Why was Martin Luther excommunicated and declared heretic?

Answer 1

He encouraged Catholics to question a number of practices of the church, including the sale of indulgences. He later denied the priesthood. He also denied the original Bible which was used by everyone at the time, and was used for the 1500 years before him. He came along and took out what are know as the apocryphal books. One of the reasons know for his action of taking books out of the Bible is that some of the Apocryphal books talked about priesthood. One of the things he took out of the Bible was Psalm 151. The way that catholics look at it today is, what human is given the right to take books out of the Bible? These are the reasons that Martin Luther was declared a heretic and was later excommunicated.

(He encouraged Catholics to question a number of practices of the church, including the sale of indulgences)

Roman Catholic Answer

Martin Luther was a sick and morbid man who had tremendous trouble with the truth. Many, many of the incidents of his "life" are totally beyond belief. You can read the entire sad account in the Catholic Encyclopedia article (link below). He denied many of the doctrines of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Scriptures and taught by the Church. Here is the account as to his excommunication:

Luther the reformer had become Luther the revolutionary; the religious agitation had become a political rebellion. Luther's theological attitude at this time, as far as a formulated cohesion can be deduced, was as follows:

•The Bible is the only source of faith; it contains the plenary inspiration of God; its reading is invested with a quasi-sacramental character.

•Human nature has been totally corrupted by original sin, and man, accordingly, is deprived of free will. Whatever he does, be it good or bad, is not his own work, but God's.

•Faith alone can work justification, and man is saved by confidently believing that God will pardon him. This faith not only includes a full pardon of sin, but also an unconditional release from its penalties.

•The hierarchy and priesthood are not Divinely instituted or necessary, and ceremonial or exterior worship is not essential or useful. Ecclesiastical vestments, pilgrimages, mortifications, monastic vows, prayers for the dead, intercession of saints, avail the soul nothing.

•All sacraments, with the exception of baptism, Holy Eucharist, and penance, are rejected, but their absence may be supplied by faith.

•The priesthood is universal; every Christian may assume it. A body of specially trained and ordained men to dispense the mysteries of God is needless and a usurpation.

•There is no visible Church or one specially established by God whereby men may work out their salvation.

The emperor is appealed to in his three primary pamphlets, to destroy the power of the pope, to confiscate for his own use all ecclesiastical property, to abolish ecclesiastical feasts, fasts, and holidays, to do away with Masses for the dead, etc. In his "Babylonian Captivity", particularly, he tries to arouse national feeling against the papacy, and appeals to the lower appetite of the crowd by laying down a sensualized code of matrimonial ethics, little removed from paganism, which "again come to the front during the French Revolution" (Hagen, "Deutsche literar. u. religiöse Verhaltnisse", II, Erlangen, 1843, 235). His third manifesto, "On the Freedom of a Christian Man", more moderate in tone, though uncompromisingly radical, he sent to the pope.

In April, 1520, Eck appeared in Rome, with the German works, containing most of these doctrines, translated into Latin. They were submitted and discussed with patient care and critical calmness. Some members of the four consistories, held between 21 May and 1 June, counselled gentleness and forbearance, but those demanding summary procedure prevailed. The Bull of excommunication, "Exsurge Domine", was accordingly drawn up 15 July. It formally condemned forty-one propositions drawn from his writings, ordered the destruction of the books containing the errors, and summoned Luther himself to recant within sixty days or receive the full penalty of ecclesiastical punishment.

Answer 2

A:

Anyone who disagrees with current Catholic doctrine is termed a heretic by the Catholic Church. After Luther made his initial call for reform of the sale of indulgences, Prierias, Master of the Papal Palace, declared any challenge to the sale of indulgences heretical. Although ultimately Luther's concerns went far beyond the sale of indulgences, he would already have been a heretic simply by challenging a practice that some modern commentators, even in the Catholic Church, have termed simony.

