Revelation: The Bride, the Beast & Babylon Page #10

The full plenary indulgence

Absolved a person

of all the sins

That they had committed

up to that time

And thus speeded you,

according to church teaching,

Through purgatory

directly into heaven.

By very late in the middle ages,

The church has got into its head

That it can say to people,

"If you are willing

"To make an offering

to the church,

"The church

will give an indulgence

"In the manner of an offering,

"For your departed family,

friend, relative, loved one

And that loved one will escape

the pains of purgatory,"

Supposedly immediately.

This became,

by the 14th and 15th century,

A very popular belief

And people

clamored for indulgences.

When Luther learned

That his members

were purchasing indulgences,

He was outraged.

As the people came to him

to cash in their indulgences,

He flatly refused to honor them.

Luther declared

that what they really needed to do

Was to sincerely repent

and turn from their sins.

This was the first issue

that forced Luther into battle

With his own beloved church.

On October 31, 1517,

Luther nailed his famous protest

To the doors of all the saints

church in Wittenberg.

What are the 95 theses

that he famously nails

To the door

of Wittenberg castle church?

It's an academic invitation

to a debate.

You write down

95 thesis statements

And you're basically saying,

"here are my proposals"

And they're always

more strongly worded

Than you may think

because it's a debating point;

It's what's called a disputation.

The 95 theses is just

a series of 95 propositions

That he intends to spark

a university debate on.

And this is standard issue

late medieval academic practice.

So Luther is engaging

In a very narrowly

academic exercise.

It's like publishing a paper

in a scholarly journal today.

As a historian myself at times,

You're not actually expecting

very many people to read this,

You're just going

into a very narrow circle.

So he takes it

and he nails it to the door

Of Wittenberg castle church

Because that's

the traditional place

You post invitations

for a disputation.

So he's not expecting anything,

necessarily, to come of this.

And this got

a lot of people's attention,

Including the pope's.

As far as Luther's concerned,

he's not promoting something

That the church

would be hostile to,

He believes he's promoting things

that the church will welcome.

And, indeed, if you go back

to the early church fathers,

Including Augustine,

You can find

many things in their writings

In accord with Luther's ideas.

So Luther actually expects

people to sort of say,

"Oh, great.

Thanks for pointing that out."

Which was perhaps a trifle nave

And perhaps that's what comes

from him being an academic.

But Luther is not trying

to set up another movement-

Just the opposite.

But the reality, of course,

Is that the church

does not welcome

Much of what Luther has to say.

And a bull went out-

A papal bull

meaning a kind of declaration -

Condemning Luther

and his writings

And saying they should be

consigned to the flames.

The bull was delivered at Wittenberg

And instead of consigning

the writings to the flames,

Luther had a big gathering

in Wittenberg

And consigned

the bull to the flames

And there was a burning

of this papal bull

And this, of course,

was a "throw down" now, right?

The challenge had been sent out

And the challenge

had been responded to.

And that's when Luther says,

"Right, if you condemn me

I will condemn you,"

Because he believes

this is a matter of truth.

And so, if the church

is condemning biblical truth

Then the church

must actually be antichrist

And he calls it that

and, of course,

Once you call

somebody antichrist,

It's rather hard to reach

consensus and compromise.

So the German emperor

organized a hearing

And all the important

princes and priests

Were assembled

for an historic meeting

At a place called worms.

So there were

representatives here

Of all the different

princes, nobles,

And free cities of the empire

And Luther goes, believing

he'll have a chance to debate.

The church knows

that Luther's a brilliant debater

And they're not

going to give him any chance.

He was pulled up

before the group.

He was shown

a pile of his books.

He was asked two questions:

"are these books yours?"

And "will you recant?"

Will you withdraw

the teachings you've made in them?

And he didn't immediately reply.

He said,

"well, yes they are my books

But there's many things

written there

And I need some time

to think about it."

He almost loses his nerve,

but ultimately he doesn't,

The next day he comes in

And he starts to play

with words and they say,

"Are all these your works

and do you recant them?"

He says, "do you ask me

to recant all my works

"Because some of my works

"Everyone in the church

would agree with?

"I've written against certain evils

That the church

generally agrees are wrong."

He's trying to get into a debate

And the authorities

aren't having any of this.

They say, "no, no, no.

You just have to say-

Are you going to retract these?

Are you going to recant?"

It's an heroic moment

especially because,

As far as Luther is concerned,

He believes

it's going to lead to his death.

"Unless I am convinced

by the testimony of the scriptures

"Or by clear reason,

"For I do not trust

either in the pope

"Or in councils alone,

"Since it is well known

that they have often erred

"And contradicted themselves,

"I am bound

by the scriptures I have quoted

"And my conscience

is captive to the word of god.

"I cannot and will not

recant anything

"Since it is neither safe nor right

to go against conscience.

"Here I stand.

I can do no other.

May god help me.

Amen."

The council did not have much

it could say in reply.

Luther was declared an outlaw.

His literature was banned

and his arrest ordered.

The document said,

"we want him to be apprehended

And to be punished

as a notorious heretic."

Now Luther

had been given a safe conduct

To the diet of worms,

Just as Huss had been given

to the council of Constance

Just over 100 years earlier.

And there were those authorities

Who urged the holy

roman emperor, Charles the V,

To ignore the safe conduct,

Just as the emperor Sigismund

had with Huss' safe conduct.

Charles the V

didn't want to be known

As the second emperor

that had reneged

In a good-Faith

conduct passage and so,

For whatever reason,

This reason

and maybe some others,

He allowed Luther

to leave town and start home.

The thought

was he would probably be killed

By someone on the way

Because there was

an open price on his head.

Instead, of course,

Luther is kidnapped

By an armed group of men

Who were actually

working for Frederick the wise

Who decides he needs

to take Luther out of circulation

For a little while.

To Wartburg castle,

Which the elector

Frederick knew about

But nobody knew

what had happened to Luther.

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