Did Martin Luther really nail some paper to a church door?

[Rumpelstil]

Did Martin Luther really nail some paper to a church door?

It was the original viral post.

On Oct. 31, 1517, an obscure German professor of theology named Martin Luther launched an attack on the Roman Catholic Church by nailing his 95 Theses to the door of Wittenberg’s Castle Church — a story that has been repeated for hundreds of years. Luther’s act of rebellion led to the Protestant Reformation, which is being marked by millions of Christians around the world Tuesday on its 500th anniversary.

But did that dramatic moment — Luther defiantly hammering his critique to the church door — really happen?

The story was first told by Philipp Melanchthon, a fellow professor at the University of Wittenberg, a close friend of Luther’s and a leader of the Reformation, after Luther’s death in 1546. And the church door did serve as a public bulletin board of sorts.

But Melanchthon was not in Wittenberg on the day he supposedly witnessed the nailing. He didn’t join the university faculty until 1518. And Luther, a prolific writer who published 30 pamphlets in three years and later translated the Bible into German, never recounted the story.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/10/31/martin-luther-shook-the-world-500-years-ago-but-did-he-nail-anything-to-a-church-door/

 

[Rumpelstil]

This is the question for Reformation Day 2022

 

[Rumpelstil]

@ Martin Luther

Luther was ordained to the priesthood in 1507. He came to reject several teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church; in particular, he disputed the view on indulgences. Luther proposed an academic discussion of the practice and efficacy of indulgences in his Ninety-five Theses of 1517. His refusal to renounce all of his writings at the demand of Pope Leo X in 1520 and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms in 1521 resulted in his excommunication by the pope and condemnation as an outlaw by the Holy Roman Emperor.

Martin Luther - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Rumpelstil]

More on Martin:

His translation of the Bible into the German vernacular (instead of Latin) made it more accessible to the laity, an event that had a tremendous impact on both the church and German culture. It fostered the development of a standard version of the German language, added several principles to the art of translation,[6] and influenced the writing of an English translation, the Tyndale Bible.[7] His hymns influenced the development of singing in Protestant churches.[8] His marriage to Katharina von Bora, a former nun, set a model for the practice of clerical marriage, allowing Protestant clergy to marry.[9]

Martin Luther - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Patriotic Voter]

Did Martin Luther really nail some paper to a church door?

Based on the poll choices and threads about celebrating Catholic holidays, I assume you know the answer and are asking people if they believe the story.

It seems only people who search terms like "Martin Luther" and "Protestantism" know what he did, Google "Halloween" and you will get results about things like costumes, witches, and vampire bats - stuff completely against the Christian faith.

The origin of Halloween kids are taught is pagan. They learn something about the devil (Satan) doing evil crap the night before All Saints Day, which is November 1. However, I have not been able to either prove or disprove it. Martin Luther and the 95 notes is a lot more logical. I also am very interested in learning about it because I am a Protestant Christian and always will be.

 

[Rumpelstil]

2 say: yes, of course he did

To that I say: Yes, Martin Luther did write those 95 theses - but he did NOT nail them to that church door.

 

[Rumpelstil]

Martin Luther, the Reformation and the nation​

 

[Schism]

It's entirely possible, but it's also possible that it's an embellishment.

I have no doubt that his thesis was delivered by some means, even if he left it on someones desk.

 

[watsup]

Martin Luther was no saint. He was, for instance, a rabid Jew-hater, a forerunner of the hatred of Jews that culminated a few centuries later under Hitler:

“As with the German peasants, Luther was quickly disappointed. The Jews didn’t en masse convert to Lutheranism. So Luther turned against them, becoming increasingly antagonistic towards the Jews throughout his life. One of the last works Luther ever wrote was his 1543 book On the Jews and Their Lies, published just three years before his dead. The book is chock full of the standard anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and black legends about all the evil things the Jews allegedly do when Christians aren’t around. This leads Luther, in Chapter 11 of the book, to present his Jewish problem:

What shall we Christians do with this rejected and condemned people, the Jews? Since they live among us, we dare not tolerate their conduct, now that we are aware of their lying and reviling and blaspheming. If we do, we become sharers in their lies, cursing and blasphemy. Thus we cannot extinguish the unquenchable fire of divine wrath, of which the prophets speak, nor can we convert the Jews.

