LUTHER AND THE MEDIA Gary North On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther fired the initial shot of what has come to be known as the Protestant Reformation. Few social transformations can be dated this precisely. Military invasions that launch a major war can be dated. Revolutions and assassinations can be dated. But large-scale social turning points can only rarely be dated. The Protestant Reformation is the great exception in the history of the West. It is the most comprehensive social movement whose origin can be accurately dated to the day. Five centuries, in the little German town of Wittenberg, Luther sat at his desk. He had been thinking of this moment for weeks. He had organized his thoughts. He was ready to make his points, one by one. He began to write. He had no idea that what he was writing would radically change his life, and then change history. To the Most Reverend Father in Christ and Most Illustrious Lord, Albrecht of Magdeburg and Mainz, Archbishop and Primate of the Church, Margrave of Brandenburg, etc., his own lord and pastor in Christ, worthy of reverence and fear, and most gracious. Then he issued a personal challenge. His words did not allow any doubt about the importance of what he was about to say and do. This now-legendary master of confrontational rhetoric pulled no punches. Spare me, Most Reverend Father in Christ and Most Illustrious Prince, that I, the dregs of humanity, have so much boldness that I have dared to think of a letter to the height of your Sublimity. The Lord Jesus is my witness that, conscious of my smallness and baseness, I have long deferred what I am now shameless enough to do, -- moved thereto most of all by the duty of fidelity which I acknowledge that I owe to your most Reverend Fatherhood in Christ. Meanwhile, therefore, may your Highness deign to cast an eye upon one speck of dust, and for the sake of your pontifical clemency to heed my prayer. He was just getting warmed up. He spent the rest of his letter explaining why he thought the Church’s sale of indulgences that promised to let buyers escape purgatory was a bad idea. He ended his letter with the words that have come down through history. If it please the Most Reverend Father he may see these my Disputations, and learn how doubtful a thing is the opinion of indulgences which those men spread as 1 though it were most certain. You can read the entire letter here: http://bit.ly/Luther-Archbishop He folded the letter, and placed it in a large envelope. Then he picked up a handwritten copy of his proposed 95 debate topics in Latin. He folded it, and inserted it into the envelope. He wrote an address on the outside of it. Then he walked over to the equivalent of the post office and mailed it. The Western Church was torn apart within five years. Western Europe was torn apart within a decade. But wait! What about the church door? What about the hammer and the nail? Luther never mentioned any such event in repeated and published recollections of that day. He mentioned only having sent a letter to the Archbishop. The first reference to the nailing of the 95 theses to the church door came in 1546 from his friend Peter Melanchthon. He wrote this in June in his introduction to the second volume of Luther’s Latin works. Luther had died the previous February. The debate still goes on between those historians who think he nailed – or possibly glued – the 95 theses to the church door vs. those who do not. In 2015, a pair of historians took opposite sides in the Lutheran Quarterly. At the end, they said that it is unlikely that historians will discover definitively, one way or another. It is an “unresolvable question.” Read it here: http://bit.ly/PostingDebate October 31 was “mailed, yes; nailed, maybe.” In the movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence (1962), the man who did not shoot the villain Liberty Valence, but who was a legend because people thought he had, wrote an article telling the truth. A newspaper editor decides not to print it. Ransom Stoddard: You're not going to use the story, Mr. Scott? Maxwell Scott: No, sir. This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend. The legend of the nailing has became fact long, long ago. It is what most authors write, most pastors preach, and most documentaries portray. 2 WHY INDULGENCES? In 1513, Leo X replaced Julius II as Pope. Julius II had begun a huge, expensive reconstruction of St. Peter’s Church in Rome. He hired Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel. Leo X wanted to complete the project, but he soon ran out of money. To replenish the treasury, he authorized the sale of indulgences on March 15, 1517. ("Beware the Ides of March!") These indulgences promised remission of past sins. Buying one would enable the purchaser to escape purgatory. Indulgences had been authorized in the late 14th century. Julius II used them to finance St. Peter’s, beginning in 1510. Luther believed that he could persuade the Archbishop to stop the sale of indulgences in his jurisdiction. He was wrong. To understand why he was wrong, you need background information that Luther did not have. Popes had long sold high ecclesiastical offices to rich men who wanted income. The practice was called simony, in dishonor of Simon the magician, who sought to purchase from Peter the power to lay on hands: ordination of ministers (Acts 8:9–24). By purchasing an office, the buyer gained a legal claim on income from tithes, donations, deathbed bequests, and other revenue-generating sources. He owned the equivalent of a bond. He also gained power and prestige . and, if he so desired, feminine favors. This was a powerful combination: money, sex, and power. All this and the avoidance of hell, buyers believed. At the age of 23, Albrecht of Maintz purchased the Archbishop’s office of Magdeburg. He was not a priest. He just wanted a high-return investment. That was in 1513. He wanted even more offices/investments. This was not allowed by the Church. Leo X allowed him to do this in 1514. He purchased the office of Archbishop of Maintz. Here is the Wikipedia entry. To pay for the pallium of the see of Mainz and to discharge the other expenses of his elevation, Albert had borrowed 21,000 ducats from Jakob Fugger, and had obtained permission from Pope Leo X to conduct the sale of indulgences in his diocese to obtain funds to repay this loan, as long as he forwarded half of the income to the Papacy. An agent of the Fuggers subsequently traveled in the Cardinal's retinue in charge of the cashbox. He procured the services of John Tetzel to sell the indulgences. He invited Tetzel to be the salesman. He was not about to cut off support for Tetzel. He forwarded Luther’s letter to the Pope. Years later, Luther said he had known nothing about the Archbishop’s use of the funds generated by Tetzel. Had he known, he probably would not have bothered to write his letter of complaint. If he had not sent it, how would he have formally opposed Tetzel? No one knows. That is why history is filled with might-have-beens. 3 THE 95 THESES The number of people who have read them is minuscule, even among Lutherans. Few college graduates have read them. The phrase “the 95 theses” may be vaguely familiar to someone who has taken a college course in Western Civilization. These days, however, not even history majors are required to take it. The report is here: http://bit.ly/NoWesternCiv People who have heard about them, but who have never read them, are amazed when they are told that Luther did not criticize the Church or the Pope. They are even more amazed that Luther believed that the Pope was ignorant of the sales pitch that Tetzel was using to sell the indulgences. He actually thought the Pope would take his side against indulgences. 5. The pope does not intend to remit, and cannot remit any penalties other than those which he has imposed either by his own authority or by that of the Canons. 26. The pope does well when he grants remission to souls [in purgatory], not by the power of the keys (which he does not possess), but by way of intercession. 38. Nevertheless, the remission and participation [in the blessings of the Church] which are granted by the pope are in no way to be despised, for they are, as I have said, the declaration of ivine remission. 50. Christians are to be taught that if the pope knew the exactions of the pardon-preachers, he would rather that St. Peter's church should go to ashes, than that it should be built up with the skin, flesh and bones of his sheep. 53. They are enemies of Christ and of the pope, who bid the Word of God be altogether silent in some Churches, in order that pardons may be preached in others. 61. For it is clear that for the remission of penalties and of reserved cases, the power of the pope is of itself sufficient. 73. The pope justly thunders against those who, by any art, contrive the injury of the traffic in pardons. 74. But much more does he intend to thunder against those who use the pretext of pardons to contrive the injury of holy love and truth.