Luther
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Luther. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
Martin, a noted German religious reformer. He was born at Eisleben, Saxony, November 10, 1483. He died at the same place February 18, 1546. His father, Hans Luther, was a slate cutter in humble circumstances. Martin showed so much aptitude for learning that his father determined to make him a lawyer and managed to send him to a school at Eisenach. Martin had a fine tenor voice and gentle manners. After the fashion of the time, he, with other poor scholars, sang under the windows of the wealthy for alms. He studied Latin, Greek, and philosophy at the University of Erfurt, taking his master's degree in 1505. The cathedral preacher, Dr. Weinmann, gave him a love for the study of the Scriptures. Various circumstances, including, no doubt, his personal inclinations, led Luther, to his father's despair, to give up the study of law and become a monk. He entered the Augustinian Convent of Erfurt in 1505, taking with him his Plautus and his Virgil. Here he secured for the first time a complete edition of the Bible. In 1508, at the suggestion of his superiors, he was appointed professor in the University of Wittenberg, then an institution but five years old. He lectured first on Aristotle. In 1509 he gave lectures on the Bible. His class room was thronged with students. In 1511 he made a trip to Rome, and on his return was made a doctor of divinity. He continued to expound the Scriptures, which, it should be remembered, were at this time little known outside of monastic circles. He appears to have made numerous short tours, preaching in the various churches in Thuringia. In 1515 John Tetzel, a Dominican monk, passed through Saxony, selling indulgences. Luther was much stirred up. He wrote to the various princes, urging that permission be refused Tetzel. When the latter reached the vicinity of Wittenberg, Luther drew up ninety-five objections, statements, or theses, denouncing indulgences, and on Hallowe'en, October 31st, nailed the paper to the door of the castle church where clergy, citizens, and students might read. The indulgences were pardons for trifling sins. They were sold by an express authorization of the archbishop of Mainz, in imitation of former sales of the same. Luther's course was one of open defiance and rebellion, not so much against the church as against an eminent authority. Whatever view be taken of Luther's theology, the act was a bold one. Copies of his theses were multiplied and spread abroad. It does not appear as yet, however, that he contemplated secession from the church. He was still an Augustinian monk and a professor in a Catholic university. He preached in various cities of Germany, defending his theses. He was soon, however, accused of heresy, and commanded to appear before the pope at Rome. The elector of Saxony, a patron of the university, arranged, however, for Luther's appearance before the papal legate at Augsburg instead. The interview was not satisfactory. The cardinal wrote, "I can dispute no longer with this beast. It has two wicked eyes and marvelous thoughts in its head." Luther stole away, fearing arrest. Later Luther met a more conciliatory representative of the pope, and wrote the Holy Father a letter in which he "freely confessed that the authority of the church was superior to everything, and that nothing in heaven nor earth can be preferred before it, save only Jesus Christ, who is the lord of all." It was understood that the question of the indulgences should be dropped on both sides. John Eck, however, an old antagonist of Luther, published thirty theses attacking him. This led, in 1519, to a public disputation at Leipsic between Eck and Luther. Eck accused Luther of arguments and a course of conduct similar to those of Wyclif and Huss. Luther replied with much heat. At this time it became apparent to both parties that a serious controversy was at hand. The papal college at Rome felt that it would be necessary to put down Luther and his sympathizers with a strong hand; while north of the Alps the sentiment was, "Germany for the Germans." Zwingli, a Swiss reformer in sympathy with Luther's doctrines, raised the cry, "Why should 300,000 florins be sent every year from Germany to Rome?" As a matter of fact, the controversy took on in part the form of a struggle between the Italian and the German branches of the church. June 15, 1520, the pope published a bull at Rome excommunicating Luther. Luther answered with a pamphlet in which he called the pope Anti-Christ. December 10th of the same year, he headed a procession of professors and students and passed out of the Wittenberg city gate to an open place where he laid a copy of the bull on a bonfire. An assistant professor threw copies of the rules of the church into the same fire. Public proclamation was made that the University of