Martin Luther's criticism of indulgences made him a well-known man, however, it is not at the center of what today's believers consider to be "typically Lutheran". But the fact that the foundations for a new theology were being laid in Wittenberg only got around in the years that followed, and some of Luther's most important writings, including what is probably the most well-known today, "On the Freedom of a Christian" appear in 1520.
Emperor Karl V with his Ulmer Mastiff. Painting by Jakob Seisenegger 1532.
Emperor Karl V with his Ulmer Mastiff. Painting by Jakob Seisenegger 1532. © picture-allianceakg
Luther and his comrades-in-arms multiplied their views not only in learned treatises, mostly in Latin, but also in "pamphlets" that were published in large numbers. This is how book printing began to have an intellectual and political impact. The technological breakthrough had already taken place in the 1450s when Johannes Gutenberg, the "inventor of book printing" who was not at all prominent at the time, had developed a new word processing system whose production speed was far superior to handwriting. For generations there were printing presses in many large cities of the empire. But the new technology had long been enough of itself. With their help, books were certainly produced more quickly that had previously been laboriously handwritten, for example magnificent bibles, and continued to serve fairly small target groups: It was a "top technology with limited needs" Johannes Burkhardt. She wasn't mass effective at all. Only a real media event will change that: the German Reformation with its successful author Martin Luther, who was stylized as a hero in the media. In its time, Johannes Gutenberg's innovation did not turn out to be epochal, but the long-distance effects were considerable.
To change perspective: the success of the Reformation would hardly be conceivable without the printing press - to the many prerequisites for the unprecedented resonance of Luther such as the exuberant piety of the time or the leadership vacuum in the empire because the Emperor Charles V. was the lord of a "world empire in the the sun never set" seldom stayed there heard this too: The thing of a Wycliffe of a Hus had just not been multiplied by movable type. The number of German-language printed works multiplied within a few years and almost all of them took a stand against Luther or, above all, pro. Several million books and pamphlets brought Luther's teachings to the people. The printed book went from a luxury item to a mass-produced item. Researchers call such popular formats "pamphlets": booklets or booklets often only a handful of pages simply printed dirt cheap yet profitable. You want to be popular, reach the masses, today we would speak of journalistic writing for the finer knitted copies, the coarser knitted ones were just pamphlets. They satisfied the mass need for simple information about the Reformation, tried to react quickly to current controversial issues and the momentary needs of the public appeared mostly anonymously. The style is not squeamish.
The most successful author of reformatory pamphlets was Luther himself, and by the way, Luther was by no means squeamish. At best, the Pope was the "Antichrist" for him, a negative figure in the Apocalypse of St. John testifying to the near end of the world, but also, for example, "the devil's sow". Just to quote what Luther knew to say to the humanist prince Erasmus of Rotterdam and to the Swiss reformer Zwingli: "I've bitten open a few nuts that are punched ... Zinglius Erasmus are vain nuts that shit in your mouth." Hundreds of comparable crudenesses, often using fecal language, could be cited in Luther's pamphlets and other of his pronouncements. It did not harm the broad impact.
Pamphlet Against the Bapse in Rome Donated by the Devil Luther's radical pamphlet against the Pope with woodcuts by L. Cranach the Elder
Pamphlet "Against the Bapse in Rome instituted by the devil" Luther's radical pamphlet against the pope with woodcuts from L. Cranach the Elder © picture-allianceakg
So around 1520 the flood of pamphlets begins to swell. Furthermore, the encouragement of the students who streamed to Wittenberg and the initial enthusiasm of the humanists for Luther's cause turned his concerns into a political issue. The Curia believes that the Empire must intervene and takes action itself. In January 1521, Luther was excommunicated by a papal bull. There were medieval precedents according to which the ban on church had to be followed closely by the imperial ban. What did that mean: to be outlawed? Anyone who fell under the eighth ruled out of the legal community of the Reich, he was no longer legally competent and anyone could attack him and his previous possessions with impunity. It was such a severe punishment that the electoral capitulation that Charles V had to sign in order to become emperor contained a separate provision for the eight-procedure: no one should be outlawed "unheard", i.e. without a legal hearing. So Luther should be listened to.
That is why he was invited to the Reichstag in Worms in 1521 – diffuse fears of the “popular mood” are not as important as is repeatedly claimed. Hearing Luther is required by imperial law. It takes place on the fringes of the Reichstag in the Emperor's quarters. It was there in April 1521 that Luther and Charles V met in person for the first and only time. In modern terms, it is a communicative disaster.
Luther gave a long speech when he was actually only asked whether he would stick to what he said in the books he had piled up in front of him or whether he wanted to revoke some of it. At the end of his lecture, he speaks those words that will also make Worms a "place of remembrance" for all Lutherans to this day. To put it in modern German: "If I'm not through written testimonies" i.e. Bible passages Scripture principle! "or obvious rational reasons are refuted - for I do not believe only the pope or the councils, since it is certain that they have often erred and also contradicted themselves - then I am bound by the scriptures I quote. And as long as my conscience is bound by the words of God I cannot and do not want to revoke it because acting against my conscience is burdensome, unwholesome,
threatening the salvation of the soul and dangerous. God help me! Amen." With the double appeal to the "conscience" of the believing individual, this final passage of Luther's lecture anticipates the specifically Lutheran discourse of the Reformation and the denominational era in a prototypical manner. "Here I stand I can't help it" to say that in a modern way and in the version that has gone down in the memoria of all Lutherans - this even more famous sequel is not authentic. At the end, the editors of a printing company decorated the transcript of the speech that was sent to them as follows: "I can't help it, I'm standing here, God help me, Amen". Luther most likely knew nothing of this addition. "Here I stand, I can't do anything else" - it's the same as posting theses: early legend building. But the sentence is well invented sums up Luther's remarks perfectly.
For Karl, Luther's refusal decided the matter. The answer he had read out on April 19 evokes the tradition of the church-pious dynasty and the imperial official duties, including "honour" and "disgrace". Karl interprets his empire – here and for the rest of his life – as still quite medieval he is the supreme patron of the Christian West taking action against heresy is one of his most important official duties. And again and again: the inheritance of the ancestors. "For this reason I am firmly determined to uphold everything that ... my predecessors have decreed both at the Council of Constance" a malicious allusion! "Than on others: for it is certain that a single brother errs when he stands against the opinion of all Christendom, for otherwise all Christendom must have erred for a thousand years and more." Truth as an arithmetic example: Which view has a time-honoured tradition and how many adherents? Stimuli of an individual "conscience" are not intended.
The Edict of Worms actually pronounces the imperial ban on Luther and orders his books to be burned. This means that the sword of Damocles now hangs over the new movement until the religious peace in 1555. Two generations of evangelical Christians can never really sit back and fear the repressive measures of the Reich.
Nevertheless, the new theological views and new forms of piety spread rapidly throughout the empire. First of all, the big cities advance, where the literate bourgeoisie lives. The first magistrates formally declare the new teachings to be binding within the city walls by city council resolution. The earliest Lutheran state churches are actually city churches. But then the first territorial territories followed suit: princes and counts who turned to Luther and then successively introduced their countries to the new doctrine. From the start, the Reformation was introduced in Central Europe on a territory-by-territory basis. From then on, the map of denominations was also fragmented in small-parceled parts of the empire.
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