Martin Luther's Corrupt Practice Of Selling Heaven

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So, it all began when the priests started selling heaven. What I mean by that is they asked people if they wanted to buy their way into heaven. In 1517, there was this guy called Martin Luther wrote a document attacking the Catholic Church’s corrupt practice of selling heaven to. His “95 Theses,” which offered two beliefs, that the Bible is the central religious authority and that humans may reach salvation only by their faith and not by their deeds. The Catholic Church was divided, and the Protestantism that soon emerged was shaped by Martin Luther’s idea. Committed to the idea that salvation could be reached through faith and by god only, Luther bravely objected to the corrupt practice of selling heaven. Acting on this belief, he wrote the …show more content…

One year later a series of charges were arranged to observe Martin Luther’s teachings. The first papal commission found them to be profane, but the second simply stated that Luther’s writings were “scandalous and offensive to pious ears.” Finally, in July 1520 Pope Leo X issued a public decree that concluded that Martin Luther’s propositions were profane and gave Martin Luther 120 days to recant in Rome. Martin Luther refused to recant, and on January 3, 1521 Pope Leo banished Martin Luther from the Catholic Church. On April 17, 1521 Luther appeared before the people in Germany. Refusing again to recant, Martin Luther concluded his testimony with the rebellious statement: “Here I stand. God help me. I can do no other.” On May 25, the Holy Roman emperor Charles V signed a law against Martin Luther, ordering his writings to be burned. Martin Luther hid in the town of Eisenach for the next year, where he began work on one of his major life projects, the translation of the New Testament into German, which took him 10 years to complete. His writings were responsible for splitting up the Catholic Church and sparking the Protestant Reformation. His teachings, that the Bible is the source of religious authority and that salvation is reached through faith and not deeds, shaped the core of Protestantism. Although Martin Luther was critical of the Catholic Church, he distanced himself from the radical successors who took up his mantle. Martin Luther is remembered as a controversial figure, not only because his writings led to significant religious restructuring and separation, but also because in later life he took on radical positions on other questions, including his pronouncements against Jews, which some have said may have portended German

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