WEBVTT 00:02.100 --> 00:09.040 In a castle in the heart of Germany, in 1521, a monk on the run took refuge. 00:10.160 --> 00:12.300 He was in disguise and using an alias. 00:13.860 --> 00:18.860 A few days earlier, the Holy Roman Emperor had branded him an outlaw, and now he 00:18.860 --> 00:20.340 could be killed at will. 00:23.840 --> 00:28.300 For nearly a year, that monk hid out in this castle while shockwaves from his 00:28.300 --> 00:30.880 supposed crimes reverberated throughout Europe. 00:31.160 --> 00:31.700 His name? 00:32.140 --> 00:32.740 Martin Luther. 00:33.200 --> 00:36.980 This is the story of Luther and the Reformation, and it's more. 00:37.480 --> 00:42.220 It's the story of progress, from medieval darkness to Renaissance humanism, 00:42.460 --> 00:47.500 and how it's with great struggle that societies earn freedom as they evolve. 01:19.860 --> 01:21.380 Hi, I'm Rick Steves. 01:21.720 --> 01:24.820 500 years ago, Martin Luther kicked off the Reformation. 01:24.820 --> 01:29.480 In the next hour, we'll trace the dramatic events of this grassroots movement that 01:29.480 --> 01:30.880 changed the course of history. 01:31.320 --> 01:35.200 With this upheaval, Christianity in Western Europe was split in two, 01:35.400 --> 01:37.220 between Protestants and Catholics. 01:37.560 --> 01:42.400 This split happened to a medieval world permeated and stabilized by one 01:42.400 --> 01:43.980 all-encompassing religion. 01:44.600 --> 01:48.020 But that world was colliding with the new ideas of the Renaissance. 01:48.820 --> 01:52.340 It was rocked by fearless explorers and adventurous thinkers. 01:52.340 --> 01:57.500 And one of these great minds belonged to a humble German monk named Martin Luther, 01:57.860 --> 02:02.220 who could no longer stay silent about the wealth and corruption of his church. 02:02.800 --> 02:06.740 His controversial teaching and preaching brought him into conflict with the Pope 02:06.740 --> 02:11.580 and the Holy Roman Emperor, leading to a bold showdown watched by all of Europe. 02:12.380 --> 02:16.260 This courageous stand by one man sparked a century of conflict. 02:17.160 --> 02:21.480 It started as a war of words, but eventually spiraled into actual war, 02:21.480 --> 02:26.840 changing Europe and Christianity forever and contributing to the birth of our 02:26.840 --> 02:27.580 modern world. 02:35.240 --> 02:39.160 The story of Martin Luther, the man who would become the most notorious, 02:39.580 --> 02:44.460 celebrated, and provocative figure of his age, begins here in the bucolic German 02:44.460 --> 02:46.120 countryside south of Berlin. 02:47.160 --> 02:53.200 When Luther was born in this house in Eisleben in 1483, he entered a world that 02:53.200 --> 02:54.000 was still medieval. 02:54.980 --> 02:57.500 Most people lived in humble villages. 02:59.340 --> 03:00.980 They tilled the fields. 03:03.040 --> 03:07.920 They lived their entire lives in a single place, poor and illiterate. 03:08.380 --> 03:12.860 They bowed down to the local duke who protected them from rampaging bandits. 03:14.440 --> 03:19.700 And in every town, overseeing it all was the biggest and richest structure in town, 03:19.960 --> 03:20.580 the church. 03:22.140 --> 03:26.960 Though most people were poor, Luther's father owned a copper mining business, 03:27.340 --> 03:31.520 and his son got the best education this remote land could offer. 03:32.980 --> 03:37.060 Luther's story was set here in rural Germany at the end of the Middle Ages. 03:38.320 --> 03:43.340 But to understand the Reformation, we need to go back 1,000 years to far-off 03:43.340 --> 03:43.740 Rome. 03:44.180 --> 03:49.060 When the ancient Roman Empire fell around the year 500, it created a power vacuum 03:49.060 --> 03:54.360 that left Europe in relative poverty and stagnation for 10 centuries, the Middle 03:54.360 --> 03:54.820 Ages. 03:55.620 --> 03:59.580 During that difficult time, the Roman Catholic Church held Europe together. 04:00.040 --> 04:01.600 It provided more than religion. 04:02.080 --> 04:03.540 It provided stability. 04:04.100 --> 04:08.740 It was the one thing that united a fractured Europe, offering continuity and 04:08.740 --> 04:10.580 comfort in a troubled age. 04:12.020 --> 04:15.020 Echoes of ancient Rome lived on in the church. 04:16.180 --> 04:18.540 Roman senators became bishops. 04:19.520 --> 04:23.940 The design of their law courts, called basilicas, became the design of 04:23.940 --> 04:24.440 their churches. 04:25.200 --> 04:30.100 And the Roman emperor, called the Pontifex Maximus, became the Christian pope, 04:30.620 --> 04:32.740 also called the Pontifex Maximus. 04:33.710 --> 04:39.660 The church was Roman because it ruled from Rome, and Catholic, a word that means 04:39.660 --> 04:40.420 universal. 04:42.340 --> 04:46.300 Through the Middle Ages, the church condoned a kind of institutionalized 04:46.300 --> 04:46.720 slavery. 04:47.100 --> 04:48.220 That was feudalism. 04:48.920 --> 04:51.480 Feudal European society was made of three parts. 04:51.880 --> 04:55.100 The nobility had the secular power and owned most of the land. 04:55.520 --> 04:59.920 The church, which was the educated elite, controlled the word of God and provided 04:59.920 --> 05:00.800 spiritual blessings. 05:01.320 --> 05:04.400 And the downtrodden peasantry, they did all the hard labor. 05:06.220 --> 05:11.140 For commoners, that was 90% of the population, life was pretty miserable. 05:12.900 --> 05:15.080 Most children died before adulthood. 05:16.640 --> 05:18.460 Punishments for the poor were harsh. 05:21.260 --> 05:25.940 The plague, which routinely devastated towns killing a third of the population, 05:26.380 --> 05:28.060 was thought to be the wrath of God. 05:29.000 --> 05:30.560 It was a frightful time. 05:31.140 --> 05:34.100 People worked the land, hoping only to survive the winter. 05:35.300 --> 05:41.460 Life for the vast majority was a dreary existence, tolerable only as a preparation 05:41.460 --> 05:42.100 for heaven. 05:51.320 --> 05:56.000 The church offered a glimmer of hope with the promise of eternal happiness in 05:56.000 --> 05:56.380 paradise. 05:58.020 --> 06:02.640 Art was considered worthwhile and legitimate only as long as it glorified 06:02.640 --> 06:03.120 God. 06:04.500 --> 06:09.380 Entire communities dedicated generations of their resources to constructing the 06:09.380 --> 06:14.260 biggest buildings of the age, awe-inspiring cathedrals lit by splendid 06:14.260 --> 06:15.220 stained glass. 06:16.720 --> 06:24.340 The church commissioned society's greatest art, statues, pulpits, and altarpieces, 06:24.760 --> 06:26.460 all done anonymously. 06:27.020 --> 06:31.960 And Europe's faithful masses paid the price and carried the stone. 06:32.860 --> 06:37.980 To this day, all over Europe, you can see the legacy of this great medieval age of 06:37.980 --> 06:43.080 faith, soaring knaves topped with elaborate Gothic arches and flooded with a 06:43.080 --> 06:43.860 heavenly light. 06:44.800 --> 06:48.700 Art was a tool of the church, both to teach... 06:49.240 --> 06:50.520 and to terrify. 06:52.580 --> 06:57.440 Imagine, once a week, illiterate peasants would walk into a church and be 06:57.440 --> 07:03.260 wonderstruck by stained glass, towering columns, and glittering glories. 07:05.560 --> 07:10.180 Church art gave them a glimpse of the amazing heaven that would reward only the 07:10.180 --> 07:15.660 faithful and the terrible hell awaiting those who disobeyed. 07:18.310 --> 07:22.470 Martin Luther lived at the end of this period, but on the cusp of dramatic 07:22.470 --> 07:25.130 change, the dawn of the modern age. 07:28.990 --> 07:34.490 In 1501, 18-year-old Martin moved to the city of Erfurt, where he attended law 07:34.490 --> 07:34.750 school. 