How do you see the church?
What about the world?
Four times a year, Mosaic brings the view into focus.
Mosaic, the video magazine of the ELCA.
Seeing is believing.
This production was made possible in part by a grant from Aid Association for Lutherans.
AAL is more than 1.8 million members joined together for financial security and for helping
Lutherans, their families, and their communities.
This is a production of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Arise, O Lord, and judge your cause.
A wild boar has invaded your vineyard.
A wild boar.
This is how the Pope in 1520 described Martin Luther.
Luther was a German monk who questioned the church's practice of selling forgiveness.
Hi, I'm Rick Steves, and today, we're travel partners.
The goal of our trip?
To get to know Martin Luther and to see how one monk sparked the Reformation, which created
the Protestant movement and, eventually, the Lutheran Church.
During Luther's time, Germany, which is about the size of Montana, was a confusing collection
of over 300 little feudal states.
We travel from Eisleben, where Luther was born, to the university town of Wittenberg,
where he taught and preached.
After a pilgrimage south to the Vatican and Rome, we'll follow the tumultuous events of
the Reformation at Worms, Erfurt, Eisenach, Marburg, and Augsburg.
When Martin Luther was born, nearly all of Western Europe looked to Rome as the head
of the church.
When Luther died in 1546, Europe was divided between Roman Christians and protesting or
Protestant Christians.
Luther was born in medieval Europe, but grew up in a time of great change.
Imagine life in the Middle Ages.
Ninety percent of the people were poor, illiterate peasants, pawns ruled by kings, nobles, and
bishops.
Most children died before adulthood.
Thirty years was a long life.
Plague was a constant fear.
People worked the land, hoping only to survive the winter.
Life for most was a dreary preparation for heaven.
The Christian church gave people hope for a better life after death.
But by Luther's time, the medieval church, administered from distant Rome, was losing
touch with people's needs.
The Bible and church services were in Latin, a dead language spoken only by Europe's elite.
Corrupt popes and bishops, living in luxury while others struggled, were tarnishing the
church's reputation.
And worst of all, the church hierarchy had become entangled with politics.
Popes waged war.
Bishops were princes.
In much of Europe, there was no real separation of church and state.
Sins were crimes, and tithes were collected like taxes.
Bishops were treated like royalty.
When one entered the room, you knelt and kissed his ring.
Throughout Western Europe, the only acceptable way to be Christian was as part of the Roman
Catholic Church, and that church had begun paying its bills by selling forgiveness.
In one turbulent generation, the Reformation changed all of that, and Martin Luther, known
as the father of Protestantism, is counted right up there with Gutenberg and Newton as
one of the most influential people of the past millennium.
Big changes were percolating around 1500.
Columbus sailed to America.
Gutenberg's printing press made books affordable.
Imagine Europe's class of 1500.
Along with Martin Luther, young Michelangelo was chipping his first masterpieces.
Machiavelli shaped modern politics, and Copernicus was putting the earth in its place.
The conservative church, which defended the notion that the world was flat in the center
of the universe, found itself at odds with these new ideas.
Magellan sailed around the world, Renaissance thinkers embraced science, and humanists saw
life as more than just a preparation for what happened after you die.
With all this, the church's ability to control the thinking of Europe took a big hit.
The church couldn't stop these revolutionary ideas or keep the printing press from cranking
them out.
Martin Luther was born in 1483 in this house here in Eislaven, south of Berlin.
His father was in the copper mining business.
And here in Eisenach, young Luther developed his appetite for learning, music, and the
Bible.
Martin was a hardworking guy, smart enough to get into law school.
His friends nicknamed him the philosopher.
They also called him things like the king of hops for his love of beer.
But Martin never became a lawyer.
He had an obsession which came first, finding deliverance from an angry god.
According to a popular story, in 1505, returning to school after a trip home, Martin was thrown
from his horse during a thunderstorm.
Terrified, he promised St. Anne, the patron saint of miners, that he'd become a monk.
Twenty-one-year-old Martin checked into this Augustinian monastery, famous for discipline
and scholarship, in Erfurt.
As a monk, Luther sought God's love with all his heart and soul and mind.
