It was 491 years ago last Saturday that the United States really began – as an embryonic thought at least.
The Third of January 1521 was the day that German Catholic friar Martin Luther (Slide 1 and 2) was excommunicated by Pope Leo X. Luther had chosen to defy the ancient authority of the powerful Catholic Church by defending his revolutionary writings including his “95 Theses” (full title: “The Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences,” in Latin: "Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum" (Slide 3)).
His legacy is being the chief catalyst for the Protestant Reformation, a religious movement out of which came the English Puritans, a group of which (the Pilgrims) just 99 years later would voyage to another land, establishing a settlement that became the foundation of the United States.
The papal bull “Decet Romanum Pontificem” (“It Pleases the Roman Pontiff” (Slide 4)) excommunicating the University of Wittenberg professor of Biblical Interpretation did not deter the theologian from expressing his views of some practices of the Church. This was even despite the fact that excommunication was the most severe punishment of the Church. Such a decree prevented someone from participating in religious rituals, putting the convicted into eternal isolation, reversible only if the convicted recanted in favor of the Church’s teachings.
The secular world attempted to force Luther to recant his ideas three months later (16 April). He was summoned to appear at the Imperial Diet (Reichstag) of Worms (Slide 5) before Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (Slide 7). Instead of obeying imperial authority, Luther defended himself and his works, prompting the emperor to declare him an outlaw and a heretic.
The ecclesiastical and secular rulings could have sent Martin Luther to his death, the two most powerful authorities of the day basically throwing the professor and friar to the wolves.
But Luther was lucky. He had a supporter and defender in the powerful Frederick III, Elector of Saxony (Slide 6); one of seven electors in the Holy Roman Empire, Frederick (Friedrich) was in the position to elect the emperor, and was therefore second only to the emperor in the Empire.
Friedrich used his power to secretly hide Luther in Wartburg Castle (Slide 8), where the theologian went on to translate the New Testament from Latin into German. The translation made the religious text accessible to German-speakers, changing the Church and German culture forever as a result.
Friedrich’s assistance was hardly coincidental. Luther (1483-1546) had become well known to Friedrich, the friar having been born in the Saxon town of Eisleben just three years prior to the Elector’s reign (1486-1525) and having been a professor at the university the Elector founded.
Martin Luther was not the first to be excommunicated or the first to be declared a heretic. But his actions were the first to really shake the very foundations of many worlds and worldviews of the time.
The Lutheran Church is part of his legacy. Many Lutheran churches exist today in New Jersey.
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For initial further information:
"95 Theses" (accessed 6 January 2010), "Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor" (accessed 7 January 2010), "Diet of Worms" (accessed 7 January 2010), "Excommunication" (accessed 7 January 2010), "Frederick III, Elector of Saxony" (accessed 7 January 2010), “Martin Luther” (accessed 5 January 2010), "Protestant Reformation" (accessed 5 January 2010), "This Day in History 1521: Martin Luther excommunicated” (accessed 7 January 2010), "Wartburg Castle" (accessed 7 January 2010).
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