07:34.750 --> 07:39.470 Even today, this half-timbered medieval town, with a shallow river gurgling 07:39.470 --> 07:42.470 through its center, remains an inviting destination. 07:43.610 --> 07:48.330 Erfurt's venerable university produced many illustrious alumni, but a good 07:48.330 --> 07:50.130 education didn't come easy. 07:51.430 --> 07:53.210 Medieval students had a rough life. 07:53.550 --> 07:58.070 They got up at 4 in the morning to attend mass, ate two simple meals a day, 07:58.290 --> 08:00.210 and only took one bath a month. 08:00.630 --> 08:03.890 On the upside, students were given a liter of beer per meal. 08:04.630 --> 08:07.650 Martin enjoyed his college days here in Erfurt. 08:07.990 --> 08:11.530 Like any normal kid, he studied hard and he partied hard. 08:13.370 --> 08:18.090 As a schoolboy, young Martin developed his appetite for learning, music, and the 08:18.090 --> 08:18.350 Bible. 08:18.750 --> 08:23.470 A deep thinker and a big personality even at a young age, his friends nicknamed him 08:23.470 --> 08:24.310 the Philosopher. 08:24.790 --> 08:28.550 And his love of good German beer earned him the title King of Hops. 08:29.470 --> 08:33.570 Luther's father had planned that his son would become a lawyer, but that safe 08:33.570 --> 08:38.090 career path was suddenly sidetracked by an event that seemed to him like destiny. 08:38.710 --> 08:43.290 In July of 1505, as he was traveling to school, Martin was caught in a violent 08:43.290 --> 08:45.770 storm and nearly struck by a bolt of lightning. 08:46.750 --> 08:51.010 Terrified, he promised that if he survived the storm, he'd dedicate his life to God. 08:51.930 --> 08:56.490 Soon after, 21-year-old Martin checked into Erfurt's Augustinian monastery, 08:57.090 --> 08:59.430 famous for its discipline and scholarship. 09:00.550 --> 09:05.210 The former party boy took a vow of chastity, poverty, and obedience and 09:05.210 --> 09:06.030 became a monk. 09:07.350 --> 09:09.710 Luther set out to become an A-plus monk. 09:10.190 --> 09:12.410 He did everything he could to please God. 09:12.930 --> 09:17.070 He studied ancient Greek and Hebrew in order to read the earliest manuscripts of 09:17.070 --> 09:17.490 the Bible. 09:18.250 --> 09:23.010 He'd spend hours at a time in confession and lay overnight on this tomb, 09:23.150 --> 09:25.750 arms outstretched, to meditate on his faith. 09:27.110 --> 09:30.430 He was ordained a priest and set his first mass in this church. 09:31.190 --> 09:36.630 By age 23, Martin Luther was a dedicated priest in the Roman Catholic Church and on 09:36.630 --> 09:40.290 the fast track to a brilliant career as a professor of theology. 09:40.890 --> 09:45.050 And yet, in spite of all this, he remained tormented by feelings of 09:45.050 --> 09:45.910 unworthiness. 09:47.130 --> 09:52.470 He was consumed by a spiritual obsession, coming to terms with his relationship as a 09:52.470 --> 09:55.310 sinner with a demanding and judgmental God. 09:57.170 --> 10:01.730 In 1505, the same year that Luther entered the monastery in Germany, hundreds of 10:01.730 --> 10:06.210 miles to the south in Italy, Florence was celebrating the unveiling of a brand-new 10:06.210 --> 10:08.970 symbol of the city, Michelangelo's David. 10:09.530 --> 10:13.070 David also symbolized a new age known as the Renaissance. 10:14.570 --> 10:18.710 Looking into the confidence in David's face as he sizes up the giant he's about 10:18.710 --> 10:24.370 to kill, the Florentines saw optimism, the goodness of creation, and the power of 10:24.370 --> 10:26.330 the individual to effect change. 10:26.730 --> 10:28.610 In a word, humanism. 10:33.180 --> 10:36.260 That's why the Renaissance was about more than just pretty art. 10:36.540 --> 10:38.380 It was a revolution of ideas. 10:38.820 --> 10:42.340 The Renaissance, which means rebirth, sought to rediscover Western 10:42.340 --> 10:44.720 civilization's ancient Greek and Roman roots. 10:45.120 --> 10:49.400 And with humanism, the importance of the individual skyrocketed. 10:49.860 --> 10:55.320 This rebirth opened up a whole new world of possibility in science, politics, 10:55.500 --> 10:56.540 and economics. 10:57.740 --> 11:00.080 Religion was also seen in a new light. 11:01.140 --> 11:04.180 Life was suddenly about more than preparing for the hereafter. 11:04.920 --> 11:08.400 Artists saw themselves as an extension of God's creative powers. 11:09.240 --> 11:14.740 Both in subject matter, like beautiful nude bodies, and in theme, humanists 11:14.740 --> 11:17.200 embraced the full human experience. 11:18.140 --> 11:23.100 Rather than just bowing down in church, Renaissance artists and thinkers sought to 11:23.100 --> 11:27.640 express the glory of humanity, and in doing so, to glorify God. 11:28.520 --> 11:30.940 Other big changes were also percolating. 11:31.480 --> 11:33.540 Imagine Europe's class of 1500. 11:34.460 --> 11:38.460 Great thinkers like Leonardo da Vinci embraced science and studied nature. 11:39.640 --> 11:43.600 Gutenberg's printing press made books affordable, allowing knowledge to spread 11:43.600 --> 11:44.060 rapidly. 11:45.460 --> 11:48.340 Michelangelo was chipping away at his early masterpieces. 11:50.180 --> 11:52.360 Machiavelli was shaping modern politics. 11:53.100 --> 11:54.840 Columbus stumbled upon the Americas. 11:55.580 --> 11:57.960 Copernicus was putting the earth in its place. 11:58.480 --> 12:03.760 And Martin Luther, among other courageous reformers, would soon be questioning 1,500 12:03.760 --> 12:05.340 years of church tradition. 12:06.380 --> 12:10.260 With all this progress, two important movements in European history were about 12:10.260 --> 12:14.300 to intersect, the Renaissance and the coming Protestant Reformation. 12:14.940 --> 12:18.060 But first, Luther had to address his inner turmoil. 12:18.060 --> 12:21.360 And a life-changing trip helped make that happen. 12:23.280 --> 12:27.140 In 1510, seeking a way to help the troubled young monk overcome his demons, 12:27.600 --> 12:30.520 Brother Martin's superiors at the monastery sent him on a pilgrimage. 12:31.100 --> 12:35.900 He walked 700 miles through a harsh winter, over the Alps, down the spine of 12:35.900 --> 12:37.860 Italy, on a pilgrim's trail just like this. 12:38.300 --> 12:39.040 His destination? 12:39.560 --> 12:42.580 The hometown of his Christian faith, the city of Rome. 12:43.480 --> 12:47.960 Imagine Luther, the weary yet wide-eyed young pilgrim, trekking for weeks, 12:48.380 --> 12:51.800 and finally cresting this hill and seeing Rome. 12:52.700 --> 12:55.960 Passing through the gates of the city, he dropped to his knees and said, 12:56.240 --> 12:57.920 Hail, holy city of Rome. 12:59.600 --> 13:04.120 He would have seen many of the same sights that tourists and pilgrims enjoy today. 13:04.740 --> 13:09.140 Places like the fabled Colosseum, the glorious Pantheon, where pilgrims 13:09.140 --> 13:13.780 remembered early Christian martyrs sent to their deaths, and churches approached by 13:13.780 --> 13:17.920 long stairways, busy with worshipers climbing on their knees. 13:18.700 --> 13:24.820 He marveled at exquisite basilicas and gazed at Castel San Angelo, the fortress 13:24.820 --> 13:28.600 where the pope would take refuge when the city was under siege in that rough and 13:28.600 --> 13:29.420 tumble age. 13:30.500 --> 13:34.940 Luther crossed this bridge, the venerable Ponte San Angelo, to reach the highlight 13:34.940 --> 13:37.440 of his pilgrimage, St. Peter's Basilica. 13:38.400 --> 13:43.420 Today's basilica stands on the tomb of St. Peter, the spot where, nearly 2,000 years 13:43.420 --> 13:46.860 ago, Christianity became solidly established in Europe. 