Participant Guide Luther (2003) – Study Guide: Getting ready to watch the film. A Little About the Film: Luther is a film adaption of the life of Martin Luther (1483-1546 A.D.) focusing on Luther’s life between 1505 and 1530. Directed by Eric Till, in co-operation with German production companies Eikon Film, NFP Teleart Berlin, NFP and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans (an American company serving members of The Evangelical Lutheran Church in North America and The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod) the film is shot in Germany often even using historically preserved locations like The Black Cloister, an Augustinian monastery in Erfurt, where Luther took his monastic vows and presided as celebrant at the Lord’s Supper for the first time. The film details Luther’s move from Law Student, to Monk, to University Professor, to Reformer of the Roman Catholic Church. The film delves into his personal struggles with justification and finding the grace of God in Scripture which had been obscured over time by the encroachment of non-biblical rites, rituals, practices and teachings Participant Guide within the Roman Catholic Church. Central to the film is Luther’s objection to the non-biblical practice of buying and selling forgiveness in the form of indulgences and the corruption that came along with the practice. Opposition to the sale of forgiveness put Luther at odds with both the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy and with the government of the Holy Roman Empire. When push comes to shove what will Luther do? Will he back down or stand up for what Scripture teaches? Will he be captured and killed for his upsetting of the apple cart of indulgence sales? Here in lies the drama of the film. Based on a True Story: You’ve likely over the years watched many films about the life of famous or infamous historical persons. Biographical films, “based on a true story” films, can be very hard to make because the writers, producers and director often have to squeeze a person’s whole life, or a significant noteworthy part of a person’s life, into 2 or 3 hours. To do this they have to cut corners, conflate historical events, and leave lots of stuff out. Who Are All These People? Take anyone’s life and there will be a lot of people connected to them, friends, family, and co-workers … sometimes even enemies. Luther is no exception. The film throws a lot of people at you quickly sometimes with not much introduction. Who are all these people? What do I need to know to help keep them all straight? And how well does the film portray them? Johann von Staupitz (1460-1524 A.D.) Luther’s Augustinian Father Confessor and the first dean of the faculty of Biblical theology at the University of Wittenberg in 1502. These two things are important to Staupitz’s relationship with Martin Luther. In the film you will meet him not as a dean in a university but as an Augustinian monk in a Participant Guide cloister. His pastoral heart towards Luther and his ability to recognize the talents and gifts that Luther possessed facilitated his recommendation for Luther to go to Wittenberg. Knowing his historical connection to the University of Wittenberg might help understand why Staupitz was able to make the recommendation, additionally he was also able to direct Luther into the work at the University because Staupitz also held the office of Vicar general the of German Congregation of Augustinians. Overall the film focuses on the Father Confessor side of their relationship and Luther’s transition out of the world on the monastery into the world of the University. As viewers it might be helpful to know a little extra history around these two men. Here’s an interesting detail: Luther in 1512 succeeded Staupitz as the new dean of the faculty of Biblical theology at the University of Wittenberg. Lastly, while the film shows Staupitz to be very sympathetic to Luther he never fully embraced the Reformation that Luther spearheaded and in the end, thought the film doesn’t show it, disavowed himself of Luther and the Reformation. Elector of Saxony Frederick the Wise (1463-1525 A.D.) What is an Elector? At the time of Luther there were seven Electors (the Archbishops of Mainz, Trier, and Cologne, along with the King of Bohemia, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the Duke of Saxony, and the Margrave of Brandenburg) they held the right to elect a King who would then be crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Frederick III later known as Frederick the Wise was the Duke of Saxony. He was favoured by the papacy to be Emperor in the 1519 election and had even received from Pope Leo X the Golden Rose of virtue on September 3rd 1518. In the film this Golden Rose is depicted as having been given later than 1518 as a sort of shallow bribe in the hopes that Frederick who had been protecting Luther would turn Luther over to Rome. The way the film incorporates this Golden Rose is dramatic but not accurate. It is true that Frederick was loved by the Participant Guide papacy before the reformation began to unfold. He was the founder of the University of Wittenberg and he maintained a massive repository of ‘relics’ which in 1518 listed 17,443 items. Among the objects where items claiming to be everything from a twig from Moses' burning bush, to hay from the holy manger in Bethlehem, to milk from the Virgin Mary. It was claimed at the height of the collections popularity that the money paid by local Christians and Christian pilgrims to venerate these relics, and the veneration of the relics could gain indulgences reducing a person’s time in purgatory by a upwards of 1,902,202 years. When the Reformation began to take shape, along with his intimate ties to the papacy and to the political system of the day, Frederick was deeply connected to the whole economy of indulgence sales and relic veneration as a result he could just as easily been one of Luther’s biggest antagonists but by the grace of God Frederick was his protector. Even though they often lived in the same city they (Wittenberg) there is little to no evidence that they met privately in person. Watch for how the film deals with this last point. Will they meet? If so what might that meeting be like? Historically it is interesting to consider that, like Staupitz, Frederick while protective of Luther never became a Lutheran. He died a Roman Catholic five years before the presentation of the Augsburg Confession. Georg Spalatin (1484-1545 A.D.) In 1512 this lawyer/priest became the court chaplain and secretary to the Elector Frederick the Wise. One note, while the film correctly shows a close relationship between Spalatin and Luther the film incorrectly says that they knew each other originally from studying law together. While they both attended the University of Erfurt they didn’t attend any classes together. Spalatin finished his bachelor’s degree there in 1499 and Luther attended between 1501 and 1505. Spalatin did return to the University of Erfurt in 1505 to study Law, but by then Luther had already entered the Black Cloister (the closed Augustinian cloister in Participant Guide Erfurt). Spalatin did however regularly accompany Frederick and did as the Elector’s secretary act as a liaison between Frederick and Luther both in person and in letters. The film spends a considerable amount of time on Spalatin and his Roman Catholic counterpart Girolamo Aleandro as midlevel men working for the powerful political movers and shakers of the day. Dr. Andreas Karlstadt (1486-1541 A.D.) was the chancellor of Wittenberg University and chair of the theology department. The film provides him with a character arc. Dr. Karlstadt is depicted as a bored and complacent academic who becomes a fervent supporter of Luther only to overstep his place in the Reformation because of his unhealthy zeal for overturning the traditions of the historic church. Whether Karlstadt was as bored as he is depicted in the film is debatable however his eventual overzealousness is actually correct. Even still his reforms in Luther’s absences while radical were not as violent; the film doesn’t depict that they were sanctioned by the city council of Wittenberg. Karlstadt also did not forfeit his title of professor until after Luther's return from the Wartburg Castle. Historically Luther had written an interesting critique of Karlstadt comparing and contrasting himself with Karlstadt in this way, “[I] approach the task of destroying images by first tearing them out of the heart through God’s Word and making them worthless and despised. This indeed took place before Dr. Karlstadt ever dreamed of destroying images. For when they are no longer in the heart, they can do no harm when seen with the eyes. But Dr. Karlstadt, who pays no attention to matters of the heart, has reversed the order by removing them from the sight and leaving them in the heart. For he does not preach faith, nor can he preach it; unfortunately, only now do I see that. Which of these two forms destroy images best; I will let each man judge for himself.” (LW 40:84) Participant Guide Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560 A.D.) was a Humanist Scholar and a fellow professor at the University of Wittenberg with Karlstadt and Luther. Melanchthon shows up rather late in the film. You’ll know it’s him because suddenly about midway through the film a very concerned bewildered and strange looking man emerges from the background.