Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr.

• http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2015/01/19/martin-luther-king-speeches

Two RevolutionariesMartin Luther d. 1546

Protest Against Catholic Church

Martin Luther King, Jr. d. 1968Protest Against US Government

Consequences of Martin Luther’s protest against

the Catholic Church (The Reformation)

1. The Reformation 1517-1546

• Movement to “reform” the Church by eliminating corruption and abuse of Church authority

• Catholic Church loses authority and power

2. Protestantism• Christian groups break away from the Catholic

Church: Lutheranism, Calvinism, Protestantism, Anglican Church of England (Episcopalian), Methodism, Quakers, Puritans, Fundamentalists, Evangelicals, etc.

• Individuals are in direct relationship to God (church is not an intermediary) through prayer

• The Bible, not church authorities, is the source of truth; printing press makes Bible accessible to all; more people are learning to read and decide for themselves what to believe

3. The Thirty Years War 1618-1648

Countries in Europe take sides for the Catholic Church and Against the Catholic Church Countries in Europe militarize quickly:

– develop new weapons and battle strategies, raise national armies (“military revolution”)

– find new ways to raise money for war (“fiscal revolution”)

Decades of ultraviolence are largely directed against unarmed

citizens by armies of “mercenaries” (paid soldiers)

“The war was largely fought on German soil and reduced the country to desolation as hordes of mercenaries, left unpaid by their masters, lived off the land. Rapine, pillage and famine stalked the countryside as armies marched about, plundering towns, villages and farms as they went. ‘We live like animals, eating bark and grass,’ says a pitiful entry in a family Bible from a Swabian village. ‘No one could have imagined that anything like this would happen to us. Many people say that there is no God...’

Wenceslas Hollar recorded devastation in the war zone in engravings of the 1630s and starvation reached such a point in the Rhineland that there were cases of cannibalism. The horror became a way of life and when the war finally ended, the mercenaries and their womenfolk complained that their livelihood was gone.”

http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/treaty-westphalia#sthash.9BT0Gwah.dpuf

4. Peace of Westphalia 1648• War ends in the Treaty of Westphalia, in which

European countries may decide it they are Protestant (allegiance to King) or Catholic (Allegiance to Pope)

– The dream of a Roman Catholic Empire (religious rule) is dead.

– The idea of the Nation-State (secular rule) is born.

5. The “Enlightenment” OR“Power to the People”

If people are to think for themselves and govern themselves…certain questions must be asked:

What is our nature as humans? (Good, bad, violent, peaceful, selfish, generous, savage, civilized, rational or irrational)?Do we need leaders and laws (government)?Who should govern, and how?What type of government should we have?