13:48.440 --> 13:52.340 It's believed that Peter, Jesus' right-hand man, was crucified for his 13:52.340 --> 13:57.080 beliefs right here at a chariot race course, which was decorated by this 13:57.080 --> 13:57.780 obelisk. 14:00.100 --> 14:04.180 His followers buried his body in a humble graveyard on the Vatican Hill, 14:04.440 --> 14:05.120 just over there. 14:05.520 --> 14:08.960 For three centuries, Christians worshiped quietly at his grave. 14:09.980 --> 14:14.220 In the 4th century, after Christianity was legalized, a huge church was built 14:14.220 --> 14:15.960 directly upon Peter's tomb. 14:18.160 --> 14:22.920 While today's basilica was built shortly after Luther's visit, stepping into the 14:22.920 --> 14:27.120 grand church, Luther would have had an experience much like pilgrims do now. 14:27.680 --> 14:36.620 He'd have seen Peter everywhere, in artwork, his tomb, and in the words 14:36.620 --> 14:40.320 that Christ spoke to his disciple, which gave the popes in Rome their holy 14:40.320 --> 14:44.960 authority, You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church. 14:45.860 --> 14:50.960 And like today's pilgrims, Martin Luther lined up to kiss the foot, worn shiny by 14:50.960 --> 14:56.240 over a thousand years of veneration of this very statue of Peter, the first pope. 14:57.900 --> 15:02.140 Despite all the history and grandeur, Luther was struck by the contradiction 15:02.140 --> 15:07.760 between the enormous wealth of the church and the Bible's emphasis on simplicity and 15:07.760 --> 15:08.800 caring for the poor. 15:10.140 --> 15:15.460 During Luther's visit, the bombastic Pope Julius II was in the midst of spending a 15:15.460 --> 15:18.040 fortune for an extravagant remodel of his church. 15:18.680 --> 15:23.460 In addition, the pope had hired Raphael to decorate his personal living quarters with 15:23.460 --> 15:30.860 elaborate frescoes and Michelangelo to paint his sanctuary, the Sistine Chapel. 15:32.600 --> 15:37.440 All this was to be financed by money extracted from faithful parishioners 15:37.440 --> 15:38.480 across Europe. 15:41.260 --> 15:45.740 Over the centuries, the church, ruled from Rome, had grown increasingly 15:45.740 --> 15:47.060 corrupt and worldly. 15:47.960 --> 15:52.000 Popes, bishops, and priests lived in luxury while others struggled, 15:52.300 --> 15:54.000 tarnishing the church's reputation. 15:55.520 --> 16:00.280 The church hierarchy had become materialistic and entangled with politics. 16:01.040 --> 16:04.780 Sins were crimes, and tithes were collected like taxes. 16:05.860 --> 16:09.460 Popes waged war, and bishops were treated like royalty. 16:10.080 --> 16:13.440 When one entered the room, you knelt and made a show of humility. 16:14.320 --> 16:19.040 The church, tasked with protecting 1,500 years of tradition, had grown 16:19.040 --> 16:22.040 conservative, even as times were changing quickly. 16:22.900 --> 16:27.220 While scientists and progressive thinkers were introducing new ideas, the church, 16:27.600 --> 16:31.000 which defended the notion that the world was the center of the universe, 16:31.340 --> 16:33.140 fought against these new ideas. 16:33.140 --> 16:36.040 And the church was the keeper of knowledge. 16:36.560 --> 16:41.220 Knowledge is power, and in Europe, until modern times, church abbey libraries 16:41.220 --> 16:42.660 held most of the books. 16:43.540 --> 16:47.720 And locked away in these libraries were any books with threatening ideas, 16:48.220 --> 16:51.460 the libri prohibiti, or prohibited books. 16:52.640 --> 16:57.420 Church leaders were the gatekeepers to this knowledge, and they alone had the 16:57.420 --> 16:57.680 key. 17:01.240 --> 17:04.200 Back then, access to the Bible was also controlled. 17:04.200 --> 17:08.740 It was only available in Latin, which only the educated elites of medieval 17:08.740 --> 17:10.640 Europe, which was the clergy, could read. 17:11.080 --> 17:14.380 For over 1,000 years, Mass had been said in Latin. 17:15.220 --> 17:18.960 Priests would interpret the word of God to the parishioner, who had little choice but 17:18.960 --> 17:20.420 to simply nod in agreement. 17:21.800 --> 17:26.280 In Rome, Luther came face-to-face with this worldly corruption at its worst. 17:26.860 --> 17:31.620 And one thing he found particularly troubling, the veneration of holy relics. 17:32.780 --> 17:37.160 Relics were the physical remains of something holy, a saint's bone, 17:37.320 --> 17:39.860 a piece of the cross, or a drop of holy blood. 17:41.080 --> 17:45.440 Rome was the richest place in Christendom for relics, which helped make it the 17:45.440 --> 17:47.520 ultimate destination for pilgrims. 17:48.100 --> 17:51.480 And the pilgrimage trade was a big moneymaker for the church. 17:53.540 --> 17:57.220 Medieval Christians believed they'd go to heaven only if they did more good than 17:57.220 --> 17:59.300 evil, and most figured they'd fall short. 17:59.300 --> 18:03.420 So when they died, God would need to purge them of their excess sin. 18:03.900 --> 18:07.980 The church called this purging process purgatory, and the people thought of it as 18:07.980 --> 18:08.780 years of misery. 18:09.380 --> 18:14.040 To reduce waiting time in purgatory, the devout accumulated good works in this 18:14.040 --> 18:17.480 lifetime by doing penance and by venerating holy relics. 18:18.140 --> 18:23.440 Like any devout pilgrim, Luther immersed himself in the holy sites of Rome and 18:23.440 --> 18:25.280 visited a long list of relics. 18:25.280 --> 18:28.320 But he became increasingly disenchanted. 18:29.240 --> 18:31.680 He wondered if these objects really were that important. 18:32.420 --> 18:36.740 He observed lots of greed and hedonism and very little spirituality. 18:37.940 --> 18:41.380 It seemed that each spiritual favor came with a price. 18:42.180 --> 18:46.540 Corrupt monks and clergy were abusing both their powers and the trust of their 18:46.540 --> 18:47.340 parishioners. 18:48.000 --> 18:53.000 And Luther bristled at the pope's lavish lifestyle and vanity projects funded by 18:53.000 --> 18:54.280 the sale of indulgences. 18:57.080 --> 18:58.660 Indulgences worked like this. 18:59.280 --> 19:04.020 The saints lived such holy lives that they accumulated a surplus of heavenly merits. 19:04.500 --> 19:08.800 These merits could be earned or purchased by sinners and then used as a kind of 19:08.800 --> 19:11.520 currency to buy down the consequences of their sins. 19:12.160 --> 19:16.460 An indulgence came as a letter from the pope, a kind of coupon good for less time 19:16.460 --> 19:17.060 in purgatory. 19:17.520 --> 19:18.620 And they were transferable. 19:19.180 --> 19:22.500 An earnest Christian could actually buy credit for his dead loved ones as well. 19:23.260 --> 19:29.000 One day while in Rome, Luther visited the Scala Santa, or Holy Steps, brought back 19:29.000 --> 19:32.920 from the Holy Land and believed to be the very steps from Pontius Pilate's palace 19:32.920 --> 19:35.140 that Jesus climbed on the day he was convicted. 19:35.960 --> 19:41.380 As Roman Catholic pilgrims still do today, Luther joined the crowd and made his way 19:41.380 --> 19:44.080 up, saying the Lord's Prayer on each step. 19:44.740 --> 19:46.700 The pilgrim's reward for this climb? 19:47.180 --> 19:50.140 Fewer years in purgatory for each of those steps. 19:52.660 --> 19:56.700 Reaching the top, Luther stood up and thought, who knows if this is actually 19:56.700 --> 19:57.040 true? 19:59.800 --> 20:02.660 Luther had a lot to think about as he hiked home. 20:03.440 --> 20:06.860 Back in Germany, he moved to the university town of Wittenberg, 20:07.100 --> 20:08.960 where he became a professor of theology. 