Religious Freedom - Martin Luther's Legacy

Oct. 31 marked the 500th anniversary of the day Martin Luther wrote to his bishop, protesting the sale of indulgences.

Luther also sent along a copy of a document that has come to be known as his "Ninety-five Theses." Oct. 31, 1517 may very well be the most important day in the last 1,000 years of Western history.

It marks the beginning of the right of western European men to hold and practice their religious beliefs of choice -- even if deemed "heretical" by the Roman Catholic Church.

Luther did so at the very real risk of being burned at the stake. Before Luther, Catholics whose beliefs were deemed heretical, including those who had left the church to adhere to any reforming sect, such as the Cathars, risked being hauled before the Inquisition, and upon conviction being burned at the stake.

Where heresy was widespread, Rome initiated crusades to suppress the heresies. In 1209, the Albigensian Crusade was initiated by the Catholic Church against the Cathers in Languedoc - now southern France. That crusade, instigated by Pope Innocent III lasted for 20 years.

During that time, lands and cities of the Counts of Toulouse were ravaged by the Pope's crusaders. Between 200,000 and a million heretics - and others - were killed. The pope raised his crusading army by repeatedly offering orthodox Catholic warriors indulgences and titles to all lands they conquered.

In 1215, Innocent III and the Fourth Council of the Lateran, promulgated "Canon 3 - On Heresy."

"We condemn all heretics. ... The goods of the condemned are to be confiscated ... Those who are only found suspect of heresy are to be struck with the sword of anathema, unless they prove their innocence by an appropriate purgation ... Let such persons be avoided by all until they have made adequate satisfaction. If they persist in the excommunication for a year, they are to be condemned as heretics. Let secular authorities ... be advised ... and if necessary compelled ... to expel from the lands ... all heretics designated by the church in good faith. ... If a temporal lord, required ... by the church, neglects to cleanse his territory of this heretical filth, he shall be [excommunicated] by the metropolitan and other bishops of the province. If he refuses to give satisfaction within a year, this shall be reported to the supreme pontiff [who] may then declare his vassals absolved from their fealty to him and make the land available for occupation by [crusading] Catholics ... Moreover, we determine to subject to excommunication believers who receive, defend or support heretics. If any refuse to avoid such heretics after they have been pointed out by the church, let them be punished with the sentence of excommunication until they make suitable satisfaction. Clerics should not, of course, give the sacraments of the church to such pestilent people nor give them a Christian burial."

Luther was fully aware of the case of John Huss, a priest, who sought to reform the Bohemian church. He espoused the teachings of John Wycliffe. In 1415, he sought to defend his teachings at the Council of Constance.

The church found him guilty of heresy, and directed him burned at the stake. It was against the threat of John Huss' fate that Luther began his reformation efforts. Rome responded with the papal bull, Exsurge Domine, listing 41 errors advanced by Luther.

Error No. 33 states: "It is contrary to the will of the Spirit that heretics be burned." Luther responded by burning the bull.

When Luther failed to recant, the pope issued the bull Decet Romanum Pontificem declaring that Luther had been formally excommunicated. Luther escaped the fate of Huss only because Frederick III, the elector of Saxony confined him at Wartburg Castle.

Europe divided into two camps. Thirty years of religious war followed in central Europe until the opposing sides exhausted themselves. Some eight million died. The war ended Rome's power to enforce orthodoxy, at least in the Protestant states recognized by the Treaty of Westphalia (1648). There, the power of the Inquisition was smashed.

The religious toleration and freedom we have come to know in the U.S. would not have blossomed when and as it did without Martin Luther and the shameful religious wars that followed.

Today western man worships as he pleases. Christians no longer burn each other for heresy. Even if you disagree with Luther's teachings, he deserves credit for risking his life to profess the faith he believed. Our religious freedom did not come cheaply.


Posted: QCOline.com Nov. 5, 2017
Copyright 2017, John Donald O'Shea