Martin Luther Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Organising the church: 1525β1529=== [[File:Kirchenordnung Mecklenburg 1650.jpg|thumb|upright|Church orders, Mecklenburg 1650]] By 1526, Luther found himself increasingly occupied in organising a new church. His biblical ideal of congregations choosing their own ministers had proved unworkable.<ref>MacCulloch, 164.</ref> According to Bainton: "Luther's dilemma was that he wanted both a confessional church based on personal faith and experience and a territorial church including all in a given locality. If he were forced to choose, he would take his stand with the masses, and this was the direction in which he moved."<ref>Bainton, Mentor edition, 243.</ref> From 1525 to 1529, he established a supervisory church body, laid down a new form of [[Church service|worship service]], and wrote a clear summary of the new faith in the form of two [[Catechism#Lutheran catechisms|catechisms]].<ref name="Schroeder2000">{{cite book|first=Steven|last=Schroeder|title=Between Freedom and Necessity: An Essay on the Place of Value|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JfT6aQvkVfAC&pg=PA104|year=2000|publisher=Rodopi|isbn=978-90-420-1302-5|page=104}}</ref> To avoid confusing or upsetting the people, Luther avoided extreme change. He also did not wish to replace one controlling system with another. He concentrated on the church in the [[Electorate of Saxony]], acting only as an adviser to churches in new territories, many of which followed his Saxon model. He worked closely with the new elector, John the Steadfast, to whom he turned for secular leadership and funds on behalf of a church largely shorn of its assets and income after the break with Rome.<ref>Brecht, 2:260β63, 67; Mullett, 184β86.</ref> For Luther's biographer Martin Brecht, this partnership "was the beginning of a questionable and originally unintended development towards a church government under the temporal sovereign".<ref>Brecht, 2:267; Bainton, Mentor edition, 244.</ref> The elector authorised a [[Canonical visitation|visitation]] of the church, a power formerly exercised by bishops.<ref>Brecht, 2:267; MacCulloch, 165. On one occasion, Luther referred to the elector as an "emergency bishop" (''Notbischof'').</ref> At times, Luther's practical reforms fell short of his earlier radical pronouncements. For example, the ''Instructions for the Visitors of Parish Pastors in Electoral Saxony'' (1528), drafted by Melanchthon with Luther's approval, stressed the role of repentance in the forgiveness of sins, despite Luther's position that faith alone ensures justification.<ref>Mullett, 186β187; Brecht, 2:264β265, 267.</ref> The [[Eisleben]] reformer [[Johannes Agricola]] challenged this compromise, and Luther condemned him for teaching that faith is separate from works.<ref>Brecht, 2:264β265.</ref> The ''Instruction'' is a problematic document for those seeking a consistent evolution in Luther's thought and practice.<ref>Brecht, 2:268.</ref> [[File:Luckau Nikolaikirche Abendmahlsbild.jpg|thumb|left|Lutheran church liturgy and sacraments]] In response to demands for a German [[Christian liturgy|liturgy]], Luther wrote a ''[[Deutsche Messe|German Mass]]'', which he published in early 1526.<ref>Brecht, 2:251β254; Bainton, Mentor edition, 266.</ref> He did not intend it as a replacement for his 1523 adaptation of the Latin Mass but as an alternative for the "simple people", a "public stimulation for people to believe and become Christians."<ref>Brecht, 2:255.</ref> Luther based his order on the Catholic service but omitted "everything that smacks of sacrifice", and the Mass became a celebration where everyone received the wine as well as the bread.<ref>Mullett, 183; Eric W. Gritsch, ''A History of Lutheranism'', Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002, {{ISBN|0-8006-3472-1}}, 37.</ref> He retained the [[Elevation (liturgy)|elevation of the host]] and [[Chalice#Christian|chalice]], while trappings such as the Mass [[vestment]]s, altar, and candles were made optional, allowing freedom of ceremony.<ref>Brecht, 2:256; Mullett, 183.</ref> Some reformers, including followers of [[Huldrych Zwingli]], considered Luther's service too papistic, and modern scholars note the conservatism of his alternative to the Catholic Mass.<ref>Brecht, 2:256; Bainton, Mentor edition, 265β266.</ref> Luther's service, however, included congregational singing of hymns and psalms in German, as well as parts of the liturgy, including Luther's unison setting of the [[Apostles' Creed|Creed]].<ref>Brecht, 2:256; Bainton, Mentor edition, 269β270.</ref> To reach the simple people and the young, Luther incorporated religious instruction into the weekday services in the form of catechism.<ref>Brecht, 2:256β57.</ref> He also provided simplified versions of the baptism and marriage services.<ref>Brecht, 2:258.</ref> Luther and his colleagues introduced the new order of worship during their visitation of the Electorate of Saxony, which began in 1527.<ref>Brecht, 2:263.</ref> They also assessed the standard of pastoral care and Christian education in the territory. "Merciful God, what misery I have seen," Luther writes, "the common people knowing nothing at all of Christian doctrine ... and unfortunately many pastors are well-nigh unskilled and incapable of teaching."<ref>Mullett, 186. Quoted from Luther's preface to the ''Small Catechism'', 1529; MacCulloch, 165.</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page