20:10.300 --> 20:13.160 At the time, Wittenberg was on the rise. 20:13.640 --> 20:17.840 The local ruler, Prince Frederick the Wise, was working to make his capital an 20:17.840 --> 20:19.540 intellectual and cultural center. 20:20.340 --> 20:24.900 He invited the region's best and brightest, from Luther to the painter, 20:25.080 --> 20:29.800 Lucas Cranach, to Luther's fellow professor and theologian, Philip 20:29.800 --> 20:30.440 Melanchthon. 20:31.260 --> 20:35.280 The old center of Wittenberg looks much like it did in Martin Luther's day. 20:36.500 --> 20:40.180 Stately mansions stand shoulder to shoulder, and the main square is dominated 20:40.180 --> 20:41.380 by its town hall. 20:44.220 --> 20:48.480 Wittenberg's Church of St. Mary is where young Luther preached hundreds of sermons. 20:52.620 --> 20:57.120 As if sorting out the spiritual confusion caused by his time in Rome, Luther 20:57.120 --> 20:59.020 struggled publicly through his preaching. 20:59.540 --> 21:00.360 It was a dilemma. 21:00.860 --> 21:05.400 He wanted to be true both to his church and to his new understanding of God. 21:06.160 --> 21:09.780 Things were revving up as it was becoming clear to everyone that there were 21:09.780 --> 21:13.660 discrepancies between what the Bible taught and what the church was doing. 21:14.280 --> 21:19.260 Luther attracted larger and larger crowds as, eventually, both his teaching and his 21:19.260 --> 21:23.140 writings directly attacked the corrupt practices he'd seen in Rome. 21:23.640 --> 21:28.020 At the altar today, a painting shows a charismatic Luther preaching with his hand 21:28.020 --> 21:32.080 on the Bible, recalling how he supported his points not by relying on church 21:32.080 --> 21:34.960 tradition but by quoting directly from the gospel. 21:35.860 --> 21:40.340 Luther was not the first to question church practices, nor was this discontent 21:40.340 --> 21:41.180 limited to Germany. 21:41.500 --> 21:45.940 But going up against the medieval church had a history of deadly consequences. 21:45.940 --> 21:51.040 Two centuries before Luther, these evocative and remote castles in the south 21:51.040 --> 21:55.620 of France were destroyed by the medieval church to silence heretical voices and 21:55.620 --> 21:56.780 keep the church united. 21:59.080 --> 22:03.860 They were the desperate last refuge of the Cathars, a breakaway group of Christians 22:03.860 --> 22:05.880 who disobeyed church dictates. 22:07.640 --> 22:12.500 After a terrible period of torture and mass burnings, the Cathars were wiped out. 22:14.680 --> 22:19.880 A century after the Cathars, Jan Hus of Prague also confronted the church and met 22:19.880 --> 22:20.820 a similar fate. 22:21.260 --> 22:25.500 He demanded that ordinary Christians be allowed to take communion with both the 22:25.500 --> 22:29.900 bread and the wine, which at the time was reserved exclusively for the priest. 22:31.000 --> 22:35.340 Like Luther, Hus was a professor who gave controversial sermons and challenged 22:35.340 --> 22:38.980 church authority by translating parts of the Bible into the local language. 22:39.760 --> 22:44.040 And, also like Luther, Hus was prepared to die for his convictions. 22:45.120 --> 22:46.740 But Hus was ahead of his time. 22:47.200 --> 22:51.080 Lacking Luther's advantages, such as the printing press to help spread his ideas, 22:51.560 --> 22:55.540 Jan Hus was declared a heretic and burned at the stake in 1415. 22:59.260 --> 23:03.440 Back in Wittenberg, just as Luther was struggling with these contradictions and 23:03.440 --> 23:07.840 becoming more and more skeptical, the pope kicked off a capital campaign to 23:07.840 --> 23:10.080 build a glorious new St. Peter's Church in Rome. 23:10.080 --> 23:15.220 It would be very expensive, and the German states, more fragmented and therefore 23:15.220 --> 23:19.020 easier to take advantage of than other parts of Europe, would foot much of the 23:19.020 --> 23:19.220 bill. 23:20.120 --> 23:22.580 Papal fundraisers came out in full force. 23:22.920 --> 23:27.280 With a fanfare of drummers and trumpeters, the fundraising campaign of the zealous 23:27.280 --> 23:30.020 priest John Tetzel came to Luther's neighborhood. 23:30.780 --> 23:35.080 They offered letters of indulgence promising full forgiveness for all sins, 23:35.320 --> 23:39.040 no matter how great, and absolution from all punishments. 23:39.040 --> 23:44.640 As these were fully transferable, indulgences were ideal for bailing loved 23:44.640 --> 23:45.720 ones out of purgatory. 23:46.640 --> 23:51.720 Caring and frightened peasants lined up to buy as Tetzel's men sang, as soon as the 23:51.720 --> 23:55.900 coin in the coffer rings, another soul from purgatory springs. 23:59.820 --> 24:03.820 Luther, with fresh memories of the corruption he saw in Rome, was outraged. 24:04.020 --> 24:07.460 The Bible said nothing about buying forgiveness, and it said nothing about 24:07.460 --> 24:08.460 purgatory, either. 24:09.200 --> 24:13.340 Luther, now brazenly defying both the pope and over a thousand years of church 24:13.340 --> 24:15.820 tradition, had become hugely popular. 24:16.260 --> 24:20.700 But internally, he was still struggling with feelings of his own unworthiness. 24:21.300 --> 24:23.820 He searched the Bible, hungry for an answer. 24:24.340 --> 24:29.240 He was desperate to know, how could anyone deserve or earn salvation? 24:30.140 --> 24:33.240 He found his answer in Paul's letter to the Romans. 24:33.240 --> 24:36.580 It read, the just shall live by faith. 24:37.020 --> 24:41.080 With that key phrase, Luther discovered what he considered the good news, 24:41.240 --> 24:45.260 that salvation is not earned by doing good works or giving money to the church. 24:45.400 --> 24:47.460 It's a free gift to anyone who believes. 24:48.400 --> 24:53.360 Realizing this, Luther actually wrote, all at once I felt that I had been born 24:53.360 --> 24:53.760 again. 24:54.620 --> 24:59.120 Re-energized, Luther began shaping a new theology that emphasized a personal 24:59.120 --> 25:00.300 relationship with God. 25:01.000 --> 25:04.420 It was each person's faith that mattered, rather than church rituals. 25:05.540 --> 25:09.420 By the fall of 1517, Luther was ready to go public. 25:10.500 --> 25:14.920 He wrote a treatise known as his 95 Theses, or Points for Discussion. 25:15.700 --> 25:19.760 As any good professor should, he raised some hard questions. 25:20.480 --> 25:25.800 For example, point 82 boldly asked, if the pope redeems some souls for the 25:25.800 --> 25:30.400 sake of miserable money to buy a church, why doesn't he empty purgatory for the 25:30.400 --> 25:31.780 sake of holy love? 25:33.860 --> 25:37.900 It was here, at Wittenberg's Castle Church, where on October 31st, 25:37.920 --> 25:41.580 1517, Martin Luther came with his 95 points. 25:42.100 --> 25:44.740 According to legend, he nailed the list to the door. 25:44.940 --> 25:47.100 It was a kind of a community bulletin board back then. 25:47.580 --> 25:52.160 It was written in Latin and intended only for scholarly debate, but its impact 25:52.160 --> 25:53.620 turned out to be far greater. 25:55.120 --> 25:57.120 Luther's supporters spread his ideas. 25:57.660 --> 26:00.640 They were printed up in German and spread across the land. 26:01.120 --> 26:03.820 The issues he called attention to angered the public. 26:04.220 --> 26:07.940 This was a turning point, and now, change was unstoppable. 26:08.440 --> 26:12.560 The sale of indulgences dropped dramatically, and the pope's salesmen were 26:12.560 --> 26:17.620 run out of town as German mobs now chanted slogans like, when the coin rings in the 26:17.620 --> 26:20.100 pitcher, the pope becomes even richer. 