Using primarily non-Catholic sources, O'Hare details assiduously the historic facts about Luther, his teachings, and the ever-splintering, disunited Protestant world he fathered. The real Luther is exposed through his writings, sermons, and letters, along with the testimony of his pupils, close friends, contemporaries, and Protestant biographers. Most of the common beliefs about Luther are blown away, revealed convincingly as myths made of the sands of romanticism and propaganda.

THE FACTS ABOUT LUTHER examines the life, thought and work of Martin Luther (1483-1546) to correct the misperceptions that many have of him and his work. Msgr. Patrick O'Hare analyzes the available record, written mostly by Protestant writers, developing this masterful, popularly written critique to set the record straight. Because Luther is the "Father of Protestantism," THE FACTS ABOUT LUTHER deserves the serious attention of every believing, Bible-reading person of whatever persuasion.

Using primarily non-Catholic sources, O'Hare details assiduously the historic facts about Luther, his teachings, and the ever-splintering, disunited Protestant world he fathered. The real Luther is exposed through his writings, sermons, and letters, along with the testimony of his pupils, close friends, contemporaries, and Protestant biographers. Most of the common beliefs about Luther are blown away, revealed convincingly as myths made of the sands of romanticism and propaganda.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1916 edition. Excerpt: ...which as a student in Erfurt he knew was held in high esteem and which as a monk and priest he was obliged by rule to have known, studied and recited for years? To maintain that Luther knew not and could not find any Bibles except the one he was supposed to discover as librarian of his convent, is to brand him as a liar. It is interesting now to recall what Zwingle, the Swiss Reformer, who made many false boasts for himself, once said to Luther: "You are unjust in putting forth the boastful claim of dragging the Bible from beneath the dusty benches of the schools. You forget that we have gained a knowledge of the Scriptures through the translations of others. You are very well aware, with all your blustering, that previously to your time there existed a host of scholars who, in Biblical knowledge and philological attainments, were incomparably your superiors." (Alzog. Ill, 49.) The Catholic Church reigned supreme for more than fifteen hundred years before Luther introduced his special conception of the Bible. During this long period the Church had it in her power to do with the Bible what she pleased. Had she hated it she could easily have dragged into the light of day every copy then in existence, and were she so disposed could have destroyed and reduced all to ashes. But did she do this? The truth is that the Catholic Church, ruled by the Pope, instead of getting rid of the Bible, saved, preserved, and guarded it all through the centuries from its institution and formation into one volume in 397 A. D., to the sixteenth century. All along she employed her clergy to multiply it in the Greek and Hebrew languages, and to translate it into Latin and the common tongues of every Christian nation that all might read and learn and know...

A biography of Martin Luther, a German monk, who led the Protestant Reformation in Europe during the sixteenth century.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Metaxas is a scrupulous chronicler and has an eye for a good story. . . . full, instructive, and pacey.” —The Washington Post From #1 New York Times bestselling author Eric Metaxas comes a brilliant and inspiring biography of the most influential man in modern history, Martin Luther, in time for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation On All Hallow’s Eve in 1517, a young monk named Martin Luther posted a document he hoped would spark an academic debate, but that instead ignited a conflagration that would forever destroy the world he knew. Five hundred years after Luther’s now famous Ninety-five Theses appeared, Eric Metaxas, acclaimed biographer of the bestselling Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy and Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery, paints a startling portrait of the wild figure whose adamantine faith cracked the edifice of Western Christendom and dragged medieval Europe into the future. Written in riveting prose and impeccably researched, Martin Luther tells the searing tale of a humble man who, by bringing ugly truths to the highest seats of power, caused the explosion whose sound is still ringing in our ears. Luther’s monumental faith and courage gave birth to the ideals of liberty, equality, and individualism that today lie at the heart of all modern life.

It is an accepted conclusion nowadays among the best students of the Protestant Rebellion of the sixteenth century that there are "two Luthers-the Luther of panegyric, of romance, and fiction, and the Luther of history and fact. The former appears in the pulpit, in the Sunday school, and in partisan biographies; the latter may be discovered from a careful study of his writings and those of his contemporaries, but above all from his private letters, of which former devotees of Luther would only publish what they thought to his credit, garbling or suppressing the rest." These words, quoted from a rare little tract on Luther, written nearly thirty years ago by a Prelate of the Church, who was one of the foremost Reformation scholars of that day, may well serve as the keynote of this present work with its powerful contrasts between the Luther of fact and the Luther of fiction. They also sum up the result of all the studies made in the life and works of Martin Luther since the last great international celebration of 1883-the four hundredth anniversary of his birth at Eisleben. There are many who still remember the interest and zeal evidenced by the Protestant churches throughout Christendom, when that fourth centenary was given a world-wide recognition. It was a celebration with far-reaching effects; with fatal effects, indeed, for the hero-worship so dear to Luther's followers. In Germany, especially, scholars and publishers vied with one another in acclaiming him as the man to whom the modern world owed most, if not all, of its present liberty. He was hailed as the restorer of the truer evangelical life, as the spiritual liberator of the human race; and from that time down to the present, no ordinary reader has been able to keep pace with the output of Lutheran literature.Let us consider some of Luther's attitudes towards the Bible: "Of the Pentateuch he says: "We have no wish either to see or hear Moses." "Judith is a good, serious, brave tragedy." "Tobias is an elegant, pleasing, godly comedy." "Ecclesiasticus is a profitable book for an ordinary man." ... "Esdras I would not translate, because there is nothing in it which you might not find better in Aesop." "Job spoke not as it stands written in his book; but only had such thoughts. It is merely the argument of a fable. It is probable that Solomon wrote and made this book." ... "The book of Esther I toss into the Elbe. I am such an enemy to the book of Esther that I wish it did not exist, for it Judaizes too much and has in it a great deal of heathenish naughtiness." "The history of Jonah is so monstrous that it is absolutely incredible." ... He says: "The first three (Gospels) speak of the works of Our Lord rather than of his oral teachings: that of St. John is the only sympathetic, the only true Gospel and should be undoubtedly preferred to the others. In like manner the Epistles of St. Peter and St. Paul are superior to the first three Gospels." The Epistle to the Hebrews did not suit him. "It need not surprise one to find here," he says, "bits of wood, hay and straw." The Epistle of St. James, Luther denounced as "an epistle of straw." "I do not hold it," he said, "to be his writing, and 1 cannot place it among the capital books.'· He did this because it proclaimed the necessity of good works contrary to his heresy. "There are many things objectionable in this book," he says of the Apocalypse; "to my mind it bears upon it no marks of an apostolic or prophetic character .... Every one may form his own judgment of this book; as for myself, I feel an aversion to it, and to me this is sufficient reason for rejecting it.""