Lesson video

Hello, I'm Mr. Sellin.

Welcome back to our second lesson on Martin Luther and the European Reformation.

Just like last time, you'll need a pen and something to write on.

And make sure just like Martin Luther, that you don't have a mobile phone near you, I think it'll only distract you otherwise.

So without further ado, make sure you've got the title down correctly.

It's Luther in Wittenberg and Worms. And you might just want to check the spelling by going back to the start of the video, checking the spelling, make sure you've got it all down correctly, and then carrying on.

So with all that done, without further ado, let's begin.

We're going to start today's lesson by reminding ourselves of where Martin Luther was in 1517.

By this time, he'd read his Bible thoroughly, many times probably.

And he was starting to convince himself that something wasn't quite right.

He was looking around at the world around him and specifically at the church, and he thought it didn't match what God commanded, what God wanted in the Bible.

And therefore he did something, at least according to this legend of Martin Luther.

We know that parts of this story that I'm about to tell you are true, and some parts are told in a way to make a good story.

But it is a good story, and it involves nothing more than Martin Luther, a piece of paper, a hammer and a door.

Luther had been concerned for a while now about the selling of indulgences.

This was the practise by some local priests to sell these certificates.

And it wouldn't just help you get into heaven, it would pretty much guarantee it.

Luther believed that this was a real concern, because ordinary people would be led into buying these things and he wasn't even sure that they would help at all.

Luther had checked his Bible many, many times and he couldn't find any reference to indulgences.

And he was worried that the church was selling them simply to make money for itself, rather than to help people gain salvation.

Remember, salvation means getting into heaven.

And so as the traditional story goes, Luther went out into the middle of his town Wittenberg and walked up to the cathedral door.

On that door, he placed a piece of paper, just an ordinary looking piece of paper, but what was on it according to the traditional story is extraordinary.

95 statements, 95 concerns that he'd written about the Catholic Church, 95 criticisms, and bang, bang, bang, hammered onto the door for everybody to see.

That's the traditional story.

He posted his objections on the door, and so began the Reformation.

The church changed forever.

Now there are parts of this story that we know are true, and there are parts that a good to tell.

We do know that Martin Luther did create 95 theses they're called.

A thesis is like an argument, so 95 theses is 95 arguments, 95 criticisms. We know he made that, and we know that it was published, and it was printed, and it became very popular.

It's almost certain that he did put it on the door of Wittenberg Cathedral like he's doing here.

And we can imagine that people would have read it, and perhaps been a little bit surprised at some of the things that he was saying.

But this idea that it was put on the door and then the reformation started and the church changed forever, it's too simple a story.

There are other parts to it.

Now, what I said about indulgences and Luther's criticism of them, that's completely true.

There have been a man called Johann Tetzel, a Catholic priest, travelling around Germany by 1517 and selling indulgences.

There are a few things here in the picture that give you a clue as to what kind of a man Tetzel was according to the illustrator.

You can see at the top there that he's selling these indulgences, and there's a lot of them, lots of different values, lots of different numbers.

And you can see down, oh, did that the wrong way, you can see down there by his other hand that he's got a money box, and he's collecting that money.

Now he said, Tetzel, that the money was going towards Rome to rebuild these old buildings that had fallen into disrepair.

And there was some truth to that, the Pope did need to rebuild part of Rome.

But there was also another suggestion that Tetzel might have been keeping some of that money for himself, giving it to some of his friends.

We don't really know.

But he was a man who was selling indulgences that Luther specifically wanted to target as part of his 95 theses.

We do know that Luther's 95 theses were written, published and printed and copies were distributed across all of Germany.

And you can see that 95 theses, statements of arguments, make quite a strong argument.

Firstly, secondly, thirdly, fourthly, and then eventually, and 95thly, Luther was not some quiet monk slowly and secretly writing his criticisms and then never standing up to anyone or admitting them.

He was a shouty man Luther, angry, he would often get into fits of rage and his temper would cause him to shout at his opponents.

He drank a lot of beer, he ate a lot of red meat.

In his mind, he was a man of the people.

He was devoted to God, don't get me wrong.

He's celebrated as a father of the Reformation, one of the most important men in this entire story of the church.

But he's not some quiet monk Luther.

