Publisher's Synopsis
In 1522 Martin Luther delivered two sermons in the Weimar castle church from which originated his treatise On Temporal Authority (1523). This theological impulse and the reforms of the territorial sovereign in Weimar had a sustainable social and political impact on the 16th century Reformation. The influence of Luther's doctrine of temporal authority expresses itself not only in the early development of an institutional regional church but also in taking responsibility for education, welfare and poor relief. The book spans an arch from the foundation of the doctrine of temporal authority in Weimar up to its impacts on the modern age with its specific issues.
