What disagreements did Martin Luther have with the Catholic Church?

Answer 1

Martin Luther's beliefs conflicted with church doctrine and practices in a number of ways.

Luther struggled with the Roman Catholic church's Biblical teaching that good works were necessary along with faith. Through his interpretation and rewriting of the Scriptures, he decided that salvation is a gift of God's grace, received by faith alone and by trust in Christ's death on the cross as the only means to that salvation, in complete contradiction to The Bible's teaching and the Church's teaching for the previous 1,500 years.

It was this that led him to openly question the teachings of the Roman Catholic church, in particular, the nature of penance, the authority of the pope and the usefulness of indulgences. The Reformation of the church began on 31 October 1517, with Luther's act of posting his Ninety-Five Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. The document contained an attack on papal abuses and the sale of indulgences by church officials.

Controversy raged over the posting of the 95 Theses. Luther was excommunicated several years later from the Catholic church for his attacks on the wealth and corruption of the papacy, and his belief that salvation would be granted on the basis of faith alone rather than by faith and works as specified in the Bible.

His translation of the Bible into German occurred many years later, while he was hiding from the church authorities at Wartburg, the castle of Elector Frederick III of Saxony. There were previously many different translations of the Scriptures in German, Luther's translation was more a rewriting with Luther's interpretation of the verses. He also added words to change the meaning in some passages.

Answer 2

he opposed the teachings of the whole church and wrote the 95 theses or arguments against the church's idea of indulgence. all through his life he had a question in his mind: had he done enough to please god and live up to his standards? when he asked the church the church told him to do good things in life but he refused to believe that answer. he theorized that there was more to "getting the ticket to heaven" than just just doing good deeds. when he left rome he was astonished by the selling of tickets to heaven. so he wrote the 95 theses and took it to the pope. this led to the reformation of new churches. also a new way of life called protestinism

Answer 3

Roman Catholic AnswerMartin Luther's ideas were rather, shall we say, immature. He had some things down pretty well, but he was not well educated and some of the things he objected to were ludicrous, while some were real errors put about by certain men at the time he was living. Listed below are three links, the last one is an actual translation of the "95 Theses" as listed by the Lutheran Church. The first one contains the actual Bull issued by the Pope at that time explaining the errors contained in the 95 Theses. Finally, there is a link (in the middle) which contains a discussion on the Catholic Answers forum about the 95 Theses.

By example, read # 61 "For it is clear that the power of the pope suffices, by itself, for the remission of penalties and reserved cases". I see nothing wrong with this, or # 69 "Bishops and curates, in duty bound, must receive the commissaries of the papal indulgences with all reverence" or # 76 "We assert the contrary, and say that the pope's pardons are not able to remove the least venial sins as far as their guilt is concerned." This is just commonly received Catholic teaching - as always has been. However, # 15 "there seems to be the same difference between hell, purgatory, and heaven as between despair, uncertainty, and assurance." This is just plain nonsense, as we know that anyone in the process of being purged is saved and on their way to heaven, and are only going through the pains of purgatory but are assured of their salvation.

In other words, where Martin Luther is correct in objecting to a practice, that practice was not condoned by the Church-it was already condemned. The Church just removed the possibility of it happened again. Where he was wrong, he was objecting to something that was NOT a teaching of the Church but was a misunderstanding on his part.

Answer 2As this question is also in 'Reformation History' perhaps a more balanced answer is needed. Reformation Historians would see Martin Luther in a different light.

There are many conflicting ideas between Luther and the Church - but these three may suffice as a start.

Luther saw in the Church of Rome (as opposed to the Eastern Church) great corruption. After reading Romans, Luther realised that salvation comes as a free gift of God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ as redeemer from sin - and not earned by good deed, nor deference to the pope. This challenged the authority of the pope of the Roman Church by teaching that the Bible is the only source of divinely revealed knowledge and that the offer of sacrifice was not necessary. This was in direct contradiction of the pope and even today in Vatican II teaching (" "through the ministry of priests, the spiritual sacrifice of the faithful is made perfect in union with the [eternal] sacrifice of Christ").

Luther saw in the sale of indulgences great corruption. While the sentiment of indulgences (paying a priest to say mass for souls in purgatory) was not a major issue, the corruption of some priests in pocketing the indulgences without performing the connected masses was seen as corrupt.

Moreover he railed against the Church's insistence that the Bible should remain in the confines of the priesthood as only priests were able to read Latin well, and the common man, whom Jesus had ministered to, was beholden to the priests' interpretation alone - which Luther saw as often incorrect and biased towards their own aggrandizement and status - and wealth. So he set about translating the bible into German so al could read for themselves.

To be fair to the Roman Church, after the acrimonious split with the Eastern church and now the split with Luther and much of Western Europe, it did spur them on to reform themselves where many of the practices seen as corrupt were dropped oor modified.

Answer 4

Martin Luther's "disagreements", if you will, with the Catholic Church revolved around the Catholic Church staunch support and preaching of the moral code asked of us by Our Blessed Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. M. Luther spent many years of his life discerning a vocation to the religious life as an Augustinian Friar. After years of discernment and then giving his solemn life-long vow to live the life of poverty, chastity, and obedience, Martin Luther failed in all three, and instead of blaming himself, he blamed the Church. So you could say that the "disagreement" was entirely on his part as the Church continued to preach the exact same message it had been preaching for the fifteen centuries previous to Martin Luther, and would continue to do so into the future. M. Luther, however, took umbrage, left his Order and his vows without even bothering to ask permission, and proceeded to not only break all of them flagrantly, but to write about it and take the Church to task for not "allowing" him to do so. Which is pretty amazing, as the Church didn't do a thing to stop him. Luther then proceeded to attach the Church on all fronts, starting by issuing his 95 Theses, which, if you actually read them are pretty ludicrous as some of them are actual Catholic teaching - which Martin Luther should have known, as, supposedly, he was a theology professor. Others just make no sense, and a few have some points. You may read them at the link below. By a cursory examination of any Catholic theology book will quickly set you right.

Answer 5

Martin Luther's "disagreements", if you will, with the Catholic Church revolved around the Catholic Church staunch support and preaching of the moral code asked of us by Our Blessed Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. M. Luther spent many years of his life discerning a vocation to the religious life as an Augustinian Friar. After years of discernment and then giving his solemn life-long vow to live the life of poverty, chastity, and obedience, Martin Luther failed in all three, and instead of blaming himself, he blamed the Church. So you could say that the "disagreement" was entirely on his part as the Church continued to preach the exact same message it had been preaching for the fifteen centuries previous to Martin Luther, and would continue to do so into the future. M. Luther, however, took umbrage, left his Order and his vows without even bothering to ask permission, and proceeded to not only break all of them flagrantly, but to write about it and take the Church to task for not "allowing" him to do so. Which is pretty amazing, as the Church didn't do a thing to stop him. Luther then proceeded to attach the Church on all fronts, starting by issuing his 95 Theses, which, if you actually read them are pretty ludicrous as some of them are actual Catholic teaching - which Martin Luther should have known, as, supposedly, he was a theology professor. Others just make no sense, and a few have some points. You may read them at the link below. By a cursory examination of any Catholic theology book will quickly set you right.