26:22.540 --> 26:26.040 Luther's posting of the 95 Theses kicked off the Reformation. 26:26.040 --> 26:30.440 Many consider this the most important religious event of the last thousand 26:30.440 --> 26:30.800 years. 26:31.360 --> 26:36.100 And today, 500 years later, Reformation Sunday is still celebrated in Protestant 26:36.100 --> 26:37.620 churches each October. 26:38.760 --> 26:42.240 Luther was expert at PR, and his timing was ideal. 26:42.760 --> 26:46.940 While he was a great writer, he also had the best political cartoonist in the land 26:46.940 --> 26:50.640 as a friend and took full advantage of the newfangled printing press. 26:51.620 --> 26:55.700 Thanks to the printing press, his many sermons and essays could be quickly and 26:55.700 --> 26:57.560 cheaply mass-produced as booklets. 26:58.340 --> 27:02.440 His writing was witty, concise, and often in the local dialect. 27:02.920 --> 27:08.000 His pamphlets were instant bestsellers, nicknamed Flugschriften, or writings that 27:08.000 --> 27:12.300 fly, because they spread like a flock of birds to every corner of Europe. 27:12.840 --> 27:16.140 In today's terms, his ideas went viral. 27:16.980 --> 27:18.560 And that political cartoonist? 27:18.820 --> 27:20.420 That was Lucas Cranach. 27:20.420 --> 27:25.680 Cranach painted many portraits of Luther and his family and illustrated Luther's 27:25.680 --> 27:26.020 books. 27:26.720 --> 27:30.580 Knowing many of his followers were illiterate, Luther used Cranach to 27:30.580 --> 27:31.700 illustrate his points. 27:32.260 --> 27:34.260 And Cranach did so vividly. 27:35.040 --> 27:40.000 Book covers showed priests as bumbling animals, even the pope as a donkey. 27:41.040 --> 27:43.720 Luther's bold ideas resonated with the masses. 27:44.400 --> 27:48.840 Christ is found not in the bones of saints, but in your love for each other, 27:48.840 --> 27:51.700 in the sacraments, and in the holy words. 27:52.380 --> 27:55.740 God's forgiveness cannot be purchased like a sack of potatoes. 27:56.560 --> 27:59.020 The pope needs more prayer than money. 28:00.180 --> 28:04.160 Meanwhile, the news of Luther's theology, attacks on the church, and growing 28:04.160 --> 28:05.780 popularity reached Rome. 28:06.320 --> 28:11.140 The new pope, Leo X, called Luther a heretic and sent him a papal bull, 28:11.340 --> 28:12.760 threatening excommunication. 28:13.260 --> 28:18.480 This formal document gave Luther 60 days to recant or be kicked out of the church. 28:19.320 --> 28:23.680 Luther, not cowed by the pope's bull, responded with a flurry of new pamphlets, 28:23.840 --> 28:25.660 further challenging church practices. 28:26.860 --> 28:28.080 Things escalated. 28:28.980 --> 28:33.260 In a legendary tit-for-tat, the pope ordered the burning of Luther's books, 28:34.020 --> 28:36.260 and Luther burned the papal bull. 28:37.720 --> 28:42.060 The more the church opposed Luther, the bolder Luther became. 28:42.060 --> 28:46.980 The two most powerful leaders in Europe back then were the pope, based in Rome, 28:47.160 --> 28:50.900 and the Holy Roman Emperor, whose empire spanned much of Europe. 28:51.320 --> 28:52.840 The pope was furious. 28:53.640 --> 28:58.780 And the emperor, Charles V, being a devout Catholic, wanted to support his pope. 29:00.860 --> 29:05.320 The emperor could have crushed Luther easily, but Charles had a bigger problem. 29:05.700 --> 29:09.060 The Turks were threatening Europe from the east, closing in on Vienna. 29:09.060 --> 29:14.480 Much of Charles' empire was made of German states, so to defend Europe, he needed 29:14.480 --> 29:15.420 German support. 29:16.020 --> 29:20.020 Knowing Martin Luther had powerful German friends, the emperor had to deal with 29:20.020 --> 29:21.060 Luther cautiously. 29:21.780 --> 29:25.980 He agreed to give Luther a hearing and summoned him to the Imperial Diet, 29:26.100 --> 29:30.200 that's like a congressional hearing, in the city of Worms on the Rhine River. 29:30.780 --> 29:34.160 The Holy Roman Emperor himself traveled to Worms to arbitrate. 29:34.940 --> 29:37.920 Luther's challenge to Rome's authority was cheered by Germans. 29:37.920 --> 29:42.620 Traveling to Worms, Luther was greeted with a hero's welcome at every stop. 29:43.160 --> 29:47.740 Pamphlets showed him with a halo accompanied by a dove, symbol of the Holy 29:47.740 --> 29:48.220 Spirit. 29:49.440 --> 29:54.200 It's said that in one town, 60 horsemen escorted Luther to a church so packed with 29:54.200 --> 29:58.460 people eager to hear him preach that the balcony groaned and nearly collapsed. 29:59.400 --> 30:01.340 Imagine the showdown at Worms. 30:01.600 --> 30:06.100 Papal representatives, princes, imperial troops all power-dressing. 30:06.100 --> 30:11.480 The emperor himself sitting high on his throne, the crowds craning to see the 30:11.480 --> 30:11.800 action. 30:12.440 --> 30:17.260 In the center of the room, Martin Luther stood alone beside a table stacked with 30:17.260 --> 30:19.220 his rabble-rousing books and pamphlets. 30:19.600 --> 30:22.640 The prosecutor insisted Luther was a heretic. 30:23.040 --> 30:27.520 Summing up his case, he asked, who are you to go against 1,500 years of 30:27.520 --> 30:28.240 church doctrine? 30:28.700 --> 30:31.180 He demanded that Luther renounce his writings. 30:31.920 --> 30:33.420 Luther would not budge. 30:33.420 --> 30:39.200 Perhaps as never before in European history, one ordinary person stood up to 30:39.200 --> 30:40.900 authority for what he believed. 30:41.380 --> 30:46.160 He said, unless you can convince me by scripture or by clear reasoning, 30:46.580 --> 30:48.540 I am bound by my beliefs. 30:49.100 --> 30:51.880 I cannot and I will not recant. 30:52.240 --> 30:53.600 May God help me. 30:54.120 --> 30:54.460 Amen. 30:57.620 --> 31:01.580 Luther was declared a heretic and left Worms essentially an outlaw. 31:02.100 --> 31:06.180 Now, outside the protection of the law, Luther could be captured and killed by 31:06.180 --> 31:06.620 anyone. 31:07.080 --> 31:10.460 On his way home to Wittenberg, he was kidnapped and dropped out of sight. 31:11.000 --> 31:12.600 Many thought Luther had been killed. 31:13.460 --> 31:17.780 In fact, Luther had been kidnapped, but by friends for his own safety. 31:18.420 --> 31:23.060 He was given refuge in the Wartburg Castle by his benefactor, Prince Frederick the 31:23.060 --> 31:23.380 Wise. 31:24.620 --> 31:29.340 Luther grew a beard and passed himself off as a simple knight, Junker George. 31:29.980 --> 31:35.140 He spent the next year in hiding, waiting, planning, and wondering what 31:35.140 --> 31:35.940 would come next. 31:38.360 --> 31:40.020 This was Luther's room. 31:41.300 --> 31:44.420 Restless and lonely in the castle, he fell into depression. 31:45.520 --> 31:49.680 Throughout his life, he had struggled with what he saw as his personal war with 31:49.680 --> 31:50.040 Satan. 31:50.740 --> 31:55.180 Luther would say, whenever the devil harasses you, seek out the company of 31:55.180 --> 31:58.520 friends, drink more, joke, and make merry. 31:59.480 --> 32:03.840 Alone at Wartburg, he fought his depression by studying and writing. 32:04.320 --> 32:08.520 And it was here that he employed his favorite weapon, the printed word. 32:12.500 --> 32:16.820 Believing that everyone should be able to read the Word of God, Luther began the 32:16.820 --> 32:21.100 daunting and dangerous task of translating the New Testament from the original 32:21.100 --> 32:22.820 ancient Greek into German. 32:23.400 --> 32:28.020 He used simplified language, as he said, like a mother talking to her children. 