The German Hercules:
This section of Here I Stand mentions briefly the German regards towards nationalism and humanism. While in this time Germany was without a centralized government, some were looking to change this. Hutton, for example, was in the process of stimulating the public towards the nationalist movement. He wrote on the Roman Catholic Church's sins in what he called The Roman Trilogy. In many areas he searched for the public's support, in church officials and affluent individuals alike, but found that the only response to his pleas were in his own "class" as it is explained, the knights. However, Luther shot down Hutton's dreams of domination tainted with blood and war, and said "I am not willing to fight for the gospel with bloodshed."
The Wild Boar In The Vineyard:
Thus far Martin Luther has detailed his philosophy on the paths to salvation and thoughts on God, but he has not laid out methods and practices of Church, as Bainton says beginning this chapter. Luther declared a radical stance on the traditional sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church, denouncing five of the seven. Those he declared false were: Confirmation, marriage, ordination, penance, and extreme unction. What remained of the sacraments were the Lords Supper and baptism. Luther's reasoning behind abolishing these sacraments were that "a sacrament must have been directly instituted by Christ and must be distinctly Christian."
Bainton explains that the the removal of ordination was more severe than others, in that it stripped the priest of unprecedented power and gave the power of the priest to any ordinary man. "All Christians are priests," he explains.
Not only does Luther denounce these five sacraments, but he tampers with the foundations of the two left as well, which causes more irritation than the removal of the five.
No comments:
Post a Comment