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/
More questions? Contact me in the comments.
Enjoyable afternoon at an event celebrating my book launch
Book launch event, 11/19/19
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!
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 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?
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?