Martin Eleutherius — which means “Martin, the free man” — is how Martin Luther signed his name for a while. Hellenizing names, modeling them after Greek words, was the fashion among young scholars who had been influenced by humanism, a movement characterized by a renewed interest in the ancient writers of Greece and Rome.

The most important representative of humanism in Northern Europe was Desiderius Erasmus. Born in the Netherlands, Erasmus had studied in Paris and Turin, lectured in Cambridge and worked for a publisher in Basel. He was a man of the world and a prolific scholar. Like Luther, he had criticized abuses in the Roman Catholic Church, but Erasmus had a different understanding of Christianity altogether.

Pressured by the pope, Erasmus (who saw Christianity as an ethical philosophy for which dogma was unimportant) attacked Luther for denying free will. Luther’s response, Bondage of the Will, clearly articulates the sinner’s complete dependence upon God’s grace.

The Reformation was about more than humanism’s academic freedom; it was about freedom from the bondage of sin in Christ.

For more information, attend Sunday services at St. Paul’s in Fredonia, Immanuel in Gowanda or Trinity in Silver Creek.

See more at: http://lutheranreformation.org.