WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.259 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today, we are 00:00:03.259 --> 00:00:08.460 tackling a figure who is, well, to put it mildly 00:00:08.460 --> 00:00:10.939 colossal. That might be an understatement. Right. 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:12.880 We're talking about a man whose shadow stretches 00:00:12.880 --> 00:00:16.000 across 500 years of history. You see his name 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:19.600 on churches. You see his face on statues. You 00:00:19.600 --> 00:00:22.760 hear his hymns. If you speak German, he basically 00:00:22.760 --> 00:00:25.940 helped create your modern language. Even in English, 00:00:26.019 --> 00:00:28.140 so many of our idioms are ways of phrasing things, 00:00:28.280 --> 00:00:29.879 you can trace them back to his Bible translation. 00:00:30.199 --> 00:00:32.359 We're talking, of course, about Martin Luther. 00:00:32.539 --> 00:00:34.920 And it is almost impossible to overstate his 00:00:34.920 --> 00:00:36.920 impact. But that's actually, you know, the problem 00:00:36.920 --> 00:00:38.600 we face when we try to talk about him. Well, 00:00:38.600 --> 00:00:41.479 so? Well, when you deal with a figure of Luther's 00:00:41.479 --> 00:00:44.420 magnitude, the great reformer, he stops being 00:00:44.420 --> 00:00:46.500 a person and he starts being a marble statue. 00:00:46.859 --> 00:00:49.320 We see the hero of history, the guy who stood 00:00:49.320 --> 00:00:51.920 up to the emperor, hammer in hand, fearless and 00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:54.840 unshakable. Exactly. We see the icon. But today, 00:00:54.979 --> 00:00:57.460 our mission, our whole goal for this deep dive 00:00:57.460 --> 00:01:01.200 is to, I guess, take a sledgehammer to that marble. 00:01:01.439 --> 00:01:04.319 I like that analogy. We want to move beyond the 00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:07.120 myth and find the human being underneath. And 00:01:07.120 --> 00:01:10.019 based on this massive stack of sources, documents, 00:01:10.280 --> 00:01:11.959 letters, and historical records you brought to 00:01:11.959 --> 00:01:16.280 the table, that man underneath was, well, he 00:01:16.280 --> 00:01:18.959 was complicated. Complicated is certainly the 00:01:18.959 --> 00:01:21.420 diplomatic word for it. He was a man of profound, 00:01:21.620 --> 00:01:23.840 almost violent contradictions. I mean, that's 00:01:23.840 --> 00:01:26.099 what we're going to explore today, right? How 00:01:26.099 --> 00:01:28.980 a humble monk who was literally paralyzed by 00:01:28.980 --> 00:01:32.000 a terror of hell ended up shattering the unity 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:34.420 of the Roman Catholic Church. And it's not just 00:01:34.420 --> 00:01:36.659 that. This is a man who translated the Bible 00:01:36.659 --> 00:01:38.640 for the common people, which is this incredible 00:01:38.640 --> 00:01:41.719 act of democratizing faith. Right. Yet he also 00:01:41.719 --> 00:01:44.359 wrote things in his later years that are, I mean, 00:01:44.359 --> 00:01:46.500 they're deeply disturbing and problematic. Oh, 00:01:46.500 --> 00:01:48.219 absolutely. Yeah, we're definitely going to get 00:01:48.219 --> 00:01:50.140 into all of that. This isn't the sanitized Sunday 00:01:50.140 --> 00:01:52.579 school version where he, you know, nails some 00:01:52.579 --> 00:01:54.640 paper to a door and everyone lives happily ever 00:01:54.640 --> 00:01:57.040 after. No, this story is full of lightning bolts, 00:01:57.260 --> 00:01:59.959 smuggling nuns and herring barrels, shouting 00:01:59.959 --> 00:02:03.040 matches with cardinals. And some truly dark, 00:02:03.140 --> 00:02:05.840 dark chapters that often get left out of the 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:08.099 highlight reel. It really is a story that defies 00:02:08.099 --> 00:02:11.620 any simple categorization. For sure. But if you 00:02:11.620 --> 00:02:13.639 want to understand the Western world today, our 00:02:13.639 --> 00:02:16.819 ideas of individuality, conscience, and authority, 00:02:17.120 --> 00:02:19.699 you have to grapple with Luther. And to do that, 00:02:19.699 --> 00:02:21.900 you have to grapple with his demons, both real 00:02:21.900 --> 00:02:24.629 and imagined. So let's start at the very beginning. 00:02:24.729 --> 00:02:27.569 Before the hammer, before the 95 theses, let's 00:02:27.569 --> 00:02:29.590 talk about the making of the monk. Where does 00:02:29.590 --> 00:02:31.210 Martin Luther come from? Because I think we need 00:02:31.210 --> 00:02:33.569 to understand the world he was born into to understand 00:02:33.569 --> 00:02:36.289 why he did what he did. Absolutely. So he was 00:02:36.289 --> 00:02:39.689 born on November 10th, 1483 in Aislebin in what 00:02:39.689 --> 00:02:43.469 was then the Holy Roman Empire. Now, we have 00:02:43.469 --> 00:02:46.389 to pause there. The world of 1483 is not our 00:02:46.389 --> 00:02:50.449 world. It's a world of absolute terrifying precariousness. 00:02:50.770 --> 00:02:52.870 What do you mean by that? Well, the Black Death 00:02:52.870 --> 00:02:54.949 was still a recent memory. It would sweep through 00:02:54.949 --> 00:02:57.969 every few generations. Child mortality was... 00:02:57.969 --> 00:03:00.770 And it wasn't just physical danger, right? It 00:03:00.770 --> 00:03:03.930 was... The spiritual atmosphere was totally different 00:03:03.930 --> 00:03:06.889 from today. Correct. The world was enchanted, 00:03:06.889 --> 00:03:09.530 but not in a, you know, a Disney way. It was 00:03:09.530 --> 00:03:12.469 enchanted with dread. For the average person 00:03:12.469 --> 00:03:15.150 in Saxony, the air was thick with demons, witches, 00:03:15.349 --> 00:03:18.250 hobgoblins, and evil spirits. Everything was 00:03:18.250 --> 00:03:20.710 a spiritual battle. And God is presiding over 00:03:20.710 --> 00:03:23.960 all of this. Yes, but not necessarily a gentle 00:03:23.960 --> 00:03:27.080 shepherd god. This was God the judge, the almighty 00:03:27.080 --> 00:03:29.340 who could strike you dead at any moment and cast 00:03:29.340 --> 00:03:32.580 you into eternal fire. The anxiety level of the 00:03:32.580 --> 00:03:34.560 average medieval person about the state of their 00:03:34.560 --> 00:03:36.840 soul was, I mean, it was off the charts compared 00:03:36.840 --> 00:03:39.580 to today. And into this high anxiety world, Martin 00:03:39.580 --> 00:03:42.560 Luther is born. His parents were Hans and Margrethe 00:03:42.560 --> 00:03:44.520 Luther, the spelling changed to Luther later, 00:03:44.699 --> 00:03:47.960 and his dad, Hans. He wasn't theologian or a 00:03:47.960 --> 00:03:49.680 priest. He sounds like a character we'd recognize 00:03:49.680 --> 00:03:52.819 today. Oh, Hans is the original tiger dad. No 00:03:52.819 --> 00:03:55.460 question. Hans Luder was a quintessential self 00:03:55.460 --> 00:03:57.460 -made man. He wasn't a peasant, but he wasn't 00:03:57.460 --> 00:03:59.759 nobility either. He was part of that rising trading 00:03:59.759 --> 00:04:02.340 class. He worked his way up from basically nothing 00:04:02.340 --> 00:04:05.060 to become a leaseholder of copper mines and smelters. 00:04:05.240 --> 00:04:07.860 Copper mining in the 15th century. That doesn't 00:04:07.860 --> 00:04:10.139 sound like a desk job. It was dirty, dangerous, 00:04:10.300 --> 00:04:14.139 brutal work. But Hans was ambitious. He was hardworking 00:04:14.139 --> 00:04:16.680 and he wanted to rise in society. He eventually 00:04:16.680 --> 00:04:19.579 became a town counselor. And naturally, he wanted 00:04:19.579 --> 00:04:23.160 that same success and more for his son. He saw 00:04:23.160 --> 00:04:25.459 Martin as the vehicle for the family's social 00:04:25.459 --> 00:04:29.379 ascension. 100%. The classic ambitious father. 