The Lutheran Reformation began in 1517 when the German Monk Martin Luther (1483-1546) posted his 95 Theses that were a list of complaints about abuses of money and privilege among the Catholic clergy and hierarchy. When Luther refused to recant his complaints he was excommunicated in 1521 from the Catholic Church by Pope Leo X at the Diet of Worms. Luther anticipated and advocated wide reforms that found great support among the Catholic laiety and the lesser clergy in Germany and other parts of Europe. Among his great innovations was the insistence on translating the Bible and all liturgical texts from Latin into the vernacular language of German. Luther was soon forced into hiding but was protected by members of the German nobility who sheltered him and saw an opportunity to increase their own power and autonomy with the new Lutheran Reformation. Luther soon instituted a new church, the Lutheran Church, that while retaining certain Catholic and fundamental Christian ideas also developed several important distinguishing differences. Among these were:
An emphasis on the idea of redemptive Grace. One is ultimately judged by God on their personal relationship with God through a life of reflection on Christian princples that provide one with a sense and state of Grace with God. This differed from Catholic emphasis on judgment of actions as sins that needed to be redeemed through acts of Confession and penance dictated to the individual by a priest, confessor or other clergy.
Allowing priests to marry and have families. Luther's own decision to marry a former nun and his personal lifestyle as a married man became a model for a new type of cleric who was better suited to an increased secular system of power sharing.
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