Martin Luther

A century after Luther's protests, a revolt in Bohemia ignited the Thirty Years' War, a Roman Catholics-vs.-Protestants war which ravaged much of Germany and killed about a third of the population. Contemporary anatomists no longer believe that morphology alone can determine the functioning of the brain. On the darker side, the absolute power of princes over their subjects increased considerably in the Lutheran territories, and Roman Catholics and Protestants waged bitter and ferocious wars of religion against each other. Further research was continued by the Soviet team, but the work on Lenin's brain was no longer advertised. Since Protestant countries were no longer bound to the Roman papacy, an expanded freedom of thought developed which probably contributed to Protestant Europe's rapid intellectual advancement in the 17th and 18th centuries. Vogt's work was considered unsatisfactory by the Soviets. Thanks to the printing press, his pamphlets were well-read throughout Germany, and soon other thinkers developed other Protestant sects. However the conclusion of its relevance to genius was contested.

Martin Luther, more than the other religious dissenters that preceded him, shaped the Protestant Reformation. Vogt published a paper on the brain in 1929 where he reported that some pyramidal neurons in the third layer of Lenin's cerebral cortex were very large. We are beggars: this is true." (The Last Written Words of Luther [5]). The Institute of Brain was created in Moscow for this purpose. "Know that no one can have indulged in the Holy Writers sufficiently, unless he has governed churches for a hundred years with the prophets, such as Elijah and Elisha, John the Baptist, Christ, and the apostles .. The Soviet government commissioned the well-known German neuroscientist Oskar Vogt to study Lenin's brain and to locate the precise location of the brain cells that are responsible for genius. Luther died in Eisleben, the same town where he was born, on 18 February 1546. Lenin's brain was removed before his body was embalmed.

In 1994, the Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America publicly rejected [4] Luther's writings that advocated action against practitioners of Judaism. Despite Lenin's expressed wish shortly before death that no memorials be created for him, various politicians sought to better their own position vicariously by association with Lenin after his death, and his character was elevated to almost mythical status, with statue after monument after memorial springing up in his honor. In 1983, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod made an official statement [3] disassociating themselves from Luther's anti-Semitic statements. Instead his body was embalmed and placed on permanent exhibition in the Lenin Mausoleum in Moscow. When Luther writes that the Jews should be expelled from his homeland, he expresses widespread feelings of his times. Necessary equipment was purchased abroad, but for a variety of reasons the plan was not realised. Luther's harsh comments about the Jews are seen by many as a continuation of medieval Christian anti-Semitism, and a reflection of earlier anti-Semitic expulsions in the 14th century, when Jews from other countries like France and Spain were invited into Germany. During the early 1920s the Russian movement of cosmism was quite popular and there was an intent to cryogenically preserve Lenin's body in order to revive him in the future.

Finally, if they were bitter about this, Luther advised they be exiled. Lenin's wife discovered the paper in Lenin's study, and read it to the central committee, who while believing parts of it, did not take it to heart, and as such, these sharp criticisms of the internal party were not more widely released. In the book, written three years before his death, he recommended that Jewish synagogues and schools be burned, their homes destroyed, their writings be confiscated, their rabbis be forbidden to teach, their travel be restricted, that lending money be outlawed for them and that they be forced to earn their wages in farming. Of Stalin, who had been the Communist Party's general secretary since April 1922, Lenin said that he had "unlimited authority concentrated in his hands" and suggested that "comrades think about a way of removing Stalin from that post". In his On the Jews and Their Lies, he repeatedly quotes the words of Jesus in Matthew 12:34, where Jesus called the Jewish religious leaders (Pharisees) of his day "a brood of vipers and children of the devil". Most famous of these is Lenin's Testament, which among other things criticized top-ranking communists such as Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. However, after his overtures to Jews failed to convince Jewish people to adopt Christianity and the Jews instead tried to persuade Christians to denounce Jesus in favor of Judaism, he began preaching that the Jews were set in evil, anti-Christian ways, and needed to be expelled from the German body politic. After his first stroke, Lenin published a number of papers indicating future directions for the government.

Luther initially preached tolerance towards the Jewish people, convinced that the reason they had never converted to Christianity was that they were discriminated against, or had never heard the Gospel of Christ. Lenin's preserved body is on permanent display in Moscow. At least one such statement would not be heard from most modern pastors: He regularly told the Devil to kiss his arse. The city of Petrograd was renamed Leningrad in his honor; this remained the name of the city until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, when it reverted to its original name, St Petersburg. Opinions today can be immediately shared electronically with a wide audience. Most historians still agree that the most likely cause of his death was a stroke induced by the bullet still lodged in his neck from the assassination attempt. No public figure today could write in the manner of the correspondences Luther received or in the way Luther responded to them. Also, he had no visible lesions on his body that accompany the last stages of the disease.