Ignoring his worldly needs, he did everything he could to earn worthiness in God's eyes.
He'd spent up to six hours in the confession booth, and still he found no peace.
Martin learned Greek and Hebrew in order to read the most ancient manuscripts of the Bible.
By age twenty-three, he was ordained a priest, said his first mass in this church, and was
on the fast track to becoming a professor of theology.
In 1510, Brother Martin was sent to Rome.
He hiked there, about 700 miles, over the Alps and through a severe winter.
He was enthusiastic about his trip to the Vatican.
When he first saw the city, he dropped to his knees and said, Hail, holy city of Rome!
Rome, so rich in relics, was a holy supermarket of merits, attracting pilgrims interested
in going straight to heaven without a detour through purgatory.
Most Christians believed they'd go to heaven only if they did more good than evil, and
most figured they'd fall short.
So when they died, God would need to purge them of their excess sin.
This process was called purgatory, and people thought of it as thousands of years of misery.
To reduce time in purgatory, many tried to pile up good works in this lifetime by venerating
relics and doing penance.
In Rome, Luther did his church business.
Then, like any earnest pilgrim, he spent his free time visiting relics.
Martin visited the reconstructed steps of Pontius Pilate's palace, supposedly the very
steps Jesus climbed on the day he was condemned.
As Roman Catholic pilgrims still do today, he climbed the holy steps on his knees, saying
the Lord's Prayer on each step.
The pilgrims' reward for this climb?
Nine years less time in purgatory for each step.
Later, Luther wrote that reaching the top, he stood up and wondered, who knows if it's
true?
Back home, Luther was sent here, to the remote outpost of Wittenberg, to teach in Prince
Frederick the Wise's new university.
Outwardly cheerful and devout, inside Martin Luther was struggling, tormented by feelings
of unworthiness.
Even as he blessed the bread for Mass, he silently was angry at God for demanding a
moral standard no mortal could ever achieve.
He devoured the Bible, looking for an answer, and found it in Paul's letter to the Romans.
There it was.
Luther realized the good news is that God makes sinners righteous through their faith
in Jesus Christ.
Rather than earning salvation by fasting or doing good works, it's a free gift to anyone
who believes.
As this concept of unearned grace took hold, Luther said, I felt myself to have been born
again.
As Luther studied, debated, and taught, his thoughts developed.
As he preached here and throughout Saxony, his controversial ideas spiced his sermons.
The pews were packed.
People traveled to hear Luther's message.
Salvation is not earned by pilgrimages to Rome, veneration of relics, Mass is attended.
We need only Jesus Christ.
Jesus paid for our sins.
Salvation is a gift from God.
The more Martin read the Bible, the more conflict he found between salvation through faith and
the church's salvation through rituals and good works.
He kept returning to Romans 3.28, a person is justified by faith.
For emphasis, Martin added, and faith alone.
Coincidentally, as Luther struggled with these issues, the pope kicked off a capital campaign
to build a grand new church in Rome.
The thousand-year-old St. Peter's was condemned, and a glorious new church was planned.
It would be very expensive, and Germans would foot much of the bill.
To raise money, the papacy sold church offices.
One young prince bought a bishopric for 10,000 ducats.
And the church sold indulgences.
Indulgences were basically spiritual coupons relieving you from penalties you owed because
of your sins.
The church got these merits from Jesus and the saints, whose virtuous lives earned a
holy warehouse of extra merits.
Papal fundraisers came out in full force.
With a fanfare of drummers and trumpeters, the super sales monk, John Tetzel, came to
Martin Luther's neighborhood.
He offered letters of indulgence promising full forgiveness for all sins and absolution
from all punishments.
These were fully transferable and ideal for bailing loved ones out of purgatory.
Peasants lined up to buy as Tetzel's men sang, as soon as the coin in the coffer rings, another
soul from purgatory springs.
God's forgiveness cannot be purchased like a sack of potatoes.
The pope needs more prayer than money.
Hoping a scholarly debate would lead to reform, Luther posted his famous 95 theses here.
This is a copy of the original door.
