Martin Luther was one of the most famous and influential theology professors of the 16th century, who supported the Protestant Reformation and truly believed that God’s punishment could not be abolished by means of money. His Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation was the call for all German nobles in order to reform the church and prove that the Bible was the only reliable source about Christ, his ideas, and suggestions of how to obtain forgiveness.
This document should be regarded as a political, religious, and historical one, because Martin Luther made a wonderful attempt to identify the audience of his speech and provided several reasons of why this document could become influential from several perspectives. He also explained why the church had to be changed, why it was so important to hurry, and what outcomes had to be expected.
The temporal German nobles had the same authority as any clergymen in the Roman church, this is why they had opportunities to change the situation and made it better. Martin Luther cried aloud for help and asked God to save them in the name of people, and saw nobles as the leaders, who could provide people with fresh hope and break down the walls, which divide people into poor and rich against God.
According to its meaning, a historical document is considered to be any paper that was written in the past and aimed at helping people to comprehend own history, events, and society. Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation is an excellent example of a historical document because it provides us with a chance to learn more about the events, which happened in the past, and how the Roman church could control people, their emotions, thoughts, and actions.
“This it is no compels me to cry out and call upon God to send down his Spirit upon some one who shall reach out a hand to this wretched people” (Luther 1520). Luther (1520) admitted that “a certain man” and his cunning was the source of the evil. Of course, because of his angry and hostility to the Pope, the reader comprehends who is represented under the image of a “certain man” and why his actions are so wrong according to Martin Luther.
One of the most powerful means that Martin Luther used in his letter is the idea to stir up national feelings and provoke each citizen to rebel against the temporal author. It was not surprising that Luther paid much attention to the challenges and troubles, ordinary people could face with.
The more offended people could hear his words, the more people would support him and his ideas to reform. Another strong point of this letter is a proper structure and clear appeal. He defined the public, he underlined the problems, and he offered an appropriate step-by-step strategy to fight against the Pope.
However, along with numerous advantages of the letter, Martin Luther did not take into consideration one little detail. It could happen that some rich people were dissatisfied with Pope’s authority as well and cast away possible support of wealthy people. The weakness of the letter is Luther’s one-sided discontent. He was so angry with the idea that only poor people faced challenges with sins’ remission, so that he did not have time or even desire to analyze the challenges of people from other classes.
Address to the Christian Nobility is Luther’s suggestion to break down three walls: “the Romanists have, with great adroitness, draw three walls round themselves, with which they have hitherto protected themselves, so that no one could reform them, whereby all Christendom has suffered terribly” (Luther 1520).
He underlined that spiritual power had to be higher them temporal power, and the nobles’ authority was considerable enough to change the reforms, offered by the Romanists, this was why those people, as no one else, should be respected and asked to help other people to protect themselves.
For that period of time, it was too dangerous to say aloud what challenges the Church created to European people, this is why Luther’s approach to create three walls and promote their destruction is a brilliant idea that should be comprehended by those, who was interested in the reforms.
Luther was too angry with the Pope, who used money as the major means to pay off for the sins. Luther denied the idea of buying forgiveness, this was why he decided to create a kind of denial to the Pope’s ideas and reforms and offer people to destroy the wall of Pope’s authority.
“I believe in the holy Christian Church,’ the Pope cannot alone be right; else we must say, ‘I believe in the Pope of Rome’” (Luther 1520). Luther said that Pope’s authority could not be announced till other people accept his authority, and he believed that if nobles denied Pope’s authority, the opportunity to change the church would appear.
The influence of Luther’s address to the nobility is regarded as one of the most considerable steps in the history of the 16th century. His suggestions, his discontent with temporal Church, and his trust to German nobility have solid backgrounds.
He explicated that current world and the politics of the Church was “not only open robbery and deceit and the prevailing of the gates of hell, but it is a destroying the very life and soul of Christianity” (Luther 1520). It was obligatory to stop their actions and provide all people with a chance to communicate with God from the same line without attention to financial and social status.
In general, Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation is a reliable historical document that aims at providing people with the information about the state of affairs between the Church and society at the beginning of the 16th century. The strong point of this document is its attention to both poor and rich people, their demands, and possibilities to meet these demands.
The weakness of the document is that Martin Luther took one position only, contrary to the Pope, this is why the description of the affairs goes from one wretched side. And according to Martin Luther, nobility was the only level of the population, who could influence the Church reforms and take into consideration the demands of poor people in order to strengthen their own positions and use poor people’s support.
Reference List
Luther, Martin. 1520. Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation. Web.