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| Luther translated the Bible into German to make it more accessible to the common people, a task he began alone in 1521 during his stay in the Wartburg castle, publishing The New Testament in September 1522 and, in collaboration with Johannes Bugenhagen, Justus Jonas, Caspar Creuziger, Philipp Melanchthon, Matthäus Aurogallus, and George Rörer, the whole Bible in 1534. He worked on refining the translation for the rest of his life. The Luther Bible contributed to the emergence of the modern German language and is regarded as a landmark in German literature. The 1534 edition was also profoundly influential on William Tyndale's translation,<ref><cite>Tyndale's New Testament</cite>, xv, xxvii.</ref> a precursor of the King James Bible.<ref name = "Tyndale" /> | | Luther translated the Bible into German to make it more accessible to the common people, a task he began alone in 1521 during his stay in the Wartburg castle, publishing The New Testament in September 1522 and, in collaboration with Johannes Bugenhagen, Justus Jonas, Caspar Creuziger, Philipp Melanchthon, Matthäus Aurogallus, and George Rörer, the whole Bible in 1534. He worked on refining the translation for the rest of his life. The Luther Bible contributed to the emergence of the modern German language and is regarded as a landmark in German literature. The 1534 edition was also profoundly influential on William Tyndale's translation,<ref><cite>Tyndale's New Testament</cite>, xv, xxvii.</ref> a precursor of the King James Bible.<ref name = "Tyndale" /> |
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| =='''Liturgy and Church Government'''==
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| Martin Luther’s German Mass<ref>The German title of this work is ''Deutsche Messe''. See the full text in image format at Martin Luther, [http://www.pitts.emory.edu/dia/1526LuthRBook/DM1.cfm <cite>Deutsche Messe und Ordnung Gottesdienst</cite>] (Wittenberg, Germany: N.P., 1526).</ref> of 1526 provided for weekday services and for catechetical instruction. He strongly objected, however, to making a new law of the forms and urged the retention of other good liturgies. Luther, while eliminating and condemning those parts of the Roman Catholic Mass indicating the Eucharist was a propitiatory sacrifice and the Body and Blood of Christ by transubstantiation,<ref name = "Herzog73"><cite>Schaff-Herzog, [http://www.ccel.org/php/disp.php?authorID=schaff&bookID=encyc07&page=73&view= “Luther, Martin],” 73.</ref> retained the use of an eastward altar, stole, chasuble and alb. However, Luther is reported to have said, that later on, more changes would have to be made to the liturgy, which during his lifetime would still have offended the faithful people.
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| The gradual transformation of the administration of baptism was accomplished in the <cite>Baptismal Booklet</cite><ref>German title is: <cite>Taufbüchlein</cite>, 1523, 1526.</ref><ref name = "Herzog73" />. In May, 1525, the first Evangelical ordination took place at Wittenberg. “Luther had long since rejected the Roman Catholic sacrament of ordination, and had replaced it by a simple calling to the service of preaching and the administration of the sacraments. The laying-on of hands with prayer in a solemn congregational service was considered a fitting human rite.”<ref name = "Herzog73" />
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| To fill the vacuum of the lack of higher ecclesiastical authority — few bishops in the German lands embraced Luther’s doctrine — “as early as 1525… [Luther] held that the secular authorities should take part in the administration of the Church, [by] making appointments to ecclesiastical office and directing visitations” of clergy and churches. These tasks were not inherent powers of the “secular authorities as such, and Luther gladly would have had them vested in an evangelical episcopate” had a larger number of bishops become evangelicals.<ref name = "Herzog73" /> “He… declared in 1542 that the Evangelical princes themselves ‘must be necessity-bishops,’” and envisioned ecclesiastical powers being exercised in congregational meetings of Christians,<ref name = "Herzog74"><cite>Schaff-Herzog</cite>, [http://www.ccel.org/php/disp.php?authorID=schaff&bookID=encyc07&page=74&view= "Luther, Martin"], 74.</ref><ref>Martin Luther, "To Nicholas Hausmann [Wittenberg,] March 29, 1527," Tr. Gottfried G. Krodel, in <cite>Luther's Works</cite> ed. Gottfried G. Krodel (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1972), 49:161–164; Original text found at <cite>Weimar Ausgabe Briefwechsel</cite>, 4:180–181. Hereafter cited in notes as <cite>WABr</cite>.</ref> "but [he] determined to be guided by the course of events and to wait until parishes and schools were provided with the proper persons." The discoveries of the Saxon visitation (1527–29) showed that parishes and schools were not ready for such responsiblity, necessitating the retention of ecclesiastical forms as they were at the beginning of the Reformation.<ref name = "Herzog74" />
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| Melanchthon's ''Instruction for the Visitors of Parish Pastors''<ref>The German title of this work is <cite>Unterricht der Visitatoren an die Pfarrherrn<cite>.</ref> facilitated the Saxon visitation. The visitation accordingly took place in 1527–29, "Luther wrote the preface to Melanchthon's Unterricht der Visitatoren an die Pfarrherrn, and acted as a visitor in one of the districts after October, 1528, while, as a result of his observations, he wrote both his catechisms in 1529. At the same time he took the keenest interest in education, conferring with Georg Spalatin in 1524 on plans for a school system, and declared that it was the duty of the civil authorities to provide schools and to see that parents sent their children to them. He also advocated the establishment of elementary schools for the instruction of girls."<ref name = "Herzog74" />
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| In the meantime, Lutheran churches in Scandinavia and many of the Baltic States, as well as the Moravians, continued to maintain the Historic Episcopate and apostolic succession, even though they had adopted Luther's anti-papal theology.
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