117 Luther and Calvin (Five Hundred 2)

In this episode, you’ll get a brief introduction to the contributions of Martin Luther and John Calvin to the initiation and spread of the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, including these events:

• 1505 Martin Luther becomes a monk
• 1517 Martin Luther nails 95 Theses on Wittenberg church door
• 1524-5 Peasants War
• 1536 John Calvin publishes Institutes of the Christian Religion
• 1541 John Calvin returns to Geneva as leader

This is lecture 2 of a history of Christianity class called Five Hundred: From Martin Luther to Joel Osteen.

All the notes are available here as a pdf.

—— Notes ——

Martin Luther (1483-1546)

1. An Augustinian Monk (1505)
2. Professor of Bible at Wittenberg (1512)
3. 95 Theses (October 31, 1517)[1]
4. Debate with Johann Eck at Leipzig (1519)
   1. “On 4 July Luther came into the debate. Eck prodded him with charges of being a ‘Hussite’ and a ‘Bohemian.’  This was tantamount to being labeled a communist in the 1950s, because this area still recalled the numbers of Germans expelled from Bohemia during the Hussite revolt.  Luther protested Eck’s charges but finally went to the library and looked up Hus’s teachings.  When he returned, he stated that many of the condemned Hussite articles were truly Christian and evangelical, and ought not to be condemned by the church.  After a moment of shocked silence, there was uproar.  Eck pressed on and got Luther to state that both the papacy and councils may err.  This was an immediate triumph for Eck.  After this, Karlstadt returned to take up the debate again, but Duke George was anxious to bring the whole thing to a close.” (Lindberg, pp. 86-7)
   2. Three admissions
5. Officially excommunicated (1521)
6. Diet of Worms (April 16, 1521)
   1. “My conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe.  God, help me.”
7. Translated New Testament into German at Wartburg Castle (1522)
8. Marriage to Katharina von Bora (1523)
9. Peasants’ War (1524-1525)
   1. Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants: “The peasants have taken upon themselves the burden of three terrible sins against God and man; by this they have merited death in body and soul… they have sworn to be true and faithful, submissive and obedient, to their rulers… now deliberately and violently breaking this oath… they are starting a rebellion, and are violently robbing and plundering monasteries and castles which are not theirs… they have doubly deserved death in body and soul as highwaymen and murderers… they cloak this terrible and horrible sin with the gospel… thus they become the worst blasphemers of God and slanderers of his holy name.”
10. Finished translating Old Testament so complete Bible was in German (1534)
11. Believed in the sleep of the dead

John Calvin (1509-1564)

1. Child prodigy (employed by bishop as clerk by age 12)
2. Conversion experience (1533)
   1. “God by a sudden conversion subdued and brought my mind to a teachable frame, which was more hardened in such matters than might have been expected from one at my early period of life. Having thus received some taste and knowledge of true godliness, I was immediately inflamed with so intense a desire to make progress therein, that although I did not altogether leave off other studies, yet I pursued them with less ardour.”[2]
3. Published I