00:04:29.540 --> 00:04:31.980 I read that he had a very specific career path 00:04:31.980 --> 00:04:34.519 mapped out for Martin. He didn't say, follow 00:04:34.519 --> 00:04:37.720 your passion, son. No. No, the vision was, secure 00:04:37.720 --> 00:04:40.639 the family fortune. Hans Luther wanted his eldest 00:04:40.639 --> 00:04:42.839 son to be a lawyer. That was the golden ticket 00:04:42.839 --> 00:04:45.740 in the Holy Roman Empire. Law meant social mobility, 00:04:46.100 --> 00:04:49.019 it meant financial security, and it meant prestige. 00:04:49.740 --> 00:04:52.040 So he spares no expense on Martin's education. 00:04:52.139 --> 00:04:54.860 None. He poured the profits from the copper mines 00:04:54.860 --> 00:04:57.199 into Martin's schooling. He sent him to the best 00:04:57.199 --> 00:05:00.000 Latin schools in Mansfeld, Magdeburg, and Eisenach. 00:05:00.220 --> 00:05:02.360 And Martin didn't exactly look back on those 00:05:02.360 --> 00:05:04.600 school days with fondness, did he? No, definitely 00:05:04.600 --> 00:05:07.660 not. Luther later described his education as 00:05:07.660 --> 00:05:11.139 purgatory and hell. Wow. He really didn't mince 00:05:11.139 --> 00:05:13.920 words. Was he just, you know, complaining? Or 00:05:13.920 --> 00:05:15.699 was it actually that bad? It was likely that 00:05:15.699 --> 00:05:17.560 bad. I mean, the teaching style of the time was 00:05:17.560 --> 00:05:20.360 just brutal. It was all rote learning. Memorize, 00:05:20.500 --> 00:05:23.689 recite, repeat. The trivium grammar, rhetoric, 00:05:24.129 --> 00:05:27.810 logic. It was a rigid system designed to break 00:05:27.810 --> 00:05:29.750 the will and form the mind. And if you messed 00:05:29.750 --> 00:05:33.009 up. If you missed a disclension in Latin, you 00:05:33.009 --> 00:05:35.769 got the rod. It was physical discipline mixed 00:05:35.769 --> 00:05:38.610 with mental exhaustion. But the thing is, Martin 00:05:38.610 --> 00:05:41.290 was brilliant. He was very, very good at it. 00:05:41.389 --> 00:05:43.990 So the system worked in a way. It produced a 00:05:43.990 --> 00:05:47.540 disciplined mind. It did. By 1501, he's 17 years 00:05:47.540 --> 00:05:49.600 old, and he enters the University of Erfurt. 00:05:49.759 --> 00:05:51.600 It was one of the best universities in Germany 00:05:51.600 --> 00:05:53.259 at the time. I think he had a nickname for it, 00:05:53.279 --> 00:05:55.860 too. He called it a beer house and whore house, 00:05:56.019 --> 00:05:57.620 which, you know, gives you a sense of the student 00:05:57.620 --> 00:06:00.199 life there. But he kept his head down. He woke 00:06:00.199 --> 00:06:02.959 up at 4 a .m. every day for rote learning and 00:06:02.959 --> 00:06:05.879 spiritual exercises. He received his master's 00:06:05.879 --> 00:06:09.660 degree in 1505. So he is checking every box. 00:06:09.860 --> 00:06:12.660 He's the star student. And following his father's 00:06:12.660 --> 00:06:16.439 strict plan, he enrolls in law school. Hans Luther 00:06:16.439 --> 00:06:18.680 is probably, I don't know, popping the mead. 00:06:18.699 --> 00:06:21.600 He must have been so proud. The plan is working. 00:06:21.819 --> 00:06:24.019 The investment is about to pay off. Everything 00:06:24.019 --> 00:06:28.759 was going according to plan until July 2, 1505. 00:06:29.019 --> 00:06:31.240 The inciting incident. The lightning bolt. Quite 00:06:31.240 --> 00:06:33.639 literally. Luther was riding back to university 00:06:33.639 --> 00:06:36.220 after a trip home to visit his parents. He gets 00:06:36.220 --> 00:06:38.519 caught in a violent thunderstorm near the village 00:06:38.519 --> 00:06:41.120 of Stotternheim. And again, we have to put ourselves 00:06:41.120 --> 00:06:43.680 in the mindset of a medieval man here. This isn't 00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:45.379 just, oh, dangerous weather, I might get wet. 00:06:45.519 --> 00:06:48.360 This is divine wrath. This is God speaking through 00:06:48.360 --> 00:06:50.439 nature. It's the judge coming for her. Exactly. 00:06:50.560 --> 00:06:53.379 The sky turns black. The thunder shakes the ground. 00:06:53.600 --> 00:06:56.279 A lightning bolt strikes right near him. Some 00:06:56.279 --> 00:06:58.660 accounts say it knocked him from his horse. The 00:06:58.660 --> 00:07:02.170 air smells of ozone and sulfur. He is terrified. 00:07:02.209 --> 00:07:05.329 He thinks this is it. I am dying and I am not 00:07:05.329 --> 00:07:07.829 ready. I am going to hell. And in that moment 00:07:07.829 --> 00:07:10.050 of sheer panic, he cries out. But he doesn't 00:07:10.050 --> 00:07:12.430 cry out to God directly, does he? No, he cries 00:07:12.430 --> 00:07:15.050 out to Saint Anna. Help, Saint Anna, I will become 00:07:15.050 --> 00:07:17.790 a monk. Why Saint Anna? What's the significance 00:07:17.790 --> 00:07:20.810 there? She was the patron saint of minors, his 00:07:20.810 --> 00:07:23.529 father's patron saint. It was an instinctual 00:07:23.529 --> 00:07:26.310 cry to the protector of his family. But the content 00:07:26.310 --> 00:07:28.540 of the cry, I will become a monk. That was the 00:07:28.540 --> 00:07:31.300 pivot point of his entire life. That is a massive 00:07:31.300 --> 00:07:33.439 overcorrection. He goes from I don't want to 00:07:33.439 --> 00:07:36.040 die to I'll drop out of law school and join a 00:07:36.040 --> 00:07:38.699 monastery. It sounds so impulsive. It was impulsive. 00:07:38.759 --> 00:07:41.680 But in the medieval mind, a vow made to a saint 00:07:41.680 --> 00:07:44.060 during a moment of mortal peril was a binding 00:07:44.060 --> 00:07:47.620 contract. He survived the storm and he viewed 00:07:47.620 --> 00:07:50.279 that cry for help as an unbreakable vow. It was 00:07:50.279 --> 00:07:52.740 like you saved my life. Now my life belongs to 00:07:52.740 --> 00:07:55.079 the church. So he really felt he had no choice. 00:07:55.180 --> 00:07:58.180 He felt compelled by honor and by fear. Two weeks 00:07:58.180 --> 00:08:00.819 later, he throws a farewell party for his university 00:08:00.819 --> 00:08:03.579 friends. He gives away his expensive law books, 00:08:03.720 --> 00:08:07.439 his loot. And on July 17th, 1505, he walks into 00:08:07.439 --> 00:08:10.160 St. Augustine's Monastery in Erfurt, the Black 00:08:10.160 --> 00:08:12.819 Cloister. I can just imagine his dad, Hans, was 00:08:12.819 --> 00:08:15.319 absolutely thrilled about this development. Furious 00:08:15.319 --> 00:08:18.180 doesn't even begin to cover it. Hans saw it as 00:08:18.180 --> 00:08:20.800 a complete waste of an expensive education and 00:08:20.800 --> 00:08:23.720 a betrayal of his duty to the family. When Martin 00:08:23.720 --> 00:08:26.199 later tried to reconcile with him, Hans said 00:08:26.199 --> 00:08:28.620 something like, God grant that it was not an 00:08:28.620 --> 00:08:30.699 apparition of the devil. He thought Martin was 00:08:30.699 --> 00:08:32.460 hallucinating. He thought his son was throwing 00:08:32.460 --> 00:08:34.679 his entire life away because of a bad dream in 00:08:34.679 --> 00:08:37.440 a storm. So Martin trades the law books for the 00:08:37.440 --> 00:08:41.360 cowl. He becomes an Augustinian friar. But this 00:08:41.360 --> 00:08:44.399 didn't exactly solve his anxiety, did it? I mean, 00:08:44.399 --> 00:08:46.879 he went there to find peace with God, but the 00:08:46.879 --> 00:08:48.940 sources say he found the opposite. That's the 00:08:48.940 --> 00:08:51.460 great irony of his life. He dedicated himself 00:08:51.460 --> 00:08:54.620 to the monastic life with an incredible, almost 00:08:54.620 --> 00:08:57.679 frightening intensity. He was an overachiever 00:08:57.679 --> 00:08:59.720 at being a monk. What does that even look like? 00:08:59.940 --> 00:09:02.720 Fasting until he was skeletal, long, long hours 00:09:02.720 --> 00:09:05.480 of prayer, sleeping without blankets in the freezing 00:09:05.480 --> 00:09:08.019 winter to mortify the flesh, frequent confession. 00:09:08.299 --> 00:09:10.740 And he wasn't doing this to show off. No, no, 00:09:10.779 --> 00:09:12.799 not at all. He was doing it because he was terrified. 