It should be remembered that Luther received many communications from throughout Europe from people who could write anonymously, that is, without the spectre of mass media making their communications known. Although he might have had syphilis, so did a large percentage of Russians at this time. Luther's work contains a number of statements that modern readers would consider rather crude. In 1923, Lenin's doctors treated him with Salvarsan, the only drug at the time specifically used to treat syphilis, and potassium iodine, which was also customary at the time in treating the disease. However, an indication that Luther really meant what he said in his De servo arbitrio and was not simply carried away by rhetoric is that, twelve years later, when Luther's friends began collecting his writings, he was able to say that, of all the things he had written, he considered only his catechism and his book On the Bondage of the Will to be truly worthwhile. Upon a second release of the autopsy report, none of the organs, major arteries or brain areas usually affected by syphilis were cited. I thought it outrageous to convey material of so low a quality in the trappings of such rare eloquence; it is like using gold or silver dishes to carry garden rubbish or dung." Luther was quite intolerant of others' beliefs, and this may have exacerbated the German Reformation. Abrikosov did not mention syphilis in the autopsy; however, the blood-vessel damage, the paralysis and other incapacities he cited are typical of syphilis.

struck me as so worthless and poor that my heart went out to you for having defiled your lovely, brilliant flow of language with such vile stuff. Documents also suggest that Alexi Abrikosov, the pathologist in charge of the autopsy, was ordered to prove that Lenin did not die of syphilis. In the preface to De Servo Arbitrio (On the Bondage of the Will), a response to Erasmus's Diatribe seu collatio de libero arbitrio (Discussion, or Collation, concerning free will), Luther writes, "your book .. Documents released after the fall of the U.S.S.R, along with memoirs of Lenin's physicians, suggest that Lenin was treated for syphilis as early as 1895. Luther's writing was very polemical, and when he was passionate about a subject he would often insult his opponents. For example, a posthumous diagnosis by two psychiatrists and a neurologist recently published in the European Journal of Neurology claimed to show that Lenin died from syphilis. Luther also wrote about church administration and wrote much about the Christian home. Therefore, several other theories regarding his death have been put forward.

Of special note would be his writings about the Epistle to the Galatians in which he compares himself to the Apostle Paul in his defense of the Gospel (for example the faith-building commentary in Luther and the Epistle to the Galatians). The official cause given for Lenin's death was cerebral arteriosclerosis, or a stroke (his fourth), but out of the 27 physicians who treated him, only eight signed onto that conclusion in his autopsy report. His books explain the settings of the epistles and show the conformity of the books of the Bible to each other. Rumors of Lenin's syphilis sprang up shortly after his death. Luther's fame provided a much larger potential audience than his — at least as learned — friends could have obtained under their own name. Lenin died on January 21, 1924. However, some Luther scholars contend that many of the works were at least drafted by some of his good friends like Melanchthon. In March 1923 he suffered the third stroke and was left bedridden and no longer able to speak.

The number of books attributed to Martin Luther is nothing short of impressive. After the second stroke in December of the same year, he resigned from active politics. The two catechisms are still popular instructional materials among Lutherans. He was left partially paralyzed (on his right side) and his role in government declined. The Small Catechism was supposed to be read by the people themselves, the Large Catechism by the pastors. In May 1922, Lenin had his first stroke. They are instructional and devotional material on what Luther considered the fundamentals of the Christian faith, namely the Ten Commandments; the Apostles Creed; the Lord's Prayer; Baptism; Confession and Absolution; and the Eucharist. The bullet was still lodged in his neck too close to his spine for medical techniques of the time to remove.

Luther wrote in the preface to the Small Catechism, "Mercy! Good God! what manifold misery I beheld! The common people, especially in the villages, have no knowledge whatever of Christian doctrine, and, alas! many pastors are altogether incapable and incompetent to teach." In response, Luther prepared the Small and Large Catechisms. The assassination attempt earlier in his life also added to his health problems. In 1528, Frederick asked Luther to tour the local churches to determine the quality of the peasants' Christian education. Lenin's health had already been severely damaged due to the intolerable strains of revolution and war. See:. Of course, that was in a time of peace and order; there had not been war throughout Russia before. See Biblical canon. For comparison, the worst crop failure of late tsarist Russia, in 1892, caused 375,000 to 400,000 deaths [6][7][8].

The setting-aside (or simple exclusion) of these texts in/from Bibles was eventually adopted by nearly all Protestants. Estimates on the deaths from this famine are between 3 and 10 million. These were included in his earliest translation, but were later set aside as 'good to read', but not as the inspired Word of God. Lenin's first heart attack was in the fall of 1922; and the extent of his responsibility for the grain sales is therefore unclear, but he would certainly have been pleased. Luther chose to omit the portions of the Old Testament found in the Greek Septuagint, but not in the Hebrew Masoretic texts then available. When this was discovered, foreign relief organizations suspended aid. As mentioned earlier, Luther's translation work helped standardize German and are considered landmarks in German literature. The net effect, since grain is fungible, was that they received money for nothing from capitalist philanthropy.

His first full Bible translation into German, including the Old Testament, was published in a six-part edition in 1534. The Bolsheviks permitted the relief agencies to continue distributing free food in 1923, while they sold grain abroad. Luther did not, however, remove them from his edition of the scriptures. The famine continued through 1922; the A.R.A fed ten million people, and presumably was what kept most of them alive. He also had harsh words for the book of Revelation, saying that he could "in no way detect that the Holy Spirit produced it." He had reason to question the apostolicity of these books since the early church categorized these books as antilegomena, meaning that they weren't accepted without reservation as canonical. Lenin allowed relief organizations to bring aid, this time, but later had most of the Russian members organizing the aid liquidated. He called the epistle of James "an epistle of straw", finding little in it that pointed to Christ and His saving work. This was one of the causes of the New Economic Policy of 1921; it also helped produce an opening to the West.

