# Catholics opinion of Martin Luther and the reformation
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-opinion-of-martin-luther-and-the-reformation/611442
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [February 1, 2012, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-opinion-of-martin-luther-and-the-reformation/611442 "2012-02-01T18:12:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2012, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-opinion-of-martin-luther-and-the-reformation/611442/1 "2012-02-01T18:12:37Z")
I am curious about what modern Catholics think of the Martin Luther and the reformation. I am primarily interested in what is the official position of the church and in getting a feel for the spectrum of the rank and file Catholics, but Catholic dopers who want to chime in with personal opinions are welcome.
I imagine that they run the gamut between. “It was overall a good thing because it led to much needed reformation within the mother church, even if the schism it caused was unfortunate” to “Martin Luther was a tool of satan whose actions led millions of followers away from the one true faith. It was the worst event since the crucifixion of Jesus.”
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### Author:  [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2012, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-opinion-of-martin-luther-and-the-reformation/611442/2 "2012-02-01T18:33:38Z")
My view of Luther’s actions had always been that while the schism was unfortunate, and the wars it spawned were horrible, it was a necessary step to reform a number of abuses within the church.
Having said that, I tend to have a fairly negative view of the man, based on both his [antisemitism](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther#Anti-Judaism_and_antisemitism), and the way that he stabbed the [Bauerkrieg](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther#Peasants.27_War) in the back. At the very least, his comments at that time seem to me to be utterly contradictory with his own actions vis-a-vis Rome. These are both, however, reactions of a modern, educated person, who is steeped in the thinking of the primacy of individual conscience that is probably the single greatest legacy of Luther in the modern world. Without Luther’s thinking, the Reformation that he started, and the traditions that came from the various religious and philosophical movements that followed, it seems unlikely that I’d have the habits of thought to produce that condemnation.
Martin Luther is a great historical figure, with all that entails: admirable acts and traits mixed inextricably with troubling, and even vile, ones.
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### Author:  [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2012, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-opinion-of-martin-luther-and-the-reformation/611442/3 "2012-02-01T20:35:05Z")
Martin Luther had PROBLEMS.
~VOW
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2012, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-opinion-of-martin-luther-and-the-reformation/611442/4 "2012-02-01T20:53:27Z")
> [@VOW](#):
>
> Martin Luther had PROBLEMS.
> ~VOW
Jay-Z had four more than Luther.
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### Author:  [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2012, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-opinion-of-martin-luther-and-the-reformation/611442/5 "2012-02-01T21:57:05Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#):
>
> Jay-Z had four more than Luther.
Jay-Z is constipated, too?
~VOW
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2012, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-opinion-of-martin-luther-and-the-reformation/611442/6 "2012-02-01T22:00:50Z")
> [@VOW](#):
>
> Jay-Z is constipated, too?
> ~VOW
Is that why he ended up nailing his feces to the door?
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2012, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-opinion-of-martin-luther-and-the-reformation/611442/7 "2012-02-02T03:46:02Z")
Having grown up Catholic, the impression I got was that Luther started out with good intentions to clean up what he saw as corruption of the Church’s teachings, but then went way overboard.
Of course, now that I go to a Lutheran church, I’m learning that Luther grabbed all of Christianity as it was going off the rails and single-handedly pointed it back to the way to true salvation.
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### Author:  [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2012, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-opinion-of-martin-luther-and-the-reformation/611442/8 "2012-02-02T04:14:08Z")
[The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification](http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/documents/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_31101999_cath-luth-joint-declaration_en.html) by the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church, solved a lot of the purely theological issues and clarified the differences.
No unity in sight, but since Justification was the key problem, we can now smile a bit more.
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### Author:  [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2012, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-opinion-of-martin-luther-and-the-reformation/611442/9 "2012-02-02T04:31:28Z")
My prevailing attitude for most of my parochial education was, “That’s nice.”
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### Author:  [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2012, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholics-opinion-of-martin-luther-and-the-reformation/611442/10 "2012-02-02T05:32:05Z")
> [@VOW](#):
>
> Martin Luther had PROBLEMS.
> ~VOW
His anti-Semitism was typical for his time and his views on Muslims were quite enlightened even today.