32:28.020 --> 32:32.460 Just as the King James Version of the Bible did for English, Luther's 32:32.460 --> 32:37.140 translation helped to establish a standard German language that's used to this day. 32:37.640 --> 32:40.320 Luther's translation brought the Bible to the masses. 32:40.980 --> 32:44.620 The printing press made it more readily available and affordable to the public. 32:45.060 --> 32:47.700 And German literacy rates skyrocketed. 32:48.380 --> 32:52.900 As Germans read the Bible for the first time, they found, as Luther had, 32:53.100 --> 32:57.220 no mention of indulgences, purgatory, or even a pope. 32:57.220 --> 33:00.080 This further fanned the fires of reform. 33:00.520 --> 33:04.380 Luther was becoming the hero and figurehead of a growing revolution. 33:05.260 --> 33:08.960 The epic showdown at the Diet of Worms inspired others to action. 33:09.420 --> 33:14.280 Before long, across the land, monks and nuns left their monasteries, priests got 33:14.280 --> 33:17.700 married, and peasants were actually challenging the feudal system. 33:18.380 --> 33:21.620 Things went beyond Luther's intentions of reforming the church. 33:22.080 --> 33:26.280 The Reformation was unleashing a grassroots social and political rebellion, 33:26.560 --> 33:27.780 and it spread like fire. 33:28.900 --> 33:31.400 The changes spilled beyond religion. 33:32.040 --> 33:37.260 In 1524, Germany's peasants, emboldened by Luther's brave challenge to the status 33:37.260 --> 33:41.920 quo, rose up, attacking their feudal masters with hoes and pitchforks. 33:42.740 --> 33:47.500 They misinterpreted Luther's calls for freedom of religion to mean freedom from 33:47.500 --> 33:48.960 their feudal lords, as well. 33:50.180 --> 33:55.040 Luther, who was only concerned with issues of faith in the church, was horrified that 33:55.040 --> 33:59.080 his ideas could be misused to spark such a social revolt. 33:59.740 --> 34:04.360 He actually condoned the nobles' brutal crackdown as they killed thousands of 34:04.360 --> 34:05.720 peasants to restore order. 34:06.120 --> 34:11.260 But it was clear, the wheels of revolution he'd set in motion could not be stopped. 34:13.540 --> 34:17.520 Martin Luther's reforms unleashed turmoil far beyond his intent. 34:18.120 --> 34:22.420 Eventually, Luther left his Wartburg Castle refuge and returned home here to 34:22.420 --> 34:22.880 Wittenberg. 34:22.880 --> 34:27.380 He surrounded himself with a theological think tank and worked to rein in the 34:27.380 --> 34:31.920 extremism now rampaging through the land and to give direction to the Reformation 34:31.920 --> 34:34.600 and to what was becoming the Lutheran Church. 34:35.220 --> 34:39.840 The Reformation movement spread far beyond Germany in the early 1500s. 34:40.280 --> 34:44.560 Luther, while pivotal, was only one of many Christian leaders struggling to 34:44.560 --> 34:45.600 reform the church. 34:46.460 --> 34:51.000 In Switzerland, a land with deep roots in democracy and free thinking, Ulrich 34:51.000 --> 34:53.540 Zwingli also challenged the authority of Rome. 34:54.660 --> 34:58.660 From his pulpit in Zurich, he railed against church corruption and any 34:58.660 --> 35:01.400 practices that weren't specifically mentioned in the Bible. 35:01.900 --> 35:02.460 His mission? 35:02.920 --> 35:07.220 To place a Bible, written in everyday German, into the hands of every person. 35:08.680 --> 35:12.600 Zwingli's ideas reached each of Switzerland's remote cantons, and his 35:12.600 --> 35:17.460 theology gave the famously independent and yet-to-be-united Swiss something in 35:17.460 --> 35:17.740 common. 35:18.820 --> 35:23.820 In nearby Geneva, in this church, a Frenchman named John Calvin also 35:23.820 --> 35:24.680 preached reform. 35:25.700 --> 35:29.980 Like Luther, Calvin was convinced that salvation was by God's grace. 35:30.480 --> 35:35.420 But Calvin emphasized predestination, the notion that God had already decided 35:35.420 --> 35:36.280 who was saved. 35:36.860 --> 35:41.080 Calvinism, which evolved into Presbyterianism, spread to France, 35:41.360 --> 35:42.980 the Netherlands, and beyond. 35:44.120 --> 35:48.160 Protestant ideas spread quickly through Scandinavia thanks to its rulers. 35:49.020 --> 35:53.540 King Christian III of Denmark had actually been present at the Diet of Worms and was 35:53.540 --> 35:55.540 inspired by Luther's brave stand. 35:56.160 --> 36:01.020 He returned home to Copenhagen to establish Lutheranism as Denmark's state 36:01.020 --> 36:01.480 religion. 36:02.620 --> 36:06.780 The Swedish king, Gustav Vasa, took a shrewd political approach. 36:07.520 --> 36:11.160 He used the Reformation to make a clean break with Roman Catholic rule, 36:11.460 --> 36:14.920 nationalized church holdings, and consolidate power for himself, 36:14.920 --> 36:18.440 thus becoming the father of the modern state of Sweden. 36:19.480 --> 36:24.840 In England, King Henry VIII also broke with the pope in Rome, but for selfish as 36:24.840 --> 36:26.140 well as political reasons. 36:26.660 --> 36:30.220 He created the Church of England with himself at its head. 36:30.880 --> 36:35.260 He dissolved the monastic orders, destroyed their abbeys, and appropriated 36:35.260 --> 36:37.700 the Catholic Church's vast land holdings. 36:38.380 --> 36:41.980 When Catholics rose up against him, Henry had the ringleaders hung, 36:42.160 --> 36:43.220 drawn, and quartered. 36:43.220 --> 36:48.640 And his actions left Henry not only much richer and more powerful, but free to 36:48.640 --> 36:52.520 divorce his barren wife and marry his fertile young mistress. 36:53.700 --> 36:57.520 In Scotland, John Knox preached at the main church in Edinburgh, where he founded 36:57.520 --> 37:01.220 a separate Protestant denomination, austere Scottish Presbyterianism. 37:02.480 --> 37:06.180 Knox insisted that every person be able to read the word of God for themselves, 37:06.580 --> 37:10.800 which resulted in Scotland developing an education system centuries ahead of its 37:10.800 --> 37:11.200 time. 37:13.220 --> 37:15.680 Not all reformers broke from the church. 37:16.480 --> 37:21.340 The priest and philosopher Erasmus of Rotterdam admired Luther's ideas on the 37:21.340 --> 37:23.720 importance of faith over good deeds. 37:24.520 --> 37:29.880 Like Luther, he openly questioned the church, but he proposed sweeping reforms 37:29.880 --> 37:30.820 from within. 37:31.620 --> 37:35.460 Erasmus remained a priest and never left the Catholic Church. 37:37.120 --> 37:43.580 A Spanish soldier named Ignatius of Loyola had a spiritual conversion and spent a 37:43.580 --> 37:45.660 decade wandering Europe on a pilgrimage. 37:46.240 --> 37:50.440 He eventually formed the Jesuits, a religious order whose mission was to be 37:50.440 --> 37:55.560 the intellectual warriors of the church, battling both corruption within the church 37:55.560 --> 37:57.980 and heresy outside the church. 37:59.020 --> 38:03.620 During the early 1500s, new ideas were cross-pollinating throughout Europe. 38:04.200 --> 38:09.220 Protestant reformers, Catholic reformers, humanists, and scientists were all reading 38:09.220 --> 38:10.320 each other's words. 38:10.740 --> 38:13.100 It was an exciting and confusing time. 38:13.700 --> 38:17.200 Two powerful cultural movements, the Reformation and the Renaissance, 38:17.580 --> 38:21.300 were rushing together in a swirl of currents as history flowed on. 38:22.140 --> 38:26.340 All across Europe, the momentum seemed in favor of reformers. 38:27.000 --> 38:31.120 But the spread of the Reformation didn't happen without chaos and conflict. 38:31.760 --> 38:34.460 In many areas, there were violent uprisings. 38:38.560 --> 38:43.180 From Holland to Switzerland, Protestant extremists vandalized Catholic churches. 