The epigraph shown above is taken from one sermon of eight called the Lenten Sermons, delivered by Martin Luther in 1522, the leading reformer of the church in Germany, during the sixteenth century, in which lead to the reformation. The Lenten Sermon epigraph will be used to explore and examine the themes of authority, and how such authority was challenged during the German Protestant Reformation. Firstly, this essay will be exploring background evidence that lead to Luther writing such a sermon, this will help to give the quotation context. Moreover, looking more closely at the whole text including the epigraph, and using it as a discussion point, it will more clearly identify as to what degree it challenged authority. Moving onto the reasons these sermons were written and weather their achieved their aims. Luther himself started a chain of events that would bring …show more content…
Moreover, other sources of authority start to become apparent; even Luther himself for being the founder of the German Reformation and becoming a springboard for such characters to come into play, which lead to the Lenten sermons being written. Luther would start the reformation in Wittenberg, Germany during 1517, nailing 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church, against the authority of the Catholic Church and it’s use of ‘images’ in which Luther considered to be iconoclastic. Here Luther uses not a person of influence to further his cause but a building. Its stature probably being the second most important building after churches themselves, brings connotations of grandeur, strength and authority to any population within Europe. Luther would develop further polemical writings against the Catholic church in