• Luther the Lawyer: The Lutheran Reformation of Law, Politics, and Society

    Author(s):
    John Witte, Jr. (see profile)
    Date:
    2017
    Subject(s):
    Church history, Law, Politics and government, Reformation, Religion
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    church, Law and Religion, Martin Luther, State, Politics
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/4zn0-nv56
    Abstract:
    The Lutheran Reformation transformed not only theology and the church but law and the state as well. Beginning in the 1520s, Luther joined up with various jurists and political leaders to craft ambitious legal reforms of church, state, and society on the strength of the new Protestant theology. These legal reforms were defined and defended in hundreds of monographs, pamphlets, and sermons published by Luther and his many followers from the 1520s onward. They were refined and routinized in hundreds of new reformation ordinances promulgated by German polities that converted to the Lutheran cause. By the time of the Peace of Augsburg (1555)--the imperial law that temporarily settled the constitutional order of Germany--the Lutheran Reformation had brought fundamental changes to theology and law, to church and state, marriage and family, education and charity.
    Metadata:
    Published as:
    Journal article    
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    4 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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