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Catholic AnswerMartin Luther was condemned a heretic by his own words. The Church only deems someone a heretic if after having received baptism as a Christian in the Catholic Church and remaining nominally a Christian, pertinaciously denies or doubts any of the truths that must be believed with divine and Catholic faith. According four elements must be verified to constitute formal heresy: previous valid baptism, external profession of still being a Christian (otherwise a person becomes an apostate), outright denial or positive doubt regarding a truth that the Catholic Church has actually proposed as revealed by God, and the disbelief must be morally culpable - where a nominal Christian refuses to accept what he knows is a doctrinal imperative. Objectively, therefore, to become a heretic in the strict canonical sense and be excommunicated from the faithful, one must deny or question a truth that is taught not merely on the authority of the Church but on the word of God revealed in the Scriptures or sacred tradition. Subjectively a person must recognize his obligation to believe. If he acts in good faith, as with most persons brought up in non-Catholic surroundings, the heresy is only material and implies neither guilt nor sin against faith (note: the later does not apply to Martin Luther) extracted from Modern Catholic Dictionary by John A. Hardon, S.J. Doubleday & Co., Inc. Garden City, NY 1980

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In the Bull Exsurge Domine the Holy Father lists Luther's manifold heresies and asks him to publicly reject them before leading anyone else away from salvation. Early the next year, he issued Decet Romanum Pontificem which was the Papal Bull on the Condemnation and Excommunication of Martin Luther, the Heretic, and his Followers, January 3, 1521. For anyone interested in the specific heresies that Martin Luther was condemned for, you may read them at the links below. Here was section two of Decet Romanum Pontificem (you may read the entire list of heresies, and the entire document at the links below):

We have been informed that after this previous missive had been exhibited in public and the interval or intervals it prescribed had elapsed [60 days]-and we hereby give solemn notice to all faithful Christians that these intervals have and are elapsed-many of those who had followed the errors of Martin took cognisance of our missive and its warnings and injunctions; the spirit of a saner counsel brought them back to themselves, they confessed their errors and abjured the heresy at our instance, and by returning to the true Catholic faith obtained the blessing of absolution with which the self-same messengers had been empowered; and in several states and localities of the said Germany the books and writings of the said Martin were publicly burned, as we had enjoined.

Nevertheless Martin himself-and it gives us grievous sorrow and perplexity to say this-the slave of a depraved mind, has scorned to revoke his errors within the prescribed interval and to send us word of such revocation, or to come to us himself; nay, like a stone of stumbling, he has feared not to write and preach worse things than before against us and this Holy See and the Catholic faith, and to lead others on to do the same.

He has now been declared a heretic; and so also others, whatever their authority and rank, who have cared nought of their own salvation but publicly and in all men's eyes become followers of Martin's pernicious and heretical sect, and given him openly and publicly their help, counsel and favour, encouraging him in their midst in his disobedience and obstinacy, or hindering the publication of our said missive: such men have incurred the punishments set out in that missive, and are to be treated rightfully as heretics and avoided by all faithful Christians, as the Apostle says (Titus iii. 10-11).

and here is an excerpt from section three:

On all these we decree the sentences of excommunication, of anathema, of our perpetual condemnation and interdict; of privation of dignities, honours and property on them and their descendants, and of declared unfitness for such possessions; of the confiscation of their goods and of the crime of treason; and these and the other sentences, censures and punishments which are inflicted by canon law on heretics and are set out in our aforesaid missive, we decree to have fallen on all these men to their damnation.

Answer 3

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Catholic AnswerAfter years of trying to answer Martin Luther's questions and demands, after repeated attempts to come to some kind of understanding, the Holy Father finally had no choice but to excommunicate him for obstinate heresy, leading not only himself away from eternal salvation, but others as well. With no hope for his salvation, the Holy Father finally had to take the extreme step of excommunicating Martin Luther in an attempt to save others and make M. Luther realize how far he now was from salvation. The complete reasons are contained in the Papal Bulls below:

Answer 4

Pope Leo X needed money to finalise the construction of St Peter’s in Rome and planned to declare indulgences for all who contributed. Martin Luther, professor of biblical studies and Augustine monk, initially called only for reforms to the sale and use of indulgences, although not necessarily for them to be abolished altogether. In 1517, he nailed his theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, calling for churchmen to debate the issue. Prierias, Master of the Papal Palace, declared any challenge to the sale of indulgences heretical.
Luther soon began to call into question many of the practices and theology of the Catholic Church. There was to be no compromise and, unable to have Luther captured, tried and executed, Pope Leo excommunicated him.

Answer 5

Martin luther wqas excommunicated and declared because he posted the 95 theses angering the pope therefore he got excommunicated and called a heretic.

Answer 6

because he choose to go against the Catholic Church and to expose the corruption within