00:09:13.059 --> 00:09:15.220 He was trying to solve a spiritual math problem 00:09:15.220 --> 00:09:17.580 that couldn't be solved. The theology he was 00:09:17.580 --> 00:09:20.120 taught said that you had to be contrite, truly 00:09:20.120 --> 00:09:22.539 sorry for your sins, and then do penance to be 00:09:22.539 --> 00:09:25.580 forgiven. Okay. But Luther's brain was too analytical 00:09:25.580 --> 00:09:27.799 for that. He would ask himself, am I really sorry 00:09:27.799 --> 00:09:30.320 or am I just afraid of being punished? If I'm 00:09:30.320 --> 00:09:32.860 just afraid, then I'm not truly contrite. If 00:09:32.860 --> 00:09:34.779 I'm not contrite, I'm not forgiven. If I'm not 00:09:34.779 --> 00:09:36.799 forgiven, I'm going to hell. That's a spiral. 00:09:36.919 --> 00:09:39.580 It's a feedback loop of anxiety. He called it 00:09:39.580 --> 00:09:41.879 Anfechterung. It's a German word that's hard 00:09:41.879 --> 00:09:44.259 to translate perfectly. It means spiritual trial, 00:09:44.379 --> 00:09:47.440 terror, despair, assault. He felt that God was 00:09:47.440 --> 00:09:51.059 not a loving father, but a jailer and hangman. 00:09:51.580 --> 00:09:53.620 He had this quote that really stuck with me. 00:09:53.860 --> 00:09:57.100 I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God 00:09:57.100 --> 00:10:00.090 who punishes sinners. He hated God. That's a 00:10:00.090 --> 00:10:02.590 heavy, heavy admission for a monk to make. It 00:10:02.590 --> 00:10:05.070 was his crisis point. He was spiraling. He was 00:10:05.070 --> 00:10:08.129 driving his superiors crazy. His confessor was 00:10:08.129 --> 00:10:10.809 a man named Johann von Staupitz, the vicar general 00:10:10.809 --> 00:10:13.470 of the Augustinian order. Luther would confess 00:10:13.470 --> 00:10:16.269 for hours and hours over the tiniest infractions. 00:10:16.450 --> 00:10:18.509 I can't imagine being on the other side of that 00:10:18.509 --> 00:10:21.450 screen. Staupitz eventually told him, Martin, 00:10:21.629 --> 00:10:24.070 God is not angry with you. You are angry with 00:10:24.070 --> 00:10:26.250 God. Staubitz sounds like a pretty good therapist 00:10:26.250 --> 00:10:28.789 for the 16th century. He really was. And he made 00:10:28.789 --> 00:10:31.490 a brilliant management decision. He realized 00:10:31.490 --> 00:10:33.850 that Luther had too much time to just sit and 00:10:33.850 --> 00:10:36.730 think about himself, to obsess. He needed a job. 00:10:36.730 --> 00:10:39.429 He needed a distraction. So Staubitz ordered 00:10:39.429 --> 00:10:42.450 him to pursue an academic career. He basically 00:10:42.450 --> 00:10:44.950 said, go get your doctorate and teach the Bible. 00:10:45.149 --> 00:10:47.809 Go study the scriptures so you stop obsessing 00:10:47.809 --> 00:10:51.450 over your own thoughts. Exactly. And that one 00:10:51.450 --> 00:10:54.590 order changed history. Because it sent Luther 00:10:54.590 --> 00:10:58.370 to a new, small university in a town called Wittenberg. 00:10:58.649 --> 00:11:01.070 Okay, so let's move to part two, Wittenberg. 00:11:01.210 --> 00:11:03.789 This is where the magic happens. Luther becomes 00:11:03.789 --> 00:11:06.830 a professor of theology in 1512, and he starts 00:11:06.830 --> 00:11:10.429 lecturing on the Bible. Psalms. Romans, Galatians. 00:11:10.610 --> 00:11:13.570 And this is where the aha moment occurs. It wasn't 00:11:13.570 --> 00:11:15.549 overnight. It was a process over several years, 00:11:15.690 --> 00:11:18.250 what scholars call the tower experience. But 00:11:18.250 --> 00:11:20.429 as he is wrestling with the text, specifically 00:11:20.429 --> 00:11:23.070 Paul's letter to the Romans, his entire worldview 00:11:23.070 --> 00:11:26.590 shifts. So unpack that shift for us, because 00:11:26.590 --> 00:11:29.029 theological terms can get dry pretty fast. But 00:11:29.029 --> 00:11:31.009 this is the engine of the entire Reformation. 00:11:31.730 --> 00:11:34.090 What was the old way of thinking and what was 00:11:34.090 --> 00:11:38.190 Luther's new way? Okay, so the old way, the Catholic 00:11:38.190 --> 00:11:40.090 view at the time, was essentially what we call 00:11:40.090 --> 00:11:43.470 synergism. Cooperation. Yes. The idea was that 00:11:43.470 --> 00:11:46.389 God offers grace, but you have to do your part. 00:11:46.490 --> 00:11:49.450 You cooperate with that grace. You earn merit 00:11:49.450 --> 00:11:51.909 through the sacraments, through good works, through 00:11:51.909 --> 00:11:54.830 charity. It's like a spiritual ledger. You sin, 00:11:55.049 --> 00:11:57.649 you get debt, you do penance, you pay it off. 00:11:57.950 --> 00:12:00.250 Which explains Luther's anxiety perfectly. Yeah. 00:12:00.409 --> 00:12:02.169 You can never be sure the ledger is balanced. 00:12:02.429 --> 00:12:04.730 You never know if you've paid enough. Precisely. 00:12:04.730 --> 00:12:06.750 It's a treadmill of spiritual anxiety you can 00:12:06.750 --> 00:12:09.889 never get off. But while studying Romans 1 .7, 00:12:10.149 --> 00:12:12.789 the just shall live by faith, Luther realized 00:12:12.789 --> 00:12:15.309 something else. He looked at the Greek word for 00:12:15.309 --> 00:12:18.850 justice or righteousness. He concluded that righteousness 00:12:18.850 --> 00:12:21.149 isn't a standard we have to meet or achieve. 00:12:21.309 --> 00:12:24.129 It's a gift God gives. Wait, explain that distinction 00:12:24.129 --> 00:12:27.399 with an analogy if you can. Okay. Imagine you 00:12:27.399 --> 00:12:30.039 have a massive credit card debt, millions of 00:12:30.039 --> 00:12:33.059 dollars. You can never, ever pay it off. The 00:12:33.059 --> 00:12:36.259 old way says, here's a payment plan. If you work 00:12:36.259 --> 00:12:38.440 hard every single day for the rest of your life, 00:12:38.580 --> 00:12:40.980 maybe you can pay down the interest. An impossible 00:12:40.980 --> 00:12:44.419 task. Right. The Luther way says, someone else, 00:12:44.440 --> 00:12:46.500 Christ has already paid the bill in full. The 00:12:46.500 --> 00:12:48.480 debt is gone. You just have to accept the receipt. 00:12:48.759 --> 00:12:51.440 So it's a one -way street, not a cooperation. 00:12:51.899 --> 00:12:55.419 Exactly. The theologians call it monergism. For 00:12:55.419 --> 00:12:59.059 Luther, it became soulified, faith alone. He 00:12:59.059 --> 00:13:00.879 realized that you are not justified because you 00:13:00.879 --> 00:13:03.200 are good. You are justified because Christ is 00:13:03.200 --> 00:13:05.940 good. And he gives that righteous status to you 00:13:05.940 --> 00:13:08.919 as a gift through faith. Luther said when he 00:13:08.919 --> 00:13:10.620 understood this, I felt that I was altogether 00:13:10.620 --> 00:13:13.220 born again and had entered paradise itself through 00:13:13.220 --> 00:13:15.759 open gates. So the pressure is off. The anxiety 00:13:15.759 --> 00:13:18.639 is gone. The jailer God became the loving father. 00:13:18.919 --> 00:13:21.039 It must have been incredibly liberating for him. 00:13:21.159 --> 00:13:24.259 It shattered his medieval anxiety. But it was 00:13:24.259 --> 00:13:26.519 about to shatter the peace of the church, too. 00:13:27.059 --> 00:13:29.399 Because while Luther is in Wittenberg discovering 00:13:29.399 --> 00:13:32.779 that grace is free, the church hierarchy is doubling 00:13:32.779 --> 00:13:35.820 down on the idea that grace is for sale. Which 00:13:35.820 --> 00:13:39.440 brings us to the indulgence crisis. This is the 00:13:39.440 --> 00:13:42.080 spark that lights the powder keg. And to understand 00:13:42.080 --> 00:13:44.980 this, you really have to follow the money. Because 00:13:44.980 --> 00:13:47.039 this wasn't just about theology. This was about 00:13:47.039 --> 00:13:49.919 construction projects and high finance. So who 00:13:49.919 --> 00:13:51.980 are the key players here? Okay, you have Pope 00:13:51.980 --> 00:13:55.460 Leo X in Rome. He's a Medici, very cultured, 00:13:55.460 --> 00:13:59.840 very expensive tastes. He is rebuilding St. Peter's 00:13:59.840 --> 00:14:02.360 Basilica, that magnificent structure we see today 00:14:02.360 --> 00:14:05.500 in the Vatican. That costs an absolute fortune. 