That date, October 31, 1517, marks the most important religious event of the last thousand
years.
It kicked off the Reformation, and October 31 is still celebrated as Reformation Day.
Luther, who had no thought of rebellion, began with a conciliatory tone.
Out of the love and zeal for truth and the desire to bring it to light, the following
theses will be publicly discussed at Wittenberg University.
The issues Luther raised ranged from giving alms to the scriptural basis of purgatory.
But the key issue was the sale of indulgences.
Luther's propositions, quickly printed and circulated, were the talk of Germany.
He became famous almost overnight.
People were energized by his ideas.
The sale of indulgences dropped dramatically, and Tetzel actually had to go into hiding
from angry German mobs who now sang, when a coin rings in the pitcher, the pope becomes
richer.
Luther's challenge was taken up.
Nearby at the University of Leipzig, the famous scholar John Eck debated Luther.
Eck, declaring himself victorious, headed for Rome and helped write a papal bull, that's
a decree issued under the papal seal, threatening excommunication.
It gave Luther 60 days to recant or be kicked out of the church.
Knowing the Romans can overcome us only on the grounds of reason and the scriptures,
Luther backed up his stand by publishing four influential pamphlets.
These struck much deeper at church doctrine than his views on the simple sale of indulgences.
Luther argued that there were two church hierarchies, a visible one based in Rome and a more important
spiritual one acknowledging only Christ.
He called on local governments to legislate reforms that the Roman church refused to make.
He rejected the idea that Christians must earn salvation through good works, and he
explained how a Christian is both lord of all and servant of all.
This war of words escalated.
The pope ordered the burning of Luther's books.
Luther responded,
If they damn my books, I'll burn the entire canon law.
As the pope's men burned Luther's books, Luther's supporters burned books of church laws.
Simply heating things up, Luther tossed the papal bull into the fire.
The two most important people in Europe were the pope and the Holy Roman Emperor.
The pope was furious, and the emperor, Charles V, was a devout Catholic.
While wanting to support the pope, Charles was also the German king.
The Holy Roman Empire was a confederation of German states.
Since these states elected the emperor, Charles needed their support.
He had to deal carefully with the German Luther.
To further complicate things, the Turks were threatening Europe from the east.
Charles knew he'd need German help to beat them.
Knowing Luther had powerful German friends, he proceeded cautiously.
He agreed to give Luther a hearing and called him to the imperial diet, that's like a congress,
in the city of Worms on the Rhine.
Germany was thrilled with Martin Luther's challenge to Rome.
According to Worms, he was greeted with a hero's welcome at each stop.
Pamphlets showed him with a halo, accompanied by a dove, symbol of the Holy Spirit.
In one town, 60 horsemen escorted Luther to the church, so filled with people eager to
hear him preach that the balcony groaned and nearly collapsed.
Imagine the showdown here at Worms.
Papal representatives, princes, imperial troops, all power-dressing, and Charles sitting high
on his throne.
In the center of the room, Martin Luther stood beside a table, stacked high with his trouble-causing
books and pamphlets.
Unless you can convince me by scripture or by clear reasoning, I am bound by my beliefs.
I cannot and I will not recant.
God help me, amen.
The prosecutor, John Ekagen, condemned Luther as a heretic.
Coming up his case, he asked, who are you to go against 1,500 years of church doctrine?
Luther left Worms in outlaw.
Now, outside the protection of the law, he could be captured and killed by anyone.
On his way home, he was kidnapped.
Many thought Luther had been killed.
The great German painter, Albert Dürer, wrote, Oh God, if Luther is dead, who will teach
us the Holy Gospel so clearly?
All you pious Christians, pray that God will send us another enlightened man.
But Luther was alive, safely hidden in the Wartburg Castle at Eisenach, courtesy of Frederick
the Wise.
Around 1500, emerging nations were becoming bolder, and many German princes, like Frederick,
saw the Roman church as an obstacle to greater power.
After all, year after year, local fortunes were being sent to Rome in the form of tithes.
The only people who could thumb their noses at the prince's laws were pope-appointed
church officials, and the biggest landowner in the realm was the church.