His theses on the whole opposed the sale of indulgences.

There were a few other criticisms, but the majority of them were opposing the sale of indulgences.

They were printed, distributed, this was due to the printing press that had recently been invented.

Again, he wasn't the only person to have his writings published and printed across Germany, but he was an important person.

And also, he wasn't the first to disagree with the Catholic Church.

Lots of people, hundreds of people had criticised the Catholic Church before over many hundreds of years.

The difference here was the fact that he was able to do it and get his thoughts down into the written word which became the printed word.

It could be printed and it could be distributed across Germany.

By 1530, within 13 years, it's estimated that there were about a million copies of Luther's writing and similar types of writing going around Germany.

The Catholic Church might want to put Luther in prison.

They could even kill him, but his ideas would still be out there.

Luther's 95 theses made him an incredibly well known figure.

And you can see in this modern statue that commemorates the different reformers in Germany, that despite all the different reformers who have been included, or with different parts to play in the story of the Reformation, the person at the top is Luther.

Bible in hand, elevated above all the others, he is the father of the Reformation.

And this is the story that is told at Wittenberg Cathedral to this day.

You can't actually see it at all, but the Latin inscription up here tells the story of this is where the Reformation began.

This is where Luther placed his 95 theses.

And even on his 500th anniversary, Luther was made into a Playmobil character.

I mean, I don't think there's a greater honour in the world, is there? There he is, smiling away, looking as happy as anything.

These 95 theses being placed on the Wittenberg door must be important.

But we do have to ask this question, what was Luther's intention when he wrote them? Did he want to become the father of the Reformation? Did he want to start a revolution against the Catholic Church and Catholic rulers? Or did he want something else? But before we do that, just a quick test of what we can remember so far.

Firstly, this is mainly from last lesson, but I've mentioned it so far.

What is an indulgence? Is it a document that says the owner is a frequent churchgoer? Is it a document that helps the owner achieve salvation? Is it a document that provides the history of the Catholic Church? Or is it a document that lists disagreements with the Pope? Now, work out which one it is.

You should have the answer, and the answer is number two.

An indulgence is a document that helps the owner achieve salvation, salvation, of course, meaning getting into heaven.

If you can't remember that or if you got it wrong, I'd suggest writing the definition down.

Where did Martin Luther first published his 95 theses? Was it in Berlin, Wittenberg, Worms or Rome? Again, you should be able to tell me that the answer is number two, Wittenberg.

Supposedly on the doors of the church in Wittenberg.

Again, if you didn't know that, write it down.

What triggered Luther's writing of the 95 theses? The word trigger here is the immediate cause, what caused it in the moment, the most recent thing that made him think enough is enough, I need to get these theses written.

Was it the Pope declaring that all Christians need an indulgence? Was it a local priest deciding to criticise Luther in public? Was it Wittenberg Cathedral needing money to rebuild? Or was it Johann Tetzel selling indulgences in the local area? Again, pause if you need to.

You should be able to tell me that the answer is number four, Johann Tetzel selling indulgences in the local area.

Again, if that's not really clear in your mind, write it down just so you don't forget it.

Good.

Back to this question.

What was Luther's intention when he wrote the 95 theses? If the 95 theses were placed on the cathedral door, it wasn't unusual.

It wasn't some sort of mission statement to start a revolution.

Luther wasn't saying, "Come on everybody.

Let's go, let's take down the Catholic Church." No, he wasn't saying anything like that.

He was posting his criticisms that he had considered after reading the Bible, after thinking, after praying, after considering what he would just like to discuss, because it was a discussion.

Those who worked in a university like Martin Luther would frequently write down their ideas, write down their criticisms. And it was standard practise to write these out, maybe get a few copies printed, and stick them on the doors in Wittenberg.

It was normal.

Lots of people would do it because it was designed to start a debate, and not a debate across the whole of Germany, but a debate with other academics in Wittenberg.

I like to imagine that if Martin Luther did stick the 95 theses on the door, it was probably next to a few other things that were also on the door, and maybe some of them perhaps weren't even academic arguments.

Maybe it was things like I've lost my cat, if you've seen him, can you please let me know? I don't know.

But it was that level of normal, the 95 theses.

Okay, they perhaps went a bit further than some other things and Luther when he was then challenged on the 95 theses, took things further.