Luther had a low view of the books of Esther, Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelation. These practices and the accumulated disruptions of six and a half years of war produced a true famine in the early spring of 1921: a hunger so severe that it was doubtful that seed-grain would sown and not eaten. It was published in 1522. 121). During his translation, he would make forays into the nearby towns and markets to hear people speak, so that he could write his translation in the language of the people. In 1920 Lenin ordered increased emphasis on the food requisitioning from the peasantry, at the same time that the Cheka gave detailed reports about the large scale famine (p. He used the recent critical Greek edition of Erasmus, a text which was later called Textus Receptus. 116-118.

Luther translated the New Testament into German to make it more accessible to the commoners and erode the influence of priests. 92-97 and p. During the Peasants' War, Luther continued to stress obedience to secular authority; many may have interpreted this doctrine as endorsement of absolute rulers, leading to acceptance of monarchs and dictators in German history. The war on the peasantry, including the use of poison gas, death camps, and deportations are documented on p. Luther resented Germany's domination by the Catholic Church, and these nationalist feelings may have motivated the Reformation to some extent. 97 and p 120-121. A similar attempt to kidnap the same bishop was perpetrated in his other See at Ratzeburg. The food requisitioning are documented on p.

Minkwitz stormed the episcopal residence at Fürstenwalde, and the Bishop had to escape in disguise. The Cheka and the army began by shooting hostages, and ended by waging a second full-scale civil war against the peasantry. One such was led by Nickel von Minkwitz against the Bishop of Lebus, Georg von Blumenthal. In retaliation, Lenin ordered the seizure of the food peasants had grown for their own subsistence and their seed grain. However, looting expeditions and outrages against the Church on the part of armed bands of noblemen and their henchmen continued, motivated by greed and a desire not to pay debts incurred by borrowing from the Church. This led peasants to drastically reduce their crop production. The war in Germany ended in 1525, when rebel forces were put down by the armies of the Swabian League. The American Relief Association, which Herbert Hoover had formed to help the starvation of WWI, offered assistance to Lenin in 1919, on condition that they have full say over the Russian railway network and hand out food impartially to all; Lenin refused this as interference in Russian internal affairs.

Others withdrew once they realized that there was neither support from the Church nor from its main opponent. The Bolshevik efficiency at this is confirmed by their recently uncovered records; it is probably one cause of their victory. Many of the revolutionaries not unreasonably considered Luther's words a betrayal. All sides in the Russian Civil Wars of 1918-20 - the Bolsheviks, the Whites, the Anarchists, the seceding nationalities - provisioned themselves by the ancient method of "living off the land": they seized food from those who grew it, gave it to their armies and supporters, and denied it to their enemies. In Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants (1525), he encouraged the nobility to visit swift and bloody punishment upon the peasants. In total, 50,000-200,000 summary executions of "class enemies" occurred during Lenin regime. As the war continued, and especially as atrocities at the hands of the peasants increased, the revolt became an embarrassment to the Luther who now professed forcefully to be against the revolt; since Luther relied on support and protection from the princes, he was afraid of alienating them. 105).

Initially, Luther seemed to many to support the peasants, condemning the oppressive practices of the nobility that had incited many of the peasants. There were large scale rapes of "bourgeoisie women" documented in 1920 (p. Gaining momentum and a new leader in Thomas Münzer, the revolts turned into an all-out war, the experience of which played an important role in the founding of the Anabaptist movement. 80). Revolts that broke out in Swabia, Franconia, and Thuringia in 1524 gained support among peasants and disaffected nobles, many of whom were in debt at that period. In May 1919, there were 16,000 people in labor camp based on the old Tsarist katorga labor camps, in September 1921 there were more than 70,000 (p. Because of the close ties between the secular princes (who certainly blamed Luther for the revolt) and the princes of the Church that Luther condemned. This led to the particularly intensive period of oppression called the Red Terror.

Revolts by the peasantry had existed on a small scale since the 14th century, but many peasants mistakenly believed that Luther's attack on the Church and the hierarchy meant that the reformers (protestants) would support an attack on the social hierarchy as well. After the assassination attempt on Lenin and the succesful assassination of Cheka leader Moisei Uritsky on the same day, Lenin and the other Bolshevik leaders decided to respond with overwhelming force, both as retribution and as a deterrent for any similar future attempts. The Peasants' War (1524-1525) was in many ways a response to the preaching of Luther and others. 63). Since, however, his writings were forbidden in that part of Saxon ruled by Duke George, Luther declared, in his Ueber die weltliche Gewalt, wie weit man ihr Gehorsam schuldig sei, that the civil authority could enact no laws for the soul, herein denying to a Catholic what he permitted an Evangelical. Trotsky also supported starting concentration camps (p. This new form of service was set forth by Luther in his Formula missæ et communionis (1523), and in 1524 the first Wittenberg hymnal appeared with four of his own hymns. 72-73).

Since confession had been abolished, communicants were now required to declare their intention, and to seek consolation, under acknowledgment of their faith and longing for grace, in Christian confession. (p. The canon of the mass, giving it its sacrificial character, was now omitted, but the cup was at first given only to those of the laity who desired it. On the 9 and 10 of August, Lenin sent out telegrams ordering mass executions, deportations, and concentration camps. Thoroughly opposed to such radical views and fearful of their results, Luther entered Wittenberg 7 March, and the Zwickau prophets left the city. 68). Around Christmas, Anabaptists from Zwickau added to the anarchy. In June 1918, the Cheka already had 12,000 members (p.

vor Aufruhr und Empörung; but in Wittenberg Carlstadt and the ex-Augustinian Zwilling demanded the abolition of the private mass, communion in both kinds, the removal of pictures from churches, and the abrogation of the magistracy . 67). Returning to the Wartburg, he wrote his Eine treue Vermahnung . There were around 110 peasants uprisings in July and August (p. Their violence and intolerance, however, were displeasing to Luther, and early in December he spent a few days among them. 68). Luther in his De votis monasticis, though more cautious, concurred, on the ground that the vows were generally taken "with the intention of salvation or seeking justification." With the approval of Luther in his De abroganda missa privata, but against the firm opposition of the prior, the Wittenberg Augustinians began changes in worship and did away with the mass. Also in May, several working-class demonstrations were bloodily suppressed (p.