Wittenberg had broken away from the Church of Rome. The example was followed in many parts of Germany. The pope appealed to the emperor, Charles V, to suppress the heresy. The latter summoned Luther to appear before a diet to be held in the city of Worms, giving him a safe conduct for that purpose. Luther's friends urged him not to go to Worms, fearing that he might suffer the fate experienced by Huss and Jerome at Constance 100 years earlier. The Parliament of the empire met in January, 1521. The Italian legate suggested that Luther be condemned unheard, as one already under sentence by the pope's bull of excommunication. In return the German princes presented a list of 100 grievances of the German nation against Rome, thus exposing the national character of the controversy. April 16th, Luther was brought before the Diet. His books and writings were piled up on a table before him. He was asked whether the writings were his, and, if so, whether he would retract them. Instead of retracting, he made a long speech declaring it a matter of conscience not to take back what he believed. He was permitted to retire. The Diet pronounced an edict of condemnation, which meant that as soon as his safe conduct expired, he would be an outlaw. On his way homeward through a vale in the vicinity of Eisenach, he was seized by a party of horsemen with an apparent show of violence. They were really his friends in disguise, sent by the Elector of Saxony. They conducted him to the Wartburg, a fortress on a high hill overlooking Eisenach. Here he was concealed for ten months. His room, writing table, inkstand, and other personal belongings are still shown. Here he began the translation of the Scriptures from Hebrew, Latin, and Greek into German. The New Testament appeared September 21, 1522. We may anticipate a little by saying that the Old Testament appeared a few years later. Luther stated from the first that the translation must be couched in the homely language of the German people, so as to be understood by the mother, the children, and the goodman of the house. "We are laboring hard," wrote he, "to bring out the prophets in the mother tongue. Ach, Gott! what a great and difficult work it is to make the Hebrew writers speak German. They resist it so, and are unwilling to give up their Hebrew existence and become like Germans." The language used by Luther in his German Bible has become the literary language of Germany. Other forms of German have become dialects. In the spring of 1522 Luther resumed his chair at Wittenberg. A diet held at Nuremberg in the same year reversed the Edict of the Diet of Worms. Events moved on rapidly. Rioting arose in various parts of the empire. A peasants' war broke out. Southern Germany decided to adhere to the Roman Church. The Reformation was crushed out in Austria-Hungary and Bavaria. Luther's later life was devoted to preaching and writing. In 1522 alone, he issued, it is said, 130 treatises and eighty-three in the year later. In fact, though not in name, he became a sort of pope for north Germany. He issued catechisms, directions for public and private worship, a church hymn book, directions for baptism, the communion, marriage, and other sacraments. The peasantry were illiterate and miserable beyond all description. They had been subjected to the extortion of princes and petty lords for centuries. He issued addresses and made personal appeals to the citizens and princes everywhere to provide schools for the children of the common people. He prepared a popular edition of Aesop's Fables for school use. Luther was fond of music and was a poet of no mean order. Ein Feste Burg and Aus Tiefer Noth are found in all standard collections of German hymns. In 1525 Luther married Katharina von Bora, a nun who had left a cloister as he had left a monastery. As the vows of a priest and monk, as well as those of a nun, pledge the taker to remain unmarried through life, he has been criticized severely by his opponents for this act. At Luther's death his remains were brought to Wittenberg, where they now rest beneath a brazen slab in the old Castle Church. The wooden doors of the church were burned in 1760. In 1858 Frederick William IV replaced them with bronze doors, ten feet high, bearing the text of the ninety-five theses. The house in which Luther lived was converted into a Luther Museum in 1883. The spot where the bull of excommunication was burned is still pointed out. A statue of Luther under a Gothic canopy bears the inscription: "Ist's Gottes Werk, so wird's bestehen; ist's Menschen Werk, wird's untergehen." If it be God's work, it will endure; if it be man's work, it will perish. See Germany ; Wittenberg ; Melanchthon ; Zwingli ; Wartburg
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