38:43.740 --> 38:47.640 They attacked what they considered symbols of idol worship, forbidden by their 38:47.640 --> 38:48.840 interpretation of the Bible. 38:49.360 --> 38:53.360 These iconoclasts, as they were called, shattered stained-glass windows, 38:53.780 --> 38:58.020 they lopped off the stone heads of saints, and stripped gold-leaf angels from the 38:58.020 --> 38:58.380 walls. 38:59.520 --> 39:04.380 When Catholic cathedrals became Protestant churches, interiors were made simple, 39:04.380 --> 39:09.200 with dazzling images replaced by plain walls, pipe organs, and pulpits. 39:12.330 --> 39:16.210 For example, the biggest church in Switzerland, the Lausanne Cathedral, 39:16.490 --> 39:18.910 was originally Catholic and dedicated to Mary. 39:19.450 --> 39:23.710 But when the Reformation hit, Swiss reformers purged it, whitewashing 39:23.710 --> 39:28.530 colorfully frescoed walls, trashing stained-glass windows, and smashing 39:28.530 --> 39:30.290 statues of Mary and the saints. 39:30.990 --> 39:35.970 Today, the church remains clean of images and dominated by its extravagant pipe 39:35.970 --> 39:36.230 organ. 39:41.430 --> 39:45.750 Another example is the once Catholic, now Protestant, main church of Haarlem in 39:45.750 --> 39:45.990 Holland. 39:47.730 --> 39:51.990 While now whitewashed in the Protestant fashion, the pillars reveal the 39:51.990 --> 39:54.710 decorative, original frescoes that were covered up. 39:55.990 --> 39:59.470 The many gilded chapels, dedicated to various saints, were removed. 40:00.650 --> 40:05.550 The towering pipe organ is a reminder that, for Protestants, music became more 40:05.550 --> 40:07.190 important than the visual arts. 40:11.960 --> 40:16.780 And pulpits became a prominent feature because of the Protestant emphasis of 40:16.780 --> 40:20.700 bringing the word of God directly to the people in their own language. 40:22.780 --> 40:27.420 In territories where Protestants dominated, Catholics survived but went 40:27.420 --> 40:31.060 underground, forced to practice their faith in hidden churches. 40:31.740 --> 40:36.460 In generally Protestant Amsterdam, for example, this Catholic church kept a 40:36.460 --> 40:39.460 low profile, disguised as a townhouse. 40:42.380 --> 40:46.100 Persecution of Catholics, along with the rise of Protestantism, was turning 40:46.100 --> 40:48.340 Catholics into a minority in northern Europe. 40:49.120 --> 40:54.080 By the mid-1500s, the Roman church employed a strategy for stemming the tide 40:54.080 --> 40:54.740 of Reformation. 40:56.440 --> 41:00.580 The Vatican fought back with the Counter-Reformation, an attempt to put 41:00.580 --> 41:03.620 what was the universal Catholic church back together. 41:03.620 --> 41:08.080 On the one hand, the church worked to reform its internal corruption and reach 41:08.080 --> 41:12.420 out to alienated members, and on the other hand, the church resorted to propaganda, 41:12.920 --> 41:14.900 intimidation, and outright force. 41:15.600 --> 41:17.760 Art became a propaganda tool. 41:18.200 --> 41:22.520 Extravagant Counter-Reformation art and architecture was designed to inspire the 41:22.520 --> 41:22.800 masses. 41:23.800 --> 41:28.920 Catholic churches dazzled with gold leaf and ornate decorations, offering a glimpse 41:28.920 --> 41:31.500 of the heaven that awaited those who remained faithful. 41:32.500 --> 41:38.200 Counter-Reformation artists painted radiant, soft-focus Marys, sentimentally 41:38.200 --> 41:41.200 wrapping everything in warm colors and gentle light. 41:42.600 --> 41:49.420 This bubbly Baroque style of art featured large canvases, bright colors, 41:51.920 --> 42:00.360 rippling motion, wild emotions, grand themes, and holy saints. 42:01.120 --> 42:05.660 It appealed to the senses and was popular with both peasants and nobles alike. 42:06.480 --> 42:09.840 It made heavenly visions real and stirred the emotions. 42:11.140 --> 42:16.080 This Baroque style remained popular in Catholic parts of Europe for generations. 42:18.240 --> 42:22.700 The church's propaganda art could intimidate as well as inspire. 42:23.860 --> 42:28.340 Worshippers saw images of God-fearing Catholics burning Protestant pamphlets, 42:29.420 --> 42:35.460 of defenders of the church stepping on snakes representing heretics, and angry 42:35.460 --> 42:38.720 angel babies tearing out pages of Lutheran teaching. 42:39.660 --> 42:44.080 And the Counter-Reformation relied on an institution dating back to earlier times, 42:44.380 --> 42:45.360 the Inquisition. 42:46.280 --> 42:50.680 It emanated from Spain at the imposing Palace of El Escorial. 42:52.220 --> 42:56.820 This full-scale, church-run legal system brought Protestants, Jews, and 42:56.820 --> 43:01.340 non-conforming Catholics before its courts on the slightest evidence of heresy. 43:02.680 --> 43:07.420 Those convicted would be punished, tortured, and, in many cases, executed. 43:11.790 --> 43:16.070 The Protestants responded with anti-Catholic propaganda of their own. 43:16.610 --> 43:19.990 In this painting, hanging in Luther's hometown church in Wittenberg, 43:20.270 --> 43:23.270 the Reformers tend to the Garden of the Lord. 43:24.210 --> 43:28.370 Luther rakes, and his intellectual sidekick Melanchthon pulls water from the 43:28.370 --> 43:33.030 well, symbolizing how the Reformers went back to the original source to translate 43:33.030 --> 43:33.530 the Bible. 43:34.790 --> 43:38.970 Meanwhile, the Pope and his people trash all their careful spiritual gardening. 43:39.830 --> 43:43.510 Even though Jesus has given the Pope a reward, the Pope keeps his hand 43:43.510 --> 43:45.390 outstretched, asking for more. 43:46.750 --> 43:49.610 Looking on, the Reformers pray reverently. 43:52.330 --> 43:54.650 Other art was shockingly direct. 43:54.990 --> 43:59.510 In this etching, Protestants portray the Pope as Satan himself. 44:02.520 --> 44:05.040 The whole era was intolerant to the extreme. 44:05.380 --> 44:08.360 Everyone was convinced their vision of God was the one and only way. 44:08.660 --> 44:11.880 And Luther was as conflicted and intolerant as his age. 44:12.120 --> 44:16.260 He came down hard on the Roman church, on Protestants who disagreed, and 44:16.260 --> 44:17.900 particularly hard on Jews. 44:20.180 --> 44:22.340 Luther was intolerant of Jews. 44:22.920 --> 44:26.520 He was angered that they wouldn't convert, which drove him, in his later years, 44:26.520 --> 44:28.900 to write hateful, anti-Jewish essays. 44:31.440 --> 44:36.740 This prejudice was consistent with his general intolerance, as when he supported 44:36.740 --> 44:40.480 the killing of so many rampaging peasants who were threatening the social order. 44:41.420 --> 44:45.980 And it was only a matter of time before this kind of bitter war of ideas would 44:45.980 --> 44:47.680 flare up into actual war. 44:51.760 --> 44:56.220 The Reformation and Counter-Reformation unleashed pent-up frustrations that 44:56.220 --> 44:59.040 transformed Europe into a battlefield for the next hundred years. 44:59.460 --> 45:03.920 The wars may have been called religious wars, but for the princes who ruled the 45:03.920 --> 45:08.300 many little German states, breaking with Rome, as with most religious wars, 45:08.540 --> 45:11.320 was also about power, money, and land. 45:12.200 --> 45:16.120 Many German princes, like Luther's supporter, Frederick the Wise at 45:16.120 --> 45:20.020 Wittenberg, saw the Roman church as an obstacle to greater power. 