Meanwhile some of the Saxon clergy, notably Bernhardi of Feldkirchen, had renounced the vow of celibacy, while others, including Melanchthon, had assailed the validity of monastic vows. 66). Peter 3:13) are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where justice will reign." (Letter 99.13, To Philipp Melanchthon, 1 August 1521 [2]). Starting in May, food was being "requisitioned" from the peasants (p. We, however, says Peter (2. 60-61). We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides. Starting in January 1918, war prisoners were being tortured and killed on a large scale (p.

Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. 55). God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. On November 13, an order was sent out that all who were suspected being an "enemy of the people" should be imprisoned (p. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear the true, not an imaginary sin. 54). Luther replied: "If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. The Communists started closing down independent newspaper and radio stations the day after (p.

For example, Philipp Melanchthon wrote to him and asked how to answer the charge that the reformers neglected pilgrimages, fasts and other traditional forms of piety. According to the claims of the Black Book of Communism (Using the Julian calendar): The October revolution was on October 25. Although his stay at Wartburg kept Luther hidden from public view, Luther often received letters from his friends and allies, asking for his views and advice. But the same month saw the suppression of an uprising among sailors at Kronstadt ("the Kronstadt rebellion"). Here he distinguished the objective grace of God to the sinner, who, believing, is justified by God because of the justice of Christ, from the saving grace dwelling within sinful man; while at the same time he emphasized the insufficiency of this "beginning of justification," as well as the persistence of sin after baptism and the sin still inherent in every good work. In March 1921, Lenin replaced the policy of War communism (which had been used during the civil war) with the New Economic Policy (NEP), in an attempt to rebuild industry and especially agriculture. He also wrote a polemic against Archbishop Albrecht, which forced him to desist from reopening the sale of indulgences; while in his attack on Jacobus Latomus he set forth his views on the relation of grace and the law, as well as on the nature of the grace communicated by Christ. The long years of war had taken their toll on Russia, however, and much of the country lay in ruins.

Here, too, besides other pamphlets, he prepared the first portion of his German postilla and his Von der Beichte, in which he denied compulsory confession, although he admitted the wholesomeness of voluntary private confessions. However the defeat of Soviet Russia in Polish-Soviet War invalidated these plans. In his "desert" or "Patmos" (as he called it in his letters) of the Wartburg, moreover, he began his translation of the Bible, of which the New Testament was printed in Sept., 1522. With revolution in Germany and Spartacist League on the rise, Lenin viewed this a perfect time and place to "to probe Europe with the bayonets of the Red Army." Lenin saw Poland as the bridge that the Red Army would have to cross in order to link up the Russian Revolution with the communist supporters in the German Revolution, and to assist other communist movements in Western Europe. With Luther's residence in the Wartburg began a constructive period of his career as a reformer; while at the same time the struggle was inaugurated against those who, claiming to proceed from the same Evangelical basis, were deemed by him to swing to the opposite extreme and to hinder, if not prevent, all constructive measures. When the newly independent Second Polish Republic began securing its eastern territories annexed by Russia in the partitions of Poland in late 18th century, it clashed with Bolshevik forces for dominance in these areas, which have led to the outbreak of the Polish-Soviet War in 1919. During this period of forced sojourn in the world, Luther was still hard at work upon his celebrated translation of the New Testament, though he couldn't rely on the isolation of a monastery. In the later months of 1919, successes against White Russian forces convinced Lenin that it was time to spread the revolution to the West, by force if necessary.

He grew a wide flaring beard, took on the garb of a knight, and assumed the pseudonym Junker Jörg (Knight George). Eventually, the Red Army won the civil war, defeating the White Russian forces and their allies in 1920 (although smaller forces remained for several more years). Frederick the Wise arranged for Luther to be seized on his way from the Diet by a company of masked horsemen, who carried him to Wartburg Castle at Eisenach, where he stayed for about a year. Foreign powers such as France, Britain, United States and Japan also intervened in this war (on behalf of the White Army). Luther's disappearance during his return trip was planned. Although many different factions were involved in the civil war, the two main forces were the Red Army (communists) and the White Army (monarchists). The Emperor issued the Edict of Worms on May 25, 1521, declaring Martin Luther an outlaw and a heretic and banning his literature. A wide variety of political movements and their supporters took up arms to support or overthrow the soviet government.

During his return to Wittenberg, he disappeared. Meanwhile, a civil war raged across Russia. Before a decision was reached, Luther left Worms. In Russia, the Bolshevik Party was renamed the "Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)", which eventually became the CPSU. Private conferences were held to determine Luther's fate. From that point onwards, they would be known as communists. 142-144]. Members of the Communist International, including Lenin and the Bolsheviks themselves, broke off from the broader socialist movement.

