On this date in 1521, Martin Luther spoke in his defense in front of the Diet of Worms, an assemblage that would forevermore reduce schoolchildren to helpless giggling fits by its name alone.
Inspired by his brave stand in the face of rampant popery, Europeans spent the next hundred years slaughtering each other in general (and depopulating Germany in specific) over the question of the proper way to worship the Prince of Peace.
"Europeans spent the next hundred years slaughtering each other in general (and depopulating Germany in specific) over the question of the proper way to worship the Prince of Peace."
ReplyDeleteWell... now that you put it that way, it just sounds kinda silly.
Joe
Especially, since the counter reformation basically adopted a lot of the reforms that would have made Luther less of an annoyed & stubborn german.
ReplyDelete(And like all good "religious" conflicts there were a lot of strictly secular reasons adding fuel to that fire.)
Regardless of where you stand on religious questions, Martin Luther's highly visible rejection of external authority in favor of obeying his strictly individual conscience was definitely a blow for human freedom. You might even say that the individual attitude is what finally ended the Middle Ages.
ReplyDeleteTamara?
ReplyDeleteYou know I know lots of folk with a deft hand at the keyboard. I have heroes like James Thurber, Steven King, John Ringo, and Orson Scott Card (Dave Weber has slipped).
You're my favorite.
Just so you know.
----
Anonymous, one could also claim that the Black Death and the rise of the merchant class actually ended the Middle Ages.
John
100 years of fratricide over the proper way way to worship the Prince of Peace, and who gets the huge pile moola involved, sounds about as appealing as a steady Diet of Worms......
ReplyDelete"The monk had excommunicated the pope."
ReplyDelete(Will Durant)
Martin Luther was the first modern individualist.
The diet of worms help the Catholic Church lose weight ...
ReplyDeleteAin't nothin' like organized religion.... JimB
ReplyDelete100 years?
ReplyDeleteWe're STILL fighting the fallout of the hundred years war.
Chris,
ReplyDeleteWe're still fighting the fall out of the Crusades, which happened a few years prior to the start of the hundred years war.
-Gregg
p.s. Tam, there is something goofy in your script. When I tried to use the "Name/URL" option it would not allow me to do so without a URL. See it kept reading the (optional) as a URL. Thus, making it required and not optional. I'm just sayin'.
John,
ReplyDelete"You know I know lots of folk with a deft hand at the keyboard.
...
You're my favorite."
I'm blushing furiously.
And giggling a little bit, because I'm recalling Taggart's line to Hedley Lamarr in Blazing Saddles, complementing the latter on his eloquence.
I mean it, of course. Any chance of you at Blade?
ReplyDeleteToo soon to say.
ReplyDeleteI could always hit my parents up for a place to crash for the show, since they're only about six or seven miles away. :D