00:14:05.720 --> 00:14:08.460 An expensive taste requires deep pockets. Very 00:14:08.460 --> 00:14:10.620 deep. And then you have Archbishop Isbarbrecht 00:14:10.620 --> 00:14:13.279 of Mainz in Germany. He's a young, ambitious 00:14:13.279 --> 00:14:15.820 noble. who wants to be the primate of Germany. 00:14:16.039 --> 00:14:18.379 To get that job, he has to pay the pope a huge 00:14:18.379 --> 00:14:20.659 fee. Then he doesn't have the cash. No. So he 00:14:20.659 --> 00:14:22.360 borrows it from the Fuggers. They were like the 00:14:22.360 --> 00:14:24.440 Rothschilds or the Goldman Sachs of the 16th 00:14:24.440 --> 00:14:26.299 century. The biggest banking family in Europe. 00:14:26.500 --> 00:14:28.799 So the archbishop is in debt to the bankers and 00:14:28.799 --> 00:14:31.980 the pope needs money for his building. It sounds 00:14:31.980 --> 00:14:33.980 like a modern financial scandal. It basically 00:14:33.980 --> 00:14:36.889 is. So they hatch a plan. The pope authorizes 00:14:36.889 --> 00:14:39.870 a special plenary indulgence to be sold in Germany. 00:14:40.250 --> 00:14:43.110 An indulgence was technically a remission of 00:14:43.110 --> 00:14:45.429 the temporal punishment for sin, basically buying 00:14:45.429 --> 00:14:47.549 time off from purgatory for yourself or your 00:14:47.549 --> 00:14:49.529 deceased relatives. And the money gets split. 00:14:49.710 --> 00:14:52.250 Yep. Half the money goes to the pope for the 00:14:52.250 --> 00:14:54.889 basilica. Half goes to the bankers to pay off 00:14:54.889 --> 00:14:57.289 Archbishop Albrecht's loan. It's a fundraising 00:14:57.289 --> 00:15:01.190 scheme. It is. And to run the scheme, they hire 00:15:01.190 --> 00:15:04.700 a closer, a man named Johann Tetzel. This guy 00:15:04.700 --> 00:15:07.539 was the Billy Mays of the 16th century. A real 00:15:07.539 --> 00:15:10.299 showman. He was a Dominican friar with a flair 00:15:10.299 --> 00:15:12.440 for the dramatic. He would come into town with 00:15:12.440 --> 00:15:14.960 crumpets and banners. He'd preach a sermon that 00:15:14.960 --> 00:15:17.120 would terrify you about your dead parents suffering 00:15:17.120 --> 00:15:19.759 in the flames of purgatory. And he had that famous 00:15:19.759 --> 00:15:22.960 jingle. He did. It's attributed to him. As soon 00:15:22.960 --> 00:15:25.399 as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from 00:15:25.399 --> 00:15:28.519 purgatory springs. That is catchy. I hate it, 00:15:28.559 --> 00:15:31.679 but it's catchy. And terribly manipulative. Luther 00:15:31.679 --> 00:15:34.299 thought so, too. he was a pastor in wittenberg 00:15:34.299 --> 00:15:37.019 his own parishioners were crossing the river 00:15:37.019 --> 00:15:40.059 to buy these indulgences from tetzel and coming 00:15:40.059 --> 00:15:42.299 back claiming they didn't need to repent anymore 00:15:42.299 --> 00:15:44.919 because they had bought a ticket to heaven luther 00:15:45.320 --> 00:15:48.820 The man who spent years agonizing over true repentance 00:15:48.820 --> 00:15:52.659 must have been absolutely furious. He was outraged. 00:15:52.659 --> 00:15:55.899 He saw it as spiritual fraud. He believed it 00:15:55.899 --> 00:15:58.480 was giving people a false security. He thought 00:15:58.480 --> 00:16:00.759 the Pope was being misled or that the people 00:16:00.759 --> 00:16:03.580 were being scammed out of their salvation. So 00:16:03.580 --> 00:16:07.620 on October 31st, 1517, he decides to start a 00:16:07.620 --> 00:16:09.740 debate. This is the day that everyone knows, 00:16:09.940 --> 00:16:13.679 Reformation Day. He writes the 95 Theses. Or 00:16:13.679 --> 00:16:16.200 to give it its full title, The Disputation on 00:16:16.200 --> 00:16:19.360 the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences. Now we 00:16:19.360 --> 00:16:21.100 have to address the image everyone has in their 00:16:21.100 --> 00:16:24.179 head. Luther, hammer in hand, dramatically pounding 00:16:24.179 --> 00:16:26.240 these papers onto the door of the castle church 00:16:26.240 --> 00:16:28.940 in Wittenberg. Factor fiction. It's debated. 00:16:29.019 --> 00:16:30.720 A lot of serious scholars think it might be a 00:16:30.720 --> 00:16:32.600 legend. The story comes from Philip Melanchthon, 00:16:32.700 --> 00:16:35.039 who was Luther's right -hand man, but Melanchthon 00:16:35.039 --> 00:16:37.559 wasn't actually in Wittenberg in 1517 when it 00:16:37.559 --> 00:16:41.320 supposedly happened. luther himself in all his 00:16:41.320 --> 00:16:44.399 writings about that time he never once mentioned 00:16:44.399 --> 00:16:46.809 nailing them to the door So he might have just 00:16:46.809 --> 00:16:48.809 mailed them. We know for a fact he mailed them. 00:16:48.929 --> 00:16:51.610 He wrote a very respectful letter to his bishop, 00:16:51.750 --> 00:16:54.669 Albrecht of Mainz, the guy in debt. And he enclosed 00:16:54.669 --> 00:16:57.129 the theses. He was following proper academic 00:16:57.129 --> 00:17:00.490 protocol. He wanted a scholarly disputation among 00:17:00.490 --> 00:17:03.250 theologians. But whether he nailed them or mailed 00:17:03.250 --> 00:17:05.529 them, they didn't stay in the envelope? No. And 00:17:05.529 --> 00:17:08.069 this is where the technology of the day comes 00:17:08.069 --> 00:17:10.730 in, the printing press. This is the first time 00:17:10.730 --> 00:17:14.880 in history a message goes truly viral. Luther 00:17:14.880 --> 00:17:17.400 wrote the theses in Latin, intended only for 00:17:17.400 --> 00:17:19.799 scholars, but some of his friends translated 00:17:19.799 --> 00:17:22.640 them into German without really asking him. They 00:17:22.640 --> 00:17:24.720 printed them. And they went everywhere. Everywhere. 00:17:24.900 --> 00:17:27.400 It was a firestorm. Within two weeks, they were 00:17:27.400 --> 00:17:29.859 all over Germany. Within a month, they were all 00:17:29.859 --> 00:17:32.759 over Europe. Luther woke up one day and found 00:17:32.759 --> 00:17:35.400 out he was the most famous or infamous man in 00:17:35.400 --> 00:17:37.640 the Holy Roman Empire. And the content wasn't 00:17:37.640 --> 00:17:39.880 just dry theology. I mean, some of it was pretty 00:17:39.880 --> 00:17:43.279 spicy. Oh, absolutely. Thesis 86 is a classic 00:17:43.279 --> 00:17:47.059 zinger. He asks, why does the pope, whose wealth 00:17:47.059 --> 00:17:48.720 today is greater than the wealth of the richest 00:17:48.720 --> 00:17:51.519 Roman emperor, build the Basilica of St. Peter 00:17:51.519 --> 00:17:53.700 with the money of poor believers rather than 00:17:53.700 --> 00:17:56.440 with his own money? Ouch. That's a direct shot 00:17:56.440 --> 00:17:58.539 at the wallet. It was. And that's why it resonated 00:17:58.539 --> 00:18:00.940 with so many people. It tapped into a deep vein 00:18:00.940 --> 00:18:03.960 of German resentment against Rome, you know, 00:18:03.960 --> 00:18:07.059 taxing them to build palaces in Italy. Luther 00:18:07.059 --> 00:18:09.299 suddenly became the voice of that national frustration. 00:18:09.680 --> 00:18:12.920 So the cat is out of the bag. The feces are everywhere. 