How did Martin Luther change history?

Answer 1

Martin Luther did not change the Church at all, he left it. Although the Church did, in trying to deal with the numerous people who were forced out it due to the German princes following Martin Luther's lead, have to reform many activities. This is known to protestants and the secular media as the "Counter-reformation", Catholics would know it as the Catholic Reform:

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from A Catholic Dictionary, edited by Donald Attwater, Second edition, revised 1957The Counter-Reformation is the name given to the Catholic movement of reform and activity which lasted for about one hundred years from the beginning of the Council of Trent (q.v., 1545), and was the belated answer to the threatening confusion and increasing attacks of the previous years. It was the work principally of the Popes St. Pius V and Gregory XIII and the Council itself in the sphere of authority, of SS. Philip Neri and Charles Borromeo in the reform of the clergy and of life, of St. Ignatius and the Jesuits in apostolic activity of St. Francis Xavier in foreign missions, and of St. Teresa in the purely contemplative life which lies behind them all. But these were not the only names nor was it a movement of a few only; the whole Church emerged from the 15th century purified and revivified. On the other hand, it was a reformation rather than a restoration; the unity of western Christendom was destroyed; the Church militant (those still on earth) led by the Company of Jesus adopted offence as the best means of defence and, though she gained as much as she lost in some sense, the Church did not recover the exercise of her former spiritual supremacy in actuality.

from Modern Catholic Dictionary by John A. Hardon, S.J. Doubleday & Co., Inc. Garden City, NY 1980A period of Catholic revival from 1522 to about 1648, better know as the Catholic Reform. It was an effort to stem the tide of Protestantism by genuine reform within the Catholic Church. There were political movements pressured by civil rules, and ecclesiastical movements carried out by churchmen in an attempt to restore genuine Catholic life by establishing new religious orders such as the Society of Jesus and restoring old orders to their original observances, such as the Carmelites under St. Teresa of Avila (1515-98). The main factors responsible for the Counter Reformation, however, were the papacy and the council of Trent (1545-63). Among church leaders St. Charles Borromeo (1538-84), Archbishop of Milan, enforced the reforms decreed by the council, and St. Francis de Sales of Geneva (1567-1622) spent his best energies in restoring genuine Catholic doctrine and piety. Among civil rulers sponsoring the needed reform were Philip II of Spain (1527-98) and Mary Tudor (1516-58), his wife, in England. Unfortunately this aspect of the reformation led to embitterment between England and Scotland, England and Spain, Poland and Sweden, and to almost two centuries of religious wars. As a result of the Counter Reformation, the Catholic Church became stronger in her institutional structure, more dedicated to the work of evangelization, and more influential in world affairs.

Answer 2

martin Luther once though that God hated him, that Martin didn't deserve to be loved by Him. So during the reformation, Martin realized that if you have faith in God, then He will love and help you.

Answer 3

Martin Luther started the Reformation which led to the schism between Catholics and Protestants. This was when he wrote the 95 theses rejecting many Catholic practices (mostly the sale of indulgences). (There is a separate question, "How did Martin Luther King Jr. change history?")

Answer 4

Martin Luther spearheaded the Protestant Reformation in Europe by affirming that the salvation of a Christian soul was through faith and confidence in the finished atoning work of Jesus Christ in His death on the cross, and not by means of religious deeds or the ecclesiastical sale of indulgences - documents promising the forgiveness of sins in exchange for money. He also introduced changes in liturgical worship by means of the hymns he wrote, and most especially by making the public reading and teaching of the Bible available to the laypeople in their own language. He translated The Bible into German. He taught that the Bible makes clear that every Christian believer, whether clergyman or layman, is a priest before God, thus eliminating the need for a professional sacerdotal class. Luther also taught that the imposition of celibacy on clerics is unbiblical and dangerous, that marriage is as sacred an estate before God as voluntary celibacy, and that the family is a blessed institution of God.

Answer 5

Martin Luther did not change the Church, he was excommunicated from it for heresy. His exit from the Church began in the Friary privy (an outdoor toilet),

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From The Facts about Luther, chapter 9 - Luther as a Religious Reformer

The cesspool seems to have been the garden that furnished his choicest flowers of rhetoric. To be plainer still, "It is a fact," Fr. Johnston says, "that Luther's usual talk took its imagery most often from the privy. In this connection, perhaps, it is significant that Luther admitted that it was precisely in the privy of the monastery that he received from God the revelation of his famous doctrine about justification by faith alone. 'By the grace of God, while thinking on one occasion in this tower over those words, "The just man lives by faith alone," the Holy Ghost revealed the Scriptures to me in this tower.' Protestant biographers have naively attempted to show that this place was not the monastery toilet; but there is no reasonable doubt."

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"This is significant," the same learned writer continues, "for, as above noted, it is simply amazing how habitually Luther made use of the imagery suggested by such a place. When he wishes to vomit his wrath against the Pope or the Cardinals, his favorite word is that word which indicates the contents of a privy. I forbear from repeating it. This particular word (the common popular English word for evacuations) is constantly on his lips. Repeatedly he says that if the Pope should send him a command to appear before him: "I should ... upon his summons." The reader can find plenty of other instances of the use of this word in [Hartmann] Grisar Vol. III, 226, 232, 235, 298. Concommitant with the use of this filthy word is the use of another signifying that portion of the human body which functions the same. Those expressions I cannot repeat here. See for yourself Grisar, e.g. 111, 229, where he tells the devil to "kiss -------"

Answer 6

If you meant to ask about Martin Luther King Jr., please see this Related Question: How did Martin Luther King Jr. change history?

As for Martin Luther, he was the key catalyst in the Protestant Reformation.

Answer 7

By preaching to the small communities of that time.