Martin Luther

More documents

Recommendations

Info

MARTIN LUTHER: THE RELUCTANT REVOLUTIONARY PROF. M. M. NINAN http://www.plough.com/en/topics/faith/anabaptists/thomas-muentzer Frankenhausen, Germany, May 15, 1525. The slaughter lasted only minutes. One moment, the throng of several thousand armed peasants, till now so often divided into rival factions, was united in singing an expectant prayer: “Veni, creator Spiritus! – Come, Creator Spirit.” The massacre at Weisenberg The next, the air was suddenly heavy with smoke and screams under a barrage of cannon fire. Many fled; many others were left groaning and limbless, gasping questions toward the sky. Blood from the fallen seeped into the battlefield, now covered with the boot prints of the six thousand mercenaries, or Landsknechte, fighting in the armies of Philip I of Hesse and Duke George of Saxony. Better equipped than the disordered peasant army, they had massacred the enemy. Thomas Müntzer had inflamed this rebel army with talk of prophetic warfare: God promised that he would help the afflicted, and such a promise is valid for us. The princes are truly tyrants.…God will not tolerate this any longer. He wants to annihilate them. Look at the sky. See the sign of his grace, the rainbow! God is showing that he is supporting us, proclaiming the defeat and destruction of our tyrannical enemies! “Fight the fight of the Lord! It is high time!” 74
MARTIN LUTHER: THE RELUCTANT REVOLUTIONARY PROF. M. M. NINAN Now their rainbow, which had appeared just before the battle began, had vanished. For days it had brought the peasant armies hope: God’s signal to his elect ensuring that with prayers and pitchforks they would soon sweep the threshing floor clean. The hour of vengeance was at hand, they believed, and God’s judgment was on its way. But God didn’t descend that day in Frankenhausen. Only six of the princes’ army fell or were wounded, while peasant casualties numbered in the thousands. Their shattered barricade, made of chains and farm wagons, along with makeshift weapons, lay abandoned as surviving peasants fled, leaving their pure white banner trampled and spattered with gore. Many who tried to escape were hunted down and executed on the spot. Müntzer himself was soon captured, hiding in a farmhouse and still clutching his bag of writings, giving him away as one of the leaders of the rebellion. At the hands of the conquering princes he was detained, examined, and tortured. On May 27, humiliated and broken, he was beheaded. Under torture prior to his execution, Müntzer called out, “Omnia sunt communia” (all things in common), still envisioning a world with equal distribution according to each person’s need. His vision became reality in the communal life of brotherhood that grew out of the Anabaptist Reformation in 1527. The Hutterites and other Moravian Anabaptists shared everything in common as outlined in Jesus’ teachings, not founding their life through violent defense but through repentance and believer’s baptism. As summarized in Peter Riedemann’s Hutterite Confession of Faith, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” Müntzer’s example had made clear the terrible cost of promoting the kingdom of God through violence, yet it was in these pacifist communities, in which brotherly and sisterly love was not just a word but an economic and social reality, that the heart of his vision was realized. 75
Page 2 and 3:
MARTIN LUTHER: THE RELUCTANT REVOLU
Page 4 and 5:
Page 6 and 7:
Page 8 and 9:
Page 10 and 11:
Page 12 and 13:
Page 14 and 15:
Page 16 and 17:
Page 18 and 19:
Page 20 and 21:
Controversy MARTIN LUTHER: THE RELU
Page 22 and 23:
Other traditions MARTIN LUTHER: THE
Page 24 and 25:
Page 26 and 27:
Page 28 and 29: MARTIN LUTHER: THE RELUCTANT REVOLU
Page 48 and 49: Luther’s Antilegomena MARTIN LUTH
Page 110 and 111: Published Books by Prof.M.M.Ninan w
show all

Martin Luther

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?