MARTIN, the leader of the German Reformation; born in Eisleben, Lower Saxony, Nov. 10, 1483. His father, Hans Luther, was a poor miner, and soon after his son Martin's birth settled with his pious and industrious wife, Margaret, at Mansfeld. At the age of 14 he was sent to the school of Magdeburg, from which he removed to Eisenach, and thence to the University of Erfurt, where, in 1503, he received his first degree, and, two years later, having obtained the degree of doctor of philosophy, he delivered lectures on the MARTIN LUTHER physics and ethics of Aristotle. He entered the monastery of the Augustines in 1505. During his residence in the monastery he studied with great enthusiasm the writings of St. Augustine, and passed through severe mental conflicts, seeking vainly guidance or consolation. In 1507 he was ordained priest, and in 1508 he was made Professor of Philosophy in the new University of Wittenberg. In this sphere of action his powerful mind soon showed itself; he threw off the fetters of the scholastic philosophy, asserted the rights of reason, and attracted a large number of disciples. He was called by the Senate to preach, and it was with very great reluctance and timidity that he made his first attempts in the pulpit. In 1510 he visited the court of Pope Julius II. at Rome. After his return, in 1512, he was made doctor in theology. His profound learning, his intimate acquaintance with the Bible, together with the fame of his eloquence, soon made Luther known to the principal scholars, and esteemed as a powerful agent for the reformation of the Church. Great, therefore, was the attention excited by his 95 Propositions, affixed to the Castle Church, Wittenberg, Oct. 31, 1517, and intended to put an end to the sale of indulgences by the Dominican Tetzel. They were condemned as heretical and burnt; but neither menaces nor persuasions could induce him to recant, and he maintained the invalidity of indulgences and denied the papal supremacy. In 1518 Luther had a controversy with Doctor Eck, and the same year met the Cardinal-legate Cajetan at Augsburg. In 1520 the Pope issued a bull of excommunication, which Luther publicly burnt before an immense assembly at Wittenberg. Luther's separation from Rome was now complete. Leo X. urged the new emperor, Charles V., to apprehend and punish the turbulent and daring heretic, but by the influence of the Elector of Saxony the reformer's cause was tried at Worms. On April 16 he reached that city, attired in his friar's cowl; multitudes met him, and he entered it attended by 2,000 persons. Before his 204 august judges, the emperor and his nobility, his courage did not fail, and he steadily appealed to the authority of Scripture. The result was that Charles issued a rescript "against the evil fiend in human form," "the fool," and "the blasphemer," and put him under the ban of the empire. On his return from Worms, he was seized, at the instigation of his friend the Elector of Saxony, and safely lodged in the old castle of the Wartburg. For a whole year he remained in this shelter, while his friends and relatives mourned over his absence or death. But his powerful patrons had in this way provided for his safety. During this time he translated the New Testament into German, which was published in 1522. Leaving his Patmos, and returning to Wittenberg, his undaunted energy carried all before it, the Reformation was ushered in, and in 1524 Luther abandoned the monastic dress - the last symbol of his connection with Rome. He crushed his fanatical opponents in the party of the Reformists, gallantly entered the lists with Henry VIII. of England, and fought stoutly with Erasmus on the Freedom of the Will. In 1525 Luther married Catharine von Bora, a nun who had escaped from a convent; on which his enemies accused him of immorality and impiety; but Luther defended his act on Scriptural ground. In 1529 the emperor convened a diet at Speyer, to procure aid from the German princes against the Turks, and to devise means for allaying religious disputes. In this assembly it was ordered that the mass should be LUTHER LEAGUE OF AMERICA 40 universally observed throughout the empire. Against this decree the electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, and other princes, entered their protest; on which account the reformed party acquired the name "Protestants." These princes then entered into a league for their mutual defense against the emperor. In 1530 was drawn up by Melanchthon the Confession of Augsburg, which was received as the standard of the Protestant faith in Germany. In 1535 Luther's translation of the Bible into German was published. In 1537 Luther was attacked with a dangerous illness, but recovered, and went on writing books and laboring to promote the great work of reformation. He was a multifarious and voluminous writer; a complete edition of his works, in 26 volumes, was published at Erlangen, in 1833. A translation of Luther's "Table-Talk" was published in London, in 1849. He died in Eisleben, Feb. 18, 1546.