Welcome to CAF!
I grew up Catholic …] so after I had read up on the history of the Catholic Church I decided to read up on the history of the reformation and was shocked by what I read about Martin Luther. Apparently, his beliefs were always changing …]
Hopefully I do not appear biased as I am Catholic (and not Lutheran), but I, too, was shocked at several of the things I read of Martin Luther (although I
never admired him, I am always shocked to learn of the “dark side” — for lack of a better term — of people and their beliefs).
On the subject of his beliefs changing — I do not see an issue with his beliefs changing, as beliefs change often (including to me, which brought me to my cradle Catholicism). However, I do understand your confusion at this, particularly on Luther’s views on the Immaculate Conception; in 1532, Luther wrote of Mary being born with original sin, but in 1544 (two years prior to his death), Luther stated:
God has formed the soul and body of the Virgin Mary full of the Holy Spirit, so that she is without all sins, for she has conceived and borne the Lord Jesus.
Luther also stated elsewhere that:
Mother Mary, like us, was born in sin of sinful parents, but the Holy Spirit covered her, sanctified and purified her so that this child was born of flesh and blood, but not with sinful flesh and blood. The Holy Spirit permitted the Virgin Mary to remain a true, natural human being of flesh and blood, just as we. However, he warded off sin from her flesh and blood so that she became the mother of a pure child, not poisoned by sin as we are. For in that moment when she conceived, she was a holy mother filled with the Holy Spirit and her fruit is a holy pure fruit, at once God and truly man, in one person.
Despite his contradictions, I can understand how Luther may have simply contemplated on Our Lady’s Immaculate Conception and found his (rightful, may I add) belief in it. On his beliefs of other aspects of Marian theology, you may be interested to
read here.
I was surprised (admittedly) upon my discovery of Luther’s treatise,
On the Jews and Their Lies, written in 1543. Within the treatise, Luther writes:
[The Jews are] base, whoring people, that is, no people of God, and their boast of lineage, circumcision, and law must be accounted as filth.
In his early years, however, Luther wrote the essay
That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew, in which he criticized the antisemitic treatment of the Jews, and urged Christians to treat the Jews with kindness (Luther desired Jews would be moved to convert to Christianity if they were told the Gospel clearly).
Rabbi Josel of Rosheim, a shtadlan, asked (through an intermediary) for audience with Prince John Frederick, Elector of Saxony, but Luther refused to grant him audience. In his response, Luther refers to his unsuccessful attempt(s) to convert Jews to Christianity:
…] I would willingly do my best for your people but I will not contribute to your obstinacy by my own kind actions. You must find another intermediary with my good lord.
It is considered this refusal to Rabbi Josel is the “turning point” of Luther’s initial friendliness to the Jews to his later hostility (i.e.
On the Jews and Their Lies). In his memoir, Rabbi Josel wrote that the antisemitism the Jews suffered from was “due to that priest whose name was Martin Luther,” and some time after the refusal, Rabbi Josel was only granted his request that Luther’s anti-Jewish works to not be circulated in Strasbourg when a Lutheran priest argued in his sermon that his parishioners should murder Jews.
Shortly thereafter, Luther wrote
On the Jews and Their Lies in 1543, and within the treatise, he writes:
[The Jews are full of the] devil’s feces …] which they wallow in like swine. …] [The synagogue is an] incorrigible whore and an evil slut.
Within the treatise, Luther suggests “advises” Christians seven remedial actions against Jews; such as for Jewish synagogues to be burned (and the remnants to be buried), for the houses of Jews to be destroyed (and the owners living within to be forced to live in agricultural outbuildings), for rabbis to be forbidden to preach (and if they do so, to be executed), for their religious writings to be confiscated, for safe conduct on the roads to be abolished for the Jews, for usury to be prohibited, and for all gold to be removed ("[and] put aside for safekeeping"), and for the Jewish population to be put to work as agricultural slave laborers.
On the Jews and Their Lies was said to have exercised a major influence of Germany (and the antisemitism within the country), and four hundred years after it had been written, Nazis displayed
On the Jews and Their Lies at the Nuremberg Rallies.
While Luther may have expressed sympathy towards Jews early in his career, he became heavily antisemitic in his later life, following their failure to convert to Protestantism, which he had desired (the latter explanation being the most prevalent explanation of the antisemitism of Luther in his later years).
(to be continued…)
p). In some things, Martin Luther was a false teacher, but in other ways he retained the Truth he was taught (such as his belief in Mary’s Immaculate Conception, her role as Mother of God, etc). Martin Luther did bring light to the corruptions that were ongoing in the Church at that time, and when brought to light, the Church reformed and again defined Christianity with the Council of Trent. However, he brought the corruptions to light in a flawed way, leading to his excommunication.