00:18:13.039 --> 00:18:16.200 How does the empire strike back? This brings 00:18:16.200 --> 00:18:19.140 us to part three of our story. Initially, Rome 00:18:19.140 --> 00:18:22.640 was very slow to react. Pope Leodex, he dismissed 00:18:22.640 --> 00:18:25.559 it as a monkish squabble. He famously said, Luther 00:18:25.559 --> 00:18:27.779 is a drunken German. He will feel different when 00:18:27.779 --> 00:18:31.400 he is sober. Famous last words. Indeed. But as 00:18:31.400 --> 00:18:33.559 the sales of indulgences plummeted, the church 00:18:33.559 --> 00:18:35.279 realized they had a serious problem on their 00:18:35.279 --> 00:18:37.539 hands. The money was drying up. They had to act. 00:18:37.619 --> 00:18:40.460 They send in the heavy hitters. They do. In 1518, 00:18:40.640 --> 00:18:43.380 Luther is summoned to Augsburg to meet with Cardinal 00:18:43.380 --> 00:18:46.420 Cajetan. Cajetan was a brilliant theologian, 00:18:46.420 --> 00:18:49.299 a top -tier Dominican intellectual. He expected 00:18:49.299 --> 00:18:52.150 Luther to just show up, recant. kiss the ring 00:18:52.150 --> 00:18:54.250 and go back to his monastery. But Luther isn't 00:18:54.250 --> 00:18:57.130 really the shut up type. Not at all. The meeting 00:18:57.130 --> 00:18:59.670 turned into a shouting match. Luther insisted 00:18:59.670 --> 00:19:02.309 that the pope was not above scripture. Cajetan 00:19:02.309 --> 00:19:05.450 insisted on papal authority. It ended with Luther 00:19:05.450 --> 00:19:07.529 having to literally slip out of the city at night 00:19:07.529 --> 00:19:10.509 to avoid being arrested. A narrow escape. And 00:19:10.509 --> 00:19:12.970 then things escalate even further. The Leipzig 00:19:12.970 --> 00:19:15.430 debate in 1519. Right. This was against another 00:19:15.430 --> 00:19:18.180 brilliant debater named Johann Eck. And Eck was 00:19:18.180 --> 00:19:20.980 a shark. He was a skilled debater who knew exactly 00:19:20.980 --> 00:19:23.819 how to trap Luther. He pushed Luther on point 00:19:23.819 --> 00:19:26.140 after point until he got him to admit that popes 00:19:26.140 --> 00:19:27.859 and even church councils could make mistakes. 00:19:28.180 --> 00:19:31.099 Which is heresy. It is absolute heresy. Eck then 00:19:31.099 --> 00:19:33.940 compared Luther to Jan Hus, a Czech reformer 00:19:33.940 --> 00:19:36.019 who had been burned at the stake a century earlier 00:19:36.019 --> 00:19:38.519 for saying similar things. And Luther, in the 00:19:38.519 --> 00:19:41.079 heat of the debate, essentially said, yes, Hus 00:19:41.079 --> 00:19:43.279 was right about some things. That was crossing 00:19:43.279 --> 00:19:45.640 the Rubicon. That was it. By admitting that, 00:19:45.759 --> 00:19:48.460 Luther had declared war not just on indulgences, 00:19:48.480 --> 00:19:51.059 but on the entire authority structure of the 00:19:51.059 --> 00:19:53.519 church. So the church has had enough. In June 00:19:53.519 --> 00:19:56.900 of 1520, the pope issues a bull. Exurge Domine. 00:19:57.299 --> 00:20:00.420 Arise, O Lord, and judge your cause. A wild boar 00:20:00.420 --> 00:20:03.539 has invaded your vineyard. It condemned 41 of 00:20:03.539 --> 00:20:06.519 Luther's errors and gave him 60 days to recant 00:20:06.519 --> 00:20:08.940 or face excommunication. And how does Luther 00:20:08.940 --> 00:20:11.240 respond to this terrifying threat from the vicar 00:20:11.240 --> 00:20:13.519 of Christ? He burns it. He burns the pope's decree. 00:20:13.900 --> 00:20:17.119 Publicly. In Wittenberg, he throws the papal 00:20:17.119 --> 00:20:20.160 bull onto a bonfire of canon law books, surrounded 00:20:20.160 --> 00:20:22.839 by his students. That is the point of no return. 00:20:23.059 --> 00:20:25.279 So formal excommunication follows in January 00:20:25.279 --> 00:20:28.039 1521. He's officially kicked out of the church. 00:20:28.680 --> 00:20:30.720 but he's still a subject of the empire. So now 00:20:30.720 --> 00:20:32.759 the Holy Roman Emperor himself, Charles V, gets 00:20:32.759 --> 00:20:36.220 involved. The Diet of Worms, April 1521. This 00:20:36.220 --> 00:20:38.500 is the climax of the early Reformation. It's 00:20:38.500 --> 00:20:40.859 the big showdown. And Diet of Worms always sounds 00:20:40.859 --> 00:20:43.539 funny to modern ears, but diet just means assembly, 00:20:43.680 --> 00:20:46.839 and Worms is a city in Germany. Correct. So Luther 00:20:46.839 --> 00:20:49.539 is summoned to appear before the emperor. He's 00:20:49.539 --> 00:20:52.059 given a guarantee of safe conduct, but he knows 00:20:52.059 --> 00:20:54.400 what happened to Jan Hus. He had safe conduct 00:20:54.400 --> 00:20:57.049 too, and they burned him anyway. His friends 00:20:57.049 --> 00:20:59.569 begged him not to go. He goes anyway. He goes. 00:20:59.769 --> 00:21:01.690 He said he would go to worms even if there were 00:21:01.690 --> 00:21:04.309 as many devils as tiles on the roofs. He stands 00:21:04.309 --> 00:21:07.230 before the emperor, the princes, all the assembled 00:21:07.230 --> 00:21:09.990 power of Europe. There's a pile of his books 00:21:09.990 --> 00:21:12.130 on a table in front of him. A pretty intimidating 00:21:12.130 --> 00:21:14.569 scene. Immensely. The prosecutor points to the 00:21:14.569 --> 00:21:17.450 books and asks him two questions. Are these your 00:21:17.450 --> 00:21:20.549 books? And will you recant what you've written 00:21:20.549 --> 00:21:23.240 in them? And he asks for time. He does. And this 00:21:23.240 --> 00:21:26.259 is a moment that really humanizes him. The first 00:21:26.259 --> 00:21:28.920 day, he speaks quietly, almost in a whisper. 00:21:29.140 --> 00:21:31.180 He asks for a day to think about his answer. 00:21:31.500 --> 00:21:33.759 He wobbles a bit. He was clearly intimidated. 00:21:33.779 --> 00:21:35.799 You can imagine him in his room that night thinking, 00:21:35.980 --> 00:21:38.539 am I really right? Is everyone else in 1 ,500 00:21:38.539 --> 00:21:40.599 years of history wrong? But he comes back the 00:21:40.599 --> 00:21:43.339 next day. He comes back with his resolve stiffened. 00:21:43.680 --> 00:21:46.359 He delivers the speech that, in many ways, defines 00:21:46.359 --> 00:21:49.039 the modern idea of individual conscience. He 00:21:49.039 --> 00:21:51.839 refuses to divide his books into good and bad. 00:21:52.059 --> 00:22:11.619 And he says, And the famous line, Here I stand, 00:22:11.640 --> 00:22:14.190 I can do no other. Did he actually say that? 00:22:14.390 --> 00:22:16.690 It's a bit like the church door story. Scholars 00:22:16.690 --> 00:22:18.670 generally agree that the specific words, here 00:22:18.670 --> 00:22:21.069 I stand, I can do no other, were likely added 00:22:21.069 --> 00:22:23.170 in later printed versions to make it punchier, 00:22:23.210 --> 00:22:26.269 more dramatic. But the sentiment is 100 % accurate 00:22:26.269 --> 00:22:28.589 to what he said. Witnesses at the time said he 00:22:28.589 --> 00:22:30.470 raised his arm like a knight winning a tournament 00:22:30.470 --> 00:22:32.829 bout. He had taken his stand. And the verdicts? 00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:35.079 The Edict of Worms. It declares him an outlaw. 00:22:35.200 --> 00:22:37.500 We want him to be apprehended and punished as 00:22:37.500 --> 00:22:40.319 a notorious heretic. The edict essentially made 00:22:40.319 --> 00:22:42.480 it legal for anyone to kill him without consequence. 00:22:42.799 --> 00:22:45.799 He was bird free, as they said. A dead man walking. 00:22:46.079 --> 00:22:47.859 Which brings us to one of the most cinematic 00:22:47.859 --> 00:22:52.400 twists in history. The kidnapping. Yes. So Luther 00:22:52.400 --> 00:22:54.859 is traveling back home from Worms. Suddenly, 00:22:55.079 --> 00:22:57.500 in the forest near Wittenberg, a group of armed 00:22:57.500 --> 00:23:00.390 horsemen surround his wagon. They pull him out, 00:23:00.430 --> 00:23:02.349 they curse at him, and they ride off with him 00:23:02.349 --> 00:23:04.650 into the woods. But they weren't enemies. No. 00:23:05.210 --> 00:23:08.230 It was a setup. It was orchestrated by his protector, 00:23:08.549 --> 00:23:12.069 Frederick the Wise, the elector of Saxony. Frederick 00:23:12.069 --> 00:23:14.089 wanted to keep Luther safe, but he couldn't be 00:23:14.089 --> 00:23:17.069 seen openly defying the emperor, so he staged 00:23:17.069 --> 00:23:19.470 a fake kidnapping and had Luther hidden away 00:23:19.470 --> 00:23:22.789 at the Wartburg Castle. Clever. Plausible deniability. 00:23:22.970 --> 00:23:25.470 Exactly. Even Frederick didn't want to know exactly 00:23:25.470 --> 00:23:27.329 where Luther was so he could honestly tell the 00:23:27.329 --> 00:23:29.390 emperor, I don't know. So Luther disappears. 