But at the moment that they were stuck up, there was nothing that unusual about them.

And he was a man who was looking to start a local debate amongst educated friends, and that the world would pretty much carry on as normal.

Remember our big inquiry question, what was Luther trying to achieve? Well, we're certainly on our way to finding a full answer to that.

At time of the 95 theses, Luther was trying to start a local debate.

And that's what he did.

For the next two years, he debated his nearby academics.

He wrote a few more things, he lectured on a few more things.

He didn't ever disagree with himself, but he didn't necessarily go much further.

He laid out his criticisms, and he stayed living in Wittenberg.

But after a few years, this did start to get noticed.

And there was one man, Johann Eck, who challenged Luther on this.

Martin Luther and Johann Eck had a public debate in 1519 in the town of Leipzig.

Johann Eck had asked Luther to this debate because he wanted to protect the Catholic Church and make sure that Luther really stood by what he said, because if Luther did stand by, if he did agree with what he'd said, then that would make him a heretic, a heretic, or someone accused of heresy, or someone holding heretical views, is somebody who disagrees with the Catholic Church so much that they're committing a crime, and that they're either going to be put in prison, or in a serious case, they're going to be burnt at the stake, they're going to be killed.

Martin Luther found himself in this debate defending his views in the 95 theses.

An Eck who was another academic himself, a very well educated man, managed to push Luther more and more.

Push on him, are you sure Martin? Is this what you're saying? Are you saying this? Well, if you want to say this, then surely you'd have agreed to this and Luther, remember that man who's not going to back down, he was quite a fierce debater himself.

He stood up to him.

He said, "Okay, yes, I do agree to that.

I completely stand by what I said.

And what's more, I stand by what you're trying accuse me off." The main thing that Luther hadn't agreed to in the 95 theses, but in the Leipzig debate did publicly state was this thing Sola Scriptura.

That's Latin for by the Bible or by scripture alone.

What this means is that the Pope has no power.

There is no power in the Catholic Church's hierarchy, that the Pope has this special message, this special position from God that he can say what God thinks.

No, according to Luther, Sola Scriptura, the Bible alone can tell you God's word.

And that's a massive disagreement with the Catholic Church.

That's basically saying that the Pope is no different to any other priest.

That is a hugely heretical point of view.

And Eck was quite surprised that Luther was willing to agree to it.

I wonder if Luther himself was surprised.

I don't know how much he'd thought about it in advance.

I don't know for how many years he'd been thinking about this.

But the point is, he did say it 1519.

And this is where we see a changing intention for Luther.

This idea of in 1517 he wanted to have a local debate in Wittenberg, well, it's changed.

By 1519, he's got a debate, it's in Leipzig now, and he's publicly stating some pretty serious heretical views Sola Scriptura, the Pope does not have any special power.

This was starting to get quite serious and it was so serious that the Pope started to take notice.

This is a papal bull.

A papal bull is like a letter, not to one person, but to all the Catholic leaders of Europe and it gets sent out by the Pope.

This one is in Latin, you can see that it's about Martin Luther.

It's a declaration of what the Pope thinks and what he expects Catholics to do.

This papal bull in 1520 said that Martin Luther is a heretic.

And if he doesn't back down, if he doesn't go back and agree that he was mistaken, then he will be excommunicated.

To be excommunicated means to be thrown out of the Catholic Church.

And I don't mean being picked up and chucked out of the building.

I mean banned from entering a Catholic Church at all, banned from entering any sort of Catholic confession, banned from taking part in any sort of Catholic service.

This means in the eyes of the Pope and the Catholic Church, he will not be going to heaven.

Now, Martin Luther was faced with this terrifying idea.

In fact, lots of people previously who'd been threatened with excommunication thought it was terrifying.

So Martin Luther received this papal bull.

And what did he do with it? He burnt it publicly.

Martin Luther said, "Right, I'm not listening to this.

You have no power, I said that at Leipzig.

This is worthless piece of paper, and I'm going to burn it." This was the kind of man Luther was.

He wasn't scared of the papal bull, he wasn't scared of the Pope.

He believed that God was on his side.

And even if he was killed by the Pope or some supporters of the Pope, he'd be going to heaven in his mind.