Amen." [Bainton, pp. In March, 1919, Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders met with revolutionary socialists from around the world and formed the Communist International. God help me. Lenin eventually recovered, though his health declined from this point, and it is believed that the incident contributed to his later strokes. I can do no other. Doctors were summoned, but decided that it was too dangerous to remove the bullets. According to tradition, Luther is then said to have spoken these words: "Here I stand. Lenin was taken to his private apartment in the Kremlin, and refused to venture to a hospital, believing other assassins would be waiting there.

I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe.". She called out to Lenin, and when he turned to answer, fired three shots, two of which struck him in the shoulder and lung. Luther replied: "Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason—I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other—my conscience is captive to the Word of God. On August 30, 1918, Fanya Kaplan, a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, approached Lenin after he'd spoken at a meeting and was on his way to his car. Counsellor Eck, after countering that Luther had no right to teach contrary to the Church through the ages, asked Luther to plainly answer the question: "Would Luther reject his books and the errors they contain?". Lenin responded by (unsuccessfully) trying to shut down their activities. Otherwise, he could not do so safely without encouraging abuse. The situation degenerated, with non-Bolshevik parties (including some of the socialist groups) actively seeking the overthrow of the soviet government.

If he could be shown from the Scriptures that he was in error, Luther continued, he would reject them. However, their coalition collapsed after the Social Revolutionaries opposed the Brest-Litovsk treaty, and they joined other parties in seeking to overthrow the government of the soviets. He apologized for the harsh tone of these writings, but did not reject the substance of what he taught in them. They formed a coalition government with the left wing of the Socialist Revolutionaries. The third group contained attacks on individuals. [5]. These, Luther believed, could not safely be rejected without encouraging abuses to continue. The Bolsheviks instead opened a counter-Assembly, the third Congress of Soviets, giving themselves and their allies over 90% of the seats.

The second category of his books attacked the abuses, lies and desolation of the Christian world. Lenin dissolved the Assembly on the same day it opened its first session. These he would not reject. One month after the October revolution, the Bolsheviks gained 25% of the votes in the Russian Constituent Assembly election, 1917. When the counselor put the same questions to Luther, he said: "They are all mine, but as for the second question, they are not all of one sort." Luther went on to say that some of the works were well received by even his enemies. As a result of this turn of events, Lenin's position consequently gained the support of the majority in the Bolshevik leadership, and Russia signed the eventual Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, under disadvantageous terms (March 1918). Luther prayed, consulted with friends and mediators and presented himself before the Diet the next day. After the negotiations collapsed, Germany launched an invasion that resulted in the loss of much of Russia's western territory.

It was granted. Leon Trotsky, who led the negotiations, advocated an intermediate position, calling for a peace treaty only on the conditions that no territorial gains on either side be consolidated. Luther requested time to think about his answer. Other Bolshevik leaders, such as Bukharin, advocated continuing the war as a means of fomenting revolution in Germany. Eck asked Luther if the books were his and if he still believed what these works taught. Faced with the threat of German invasion, Lenin argued that Russia should immediately sign a peace treaty. He presented Luther with a table filled with copies of his writings. On November 8, Lenin was elected as Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars by the Russian Soviet Congress.

141]. Kaiser Wilhelm II himself is thought to have expected Lenin to paralyze the Russian army through revolution and end the war on the Eastern front and he saw him only as a contemporary figure that would lose power soon afterwards. [Bainton, p. Eye witnesses are said to have confirmed that Lenin had been carried in a sealed train on the way, escorted by Germans. When he appeared before the assembly on 16 April, Johann Eck, an assistant of Archbishop of Trier, acted as spokesman for the Emperor. It has been largely suggested that Lenin had reached Petrograd from Switzerland with the help of the German Empire. Luther was summoned to renounce or reaffirm his views and was given an imperial guarantee of safe conduct to ensure his safe passage. His ideas of government were expressed in his essay "State and Revolution" [4], which called for a new form of government based on the worker's councils, or soviets.

Emperor Charles V opened the imperial Diet of Worms on 22 January 1521. He returned in October, inspiring an armed revolution with the slogan "All Power to the Soviets!", against the Provisional Government. Subsequently, the Pope excommunicated Luther on January 3, 1521 in the bull Decet Romanum Pontificem. After a failed workers' uprising in July, Lenin fled to Finland for safety. The execution of the ban, however, was prevented by the pope's relations with the elector and by the new emperor, who, in view of the papal attitude toward him and the feeling of the Diet, found it inadvisable to lend his aid to measures against Luther. However, this uncompromising stand meant that the Bolsheviks were the obvious home for the masses as they became disillusioned and with the luxury of opposition they were freed from the responsibility for any consequences from the implementation of their policies (Christopher Read: From Tsar to soviets pp151-3). This last effort of Luther's for peace was followed on December 12 by his burning of the bull, which was to take effect on the expiration of 120 days, and the papal decretals at Wittenberg, a proceeding defended in his Warum des Papstes und seiner Jünger Bücher verbrannt sind and his Assertio omnium articulorum. Initially by this lurch to the left Lenin isolated his party.