00:23:30.009 --> 00:23:31.890 The world thinks he might have been captured 00:23:31.890 --> 00:23:35.490 and killed. Yeah. But he's actually sitting in 00:23:35.490 --> 00:23:38.049 a castle growing a beard and going by the alias 00:23:38.049 --> 00:23:40.890 Junker Jorg Knight George. And this period of 00:23:40.890 --> 00:23:43.690 exile at the Vorkberg is incredibly productive. 00:23:43.930 --> 00:23:46.509 He's isolated. He's fighting with depression 00:23:46.509 --> 00:23:48.789 again. He talks about fighting the devil in his 00:23:48.789 --> 00:23:51.109 room, hearing noises. There's the famous story 00:23:51.109 --> 00:23:53.430 of him throwing an ink pot at the devil. But 00:23:53.430 --> 00:23:55.990 he channels that energy into work. The translation 00:23:55.990 --> 00:23:59.289 project. This is monumental. He decides to translate 00:23:59.289 --> 00:24:01.630 the New Testament from the original Greek into 00:24:01.630 --> 00:24:05.359 German. And he does it in just 11 weeks. 11 weeks. 00:24:05.440 --> 00:24:08.480 That is blindingly fast. It's an incredible feat 00:24:08.480 --> 00:24:11.460 of intellect and focus. But it's more than just 00:24:11.460 --> 00:24:13.599 the speed. It was the kind of German he used. 00:24:13.720 --> 00:24:16.400 He used the Saxon chancellery dialect, which 00:24:16.400 --> 00:24:18.400 was sort of a middle ground that was intelligible 00:24:18.400 --> 00:24:21.619 to both northern and southern Germans. He wanted 00:24:21.619 --> 00:24:24.099 a German that could be understood by the mother 00:24:24.099 --> 00:24:26.099 in the home, the children on the street, the 00:24:26.099 --> 00:24:28.400 common man in the marketplace. Before this, German 00:24:28.400 --> 00:24:30.500 was just a mess of different dialects, right? 00:24:31.230 --> 00:24:33.730 A Bavarian might not understand a Saxon. Right. 00:24:34.430 --> 00:24:36.769 Luther's Bible helped standardize the modern 00:24:36.769 --> 00:24:39.529 German language. It gave the German people a 00:24:39.529 --> 00:24:42.210 unified voice. And crucially, it put the Bible 00:24:42.210 --> 00:24:44.950 into the hands of ordinary people. You didn't 00:24:44.950 --> 00:24:46.609 need a priest to tell you what it said anymore. 00:24:46.809 --> 00:24:48.970 You could read it for yourself. That is the ultimate 00:24:48.970 --> 00:24:51.769 democratization of religion. But while he's up 00:24:51.769 --> 00:24:53.730 in the castle translating down in Wittenberg. 00:24:54.160 --> 00:24:56.200 Things are getting a little crazy. Complete chaos. 00:24:56.559 --> 00:24:58.779 Without Luther there to steer the ship, more 00:24:58.779 --> 00:25:01.660 radical reformers took over. Men like Andreas 00:25:01.660 --> 00:25:04.460 Karlstadt and a group called the Zwickau Prophets. 00:25:04.559 --> 00:25:07.480 They started smashing statues in churches, destroying 00:25:07.480 --> 00:25:10.380 images, preaching radical social revolution. 00:25:10.859 --> 00:25:12.980 This is the Pandora's box problem. Once you say 00:25:12.980 --> 00:25:15.000 question authority, people start questioning 00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:17.579 all authority. Exactly. And Luther did not want 00:25:17.579 --> 00:25:19.779 chaos. He was a conservative revolutionary. He 00:25:19.779 --> 00:25:22.640 wanted to reform the theology, not overturn the 00:25:22.640 --> 00:25:25.839 entire social order. So in 1522, he comes out 00:25:25.839 --> 00:25:28.539 of hiding and returns to Wittenberg. A huge risk. 00:25:28.680 --> 00:25:31.160 A massive risk. He preaches a series of sermons 00:25:31.160 --> 00:25:34.619 called the Invocavit sermons. He calms the mob. 00:25:34.799 --> 00:25:37.980 He effectively says, faith needs to be free. 00:25:38.180 --> 00:25:41.420 You can't force people to believe. He pushes 00:25:41.420 --> 00:25:44.240 the radicals out and restores order. He becomes, 00:25:44.319 --> 00:25:46.819 ironically, the conservative force within his 00:25:46.819 --> 00:25:49.519 own reformation. But the fire was already spreading 00:25:49.519 --> 00:25:52.779 beyond just church statues. And this leads to 00:25:52.779 --> 00:25:56.819 the Peasants' War in 1524. This is a tough chapter 00:25:56.819 --> 00:25:59.200 for Luther fans to reconcile. It is the most 00:25:59.200 --> 00:26:01.730 controversial moment of his political life. The 00:26:01.730 --> 00:26:05.109 peasants in Germany had valid, longstanding grievances. 00:26:05.309 --> 00:26:07.849 They were being crushed by taxes and serfdom. 00:26:08.130 --> 00:26:10.509 They heard Luthi talking about Christian freedom 00:26:10.509 --> 00:26:12.390 and the priesthood of all believers, and they 00:26:12.390 --> 00:26:13.970 interpreted that politically. They thought he 00:26:13.970 --> 00:26:15.809 was on their side. They thought Luther was their 00:26:15.809 --> 00:26:17.890 champion against the oppressive lords. They launched 00:26:17.890 --> 00:26:20.430 a massive rebellion across Germany. And what 00:26:20.430 --> 00:26:22.950 was Luther's initial reaction? At first, he tried 00:26:22.950 --> 00:26:25.670 to mediate. He wrote a pamphlet scolding the 00:26:25.670 --> 00:26:28.069 princes, telling them they were being too harsh 00:26:28.069 --> 00:26:31.250 and tyrannical. But as the violence grew, as 00:26:31.250 --> 00:26:33.470 the peasants started burning castles, killing 00:26:33.470 --> 00:26:36.630 nobles, creating total anarchy, Luther turned 00:26:36.630 --> 00:26:39.490 on them viciously. He wrote another pamphlet 00:26:39.490 --> 00:26:41.250 with the title that tells you everything you 00:26:41.250 --> 00:26:44.390 need to know. Against the murderous, thieving 00:26:44.390 --> 00:26:47.130 hordes of peasants. And the content is shocking 00:26:47.130 --> 00:26:50.529 to modern readers. He told the nobles to smite, 00:26:50.549 --> 00:26:52.970 slay, and stab the rebels like they were mad 00:26:52.970 --> 00:26:55.549 dogs. He said there was nothing more poisonous, 00:26:55.769 --> 00:26:58.740 hurtful, or devilish than a rebel. He sided completely 00:26:58.740 --> 00:27:01.680 with the state power. Why? He did. He believed 00:27:01.680 --> 00:27:03.920 that while all people are equal before God in 00:27:03.920 --> 00:27:06.259 the spiritual realm, in the earthly realm, you 00:27:06.259 --> 00:27:08.440 must obey the authorities that God has established. 00:27:08.759 --> 00:27:11.180 He feared chaos more than he feared tyranny. 00:27:11.460 --> 00:27:14.500 The result was a massacre. The princes crushed 00:27:14.500 --> 00:27:17.480 the rebellion. Thousands upon thousands of peasants 00:27:17.480 --> 00:27:19.740 were killed. And Luther lost the support of the 00:27:19.740 --> 00:27:22.299 common peasantry largely after that. He became 00:27:22.299 --> 00:27:24.789 the theologian of the princes. It secured the 00:27:24.789 --> 00:27:27.349 Reformation's political survival for sure. The 00:27:27.349 --> 00:27:30.410 princes protected him, but it came at a terrible 00:27:30.410 --> 00:27:33.130 human cost. It defined Lutheranism as a state 00:27:33.130 --> 00:27:35.450 -supported religion, not a popular uprising. 00:27:35.809 --> 00:27:37.690 And right in the middle of all this death and 00:27:37.690 --> 00:27:41.150 chaos, Luther decides to do something. Surprisingly 00:27:41.150 --> 00:27:44.029 cheerful. He gets married. Yes. It's a great 00:27:44.029 --> 00:27:46.349 story that contrasts so sharply with the war. 00:27:46.549 --> 00:27:50.450 In 1523, he helped a group of 12 nuns escape 00:27:50.450 --> 00:27:53.029 from a convent in Nimshin. How did he get them 00:27:53.029 --> 00:27:55.059 out? He had a merchant friend smuggle them out 00:27:55.059 --> 00:27:57.039 of the convent, hidden in empty herring barrels. 