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James Reston. 's Fortress: and his under Siege. New York: Basic Books, 2015. 272 pp. $27.50, cloth, ISBN 978-0-465-06393-2.

Reviewed by Jay Goodale

Published on H-German (September, 2016)

Commissioned by Nathan N. Orgill

James Reston Jr. is a prolifc, best-selling, and, his time there. The period between Luther's birth based solely upon this work, highly skilled writer (1483) and the (1521) is covered in who has published seventeen books on subjects as just over twenty-two pages of fairly large print. diverse as General Sherman's , the dis‐ Important themes and relevant events in both Eu‐ graced baseball legend Pete Rose, Galileo, Richard ropean history and Luther's personal and intellec‐ the Lionheart and the Third Crusade, the Rev‐ tual life, including Leo X's pontifcate, the election erend Jim Jones (of Jonestown infamy), the Frost/ of Charles V, the relationship between this Nixon interviews, and the assassination of Presi‐ and , the Knights' Revolt, Luther's experi‐ dent Kennedy. He is a senior scholar at the ence as a in , the Leipzig Disputation, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Schol‐ Luther's relationship with , ars, a self-administered institution established as Luther's theological breakthroughs, and the con‐ part of the Smithsonian and based in Washington troversy over are mentioned and dis‐ DC. In a short but inspirational seven-page, post- patched fairly quickly. Despite the book's stated epilogue "Author's Note," he informs us that his narrow focus, I would have appreciated a little desire to write a book on Luther emerged as he more attention to these aspects of the broader encountered him while researching and writing context, as they are absolutely fundamental to a his acclaimed work Defenders of the : Chris‐ fuller understanding of both how Luther came to tianity and Islam Battle for the Soul of Europe, arrive at the Imperial Diet at Worms, and why he 1520-1536 (2009). acted as he did there. Moreover, a lengthier dis‐ In Luther's Fortress, Reston seeks to illumi‐ cussion of some of these complex subjects might nate Luther's stay at Castle between better serve the nonspecialist, for whom this 1521 and March 1522, and the development work is presumably intended. of and threats to the nascent Reformation during H-Net Reviews

Reston's ability to convey the atmosphere so dence with Melanchthon provides a fresh and en‐ palpably, and to bring the various personae to life joyably folksy mini-biography of Melanchthon so vividly, is certainly the book's major strength and an appraisal of Luther's relationship with and advantage. After bringing us to 1521, Reston him. Another chapter provides a riveting focus on recounts Luther's entry into Worms and his ac‐ Henry VIII's and 's views on Luther, tions at the diet in a detailed, lively, and gripping as well as Luther's responses to Henry. Reston "you are there" style that captures the tension and synthesizes well: while I ofer separate courses at the suspense of this historical event far better my university on religion and politics in Tudor than the typical academic book. Here, in a passage , focusing largely on Henry VIII and More, typical of his prose, Reston describes the scene and on the Reformation, focusing largely on immediately after Luther has refused to recant: Luther, I had never, until reading this chapter, "Pandemonium broke out. The emperor was con‐ considered the fact that their heated debates and fused. What had happened?... [Amid shouting] various condemnatory publications arose during Luther was sweating profusely ... the emperor Luther's exile at the Wartburg. Two chapters in rose to his feet in fury.... [Spanish soldiers] fell in particular ("Unclean Thoughts, Devouring Fires" behind [Luther], hissing and shouting out, 'Into and "Wrestling the Devil") cover the physical, the fre with him!' Luther turned on them with a emotional, and psychological trauma that Luther gloat and raised his hands high in the air, in the experienced--and so graphically wrote about. manner of a victorious Teutonic swordsman.... While this material is standard fare in biogra‐ But this show of bravado did not comport with phies of Luther, Reston's great skill as a writer Luther's true feelings of terror" (pp. 39-40). brings Luther's sufering and torment to the fore Such lively writing will surely make this book in a more visceral way than one usually encoun‐ appealing to many readers. I must confess I was ters. There are also large sections devoted to what initially curious to encounter a book of popular Luther wrote while at the Wartburg, what hap‐ history, of this length, focused on Luther's time at pened in during Luther's absence, the Wartburg. Despite this engagingly descriptive what Luther did to save his movement upon his style, however, there is, for the academic reader, ultimate return to Wittenberg, and, more atypical‐ not much engagement with the historical litera‐ ly, what happened in following the Diet of ture, nor much original analysis. For example, in Worms. In an especially poignant section, Reston the same section, Reston explicitly notes the oddi‐ conjectures upon the manner by which Luther ty of Luther's immediate request for more time to and the captain of the Wartburg would have cele‐ consider his ofcial reply, given that Luther had brated the Christmas of 1521 together. Over the had weeks to prepare an answer, and knew his last thirty years I have read much of, and about, whole reason even for being there was to answer Luther, and have visited the Wartburg three that specifc question. Yet he ofers no suggestions times. Yet I had never refected upon this subject, to explain Luther's hesitation, even if it does pro‐ and it is to Reston's credit that he highlights such vide him with a compelling twist in the unfolding subtle but important aspects of Luther's exile. drama, of which he takes full literary advantage. Although Reston summarizes and explains Another great strength of this book--and an Luther's major theological publications up to the enviable skill of Reston's--is his knack for wonder‐ Peasants' War of 1524-25 clearly and succinctly, he fully interweaving themes, topics, biographical does so without much attention to the intellectual sketches, and relevant asides into his overarching context of these writings; there is no discussion of narrative. A discussion of Luther's correspon‐ the infuence of Nominalism or of Augustine or of late medieval German mysticism on Luther's theo‐