The Dark Side of Martin Luther – Shameless Popery

 

[watsup]

He was also a proponent of the wholesale slaughter of rebellious peasants who had initially supported his theses:

“n May of 1525, he published a work originally titled Against the Rioting Peasants, the title of which was quickly changed to Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants, in which he called on everyone to kill the peasants, en masse:

Besides, any man against whom it can be proved that he is a maker of sedition is outside the law of God and Empire, so that the first who can slay him is doing right and well. For if a man is an open rebel every man is his judge and executioner, just as when a fire starts, the first to put it out is the best man. For rebellion is not simple murder, but is like a great fire, which attacks and lays waste a whole land. Thus rebellion brings with it a land full of murder and bloodshed, makes widows and orphans, and turns everything upside down, like the greatest disaster. Therefore let everyone who can, smite, slay and stab, secretly or openly, remembering that nothing can be more poisonous, hurtful or devilish than a rebel. It is just as when one must kill a mad dog; if you do not strike him, he will strike you, and a whole land with you.

The Dark Side of Martin Luther – Shameless Popery

 

[watsup]

Martin Luther’s recommendations for dealing with the Jews:

““First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians, and do not condone or knowingly tolerate such public lying, cursing, and blaspheming of his Son and of his Christians.”

1. “Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed. For they pursue in them the same aims as in their synagogues. Instead they might be lodged under a roof or in a barn, like the gypsies. This will bring home to them the fact that they are not masters in our country, as they boast, but that they are living in exile and in captivity, as they incessantly wail and lament about us before God.”
2. “Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing, and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them.”
3. “Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb.”
4. “Fifth, I advise that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews. For they have no business in the countryside, since they are not lords, officials, tradesmen, or the like. Let them stay at home.”
5. “Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them and put aside for safekeeping. The reason for such a measure is that, as said above, they have no other means of earning a livelihood than usury, and by it they have stolen and robbed from us an they possess. […] Whenever a Jew is sincerely converted, he should be handed one hundred, two hundred, or three hundred florins, as personal circumstances may suggest. With this he could set himself up in some occupation for the support of his poor wife and children, and the maintenance of the old or feeble.”
6. “Seventh, I recommend putting a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hands of young, strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow, as was imposed on the children of Adam (Gen. 3 [:19]). For it is not fitting that they should let us accursed Goyim toil in the sweat of our faces while they, the holy people, idle away their time behind the stove, feasting and farting., and on top of all, boasting blasphemously of their lordship over the Christians by means of our sweat. No, one should toss out these lazy rogues by the seat of their pants.”

The Dark Side of Martin Luther – Shameless Popery

Shades of Hitler four centuries earlier. See item #5.

 

[LittleNipper]

Martin Luther had a human side and was very vexed with the continued non belief of Orthodox Jewry and their rejection of the true meaning of even the OLD TESTAMENT. I believe he was wrong in his writings yet honest in his feelings of dismay.

 

[Rumpelstil]

Martin Luther had a human side and was very vexed with the continued non belief of Orthodox Jewry and their rejection of the true meaning of even the OLD TESTAMENT. I believe he was wrong in his writings yet honest in his feelings of dismay.

There is lots that can be said about Martin Luther.
Here in this thread I have just this question: "Did Martin Luther really nail some paper to a church door?"

Btw: Of course he wrote that paper!
But did he really nail it to a church door, as legend has?

 

[LittleNipper]

There is lots that can be said about Martin Luther.
Here in this thread I have just this question: "Did Martin Luther really nail some paper to a church door?"

Btw: Of course he wrote that paper!
But did he really nail it to a church door, as legend has?

I believe he did. He did NOT have a cell phone, or was there any television news. Where would you nail something in a place where there were no telephone poles and nearly everyone walked by the neighborhood church?

 

[watsup]

There is lots that can be said about Martin Luther.
Here in this thread I have just this question: "Did Martin Luther really nail some paper to a church door?"

Btw: Of course he wrote that paper!
But did he really nail it to a church door, as legend has?

Was Luther a raving madman who recommended that Jews be stripped of their Earthly goods and even murdered? Yes—he was.