00:27:57.359 --> 00:27:59.519 Classic romance. Nothing says I love you like 00:27:59.519 --> 00:28:01.859 the smell of pickled fish. Well, once they were 00:28:01.859 --> 00:28:04.140 out, he felt responsible for them. He managed 00:28:04.140 --> 00:28:06.099 to marry most of them off to various friends 00:28:06.099 --> 00:28:08.759 or students, but there was one left, a woman 00:28:08.759 --> 00:28:12.299 named Katharina von Bora. She was 26. Luther 00:28:12.299 --> 00:28:15.380 was 41. She was stubborn and intelligent. And 00:28:15.380 --> 00:28:17.539 she had her eye on Luther. She did. She basically 00:28:17.539 --> 00:28:19.480 told a friend, I won't marry anyone else. I'll 00:28:19.480 --> 00:28:22.220 marry Dr. Luther. And he did it. He did. Even 00:28:22.220 --> 00:28:25.279 his friends were shocked. His closest ally, Melanchthon, 00:28:25.420 --> 00:28:27.380 thought it was a reckless move during such a 00:28:27.380 --> 00:28:30.259 chaotic time. But Luther said he did it to spite 00:28:30.259 --> 00:28:33.779 the devil. And to set a precedent. Exactly. He 00:28:33.779 --> 00:28:36.039 wanted to prove that clerical marriage was good 00:28:36.039 --> 00:28:38.660 and biblical. They moved into the Black Cloister. 00:28:39.130 --> 00:28:41.509 his old monastery, which the elector gave them 00:28:41.509 --> 00:28:44.809 as a home, and Katie, as he called her, took 00:28:44.809 --> 00:28:47.910 charge. She was incredible. She managed the finances, 00:28:48.069 --> 00:28:50.730 the brewery, the farm, the dozens of students 00:28:50.730 --> 00:28:53.329 who boarded with them. They had six children. 00:28:53.569 --> 00:28:55.549 It turned out to be a genuinely happy marriage. 00:28:55.930 --> 00:28:57.950 It did. It wasn't romantic initially, but it 00:28:57.950 --> 00:29:00.609 became a deep and loving partnership. He called 00:29:00.609 --> 00:29:03.930 her My Lord Katie. It established the model of 00:29:03.930 --> 00:29:06.430 the Protestant parsonage, the pastor and his 00:29:06.430 --> 00:29:08.970 family living as a pillar of the community, not 00:29:08.970 --> 00:29:11.329 set apart in a celibate tower. So we've had the 00:29:11.329 --> 00:29:14.029 monk, the rebel, the husband. Now we have to 00:29:14.029 --> 00:29:16.009 look at the older Luther. And this is where the 00:29:16.009 --> 00:29:19.319 picture gets darker. Part six. controversies 00:29:19.319 --> 00:29:21.980 and his darker years we can't avoid these as 00:29:21.980 --> 00:29:24.619 Luther got older he got crankier he got sicker 00:29:24.619 --> 00:29:27.319 and he became much more stubborn let's talk about 00:29:27.319 --> 00:29:29.799 the bigamy scandal first this one always surprises 00:29:29.799 --> 00:29:33.660 people The Philip of Hesse Fair in 1539. So Philip 00:29:33.660 --> 00:29:36.519 was a leading Protestant prince, a crucial ally 00:29:36.519 --> 00:29:39.380 to the movement's military defense. He was trapped 00:29:39.380 --> 00:29:41.680 in an unhappy political marriage, but he had 00:29:41.680 --> 00:29:43.619 fallen in love with a lady -in -waiting and wanted 00:29:43.619 --> 00:29:46.319 to marry her. Divorce wasn't really an option 00:29:46.319 --> 00:29:49.240 politically. So he asked Luther for advice. He 00:29:49.240 --> 00:29:52.400 does. And Luther, along with Melanchthon, makes 00:29:52.400 --> 00:29:54.920 a terrible calculation. They look at the Old 00:29:54.920 --> 00:29:57.420 Testament patriarchs, Abraham, Jacob, who had 00:29:57.420 --> 00:30:00.099 multiple wives, and they advise Philip. to marry 00:30:00.099 --> 00:30:03.220 her secretly as a second wife. Bury me. Technically, 00:30:03.339 --> 00:30:06.519 yes. They argued it was at lesser evil than divorce 00:30:06.519 --> 00:30:08.880 or ongoing adultery. But of course, in the courts 00:30:08.880 --> 00:30:11.559 of Europe, nothing stays secret. It leaked. It 00:30:11.559 --> 00:30:13.779 became a huge scandal. And to make it worse, 00:30:13.920 --> 00:30:17.119 Luther then advised Philip to tell a good, strong 00:30:17.119 --> 00:30:20.450 lie to cover it up. That is... not great moral 00:30:20.450 --> 00:30:22.789 leadership. It damaged his reputation significantly. 00:30:23.190 --> 00:30:25.509 It looked like he was bending God's law to please 00:30:25.509 --> 00:30:28.089 a powerful political patron. It showed he was 00:30:28.089 --> 00:30:30.289 willing to compromise his ethics for what he 00:30:30.289 --> 00:30:32.990 saw as political necessity. But the biggest shadow 00:30:32.990 --> 00:30:36.250 over Luther's legacy, the one that is impossible 00:30:36.250 --> 00:30:39.369 to ignore, is his attitude toward Jewish people. 00:30:39.529 --> 00:30:42.589 Yes, this is the most difficult and painful part 00:30:42.589 --> 00:30:45.460 of Luther's story. and we have to face it head 00:30:45.460 --> 00:30:47.539 on it didn't start that way though there was 00:30:47.539 --> 00:30:51.240 a shift no it didn't in 1523 earlier in his career 00:30:51.240 --> 00:30:53.700 he wrote a treatise called that jesus christ 00:30:53.700 --> 00:30:57.700 was born a jew In it, he advised kindness. He 00:30:57.700 --> 00:31:00.099 argued that Jewish people hadn't converted to 00:31:00.099 --> 00:31:02.019 Christianity because the Catholic Church had 00:31:02.019 --> 00:31:04.019 been so corrupt and had treated them so badly. 00:31:04.200 --> 00:31:06.519 He thought that if he presented the pure gospel, 00:31:06.759 --> 00:31:08.839 they would convert in large numbers. It was a 00:31:08.839 --> 00:31:10.960 missionary strategy. Be nice and they'll join 00:31:10.960 --> 00:31:13.259 us. Exactly. But they didn't join. They remained 00:31:13.259 --> 00:31:16.039 Jewish. And as the years went on, Luther took 00:31:16.039 --> 00:31:18.660 this rejection very personally. He became bitter 00:31:18.660 --> 00:31:21.119 and hostile. He couldn't understand why anyone 00:31:21.119 --> 00:31:23.720 would reject his truth unless they were stubborn 00:31:23.720 --> 00:31:27.180 or evil. And in 1543, just three years before 00:31:27.180 --> 00:31:30.579 his death, he writes on the Jews and their lies. 00:31:30.779 --> 00:31:32.740 It is a horrific document. There is no other 00:31:32.740 --> 00:31:35.380 way to describe it. It is violent, hateful rhetoric. 00:31:35.420 --> 00:31:37.720 What specifically did he call for? He called 00:31:37.720 --> 00:31:40.660 for burning their synagogues and schools, for 00:31:40.660 --> 00:31:43.420 destroying their prayer books, forbidding rabbis 00:31:43.420 --> 00:31:45.599 from preaching on pain of death, seizing their 00:31:45.599 --> 00:31:48.000 property and expelling them from the land. He 00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:50.880 called them envenomed worms and the devil's people. 00:31:51.630 --> 00:31:54.009 That sounds like a blueprint for what happened 00:31:54.009 --> 00:31:56.690 in the 20th century. Many historians argue that 00:31:56.690 --> 00:31:59.369 it provided the theological and cultural groundwork 00:31:59.369 --> 00:32:01.970 for the Nazis later on. The Nazis absolutely 00:32:01.970 --> 00:32:04.869 co -opted this book. They reprinted it and displayed 00:32:04.869 --> 00:32:07.650 it at rallies. Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken 00:32:07.650 --> 00:32:09.970 Glass in 1938, happened on Luther's birthday, 00:32:10.170 --> 00:32:12.930 November 10th. A pro -Nazi bishop at the time 00:32:12.930 --> 00:32:15.109 even applauded the burning of synagogues as a 00:32:15.109 --> 00:32:16.890 fitting tribute to Luther. That is chilling. 00:32:17.259 --> 00:32:19.460 And to be clear here, though, Luther's motivation 00:32:19.460 --> 00:32:22.480 was theological, not racial. Correct. That is 00:32:22.480 --> 00:32:24.859 the important distinction historians make. It 00:32:24.859 --> 00:32:27.619 was religious anti -Judaism, not modern racial 00:32:27.619 --> 00:32:30.380 anti -Semitism. If a Jewish person converted 00:32:30.380 --> 00:32:32.779 to Christianity, Luther would have accepted them 00:32:32.779 --> 00:32:34.839 as a brother. It wasn't about blood for him, 00:32:34.880 --> 00:32:38.000 but the rhetoric, the violence of the language. 00:32:38.730 --> 00:32:41.410 It absolutely laid a groundwork of hatred in 00:32:41.410 --> 00:32:44.029 Germany that was easily exploited by racists 00:32:44.029 --> 00:32:46.569 centuries later. It's a stain on his legacy that 00:32:46.569 --> 00:32:48.950 you can't wash out. You can't. And modern Lutheran 00:32:48.950 --> 00:32:51.230 churches have formally repudiated these writings. 