In October 1520, at the instance of Miltitz, Luther sent his On the Freedom of a Christian to the pope, adding the significant phrase: "I submit to no laws of interpreting the word of God." Meanwhile it had been rumored in August that Eck had arrived at Meissen with a papal ban, which was actually pronounced there on September 21. In the April theses called for uncompromising opposition to the provisional government. On June 15, 1520, the Pope warned Martin Luther with the papal bull Exsurge Domine that he risked excommunication unless he recanted 41 points of doctrine culled from his writings within 60 days. On April 16, 1917, he returned to Petrograd from Switzerland following the overthrow of Tsar Nicholas II, and took a leading role within the Bolshevik movement, publishing the April Theses [3]. The three works may be considered among the chief writings of Luther on the Reformation. Inessa Armand became Lenin's partner. Here he required complete union with Christ by means of the Word through faith, entire freedom of the Christian as a priest and king set above all outward things, and perfect love of one's neighbor. When Inessa Armand left Russia and settled in Paris, she met Vladimir Lenin and other Bolsheviks living in exile.

In like manner, the acme of Luther's doctrine of salvation and the Christian life was attained in his About the Freedom of a Christian. He continued to travel in Europe and participated in many socialist meetings and activities, including the Zimmerwald Conference of 1915. Only these three can be regarded as sacraments, in virtue of the promises attached to them; and strictly speaking baptism and the Eucharist alone are sacraments, as being a “sign divinely instituted.” The sacrament of unction was discarded by Luther with his doubts of the authenticity of the Epistle of James. In 1907 he moved to Finland for security reasons. As for penance, its essence consists in the words of promise given to belief. In 1906 he was elected to the Presidium of the RSDLP. In regard to baptism, he taught that it brought justification only when conjoined with belief, but that it contained the foundation of salvation even for those who might later fall. He was active in the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP), and in 1903 he led the Bolshevik faction after a split with the Mensheviks that was partly inspired by his pamphlet What is to be Done? [2].

As concerned the Eucharist, he denied transubstantiation, the sacrificial character of the mass, and the withholding of the cup. At this period, he started using various aliases, finally settling upon Lenin, most likely in allusion to the Lena execution. The climax of Luther's doctrinal polemics was reached in his Prelude on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, especially in regard to the sacraments. He travelled in Russia and elsewhere in Europe and published the paper Iskra as well as other tracts and books related to the revolutionary movement. The subjects proposed for amelioration were not points of doctrine, but ecclesiastical abuses: diminution of the number of cardinals and the demands of the papal court; the abolition of annats (see Taxation, Ecclesiastical); recognition of secular government; renunciation of claims to temporal power on the part of the pope; abolition of the interdict, abuses connected with the ban, harmful pilgrimages, the misdemeanors of the mendicant orders, many holidays which led only to disorder; the suppression of nunneries, beggary, and luxury; the reform of the universities; abrogation of the celibacy of the clergy; and reunion with the Bohemians; besides demanding a general reform of public morality and denying transubstantiation (Real Presence) in favor of the doctrine of the True Presence of the natural body of Christ in the natural bread. In 1900, his exile ended. Under these circumstances, complicated by the crisis then confronting the German nobles, Luther issued his To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (Aug., 1520), committing to the laity, as spiritual priests, the reformation required by God but declined by the pope and the clergy. In April 1899, he published the book The Development of Capitalism in Russia [1].

The last was intimately associated with Ulrich von Hutten who in his turn influenced Franz von Sickingen, so that, when it became doubtful whether it would be safe for Luther to remain in Saxony if the ban which threatened should be pronounced against him, both Franz von Sickingen and Silvester of Schauenburg invited him to their fortresses and their protection. In July 1898, he married Nadezhda Krupskaya, who was a socialist activist. From the time of his disputation at Leipzig, Luther came into relations with the humanists, particularly with Melanchthon, Reuchlin, Erasmus, and Crotur. On December 7, 1895, he was arrested and held by authorities for an entire year, then exiled to the village of Shushenskoye in Siberia. The Lutheran concept of the Church, wholly based on immediate relation to the Christ who gives himself in preaching and the sacraments, was already developed in his Von dem Papsttum zu Rom, a reply to the attack of the Franciscan Alveld at Leipzig (June, 1520); while in his Sermon von guten Werken, delivered in the spring of 1520, he controverted the Catholic doctrine of good works and works of supererogation, holding that the works of the believer are truly good in any secular calling (vocation) ordered of God. Petersburg. Due to this understanding of the Eucharist, that it is for the forgiveness of sins and the strengthening of faith for those who receive it, he advocated that a council be called to restore communion in both kinds for the laity. Rather than settle into a legal career, he became more involved in revolutionary propaganda efforts and the study of Marxism, much of it in St.

Christ is known to be found in the elements of bread and wine in this meal because he has promised to be there; the words "This is my body" are spoken by the Lord, and what God says, happens, just as light came to be when God pronounced his fiat in Genesis. He continued to study independently and by 1891 had earned a license to practice law. The Eucharist is, moreover, for the forgiveness of sins. This radicalized Vladimir (his official Soviet biographies have this event as central to Lenin's revolutionary exploits) and later that year he was arrested, and expelled from Kazan University for participating in student protests. These controversies necessarily led Luther to develop his doctrines further, and in his Sermon von dem hochwürdigen Sakrament des Leichnams Christi (1519) he set forth the significance of the Eucharist, interpreting the transubstantiation of the bread as the transformation of the faithful into the spiritual body of Christ, i.e., into fellowship with Christ and the Saints through the reception of the True Body and Blood of Christ Jesus Himself. The following year, in May of 1887 his eldest brother Alexander Ulyanov was hanged for participation in a plot threatening the life of Tsar Alexander III. Luther's writings were now circulated widely, reaching France, England, and Italy as early as 1519, and students thronged to Wittenberg to hear Luther, who had been joined by Melanchthon in 1518, and now published his shorter commentary on Galatians and his Operationes in Psalmos, while at the same time he received deputations from Italy and from the Utraquists of Bohemia. Two tragedies occurred in his early life: in 1886, his father died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