2 H-Net Reviews logical development. Likewise, there is no discus‐ tonous and corpulent Leo, he of lavish spending sion of the crucial role Staupitz's religious posi‐ and avarice, we are presented with "a thin, athlet‐ tions played in Luther's evolving .[1] ic Martin Luther [who] climbed up on his simple, And, especially at the beginning of the book, two-wheeled wagon" to start his journey to Reston reprises the old, whiggish view that over‐ Worms (p. 25). Almost always, when I inform peo‐ stresses--in regard to Luther's theological break‐ ple that I am an historian of the Reformation, they throughs--the moral depravity of Rome, the reply with a wry smile and an immediate recount‐ hypocrisy of the , and the decadence of Re‐ ing of various sixteenth-century Catholic depravi‐ naissance-era Catholicism. Thus we read how the ties, debaucheries, and scandals; this view is su‐ excesses of Leo X "would, in time, shape Luther's perfcial and uninformed, and though it certainly opposition to the church.... Leo brought to Rome enhances the confict and passion embedded in the Medici focus on art, science, and literature.... this book, it does not refect the most nuanced of His gluttony was well known, and [in 's understandings. portrait his] corpulence was on display.... Many There are also numerous slight factual errors, [poets] busied themselves in writing paeans to none of which falsifes the overall narrative, but their papal benefactor. Leo responded by shower‐ which serve, on occasion, to misrepresent a char‐ ing gifts on these writers, as well as his relatives acter's motive or position. For instance, the pope and artists. Nepotism also fourished under Leo" did not attempt to bribe Frederick the Wise into (pp. 4-5). arresting an excommunicated Luther with the Further on we learn of Leo's "pleasure in pro‐ Golden Rose (p. 43). It was awarded to Frederick fane amusements" and his "extravagant eccentric‐ in 1518 because the pope needed his support, ities," including a discussion of his pet white ele‐ both against the Turkish threat and in the coming phant (p. 6). We are informed of "Leo's luxurious Imperial election, and it had nothing to do with lifestyle," of how "the Vatican's savings were Luther's case. Also, the head ecclesiastic from squandered," and of how Leo fought war, gave Trèves (normally given in its German form as Tri‐ "lavish banquets," and praised the "fable of Jesus er) was an archbishop and an elector, not a mere Christ" for its ability to earn him revenue (p. 7). bishop (p. 47). Melanchthon's father did not give All of this is certainly true, but one wonders how his young son this Greek form of the family's last ultimately signifcant it was for Luther's ideas on name Schwarzerde because of the boy's "extraor‐ justifcation or his sacramental theology. dinary profciency in Greek" (p. 54). Rather, it was who, in keeping with the trend At one point, Reston describes what appears among German humanists of that era, such as to have been a fairly typical carnivalesque perfor‐ Trithemius or Oecolampadius, to Hellenize their mance in Rome in 1521. Ignoring the rich, multi‐ surnames, bestowed this name on the young valent symbolism inherent to such enactments, he Philip to recognize his work on verse.[3] labels it "a shocking pagan pageant" and a Mary Tudor was not, in 1521, the only surviving "tawdry papal entertainment."[2] He asks, rhetori‐ child of King Henry VIII (p. 74). Though illegiti‐ cally, "What, one wonders, would Luther have mate, Henry FitzRoy (b. 1519) was publicly and thought of such a vulgar, profane, and vaguely proudly acknowledged by his father, the king erotic spectacle for the amusement of the vicar of (hence his revealing last name). He was made the Christ?" (pp. 30-31). 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset, and, given Presumably to heighten the drama, Reston his father's preoccupation with dynastic continua‐ crafts, in this same vein, a stylistic duality be‐ tion, was never explicitly removed from politics tween Luther and Leo. Compared to the glut‐ of state until his death, probably from consump‐