00:32:51.309 --> 00:32:53.970 They've apologized for them. But you can't study 00:32:53.970 --> 00:32:56.509 Luther without facing this darkness. It shows 00:32:56.509 --> 00:32:58.730 that he was a man capable of incredible courage, 00:32:58.769 --> 00:33:01.650 but also incredible hate. So we have this deeply 00:33:01.650 --> 00:33:04.750 complex man, a genius, a revolutionary, a husband, 00:33:04.849 --> 00:33:07.109 a bigot. Let's go to his final years, part seven. 00:33:07.400 --> 00:33:09.900 His health was failing badly. He suffered from 00:33:09.900 --> 00:33:12.160 Meniere's disease, which causes awful vertigo 00:33:12.160 --> 00:33:14.339 and tinnitus, a constant ringing in the ears. 00:33:14.460 --> 00:33:16.960 He had kidney stones, cataracts. He was in constant 00:33:16.960 --> 00:33:19.359 pain. And pain makes you grumpy. Incredibly. 00:33:19.359 --> 00:33:22.059 He admitted it himself. He said, they're teaching 00:33:22.059 --> 00:33:24.480 me to be rude. He was fighting everyone, the 00:33:24.480 --> 00:33:26.920 Pope, the Jews, the lawyers, even his own supporters 00:33:26.920 --> 00:33:29.740 sometimes. He was just tired and angry. And how 00:33:29.740 --> 00:33:33.140 does the end come? In 1546, he travels back to 00:33:33.140 --> 00:33:35.720 Eisleben, the very town where he was born. He 00:33:35.720 --> 00:33:37.799 went to mediate a dispute between the Counts 00:33:37.799 --> 00:33:39.880 of Mansfeld regarding those copper mines. Full 00:33:39.880 --> 00:33:42.539 circle. Born in Eisleben, dies in Eisleben. He 00:33:42.539 --> 00:33:45.759 preached his last sermon there. On February 18th, 00:33:45.759 --> 00:33:50.099 1546, he had severe chest pains. He knew it was 00:33:50.099 --> 00:33:52.400 the end. And even on his deathbed, people were 00:33:52.400 --> 00:33:54.319 watching to see if he would recant. Exactly. 00:33:54.579 --> 00:33:57.279 The stakes were still that high. If he recanted 00:33:57.279 --> 00:33:59.480 at the last moment, the whole Reformation might 00:33:59.480 --> 00:34:02.220 collapse. His friends, Justice Jonas and Michael 00:34:02.220 --> 00:34:04.400 Coelius, were with him. They shouted in his ear, 00:34:04.819 --> 00:34:07.480 Reverend Father, are you ready to die trusting 00:34:07.480 --> 00:34:09.380 in your Lord Jesus Christ and to confess the 00:34:09.380 --> 00:34:11.340 doctrine which you have taught in his name? And 00:34:11.340 --> 00:34:14.510 his an - A distinct yes. He died shortly after. 00:34:14.690 --> 00:34:16.929 But he left one last note, didn't he? Yeah. A 00:34:16.929 --> 00:34:19.269 scrap of paper found in his pocket after he died. 00:34:19.429 --> 00:34:22.449 He did. It's the perfect epitaph for his whole 00:34:22.449 --> 00:34:25.329 life, really. A mix of Latin and German. The 00:34:25.329 --> 00:34:29.050 last line reads, We are beggars. This is true. 00:34:29.250 --> 00:34:32.110 Wir sind bettler. Hach ist wirum. We are beggars. 00:34:32.530 --> 00:34:34.710 What did he mean by that? It goes right back 00:34:34.710 --> 00:34:37.320 to his core discovery in that tower. We come 00:34:37.320 --> 00:34:40.059 to God with empty hands. We don't earn anything. 00:34:40.300 --> 00:34:41.900 We don't trade our good works for salvation. 00:34:42.139 --> 00:34:44.760 We can only beg for grace, and it is given freely. 00:34:45.099 --> 00:34:47.840 It was a final confession of humility from a 00:34:47.840 --> 00:34:50.800 man who often seemed so arrogant. It was him 00:34:50.800 --> 00:34:53.360 admitting that despite all his works, all his 00:34:53.360 --> 00:34:55.840 writing, all his battles, at the end of the day 00:34:55.840 --> 00:34:58.440 he was just a beggar before God. So I'll try 00:34:58.440 --> 00:35:01.260 to sum up the legacy. It's massive. It's incalculable. 00:35:01.579 --> 00:35:04.119 Religiously, he permanently split Western Christianity. 00:35:04.480 --> 00:35:07.300 He created Protestantism as a major branch of 00:35:07.300 --> 00:35:09.780 the faith. Culturally. The German Bible. He shaped 00:35:09.780 --> 00:35:12.119 the modern German language. And the music. We 00:35:12.119 --> 00:35:13.500 haven't touched enough on the music. He wrote 00:35:13.500 --> 00:35:15.619 these powerful hymns like, A mighty fortress 00:35:15.619 --> 00:35:18.380 is our God. He introduced congregational singing. 00:35:18.480 --> 00:35:20.800 Before Luther, the choir sang in Latin. After 00:35:20.800 --> 00:35:22.739 Luther, everyone in the pews sang together in 00:35:22.739 --> 00:35:25.679 their own language. He turned church into a participatory 00:35:25.679 --> 00:35:28.349 event. And politically. You have the concept 00:35:28.349 --> 00:35:30.889 of the two kingdoms, this idea of a separation 00:35:30.889 --> 00:35:33.510 between the authority of the church and the authority 00:35:33.510 --> 00:35:35.349 of the state. And you can't forget the legend 00:35:35.349 --> 00:35:38.010 of the swan. Oh, right, the swan prophecy. Jan 00:35:38.010 --> 00:35:40.409 Hus, the reformer who was burned at the stake 00:35:40.409 --> 00:35:45.030 in 1415. The name Hus means goose in the Bohemian 00:35:45.030 --> 00:35:47.590 language. And the legend says that as he was 00:35:47.590 --> 00:35:50.750 burning, he prophesied, Today you will roast 00:35:50.750 --> 00:35:53.070 a goose, but in a hundred years' time you will 00:35:53.070 --> 00:35:55.909 hear a swan sing. You had better listen to him. 00:35:56.050 --> 00:35:58.519 And Luther is the swan. That's how the Lutherans 00:35:58.519 --> 00:36:00.679 saw it. That's why you often see a swan as a 00:36:00.679 --> 00:36:03.699 symbol in Lutheran art. So here we are at the 00:36:03.699 --> 00:36:06.760 end of this deep dive. We've unpacked the monk, 00:36:06.940 --> 00:36:09.780 the reformer, the husband, the anti -Semite. 00:36:09.860 --> 00:36:11.739 It's a lot to hold in your mind at once. A lot 00:36:11.739 --> 00:36:14.639 of contradictions. It is. It forces us to confront 00:36:14.639 --> 00:36:17.360 the nature of great men in history. We want our 00:36:17.360 --> 00:36:19.949 heroes to be simple. We want perfect marble statues. 00:36:20.210 --> 00:36:22.610 Luther just refuses to be that. He illustrates, 00:36:22.829 --> 00:36:25.690 maybe better than anyone, that profound genius 00:36:25.690 --> 00:36:28.650 and incredible courage can coexist with deep, 00:36:28.690 --> 00:36:32.590 ugly flaws and prejudices. The same passion that 00:36:32.590 --> 00:36:34.650 gave him the courage to stand alone against an 00:36:34.650 --> 00:36:37.789 empire also fueled his later hatreds. You don't 00:36:37.789 --> 00:36:40.630 get the one without the other. It raises a provocative 00:36:40.630 --> 00:36:43.630 question for me and for you listening. If Luther 00:36:43.630 --> 00:36:47.170 had died in 1521, right after the Diet of Worms, 00:36:47.519 --> 00:36:50.679 He would be a pure martyr, an uncomplicated hero 00:36:50.679 --> 00:36:53.239 of conscience. We wouldn't have the anti -Semitic 00:36:53.239 --> 00:36:55.239 writings. We wouldn't have the incitement against 00:36:55.239 --> 00:36:57.639 the peasants. He would be remembered very, very 00:36:57.639 --> 00:36:59.699 differently. But we also might not have the complete 00:36:59.699 --> 00:37:02.239 German Bible, or the stable church structure 00:37:02.239 --> 00:37:05.760 he built later, or the hymns. Exactly. History 00:37:05.760 --> 00:37:07.940 is messy. You can't just cherry -pick the parts 00:37:07.940 --> 00:37:10.559 you like. It certainly is. And that is why we 00:37:10.559 --> 00:37:12.579 do these deep dives, to look at the full picture, 00:37:12.719 --> 00:37:15.019 warts and all. And with Luther, there are plenty 00:37:15.019 --> 00:37:18.179 of warts. but the picture is undeniably powerful. 00:37:19.860 --> 00:37:21.300 Well, that's all the time we have for today. 00:37:21.420 --> 00:37:23.039 Thanks for taking this deep dive with us into 00:37:23.039 --> 00:37:25.260 the life of Martin Luther. It's been a wild ride. 00:37:25.460 --> 00:37:27.320 A fascinating one. Thanks for having me. See 00:37:27.320 --> 00:37:27.679 you next time.