Nobles often willed their land to monasteries and convents in return for prayers to speed
them through purgatory.
But breaking with Rome could cause a war.
While Charles V, with the mighty Spanish army at his disposal, wanted a German alliance
against the Turks, he was also ready to defend the church.
The battle lines, if confused, were drawn.
For nearly a year, Luther hid out at Wartburg Castle.
This was Luther's room.
Restless, overfed, and lonely in the castle, he continued his lifelong battle with Satan.
It was here that he employed his favorite weapon, the printed word.
Believing that everyone should be able to read the word of God, Luther began the huge
task of translating the New Testament from Greek to German.
Give us simple words, not those of the court, for this book should be famous for its simplicity.
As protesting Germans read the New German Bible and found no mention of indulgences,
purgatory, or even a pope, the fires of reform were fanned.
Eventually, Luther, disguised as a knight with a big beard, left the castle and returned
home.
Luther settled back into his monastery dormitory at Vittenberg.
Today, it's called Luther Hall.
It was here that Luther wrote the Small Catechism, used by centuries of Lutheran parents to teach
their children, and composed many of his great hymns.
With his inner circle, he gave direction to the Reformation.
This theological think tank was the birthplace of the Lutheran Church.
Luther's faculty colleague was the Greek scholar Philip Melanchthon.
Melanchthon became Luther's lifelong ally and friend, and was the second most important
figure in the Lutheran Reformation.
The Lutheran movement introduced two essential changes.
First, salvation is a gift from God.
We're saved by grace, not by good works or sacraments.
Second, the Bible alone is the word of God, and it's the only source of religious authority.
Luther rejected five of the Roman Church's seven sacraments, keeping only those actions
commanded by Jesus, baptism and communion.
Luther helped make Christianity accessible.
In his priesthood of all believers, whether a school teacher in front of a blackboard
or a farmer in a combine, we're all equally capable of understanding God's word and can
receive salvation without the help of intermediaries.
Luther taught that those who call themselves bishops, popes, and priests are, in the scriptures,
called shepherds and servants.
Their task is to care for the rest of us.
And pastors were free to marry.
There's nothing in the Bible that says they can't.
The former monk, Martin, married a former nun, Catherine von Bora.
Martin and Catherine had six children and raised four orphans, and Katie, who ran the
huge and busy Luther household, was a welcome partner in Luther's circle.
The marriage is a better school for the character than any monastery, for it's here that your
corners are rubbed off.
Luther's dining room table was a social and intellectual jam session.
It was where his students, house guests, and fellow reformers gathered, drinking Katie's
home-brewed beer and eating the Luther's almost out of house and home.
They'd spend long hours discussing and debating religious issues and applying their faith
concretely to everyday life.
Luther's followers hung on his every word.
Over 6,000 entries, from silly to profound, were collected by his students into an anthology
later called Table Talk.
The monks are the fleas on God Almighty's fur coat.
What lies there about relics?
How does it happen that 18 apostles are buried in Germany when Christ had only 12?
I would have died if I'd been in the ark.
It was dark, three times the size of my house, and full of animals.
God uses lust to impel men to marriage, ambition to office, avarice to earning, and fear to
faith.
It's through these notes that we sort through Luther's moral pluses and minuses.
He was earthy and certainly enjoyed his beer.
He was intolerant of Jews and everyone else who disagreed with his theology.
He was also vulnerable.
When his daughter died, he was broken but found healing in the scripture.
Luther struggled with depression all his life.
He fought the devil during these times.
Whenever the devil pesters you, at once seek out the company of friends, drink more, joke
and jest, or engage in some form of merriment.
Luther loved music, which he figured the devil hated.
In perhaps his deepest depression, he wrote one of Christendom's greatest hymns, A Mighty
Fortress.
It declares that all the power of the devil and all the evils of the world cannot stand
up to God.
Luther opened a floodgate of reform.
He trained an entire generation of new pastors and church leaders.
Pastors led worship in German without wearing the traditional robes.
They purged churches of relics and put a halt to the lucrative enterprise of reciting masses
for the dead.
City councils used charitable money for local needs instead of sending it off to Rome.