 

[Rumpelstil]

I believe he did. He did NOT have a cell phone, or was there any television news. Where would you nail something in a place where there were no telephone poles and nearly everyone walked by the neighborhood church?

I advise you to read the articles about the topic.

 

[Rumpelstil]

was there any television news.

Don't you know the HRE-BCC = the Holy Roman Empire Broad-Casting Corporation?

 

[LittleNipper]

I advise you to read the articles about the topic.

I've read books about the topic. Luther was a monk... The castle church door was the normal noticeboard of the university. This was not an act of defiance on Luther’s part, it was simply what you did to make a formal publication. It could probably have been pasted to the door. But it was certainly a common practice and not a defiant act or uncommon on its own.

 

[LittleNipper]

Let's us be rational for a minute. In this day and age, no one would think of nailing anything on an expensive, antique, historical door. A couple of hundred years age --- such considerations were not even regarded ---- particularly as a public billboard. Today, we cannot fathom doing such a thing ----- but with a sharpie, a piece of paper and some tape ----- it can can still be accomplished...

 

[Rumpelstil]

I've read books about the topic. Luther was a monk... The castle church door was the normal noticeboard of the university. This was not an act of defiance on Luther’s part, it was simply what you did to make a formal publication. It could probably have been pasted to the door. But it was certainly a common practice and not a defiant act or uncommon on its own.

Yes - I have a simular info.
But it said, that it was not the job of a monk or a PhD like Dr. Luther to paste anything anywhere.
It was the job of some university secretary.

 

[watsup]

Yes - I have a simular info.
But it said, that it was not the job of a monk or a PhD like Dr. Luther to paste anything anywhere.
It was the job of some university secretary.

What on Earth diffference could it possibly make? What a totally ridiculous thread!

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Did Martin Luther really nail some paper to a church door?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/10/31/martin-luther-shook-the-world-500-years-ago-but-did-he-nail-anything-to-a-church-door/

I've been living a lie this whole time.
I always thought he nailed ninety-five FECES to the church door.



"It's THESES, Martin Luther nailed ninety-five THESES to the church door...theses, not feces."

"Oh-h-h-h...well that's completely different!
NEVER MIND!"

 

[Rumpelstil]

I believe he did. He did NOT have a cell phone, or was there any television news. Where would you nail something in a place where there were no telephone poles and nearly everyone walked by the neighborhood church?

My question has got to do with Reformation Day in Germany:

Reformation holiday in Germany​

Reformation Day (Reformationstag) marks the day that Luther nailed a copy of his Ninety-five Theses to the door of the All Saints' Church in Wittenberg and remembers the pivotal change that came about because of it. As early as 1567, Protestant churches across the country began marking the day the the 95 Theses was posted.

Nowadays, the day is celebrated as a public holiday in several predominately Protestant German federal states: Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia.

On October 31, 2017, Germany marked the 500th anniversary of Reformation Day with a public holiday across the whole country.

On Reformation Day, churches typically hold special commemorative services, while people might choose to wear the symbolic colour of red and eat foods like bread, cakes and sweet treats.

https://www.iamexpat.de/expat-info/german-expat-news/brief-history-reformation-reformation-day-germany

 

[Rumpelstil]

Did Martin Luther really nail some paper to a church door?

To re-phrase my question:

There is no question that he DID write those 95 theses.
The question is:
Did Luther ever NAIL those theses PERSONALLY anywhere ON A CERTAIN DAY?

Because that is what is celebrated every year in Germany on the last day in October precisely.
Now it may well be that we celebrate some event that never happened.
That it is only a legend.

I hope you can see the irony of it.

 

[LittleNipper]

To re-phrase my question:

There is no question that he DID write those 95 theses.
The question is:
Did Luther ever NAIL those theses PERSONALLY anywhere ON A CERTAIN DAY?

Because that is what is celebrated every year in Germany on the last day in October precisely.
Now it may well be that we celebrate some event that never happened.
That it is only a legend.

I hope you can see the irony of it.

Let's imagine Luther MAILED his 95 Theses..... Would they have ever been seen by the general public? My most logical assumption is that Luther may have don BOTH --- MAILED and MAILED copies!