That's what the Bible said, the Pope was mistaken, he was right, and he was going to burn the stuff that was said otherwise.

And so in 1520, Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Catholic Church.

And now his intentions were shifting even more.

What's he going to do now? He's a heretic, he's officially a heretic, in the eyes of the Catholic Church, he's not going anywhere near heaven.

But he was as determined as ever to keep going.

Okay, that's quite a lot of information I've just told you, so let's try and get some of this down.

On the left hand side I've got three events, the publication of the 95 theses, the Leipzig debate, and the burning of the papal bull.

And you need to work out which of these matches with the correct one.

They're out of order currently.

So pause the video, write down these on the left, and then have a guess which one do you think is the correct definition for each one.

Do that now.

Great, so you've unpaused the video now and we're going to go through the answers.

If you didn't get these rights, just put a nice neat line through it, and then rewrite the correct one.

The 95 theses of 1517, is Luther wanted to discuss his concerns with other professors at the university.

The Leipzig debate of 1519, Luther was willing to agree to more extreme anti-Catholic views.

And the burning of the people ball in 1520, was Luther decided to publicly show that he was not scared of excommunication.

This is a serious step forward for Luther.

He's gone from some nice University academic with a few concerns, through to a public debater, through to a burner of papal documents.

He was starting to attract the attention not just the Pope, but of the Holy Roman Emperor.

The Holy Roman Emperor was the leader of Germany, which was also known as the Holy Roman Empire.

It was the largest and most powerful country in Western Europe.

The Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, who was only 19, was a strong, powerful Catholic ruler.

And he was concerned that Luther's views might spread, and in fact it already started spreading to various different princes, which are different rulers within Germany or the Holy Roman Empire, and it could start a revolt, it could start disruption, it could potentially even start a war.

And so Martin Luther was called to meet the Emperor and to defend his views publicly again, a little bit like the debate at Leipzig but much bigger.

Luther was called to what's called a diet.

Now, I don't mean a diet in terms of losing weight.

Luther's diet was quite bad actually, and he did put on quite a lot of weight and he wasn't the healthiest man, he spent a lot of time on the toilet actually.

But nevertheless.

Martin Luther was called to German diet, that's a German word meaning a meeting of rulers.

The Emperor collected together lots of different princes, lots of different rulers of Germany, and you can see Charles V, there is, he is also represented here, members of the Catholic Church, and then lots of powerful men in the background there, all the princess, this is Luther here with a nice new haircut.

The diet, the meeting, took place in the town of Worms, and Luther again was invited to publicly state his views.

Now you think this is surely madness in front of a Catholic ruler, in front of a Catholic Church.

Well, it was, and Luther only agreed to it because he was offered protection by a powerful supporter, Frederick the Wise.

Frederick the Wise was the leader of one of the different parts of Germany, of Saxony, and he had decided that he liked Luther, he liked Luther's views, and potentially Luther could be helpful at giving him a bit more power, reducing the power of the Catholic Church and the Emperor.

And so Frederick the Wise said we'll bring Luther, but we will protect him, and you've got to guarantee that he is safe when he's at Worms. And so Luther went to Worms. He went to the diet, and he, according to the traditional story, on the first day was a bit scared, and he didn't speak very loudly and someone at the back had to say, "Speak up," and he kind of stumbled over his words and his questions.

And then he asked to think about his answers overnight.

And when he was in bed that night, he thought, well, this is it.

I'm in front of the Emperor, I'm in front of God, I'm in front of everyone now.

And the next day he came out more determined, he came out stronger, and according to the traditional story, he declared all the things he declared before, Sola Scriptura, the Pope had no power, there was no way into heaven apart from having faith in God, you didn't have to do all these Catholic good works.

And then he, according to the original story said, "Here I stand, I can do no more." Meaning I can't do anything else.

I'm off.

And the story goes that according to Frederick the Wise's protection, he was able to leave Worms unharmed, but then he was kidnapped.

Okay, I promise, by the end of this lesson, you will find out what happens with this kidnap.

But just for now, let's think about Worms. What was Luther's intention at the Diet of Worms? What was he trying to achieve? Again, it's changed here.

1517 with the 95 theses, Luther was trying to start a local debate with fellow academics.

1519 at the Leipzig debate, he was trying to make his position clearer.

