Part 2 .... Technology & German Influence
Execution in the name of God is heinous enough but there's an aspect of the burnings that makes it more disturbing, at least for me. These men are not simple blasphemers; they’re devout Christians, scholars, theologians, and noblemen challenging the clergy. They were often the wisest men in the community, intellectuals. God was not denied. I might understand if they were toasting obnoxious atheists. The bible was not being criticized. They merely questioned the authority and practices of men and the role of the church. Most sought scholarly discourse based on the bible.
My biggest quarrel with religion has always been in regard to the acts of men in the name of their God, the corruption, abuse of power and atrocities used to silence those who dared discuss these issues .... or chose a different faith. This is where my core belief in separation comes from. We cannot trust the motives of religious men, especially the clergy.
Men of the cloth stood to lose a great deal if their authority and practice was brought into question, so they quashed resistance. No doubt the fear of God and eternal judgment kept many believers in line. But I believe the judgments of men did more to keep society from questioning the Vatican and its under bosses. Nothing silenced dissent more than the horrific screams of a heretic burning alive.
If you read enough about these violent times you’ll find a vast number of references to John Foxe’s famous book 'Actes and Monuments', a.k.a. The Book of Martyrs. Foxe is another Oxford man, a historian who converted to the Protestant faith during his crazy frat boy college years when most young adults begin thinking for themselves. He documented the history of Catholic persecution and lived in self exile for four years during the reign of Bloody Mary. His book covers the earliest known Christian executions during the Roman Empire through the mid 16th century. The first edition came out in 1563, immediately after the bloodiest decades of the Reformation.
Throughout the 15th century the Roman Church maintained control of all aspects of life in western Europe, the monarchies, civil affairs, education and of course religion. It was near impossible to speak against the church without risking your livelihood or life. Imprisonment was common, heretics burned, most dissenters remained silent.
A key factor in the spread of critical thinking was the invention of the printing press in 1440. In my opinion German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg’s masterpiece is the most important technological advance of the period. Previously it required several months for one scribe to hand write a single bible. Gutenberg’s press could produce 3600 pages per day. Twenty million books were printed in the first decade. The most printed book was the bible but there were more than 150 million books printed by the end of the century, not all sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church.
I believe the printing press was the second blow that loosened the grip the Vatican had on the masses.
In 1483 Gutenberg’s press was employed in more than 110 German cities, 270 cities in Europe. It was the world wide web of the time. That same year Martin Luther was born in the Saxony region of Germany. Two years later, in 1485, the House of Tudor Dynasty was born in England. They would reign for more than a century, presiding over the unprecedented bloodletting of the Reformation. Luther and the Tudors were unrelated but would be instrumental in the transformation of Christianity.
Martin Luther is widely credited as father of the Reformation. He’s also praised for translating the bible into German enabling common men to learn scripture without clerical middle men interpreting and twisting the word of God to suit their agenda. He did this 130 years after John Wycliffe did the same for the English. The Vatican had crushed the Lollard movement. Lutherans would not suffer the same fate, but not for the lack of Papal oppression. The 16th century was the Protestant Spring.
Luther wandered as a young man between following the education his father demanded and what he wished for himself. He settled in theology and devoted himself to monastic life. He lost faith, rediscovered Christ and went on to teach Theology at the University of Wittenberg. He was taught to be suspicious of great thinkers and philosophers. His attitude as a skeptic and activist would pave the way to his most famous work.
At the time Luther was earning degrees in Germany, John Calvin was born in France, 1509. In that same year King Henry VIII took the throne in England.
Martin Luther questioned authority. He saw the same corruption in the clergy the Lollards had exposed a century prior. The Vatican had emissaries throughout Europe selling indulgences to fund projects in Rome. Luther vocally objected to the practice. Indulgence was a policy where wealthy men could purchase credit toward forgiveness. You could call it a sin tax. I call it a shake down. An indulgence did not guarantee salvation but the Vatican none the less sold the favors.
Luther’s German translation of the bible spurred further discussion on the customs and authority of the Holy Roman Catholic Church in the same way Wycliffe’s translation had in 14th century England. Like Wycliffe, Luther believed he was merely providing scholarly debate, an intellectual discourse, but his words were strong and convictions firm. He questioned the construction of the gaudy basilica of Saint Peter in Rome with money collected from poor believers throughout Europe. His attitude was insubordinate. Pope Leo X was unimpressed but Luther won over hearts and minds of common men. I think the Vatican's arrigance finally got the best of them. They had no clue they were losing.
In 1517 Luther directly challenged the Papacy with his most famous work, The Ninety-Five Theses. Once nailed to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg it would change the game of Christianity. Pope Leo responded by debating the theses through Papal theologians but Luther had declared the Vatican had no biblical authority. He was charged with heresy and summoned to Rome. Allies of Luther refused to arrest him.
The Theses, written in Latin, were translated and printed in French, English and German, and widely circulated throughout Europe. The printing press was instrumental in spreading the word of Luther, his version of biblical truth and the charges he made against the Papacy. The tide of theology turned against Roman Catholic doctrine. Luther posed the church of men was not infallible, only Christ could grant salvation and the church had no authority to do so. He made powerful enemies devoted to destroy him.
Three years later Luther was excommunicated. His 95 Theses were banned throughout the Papal Empire. It was too late, the damage was done.
Luther was tried at the Diet of Worms in 1521 by Emporer Charles V, a Papal puppet, and was ruled to be a heretic. Luther slipped away. It was ordered that he could be captured and killed by anyone. He went into hiding at Wartburg Castle with the aid of secular allies including Prince Frederick III.
During his years in hiding Germans abandoned Roman Catholic mass in favor of Lutheran services. The Protestant Reformation was underway. He emerged in 1526 safe from Roman reprisal and began to form his Lutheran Protestant Church. Roman Catholic power in Germany was waning, and it was only the beginning.
Meanwhile in England....
There was relative peace under the Tudor king, but that would soon change as the Protestant wave washed across the channel and Henry VIII used it's momentum to usurp Papal power in England for his own gain.