Luther: Protestant Reformer

Protestant educators continued to reserve the prestigious classical humanist preparatory and secondary schools for upper-class boys. Preparatory and secondary schools, such as the German gymnasium, the English Latin grammar school, and the French lycée, prepared upper-class boys in the classical Latin and Greek languages needed for university entry. The members of this male elite were prepared for leadership roles in the church and state.

Many strong personalities such as Calvin, Zwingli, Ignatius Loyola, and Henry VIII were leaders of the Protestant Reformation and the Roman Catholic CounterReformation. Martin Luther was a leading German Protestant reformer, whose influence extended throughout northern Europe.

3-10a luther: Protestant reformer

Martin Luther (1483–1546) stands out as one of the most important religious reformers in shaping Western history and education.68 Luther, an Augustinian monk, posted his famous Ninety-Five Theses on the door of the castle church at Wittenberg in 1517 as a challenge to the authority of the pope and the Roman Catholic Church.

Luther saw the church, state, family, and school as interrelated agencies of education. Believing the family had a key role in forming the character of children, Luther encouraged family Bible reading and prayer. He wanted parents to provide their children with vocational training so they could support themselves as adults and become productive citizens.

Luther’s “Letter to the Mayors and Aldermen of All the Cities of Germany in Behalf of Christian Schools” held public officials responsible for supporting and supervising schools. Government should support schools because they promoted civil order, economic growth, and religious values.69 State officials should inspect schools to ensure teachers were educating children in correct religious doctrines and preparing them to become literate, orderly, and productive citizens. Higher education in the gymnasien (German secondary schools) and universities were to prepare well-educated ministers for the Lutheran Church.

Luther’s views on women’s education blended traditional gender roles with some more open ideas. Influenced by Saint Paul, he believed the husband, as the head of the

68Biographies of Luther are James A. Nestigen, Martin Luther: A Life (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg, 2003); Fredrick Nohl, Luther: Biography of a Reformer (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2003); Michael A. Mullett, Martin Luther (New York: Routledge, 2015); Stephen T. Nichols, The Reformation: How a Monk and a Mallet Changed the World (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2007); and Heiko A. Oberman, Luther: Man Between God and the Devil (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006). 69For a biographical sketch, a commentary on Luther’s educational ideas, and an excerpt from his “Letter to the Mayors and Aldermen of All the Cities of Germany in Behalf of Christian Schools,” see Madonna M. Murphy, The History and Philosophy of Education: Voices of Educational Pioneers (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill/Prentice Hall, 2006), pp. 143–149.

timeline

the refOrmatiOn

t o . c om o Steven W ynn / i S t ock p h 1517 Luther posts “ninety-Five theses” in Wittenberg

1519 Zwingli begins preaching religious reform in Geneva 1520 Luther’s Treatises to Christian Nobility published 1521 Catholic Church excommunicates Luther

1534 Henry VIII declared head of Church of England