October 2017


Reformation Day! Silvia Joinson


October 31 is the 500th anniversary of the day Martin Luther stuck the 95 theses (statements) about the sale of indulgencies on the doors of the castle church in Wittenberg. They were printed and widely circulated in Latin and German, with consequences he had not anticipated. Professor Diarmad MacCulloch wrote ‘Luther wanted to talk about grace; his opponents about authority.’ His key belief in justification (or salvation) by faith alone had wide implications. The crisis escalated and Luther was not only excommunicated by Pope Leo X but also outlawed from the Empire by Charles V. Frederick of Saxony gave him sanctuary in Wittenberg where he lived until his death in 1546. He spent his time writing, notably translating the bible into German and writing hymns, the best known of which is ‘A safe stronghold my God is still.’


Lutheran princes seemed expedient. There were con- flicting groups at court, reformers and reactionaries vying for influence. The contradictions of these years can be seen by the events of 1540 when three Lutherans were burnt as heretics and three papists hanged as traitors. However Prince Edward had protestant tu- tors and those appointed to rule in his minority were also mostly protestant. As a result in the new reign Cranmer was able to move forwards with a new service book in English.


A monument to Martin Luther in Worms


Luther’s ideas soon spread to Eng- land and had a major influence on those enthusiastic for religious change. This was largely through trade across the North Sea and the support of the merchant class. In Cambridge a group of dons met at the White Horse tavern to discuss the new ideas and it was re- ferred to as ‘Little Germany’. Wolsey ordered that all Lutheran books be surrendered and Thomas More was given the task of reading and responding to them. Wolsey’s order was soon followed by a public burning of Lutheran books. William Tyndale, who had earlier tried unsuccessfully to persuade the Bishop of London to let him produce an English translation of the Bible, went abroad but his work was smuggled back into the country. His prologues incorporated Luther’s ideas and had some controver- sial marginal notes.


A key player in this period was Thomas Cranmer. At Cambridge his views were conservative and he was not part of the ‘Little Germany’ group. It was on a visit to Germany on the King’s service that he first made contact with Lutherans and even married the niece of one of them. He reluctantly accepted the position of Archbishop of Canterbury and was conse- crated in the spring of 1533. Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell worked together to promote a key aim of the reformers – an English Bible. This ‘Great Bible’ was published in 1539. Cranmer survived Crom- well’s fall, brought about by the disastrous marriage to Anne of Cleves when an alliance with the German


‘Cranmer like most early English protestants dawdled for a while in Lutheran pastures, then jumped over the waters onto the reformed bank’; ‘no longer was Wittenberg the chief inspiration for England’s evangelical religious change’ -this now came from Zurich, Basel and Strasbourg. However it was Lu- ther’s action that had set every- thing in motion.


October 31 2017 will be a national holiday in Ger- many. In England there will be a service in Westmin- ster Abbey with church leaders from many denomi- nations and guests from other countries. This will be followed by a symposium on the theme ‘Liberated by grace.’


Quotations from books by Professor Diarmad Mac- Culloch.


Solution to September’s Crossword Hitchcock Horrors by Eccles. The asterisked clues are birds


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