History
Book Club, Rockport, MA
Wednesday,
October 28, 2015
Show Trials in History
Luther
before the Diet of Worms
MARTIN
LUTHER DEFENDS HIS THESES
BEFORE
THE EMPEROR AT THE DIET OF WORMS
Beard,
Charles, Martin Luther and the Reformation in Germany until the close of the
Diet of Worms, by Charles Beard (1827-1888) Edited by John Frederick Smith
((1869-1923); 1896, Philip Green: London, UK; 490 pp.
Martin Luther (1483-1546) was
an Augustinian friar and priest who is credited with nailing his “Ninety-five
theses” on the door of Schloßkirche in Wittenberg, a city on the Elbe River
east of Hamburg, 498 years ago this Hallowe'en. (Oct. 31, 1517).
Recent
scholarship has questioned that he actually nailed these writings on the door,
but he certainly got the attention of the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope at
that time, Leo X, who in 1520 demanded him to retract them. He refused, and the
next year, 1521, he was summoned to a trial at the Diet in Worms, on the banks
of the Rhine River. The Diet was what might later have been called a “Show
Trial”. Convened by Emperor Charles V,
it was intended to show the German people that Martin Luther would get a fair
hearing before they sacked him for heresy.
Martin
Luther’s father expected him to become a lawyer, but young Martin was determined
to become a priest. He became an Augustinian friar, then a priest, then a
teacher and a doctor of philosophy.
The
start of the 16th century must have been a fascinating time in
Germany. The Renaissance was in full swing.
After Gutenberg developed the printing press with moveable type about
1450, printing presses popped up everywhere.
Every city in Germany had several of them, and they were cranking out
books at breakneck speed.
Just
like today, when the internet has made all the world’s information so amazingly
available, the printing press made it possible for anyone who could read to
learn. More and more people learned to
read. No longer would people be content
with having the village priest tell them what was what. Where before the people
depended upon the clergy to interpret the Bible, which was available only in
elegantly crafted Latin manuscripts, and in Hebrew and Greek, now it could be
translated into German, and other modern languages, and distributed widely.
In
1516 Luther was thoroughly entrenched in the Schloßkirche in Wittenberg, when
the Archbishop of Mainz sent him on a journey to Rome to argue against a new
edict about selling indulgences. When
Luther arrived in Rome he saw a truly different Catholic church than that home
in Germany. Young priests were cavorting around the Eternal City, the
atmosphere in the church was one of “anything goes” and the Pope had established
a way of financing the church by the sale of indulgences. For a fee, you could buy your way out of your
sins. For another fee you could pay to
have departed loved ones sprung from purgatory.
Wherever
he looked in Rome, Luther saw a church run by lunatics. Many priests had girlfriends and sex was open
and rampant. When he returned to Wittenberg, Luther began preparing an
intellectual dissertation against this departure of the Church from the ways of
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This became the “95 theses”.
Today
we can see how a great Church can come disconnected from its origin because we
have just witnessed the worldwide scandal of hundreds of priests who have used
their office to abuse children; of church leaders who have condoned this behavior,
and covered it up. It is so easy for any
person, or any organization, to lose its bearings.
Professor
Beard’s book takes us slowly and carefully through the life of the Roman
Catholic Church in Germany in the 15th and 16th
centuries, as well as the life of Martin Luther, growing into his role as a
very observant, intelligent priest.
Germany, or the various kingdoms and electorates, for Germany was not
united, contained a people who were very loyal to the Church. They were
hard-working, just as loyal to their leadership, and they were experiencing new
prosperity in many sectors.
Just
as today, Germans are not Italians, or Spaniards, [Ordnung hat Gott lieb, which translates as: "Orderliness is next to Godliness."] and the picture they
were getting of their Catholic Church in these other kingdoms was
revolting. From Luther’s viewpoint, the
Church of Peter was coming apart at the seams.