There was no longer hope of peace. Vladimir distinguished himself in the study of Latin and Greek. Eck viewed this as corroborating his own claim that Luther was "the Saxon Hus" and an arch heretic. Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) himself was baptised into the Russian Orthodox Church. After the debate, Johann Eck claimed that he had forced Luther to admit the similarity of his own doctrine to that of Jan Hus, who had been burned at the stake. He had Kalmyk ancestry through his paternal grandparents, Volga German ancestry through his maternal grandmother, who was a Lutheran, and Jewish ancestry through his maternal grandfather (converted to Christianity). He denied that membership in the western Catholic Church under the pope was necessary to salvation, maintaining the validity of the eastern Greek (Orthodox) Church. Like many Russians, he was of mixed ethnic and religious ancestry.

In the course of this debate he denied the divine right of the papal office and authority, holding that the "power of the keys" had been given to the Church (i.e., to the congregation of the faithful). Born in Simbirsk, Russia, Lenin was the son of Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov (1831 - 1886), a Russian civil service official who worked for increased democracy and free universal education in Russia, and his liberal wife Maria Alexandrovna Blank (1835 - 1916). When Johann Eck challenged Luther's colleague Carlstadt to a disputation at Leipzig, Luther joined in the debate (27 June-18 July 1519). . In the German treatise he composed later, Luther, while recognizing purgatory, indulgences, and the invocation of the saints, denied all effect of indulgences on purgatory. He is sometimes erroneously referred to in the West as "Nikolai Lenin", though he has never been known as such in Russia. The letter was written but never sent, since it contained no retraction. There are other theories on where his name came from and he himself is not known to have ever stated exactly why he chose it.

A conference with the papal chamberlain Karl von Miltitz at Altenburg in Jan., 1519, led Luther to agree to remain silent as long as his opponents would, to write a humble letter to the pope, and to compose a treatise demonstrating his reverence for the Catholic Church. However, Plekhanov appears to have been a significant influence upon Lenin at that time in his life, so the veracity of this explanation is subject to question. Desiring to remain on friendly terms with Luther, the pope made a final attempt to reach a peaceful resolution of the conflict with him. Ulyanov picked the Lena which is longer and flows in the opposite direction. He had already asserted at least the potential fallibility of a council representing the Church, and, repudiating what he held to be the abuse of the practice of excommunication on the part of the pope, he was led by his concept of the way of salvation to hold that the Church in essence is the congregation of the faithful, a view foreshadowed in the thought and writings of John Wycliffe, Pierre d'Ailly, and Jan Hus. It has been suggested that he chose this name to show his opposition to Georgi Plekhanov who used the pseudonym Volgin, after the Volga River; i.e. Luther now declared that the papacy formed no part of the original and immutable essence of the Church, and he even began to think that Antichrist ruled the Curia. "Lenin" was one of his revolutionary pseudonyms.

28) to a general council. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (Russian: Влади́мир Ильи́ч Ле́нин  listen^?), original surname Ulyanov (Улья́нов) (April 22 (April 10 (O.S.)), 1870 – January 21, 1924), was a Russian revolutionary, the leader of the Bolshevik party, the first Premier of the Soviet Union, and the main theorist of Leninism, which he described as an adaptation of Marxism to "the age of imperialism". Luther, while professing his implicit obedience to the Church, now boldly denied papal authority, and appealed first "from the pope not well informed to the pope who should be better informed" and then (Nov. Yielding, however, to the Elector Frederick, who was a candidate for the office of Holy Roman Emperor and unwilling to part with his theologian, the pope did not press the matter, and the cardinal legate Cajetan was deputed to receive Luther's submission at Augsburg (Oct., 1518). Because of his opposition to that doctrine, Luther was branded a heretic, and the pope, who had determined to suppress his views, summoned him to Rome.

In the course of the controversy on indulgences the question arose of the absolute power and authority of the pope, since the doctrine of the "Treasury of the Church," the "Treasury of Merits," which undergirded the doctrine and practice of indulgences, was based on the Bull Unigenitus (1343) of Pope Clement VI. Meanwhile Luther took part in an Augustinian convention at Heidelberg, where he presented theses on the slavery of man to sin and on divine grace. Luther replied in kind, and a controversy developed. It asserted papal authority over the Church and denounced every departure from it as a heresy.

Prierias recognized Luther's implicit opposition to the authority of the pope by being at variance with a papal bull, declared him a heretic, and wrote a scholastic refutation of his theses. After disregarding Luther as "a drunken German who wrote the Theses" who "when sober will change his mind," Pope Leo X ordered the Dominican professor of theology, Sylvester Mazzolini, called from his birthplace Prierio or Prierias (also Prieras), in 1518, to inquire into the matter. This was one of the first events in history that was profoundly affected by the printing press, which made the distribution of documents easier and more wide-spread. The 95 Theses were widely copied and printed; within two weeks they had spread throughout Germany, and within two months throughout Europe.

