BREAKING NEWS: “Lucia’s Renaissance Christmas,” my new holiday short story, is now out as a Kindle ebook:
Renaissance Venice at Christmas time—what could be more festive and exciting for Lucia, a fresh-faced newcomer?
But she sees her father’s grief and vows to bring joy back into his life. Then her own heartache erupts, and all of Venice’s scenic canals and spectacular churches can’t dispel her sorrow. How can Lucia find joy to share in this holiday season?
If you’d like to learn more about Lucia’s Renaissance and my writing process, please take a look: http://www.theindieview.com/2018/01/11/indieview-with-c-l-r-peterson-author-of-lucias-renaissance/
I’m delighted to announce that my debut novel, Lucia’s Renaissance, will launch tomorrow, October 24th, as an eBook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076GKJY2V
The paperback version is also now available on Amazon.
What does this novel have to do with Martin Luther and the Reformation?
Without Luther, the Reformation wouldn’t have happened when and as it did.
Without Luther’s writings, Pope Paul III wouldn’t have set up the Roman Inquisition to rid his land of heresy and heretics.
Because these events happened, Lucia faced a dangerous dilemma when she discovered Luther’s book.
Welcome to Lucia’s Renaissance—I hope you enjoy it!
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 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?