And by breaking Rome's hold on Christianity, Luther opened a theological Pandora's box.
Some new religious groups reformed way beyond Luther's comfort zone, often tossing out all
remnants of traditional worship.
The Roman church warned the Reformation would bring a storm of conflicting interpretations
of the Bible.
It did.
And most Protestant leaders were not particularly open-minded.
In fact, one reformer wrote, individual interpretation of the Bible will allow each man to carve
his own path to hell.
The Anabaptists, a group prominent in Switzerland, believed in adult rather than infant baptism
and were strictly nonviolent.
They refused to serve in the military.
When Swiss authorities began executing Anabaptists for avoiding military service, Luther actually
supported the crackdown because he was against civil disobedience.
By 1529, a group of states protesting the emperor's attempt to force all of Europe to
be Roman Catholic realized that to survive, they'd need to hammer out a theological common
ground and make a political alliance.
Now called Protestants, they met here at Marburg Castle, just north of Frankfurt.
The meeting included Luther, the leading Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli, and a number of other
reformers.
They summarized their beliefs and agreed on everything except one point, the actual presence
of Christ in the wine and bread of communion.
On this issue, Luther, unwilling to forsake the literal words of scripture, was inflexible.
He said, God commands, take, eat, this is my body.
This issue, how Christ is present in the sacrament, still divides many Christians today.
A world away from all this theological debate, the Turks were now actually threatening Vienna.
Emperor Charles V returned to Germany.
His mission?
To settle these religious issues once and for all and unite Europe against the Turks.
He reassembled the Congress at Augsburg.
The Protestant leaders drew up a list of ways they differed with Rome.
Luther, still technically an outlaw, was sidelined for his own safety at this castle in Coburg.
Luther enthusiastically endorsed this document, the Augsburg Confession, written and presented
by Melanchthon.
To this day, this founding document defines the Lutheran Church.
But the Roman theologians and the Protestants were unable to agree and negotiations broke
off.
This exasperated Luther and left him believing the Roman Christians were hopeless.
It also left Charles without his German alliance.
The German prince's break with Rome eventually led to a hundred years of religious wars.
Many historians call this the First World War, since virtually every part of Europe
was involved.
In 1648, with Europe dazed and a third of Germany dead, a treaty was finally signed.
The result?
Not religious freedom, but now the leaders of each country were free to decide if their
subjects would be Roman or Protestant Christians.
Much of Europe was divided between a Catholic South and a Protestant North.
After Augsburg, Luther returned to Wittenberg, where he preached, wrote, and taught.
Productive until his last days, he helped establish public education for both boys and
girls.
He was a valued arbitrator throughout the region, and he enjoyed lots more table talk.
Martin Luther died in 1546 in this house in Eislavn, the town where he was born.
A huge funeral procession accompanied his body to the Castle Church in Wittenberg, where
he's buried.
To this day, pilgrims bring flowers.
For most of the 500 years since the Reformation, relations between Catholics and Protestants
have been strained, but in our lifetime, huge strides have been made.
Lutherans and Roman Catholics are working closer together as children of God and followers
of Jesus.
Today there are 350 million Protestant Christians, and Christians all over the world understand
what Martin Luther worked so hard to teach, that we are saved by God's grace through faith,
and it's all in the Bible.
Thanks for joining us.
I'm Rick Steves.
God bless each of you, and Auf Wiedersehen!
companion website to the video.
Learn more about Luther, the important persons and places in his life, as well as photographs
from the shoot.
Log on at elca.org slash co slash luther.
Want to know more about Katharina Von Bora, the wife of Martin Luther?
The Morning Star of Wittenberg is an all-new documentary from the producers of Mosaic,
a video magazine of the ELCA.
The Morning Star of Wittenberg is free to current and new Mosaic subscribers.
Call 1-800-638-3522, extension 6009, order your copy today.
The ELCA Wittenberg Center, engaging you with the witness of the Reformation for vibrant
faith, life and mission today.
For further information regarding the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Wittenberg Center,
contact the ELCA Division for Global Mission, 8765 West Higgins Road, Chicago, Illinois,
60631.