Martin Luther: Selections From His Term Paper

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..the raving of...fools" which leads to "the suppression of Christian faith, the denying of the divine Word, and the blaspheming of the diving majesty." Were the world made up of "real Christians" (369), Luther points out, no "prince, king, lord, sword, or law" (written by men who govern the Catholic church) "would be needed." The Holy Spirit is the only law required for salvation, he said, often and in many ways. The Holy Spirit (369) simply asks no law, but leads followers of Christ down the path of doing "wrong to no one," loving "every one," and to "...willingly and cheerfully" suffer any injustice "...and even death from every one."

Luther ("Twenty-seven Proposals for Improving the State of Christendom") puts in writing his answer to the laws of the Roman church, and his "proposals" are profound and revolutionary. He calls for the separation of church and state, which was a radical idea for those times. He calls for the abolishment of taxes forced on people by the church, and rages against the lavish spending in Rome. And he calls for the understanding, in short, that "childish and frivolous clauses" (438) such as deciding that "the human soul" is "immortal," and that (439) the pope should exercise authority over the emperor ("..

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.never again should...the emperor kiss the pope's feet") should be abolished.

Conclusion: by saying (439) that the excesses of the pope are devices "of the devil's" as a disguise for the real truth that the pope is the Antichrist, Luther drew a line in the sand. What one sees in Rome "is not exemplary, but scandalous," he added; and hence, the German people must not participate in practices that give more power to corrupt individuals pretending to be of God. And moreover (481), when Luther went to the extreme of advocating economic changes, because he did not see "many goodly habits which have been introduced into the country by commerce ("silk, velvet, and articles of gold"), he was showing that he saw the big societal….....

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https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/martin-luther-selections-68910