He was trying to make it clear that he wasn't going to back down.

1520 with excommunication, he wasn't scared of the Pope.

But this is even more than that, this is challenging the Emperor.

And Luther had in his mind a very clear biblical message that you should obey your rulers.

So how on earth is he able to do this? Well, it's really serious.

And again, Luther was never able to fully work out in his mind how he was able to follow God, but also follow his Emperor.

But because God was more powerful in this case at Worms, he was willing to disagree with his Emperor.

He was willing to say that he disagreed with the Catholic Church.

And he was willing to potentially be killed for it.

Now we know that he escaped without harm until the kidnap, more on that in a moment.

But what was his intention? Well, I think it was a preaching intention.

A preacher is somebody who spreads a message about God, a Christian message that's designed to influence other people, that is designed to help them get closer to God.

There's something about that with Luther here.

He's not just saying his own views, he's wanting people to listen to him.

He's also willing to say that the Emperor's power is not perhaps what he thinks it is.

That the Emperor might be wrong.

That's a massive deal here.

But okay, more on the kidnap.

The kidnap was actually by Frederick the Wise's soldiers secretly disguised as some sort of enemy.

It was all part of a plan.

Luther was kidnapped, he would have gone, "Oh, oh, oh, what's going on?" And they "Shhh, Luther, it's us." And they took him by night into Wartburg Castle, which was a large castle owned by Frederick the Wise where Luther was able to hide because having disagreed with the Emperor, Luther was now an enemy.

And he had to stay for a long time hidden in Wartburg Castle.

And according to one story, he didn't even go by his own name as part of this escape.

He disguised himself by growing a beard and calling himself as Junker Jorg or in English Farmer George.

And so here is, Farmer George, Junker Jorg.

What did he do in Wartburg Castle? Well, as I mentioned already, actually he spent quite a lot of time on the toilet.

But while he was on the toilet, and actually in his diaries he said he was on the toilet when he realised this, he wanted to do more to spread his message.

And he wanted to translate the Bible into German, into the local language so that more people could understand it.

And there's more on that next lesson.

But for now, we've come to the end of our lesson in which we've taken the story from 1517 with the 95 theses, through to the Leipzig debate, the excommunication, the Diet of Worms, and now Junker Jorg, sat hidden away under the stairs in Wartburg Castle.

And what I'd like you to do, is I'd like you to pause the video, I'd like to you to read the slide on the next page and answer the comprehension questions.

And then once you've finished those, come back, because we'll go through the answers.

Well done.

You've read some questions, you've written some answers, and we'll go through the answers now.

As always, don't worry if it's not exactly what I've written, as long as you've got the general sense, that's fine.

So question one, who was Johann Tetzel? An acceptable answer would be a man who sold indulgences.

And a good answer with just slightly more information in full sentences would be something like, Tetzel was a churchman who travelled Germany selling indulgences.

He claimed that they would be an automatic route into heaven, and that the money would help rebuild Rome.

Question two, why did Luther write the 95 theses? An acceptable answer, he was angry at Tetzel.

But a good answer would be something like, Luther strongly disagreed with Tetzel's selling of indulgences, and so wrote the theses to show why it went against God's wishes.

He expected that the thesis would begin a small local debate.

Number three, how did Luther respond to accusations that he held heretical views at the Leipzig debate? Acceptable answer would be, he did not deny them.

And a good answer, when he was accused of holding heretical views at Leipzig, Luther publicly stated that he agreed with them.

He stated that the Pope had no special powers, and that the Bible was the only authority for God's word.

And if you've got Sola Scriptura in there, well, I'm beyond impressed.

Question four, why was Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, concerned about Martin Luther? You could say Charles V was a Catholic ruler.

But a good answer might say something like, Charles V was a Catholic ruler, so naturally disagreed with Luther.

But he was also concerned that Luther was gathering powerful supporters.

If Luther was allowed to continue, then German princes might start to demand more power.

And we are going to finish today's lesson with a reminder of our inquiry question, what was Luther trying to achieve? We've seen how that changed, and we'll see how it will continue to change next lesson when we look at printing, pamphlets and peasants.

I said that right, which I didn't think I would.

So until then, I'll see you then.

I'm Mr. Sellin, bye for now.