3 H-Net Reviews tion, in 1536. Likewise, Wittenberg was not, at this tional Lutheran Church regarding the desire of time, the capital city of the Prussian duchy of some political rulers and ecclesiastical elites to Saxe-Wittenberg (p. 131). It had been once, during abrogate Luther's position on ubiquity.[5] the frst half of the fourteenth century; but in the The book contains numerous and diverse il‐ it was a town in the territory of Electoral lustrations, and a helpful map. It is extremely well . And I would not label Thomas Müntzer written, in an engaged and passionate style, and it an Anabaptist (p. 222). Whatever Müntzer's will undoubtedly serve as a useful and captivating thoughts on the efcacy and validity of child bap‐ introduction for many to Luther and the early tism, he clearly believed was an experi‐ years of the Reformation, and as an inspiration to ence of spirit, not of water, as the Anabaptists ar‐ others. gued.[4] Finally, Reston chooses not to regard Notes Luther's rejection of the Catholic understanding of , as most scholars do, within [1]. The important infuence of Staupitz's reli‐ the context of Luther's intense dislike for Aris‐ gious understanding on Luther's theological de‐ totelian metaphysics. Instead, he speculates that velopment is discussed, for example, in Volker Luther's views on the Eucharist developed from a Leppin, Martin Luther. Vom Mönch zum Feind des sort of "sour grapes" attitude following his excom‐ Papstes (Darmstadt: Lambert Schneider, 2013). munication. Alone, such an opinion is hardly a [2]. For extremely sophisticated, anthropolog‐ factual error. But Reston goes a bit too far in his ical, and symbolic readings of carnivalesque per‐ speculating: "At Wartburg, he was barred from formances held in Rome, and the ways by which this holiest and most precious of all priestly du‐ various components of the institutional church ties. And so, arguably, for personal reasons, he might have benefted from them, see Alain had set out to undermine the signifcance of the Boureau, The Myth of Pope Joan, trans., Lydia G. Eucharist, to downplay and demystify its . If Cochrane (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, he could not ofciate at the mystical transforma‐ 2001). tion of the bread and wine into the body and [3]. This event is described in detail by Heinz blood of Christ, let him doubt that this real pres‐ Scheible in his classic study, Melanchthon. Eine Bi‐ ence existed at all" (p. 78). ographie (: C. H. Beck, 1997), 15-16. That last line is quite problematic, as Luther [4]. For a thorough and analytical description certainly never denied the Real Presence, but be‐ of Müntzer's views on baptism, see Abraham lieved most strongly in it. He famously fought Friesen, Thomas Muentzer, A Destroyer of the Huldrych Zwingli, among other Protestant theolo‐ Godless: The Making of a Sixteenth-Century Reli‐ gians, on this issue at the Colloquy of Marburg gious Revolutionary (Berkeley, CA: University of (1529). Luther's view on the matter is normally California Press, 1990), 171-174. described as consubstantiation as opposed to [5]. The literature on this subject is vast. See, transubstantiation. It was not Christ's presence among others, Thomas Klein, Der Kampf um die which Luther ever doubted; he rejected, rather, a zweite Reformation in Kursachsen 1586-91 system of reasoning that maintained that, despite (: Böhlau, 1962); Bodo Nischan, , all outward appearance, the consecrated bread People and Confession: The Second Reformation had become, actually and fully, human fesh. In‐ in Brandenburg (Philadelphia: University of Penn‐ deed, a crucial aspect of what has been referred sylvania Press, 1994), and Nischan, Lutherans and to as "the Second Reformation" in late sixteenth- Calvinists in the Age of Confessionalism (New century Brandenburg and Electoral Saxony was York: Routledge, 1999); and the essay by Jay precisely the series of conficts within the institu‐

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Goodale, "Intimidation, Intolerance, and Injury: Religious Violence and the 'Second Reformation' in Saxony, 1587-91" in Religion und Gewalt. Kon‐ fickte, Rituale, Deutungen (1500-1800), ed. Kaspar von Greyerz and Kim Siebenhuener (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2006), 193-219.

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Citation: Jay Goodale. Review of Reston, James. Luther's Fortress: Martin Luther and his Reformation under Siege. H-German, H-Net Reviews. September, 2016.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=45243

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