He was just disputing the sale of them, which he held to be an abuse (Thesis 71: "He who speaks against the truth of apostolic pardons, let him be anathema and accursed!"). Luther did not challenge the authority of the pope to grant indulgences. The Theses condemned greed and worldliness in the Church (especially the selling of indulgences) as an abuse and asked for a theological disputation. On October 31, 1517, according to traditional accounts, Luther's 95 Theses were nailed to the door of the Castle Church (the University's customary notice board) as an open invitation to debate them.

Soon he preached three sermons against indulgences in 1516 and 1517. Luther soon became concerned that his parishioners were beginning to rely upon indulgences for their salvation more than repentence and satisfaction—deeds that showed the penitent was sorry for his sins. The Dominican friar Johann Tetzel was enlisted to travel throughout Albert's sees and offer the indulgences, and he was very successful at it, deveoping the jingle "as soon as coin in coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs" to encourage the sale of indulgences. The donor could purchase one, either for himself, or for one of his deceased relatives.

Albrecht, the new Archbishop of Mainz, administered the viewing of the unique opportunity of the Holy Relics to receive a plenary or complete, forgiveness of sins. Peter's Basillica in Rome. The second was an indulgence issued to pay for the reconstruction of St. Many pilgrims would also donate money during their visit, funds that helped to pay the expenses of Wittenberg University.

The first was Frederick the Wise's large collection of holy relics in the Castle Church, which always attracted crowds to Wittenberg on All Saints' Day (November 1)—anyone who viewed and followed the prescribed prayers would have their stay in purgatory reduced. Two major sources for indulgences were available to the citizens of Wittenberg. Mary's, located in the center of the city.) It was in the performance of these duties that the young professor was confronted with the effects of obtaining indulgences on the lives of everyday people. (In Wittenberg there was also the "City Church" of St.

In addition to his duties as a professor, Martin Luther served as a preacher and confessor at the "Castle Church," a "foundation" (German: Stift) of Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony named "All Saints" and repository of his collection of holy relics, which served both the Augustinian monastary and the university.
. With joy Luther now believed and taught that salvation is a gift of God's grace, received by faith alone and trusting in God's promise to forgive sins for the sake of Christ's death on the cross. To Luther, the most important of these was the doctrine of justification by faith alone.

Soon, Luther's study of the Bible convinced him that the Church had lost sight of several central truths. Terms like penance and righteousness took a different meaning. It is only this righteousness that makes a sinner just before God. 1:17 did not mean active righteousness, that by which humans are adjudged righteous by God on the basis of their own merits in accordance with God's plan, but passive righteousness, by which humans receive righteousness from God through the perfect works, life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

He soon came to realize that the phrase "righteousness of God" in Rom. Heeding the call of humanism ad fontes—"To the source"—he immersed himself in the teachings of the Scripture and the early Church. The demands of study for academic degrees and preparation for delivering lectures drove Martin Luther to study the Scriptures in depth. 126-27].

1, pp. On October 19, 1512, the University of Wittenberg conferred upon Martin Luther the degree of Doctor of Theology [Brecht, Vol. 93]. 1, p.

Luther earned his Bachelor's degree in Biblical Studies on March 9, 1508 and a Bachelor's degree in the Sentences by Peter Lombard (the main textbook of theology in the Middle Ages), in 1509 [Brecht, Vol. In 1508 he began teaching theology at the University of Wittenberg. In 1507 Luther was ordained to the priesthood. He ordered the monk to pursue an academic career.

Johann von Staupitz[1], Luther's superior, concluded the young man needed more work to distract him from excessive rumination. The more he tried to do for God, it seemed, the more aware he became of his sinfulness. He devoted himself to fasts, flagellations, long hours in prayer and pilgrimage, and constant confession. Yet peace with God escaped him.

Young Brother Martin fully dedicated himself to monastic life, the effort to do good works to please God and to serve others through prayer for their souls. His life spared, Luther left his law school and entered the monastery there. 48]. 1, p.

Terrified, he cried out, "Help, Saint Anne! I'll become a monk!" [Brecht, vol. A lightning bolt struck near to him as he was returning to school. All that changed during a thunderstorm in the summer of 1505. According to his father's wishes, Martin enrolled in the law school of that university.

The young student received a Bachelor's degree in 1502 and a Master's degree in 1505. At the age of seventeen in 1501, he entered the University of Erfurt. To that end, Hans sent young Martin to schools in Mansfeld, Magdeburg and Eisenach. Having risen from the peasantry, his father was determined to see his son ascend to civil service and bring further honor to the family.

His father owned a copper mine in nearby Mansfeld. Martin of Tours, after whom he was named. Martin Luther was born to Hans and Margaretha Luther, née Lindemann, on November 10, 1483 in Eisleben, Germany and was baptized on the feast day of St. .

His marriage on June 13, 1525, to Katharina von Bora began the a movement of clerical marriage within many Christian traditions. Luther's hymns inspired the development of congregational singing in Christianity. Luther's translations of the Bible helped to develop a standard version of the German language and added several principles to the art of translation. Luther's contributions to Western civilization went beyond the life of the Christian Church.

Luther's call to the Church to return to the teachings of the Bible lead to the formation of new traditions within Christianity and lead to the Counter-Reformation, the Roman Catholic reaction to these movements. Martin Luther (November 10, 1483–February 18, 1546) was a German theologian, an Augustinian monk, and an ecclesiastical reformer whose teachings inspired the Reformation and deeply influenced the doctrines and culture of the Lutheran and Protestant traditions. Luther's Small Catechism. Luther's Large Catechism.