by CLR Peterson | Sep 9, 2017 | Martin Luther, Reformation, Renaissance
Leo X, by Raffael, Wikimedia
In a 1520 letter to Pope Leo, Martin Luther said he was not so foolish as to attack Pope Leo X, whom everybody praises.
How did this cultured Renaissance pope and patron of the arts become Luther’s archenemy?
Giovanni de’ Medici (the future Leo X) took after his father, Florence’s Lorenzo the Magnificent, who appreciated and bankrolled art and culture. Giovanni’s family funneled him into the religious life at the age of eight, and he became a cardinal at the age of seventeen. In 1513, when Giovanni was only thirty-seven, the College of Cardinals elected this peace-loving cardinal as pope.
Now the new Pope Leo X could spend the Church’s resources, as well as his family’s, to finish renovating St. Peter’s basilica in Rome, as well as funding the expansion of the Vatican Library’s collections and the arts.
But Leo soon ran out of money for these projects. He encouraged the sale of indulgences, promoted to commoners as a way to speed the passage of dead souls to heaven.
When indulgence sellers came to German lands in 1517, Martin Luther protested this practice in his 95 Theses.
Pope Leo didn’t take Luther’s criticisms seriously, perhaps because he was so far removed from the common people. If he had embraced church reform (as many in the Roman Church had hoped), perhaps the Church wouldn’t have split, the Peasant Revolt wouldn’t have happend, the 30 Years’ War wouldn’t have killed six million people, and Leo X would be remembered as a reformer instead of a pleasure-loving spendthrift.
What do you think? Could Pope Leo X have prevented the Reformation?
by CLR Peterson | Aug 25, 2017 | 500th anniversary, Martin Luther, Reformation
Luther Sites
Which location has ties to the Reformation?
Germany is the obvious answer, with many cities and towns where Luther lived and traveled (Eisleben, Erfurt, Wittenberg, Worms, and Coburg, to name a few). Although Germany celebrates and hosts the Reformation’s 500th anniversary, the movement to reform or move away from the Church of Rome extended far beyond the borders of what is today a single nation.
A visit to every site connected with the Reformation or earlier reform movements would also take you to these locations:
- France (the Cathars in the southwest; and Strasbourg, with Martin Bucer and followers)
- Czech Republic (Jan Huss and followers)
- Northern Italy (the Waldensians)
- Switzerland (Zurich—Huldrych Zwingli and followers; and Geneva—Jean Calvin and followers)
- Scotland (John Knox and followers)
- England (begun under King Henry VIII)
- Sweden (begun by the Petri brothers)
If you plan to make a complete Reformation tour, you’ll have the pleasure of visiting all these places. Enjoy!
If you’ve visited some of these sites, which were most meaningful to you?
by CLR Peterson | Aug 9, 2017 | Erasmus, Martin Luther, Reformation
Erasmus of Rotterdam, by Hans Holbein, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2319
When Desiderius Erasmus, a Dutch scholar and former monk, wrote The Praise of Folly in 1509, he satirized his world and called on bishops and popes to follow the example of Christ.
The young Martin Luther may have seen Erasmus as a kindred spirit in his call for reform of the Church. After Erasmus published a new Latin translation of the New Testament in 1516, Luther appreciated the Dutch scholar even more.
Now Erasmus was the world’s most famous scholar, and watched the Reformation unfold after Luther’s posting of his 95 Theses.
Erasmus wrote “Luther is so great that I shall not write against him. I hope that all the tumult Luther has stirred up will, like a drastic medicine, somehow bring about the health of the Church.”
But Erasmus and Luther parted ways in the conflicts about religious doctrine. In his 1524 The Freedom of the Will, Erasmus insisted that humans have free will to choose between good and evil.
Luther replied in his 1525 On the Bondage of the Will that humans have free will in all non-spiritual matters, but after the Fall of Man, can’t choose to please God.
Their disagreements escalated. Eventually Luther wrote that Erasmus was “the worst foe of Christ that has arisen in the last thousand years.”
When monks accused him of “laying the egg that Luther hatched,” Erasmus replied that he had expected “quite another kind of bird.” Erasmus had hoped for peace and a purified Church. He remained loyal even when the Church resisted reform—refusing the path of Luther and the Reformation movement.
Was Erasmus guilty as charged?
by CLR Peterson | Jul 29, 2017 | Johannes Gutenberg, Martin Luther, Reformation, Renaissance
By de Larmessin – Scanned from “Die großen Deutschen im Bilde” (1936) by Michael Schönitzer, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5017455
Johannes Gutenberg began his life in 1400 as a merchant’s youngest son in Mainz, yet by the time he died in 1468, even the pope knew his reputation—all because this goldsmith found a way to print using movable type. His journey to fame came painstakingly slowly (detailed by Alix Christie in her novel, Gutenberg’s Apprentice).
Gutenberg decided to print Bibles as his first priority (for both spiritual and financial reasons), but the printing press also led to many other accessible, relatively affordable books that nurtured the Italian Renaissance.
By Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg – http://go.distance.ncsu.edu/gd203/?p=3328, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37415152
Yet perhaps the greatest impact of Gutenberg’s invention came more than half a century later, when Martin Luther’s deft harnessing of the printing press enabled his message to spread quickly to sympathizers (creating a vast audience) as well as enemies (who would have happily silenced Luther’s voice).
Would the printing industry have mushroomed without Luther’s prolific writing and the Roman Church’s responses? Not likely; the relationship between Luther and the printing press proved mutually beneficial (as Andrew Pettegree points out in Brand Luther).
Without the printing press, would the Reformation have taken place in the sixteenth century? When might the printing industry have developed if not for Martin Luther’s calls for church reform?
by CLR Peterson | Jul 20, 2017 | 500th anniversary, Martin Luther, Reformation, Renaissance
Book printer, 1568, Jost Amman – “Eygentliche Beschreibung aller Stände auff Erden, hoher und nidriger, geistlicher und weltlicher, aller Künsten, Handwercken und Händeln …”, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=207246
Editor’s note: blog posts will alternate between 1) the lead-up to the Reformation and 2) the Reformation’s 500th anniversary. Today we begin with resources related to the Reformation’s 500th anniversary.
October 31 1517: Martin Luther and the Day that Changed the World, by Martin E. Marty, Paraclete Press, 2016 (focus on Luther’s significance and the ecumenical movement)
http://lutheranreformation.org/history/ (website dedicated to Reformation’s 500th anniversary, many topics and events)
Brand Luther, by Andrew Pettegree. Penguin Random House, 2016. (about Luther’s use of the printing press)
Here I Walk: A Thousand Miles on Foot to Rome With Martin Luther, by Andrew L. Wilson. Brazos Press, 2016 (the recent travel narrative of a couple who tried to follow Luther’s route)
Luther and the Reformation, video production by Rick Steves https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/video/tv-show/tv-specials/luther
“This week’s best radio: Martin Luther and the Reformation,” https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/apr/29/david-hepworth-radio-preview-martin-luther-reformation (UK radio programs about the Reformation; can be downloaded)
Art exhibit on Luther’s 95 Theses: http://www.dw.com/en/martin-luthers-influence-told-through-95-treasures-and-95-people/a-38843358
Luther and Katharina: A Novel of Love and Rebellion, by Jody Hedlund. Waterbrook Multnomah, 2015 (fictionalized romance of Martin Luther and Katharina von Bora)
“Luther is famous, but we know little about him,” http://www.dw.com/en/luther-is-famous-but-we-know-little-about-him/a-37907857 (German article about Luther)
“Reading the Reformation in 2017,” by Bruce Gordon, Christianity Today, Jan/Feb 2017, pp. 47-51 (review article about recent Reformation-related books)
What are your favorite not-too-heavy Reformation 500 resources?
by CLR Peterson | Jul 17, 2017 | Martin Luther, Reformation, Renaissance
John Wycliffe at work, unknown artist, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6606616
In England, John Wycliffe translated the Bible into English in 1382, and insisted the scriptures, not the pope, should have authority over the Christian church. He also attacked the sale of indulgences, certain Church doctrines, and the clergy’s immorality and privileges. After years of speaking out, he lost his position at Oxford. Although he died of natural causes, the Church Council of Constance ordered his writings and his bones burned in 1428.
Jan Hus, by Christoph Murer 1587 – Selbstgefertigter Scan eines Holzschnitts aus eigenem Bildarchiv, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32617482
In the early 1400s in Bohemia, Jan Hus preached that the Bible should be the authority for the Church, and spoke out against the pope’s use of indulgences. His protest lasted until 1415, when he was burned at the stake.
Girolamo Savonarola, by Fra Bartolomeo, Public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8691361
At the height of the Italian Renaissance, a monk named Savonarola stirred up the people of Florence, preaching Christian renewal, condemning vanities, and prophesying glory for the city-state. At the peak of the monk’s influence, Florentines expelled their rulers and threw their precious books and paintings onto bonfires, but in 1498, Savonarola himself was burned.
These three men, as well as many others, shared Martin Luther’s concern for a purified Church that wouldn’t contaminate God’s truth—but didn’t live to see it happen.
Martin Luther, too felt the heat of persecution at his heels. Why did he survive and found a reform movement that changed not only religion, but history, throughout Europe and beyond?
In real estate, location is everything, and Luther had the advantage of residing in German lands, far from the pope. More than that, he had an agile mind for theology and a publicist’s eye to use the recently-invented printing press to build support, and a protector (Frederick the Wise) who resisted the pope’s control of Frederick’s territory.
Luther’s success relied on more than the coincidence of chance factors, but that’s a topic for the future.
Why do you think Luther’s Reformation succeeded?
*Editor’s note: many contemporaries referred to these individuals as heroes, but this writer doesn’t endorse everything they said and did.