Luther’s
intellectual dissertation against Church profligacy was attracting a lot of
attention in Germany and as far as Rome.
While many Germans cheered him on, many did not, and in Rome, he was a
heretic. The Pope issued a Papal Bull
and ordered all of Luther’s books burned. When he received the document, Luther
openly burned it, in return for the destruction of his books.
Luther burning the
Papal Bull
Beard
goes into great detail describing the political situation in Europe in these
days. Charles’ hold on the empire was shaky, and he was always concerned that
France and François I would get the best of him. Pope Leo X, a Medici from
Florence, was a crook of the first order, and around him were legions of
Spanish and Italian churchmen who would do anything to defend the status quo in
the Church.
It
was determined to convene a Diet, or congress in the city of Worms, in spring
of 1521, and Luther was ordered to appear.
It was clear that he would be convicted of heresy, and he understood
this, but it was not that clear what would follow. He already had quite a supportive following
in Germany, and Charles, and the other German leaders, were hesitant to call
down more trouble on their heads at this time.
On
April 2, 1521, Luther began the trip south to Worms. It was rather a “victory
march” for him, because all along the way he was celebrated by crowds of
admirers. He preached in numerous towns.
When he arrived in Worms on April 16 crowds cheered him.
Luther appeared before the Diet,
held in the city that at that time was an important political gathering point. Attending were Spaniards, Italians, Frenchmen
and the leaders of the German establishment. There were electors, prelates,
nobles, ambassadors, papal nuncios, from Hungary, England and Poland. Some were
brilliant academics and philosophers. Some were steely-eyed charlatans. Some
came with the idea of converting Luther back. Would he simply renounce his claims and his
heresy?
No, he was not about to. He simply
stated that his thinking and writing was according to Scripture. The Diet
finally convicted him, and then went about the business of writing the Edict of
Worms. In the finest bureaucratic
fashion, they labored long and hard on this while Luther departed with his
small entourage, escorted by what seemed to be those who would keep him under
their control while this edict inched toward completion. The Wormser Edikt declared Luther an outlaw,
which meant that he could be killed by anyone without threat of punishment.
Luther started the long journey back
to Wittenberg, but, with help from the Elector Friedrich the Wise, he was
mysteriously “kidnapped” by the elector’s soldiers. He became his guest at Wartburg, and bided
his time not so quietly, giving sermons as he had before.
In the meantime, the establishment
Catholics were sputtering, burning his books, and shaking their fists, as more
and more Germans joined the growing ranks of Lutherans.
Luther brought on the Reformation,
and led us to a new, enlightened world.
Luther was the man who broke apart
the Catholic Church when it needed stern reformation. However, Luther was also the man who changed
his views toward Jews from supportive to blazingly brutal in his anti-Semitism,
so virulent that many have questioned if he provided the Nazis their
intellectual stimulus for the Holocaust.
-- Sam Coulbourn
NEXT FOR ROCKPORT HISTORY BOOK CLUB:
Wed. Dec. 2, 2015: Elections in American History. [Suggested by Rick Heuser] Donald Trump may think he is something unique in the long history of campaigns and elections in the United States of America, but our history is chock-a-block with strange, weird and fantastic characters and events. For this November meeting, one week late to account for Thanksgiving, read any book about presidential campaigns and elections, There was 1800 when Adams ran against an "Un-Christian Deist", Thomas Jefferson. There was 1828, when things got dirty-- the Adams men said Jackson was the son of a prostitute and a Mulatto, and a bigamist and an adulterer. We had Know-nothings, Mugwumps, Half-breeds and Progressives. One man, Eugene V. Debs, ran from prison and still received 900,000 votes. And then there was Watergate... and the Swiftboaters.
For 2016, consider these possible topics:
History of Labor Movements,
History of Money and Money Handling or Banking,
"The End of the World"-- history of doomsday forecasts,
History of Journalism and the Media,
or History of ___________ (fill in the blank).
Contact: scoulbourn1@verizon.net
