never intended to begin a secular war and only intended to point out the corruption within the Papacy and the Church. Muntzer was a true guiding force in this revolt, leading peasants to practice civil disobedience and a general rejection of the rules of the aristocracy. Most of these revolts were peaceful or involved small clashes of violence. During the climax of the rebellion, Luther wrote a book called “Against the Murdering and Robbing Hordes of Peasants,” in which he announced his opposition to the peasants rebellion and urged those trying to stop it to “stab, cut, kill, and do whatever else was necessary.” Luther pushed the aristocracy on, telling them that force was needed. Luther believed that this is what God wanted and that he was just in murdering the peasants who fought against him. Muntzer, in this time, repeatedly referred to him as “Dr. Liar,” and claimed that he had become a mouthpiece of rich and powerful. Muntzer, while developing his ideas throughout the peasants revolt, came to believe that Luther was blinded by a fear of the