Works of Martin Luther, Volume I
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text · 8 illegible passages, excluded from answers
- Extent:
- ~160,000 words · 752 passages
Cite this work
- APAMartin Luther. (n.d.). Works of Martin Luther, Volume I. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/martin-luther/works-of-martin-luther-volume-i
- MLAMartin Luther. "Works of Martin Luther, Volume I." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/martin-luther/works-of-martin-luther-volume-i.
- ChicagoMartin Luther. Works of Martin Luther, Volume I. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/martin-luther/works-of-martin-luther-volume-i.
What it is about
The first volume of the Philadelphia English edition of Luther's works, with the writings of 1517 to 1520 that opened the Reformation.
Context and history
Here are the ninety-five theses on indulgences — which Luther wrote to call an academic disputation, not to break with Rome — and his later and much more explicit explanation of them. Here too are the three great writings of 1520 that made the break irreversible: 'To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation', asking the princes to reform the Church because the clergy will not; 'The Babylonian Captivity', reducing the seven sacraments to two; and 'The Freedom of a Christian', the calmest of the three, with its double formula that a Christian is a free lord of all and a servant of all. They are best read in that order: they are a year in the life of a man who goes from proposing a debate to being excommunicated.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
"A Disputation of the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences" [1] is the full title of the document commonly called "The Ninety-five Theses." The form of the document was determined by the academic practice of the Middle Ages. In all the Mediæval Universities the "disputation" was a well-established institution. It was a debate, conducted according to accepted rules, on any subject which the chief disputant might elect, and no student's education was thought to be complete until he had shown his ability to defend himself in discussions of this kind. It was customary to set forth the subject which was to be discussed, in a series of "theses," which were statements of opinion tentatively advanced as the basis of argument. The author, or some other person he might designate, announced himself ready to defend these statements against all comers, and invited all who might wish to debate with him to a part in the discussion. Such an academic document, one out of many hundreds, exhaling the atmosphere of the Mediæval University, is the Disputation, which by its historical importance has earned the name "The XCV Theses." The Theses were published on the Eve of All Saints (Oct 31), 1517. They were not intended for any other public than that of the University,[2] and Luther did not even have them printed at first, though copies were forwarded to the Archbishop of Mainz, and to Luther's own diocesan, the Bishop of Brandenburg. The manner of their publication too was academic. They were simply posted on the door of the Church of All Saints--called the "Castle-church," to distinguish it from its neighbor, the "Town-church"--not because more people would see them there than elsewhere, but because that church-door was the customary place for posting such announcements, the predecessor of the "black-board" in