45:21.820 --> 45:26.920 And at great peril, many opted to split from the Roman church to support Luther, 45:26.920 --> 45:28.900 even if that meant war. 45:33.800 --> 45:37.120 For a German prince, there were three big reasons to break from Rome. 45:37.580 --> 45:41.920 First, by opposing the pope, princes could rule without meddling bishops, 45:42.120 --> 45:43.660 who were above secular laws. 45:44.160 --> 45:48.820 Second, princes could hold onto tithes formerly sent to Rome in a huge drain on 45:48.820 --> 45:49.380 their economies. 45:49.920 --> 45:53.180 And third, the biggest landowner in their realm was the church. 45:53.460 --> 45:57.120 And by joining forces with the Protestants, princes could confiscate 45:57.120 --> 45:57.860 church lands. 45:57.860 --> 46:03.540 The strife Martin Luther had unwittingly unleashed led to a chaotic series of wars 46:03.540 --> 46:05.160 that would last more than a century. 46:06.920 --> 46:12.180 Throughout the 1500s, Europe's princes and kings jockeyed for power, using religion 46:12.180 --> 46:13.240 as their excuse. 46:14.460 --> 46:19.180 It culminated in a bloody free-for-all called the Thirty Years' War that raged 46:19.180 --> 46:21.840 from 1618 to 1648. 46:23.640 --> 46:28.440 While the war involved many countries, it was fought mainly on German soil. 46:29.600 --> 46:34.440 Much of the battle gear, ramparts, and folkloric reenactments tourists see 46:34.440 --> 46:36.720 today in Germany dates from this war. 46:39.240 --> 46:42.740 Casualties were devastating as a third of all Germans were killed. 46:44.340 --> 46:47.960 On the Catholic side, the pope was supported by the powerful Holy Roman 46:47.960 --> 46:48.400 Emperor. 46:48.860 --> 46:52.740 The emperor had Europe's leading army and was more than willing to march into 46:52.740 --> 46:54.540 Germany and put down Protestants. 46:54.540 --> 47:00.240 As these wars, with a mix of political and religious agendas, raged across Europe, 47:00.780 --> 47:05.420 princes grabbed for power while the people violently sorted out their deep-seated 47:05.420 --> 47:06.640 religious frustrations. 47:08.480 --> 47:13.080 After literally millions of deaths, the devastation of entire regions, 47:13.400 --> 47:17.860 and widespread economic ruin, all involved were exhausted. 47:18.920 --> 47:21.780 In 1648, a treaty was finally signed. 47:22.120 --> 47:22.620 The result? 47:22.880 --> 47:27.100 Not religious freedom, but now the leaders of each country were free to decide if 47:27.100 --> 47:31.040 their subjects would be Roman Catholic Christian or Protestant Christian. 47:31.820 --> 47:35.560 Western Europe was effectively divided between a Catholic South and a Protestant 47:35.560 --> 47:38.820 North, a line that roughly survives to this day. 47:39.820 --> 47:41.540 Europe had split into two camps. 47:41.880 --> 47:46.260 On one side was the Roman Catholic Church, those Christians who still recognized the 47:46.260 --> 47:46.500 pope. 47:46.960 --> 47:50.120 On the other side were the Protestants, or protesting Christians. 47:50.700 --> 47:54.680 Of course, both Catholics and Protestants are Christians, but they have different 47:54.680 --> 47:56.440 styles and take different approaches. 47:57.440 --> 48:01.320 For Catholics, church rituals and an ordained clergy are essential 48:01.320 --> 48:03.800 intermediaries between a worshiper and God. 48:05.100 --> 48:11.540 They venerate saints and the Virgin Mary and confess their sins to a priest. 48:12.500 --> 48:16.700 Catholics accept precedents established through the centuries by the church and 48:16.700 --> 48:19.740 follow the spiritual leadership of the pope in Rome. 48:19.740 --> 48:25.360 And they maintain a time-honored element of elaborate ritual and mysticism that 48:25.360 --> 48:27.520 enriches their religious experience. 48:28.320 --> 48:31.700 For Protestants, worship style became different. 48:32.620 --> 48:38.380 They purged their churches of holy relics, dispensed with many of the rituals, 48:38.660 --> 48:41.500 and reduced the formal role of ordained clergy. 48:42.760 --> 48:47.400 Rather than appealing to saints and Mary, Protestants emphasized their direct 48:47.400 --> 48:51.400 relationship with God through Bible study and personal prayer. 48:54.240 --> 48:57.880 Luther rejected five of the Catholic church's seven sacraments. 48:58.280 --> 49:01.180 He kept only Holy Communion and Baptism. 49:01.960 --> 49:05.160 The Lutheran movement introduced two essential changes. 49:05.720 --> 49:08.840 They believe, first, salvation is a gift from God. 49:09.080 --> 49:09.940 It's a matter of faith. 49:10.080 --> 49:10.900 You can't earn it. 49:11.200 --> 49:15.140 And second, the Bible is the only source of religious authority. 49:16.060 --> 49:20.720 After sparking such sweeping changes, Luther, in his later years, settled into a 49:20.720 --> 49:22.880 quiet life as a respected professor. 49:23.360 --> 49:25.780 But his life was never without surprises. 49:26.540 --> 49:28.880 One of the first things he did shocked everybody. 49:29.240 --> 49:30.120 He got married. 49:30.680 --> 49:36.020 42-year-old Martin Luther, a former monk, married 26-year-old Catherine von Bora, 49:36.380 --> 49:37.240 a former nun. 49:37.800 --> 49:41.620 Martin and Katie went on to have six children and raise four orphans. 49:42.260 --> 49:46.340 Katie, who ran the huge and busy Luther household, was a welcome partner in 49:46.340 --> 49:47.040 Luther's circle. 49:47.780 --> 49:48.460 Luther wrote, 49:56.180 --> 50:01.500 Luther used his dining room table to host an ongoing social and intellectual jam 50:01.500 --> 50:01.940 session. 50:02.800 --> 50:06.400 It was where his students, houseguests, and fellow Reformers gathered, 50:06.860 --> 50:10.360 drinking Katie's home-brewed beer and eating the Luthers' 50:10.640 --> 50:12.160 almost-out-of-house-and-home. 50:12.160 --> 50:17.140 They'd spend long hours discussing and debating religious issues and applying 50:17.140 --> 50:20.000 their ideas concretely to everyday life. 50:23.160 --> 50:25.360 Luther's followers hung on his every word. 50:25.640 --> 50:26.760 His students took notes. 50:27.120 --> 50:31.940 And this anthology, which was printed in 1567, is called Table Talk. 50:32.260 --> 50:37.500 It collects over 6,000 entries, from profound to vulgar and offensive to 50:37.500 --> 50:37.860 silly. 50:38.440 --> 50:43.060 He who does not love wine, women, and song remains a fool his whole life 50:43.060 --> 50:43.440 long. 50:43.440 --> 50:46.180 What lies they tell about relics. 50:46.400 --> 50:51.240 How is it that 18 apostles are buried in Germany when Christ had only 12? 50:51.920 --> 50:56.360 God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on the trees and flowers and 50:56.360 --> 50:57.400 clouds and stars. 50:58.680 --> 51:00.640 Luther remained a complex man. 51:01.040 --> 51:02.780 He continued to struggle with depression. 51:03.180 --> 51:07.200 He could be crude, bombastic, and even bigoted, riddled with contradictions. 51:07.540 --> 51:12.960 And he certainly enjoyed his beer, although he did warn, It's better to think 51:12.960 --> 51:17.000 of church in the alehouse than to think of the alehouse in church. 51:18.040 --> 51:21.800 Luther's earthy lifestyle reflects some of the spirit of what became the Lutheran 51:21.800 --> 51:24.540 church, ideas which back then were quite radical. 51:25.180 --> 51:29.400 He affirmed dimensions of everyday life, such as marriage and the joy of sex, 51:29.480 --> 51:32.560 as good and important, provided they were carried out in faith. 51:33.000 --> 51:34.760 And pastors were free to marry. 51:35.040 --> 51:37.400 There was nothing in the Bible that said they couldn't. 51:38.440 --> 51:41.600 Luther believed in what he called the priesthood of all believers. 51:42.120 --> 51:46.560 Whether a schoolteacher, a farmer, or a gardener, he believed all are equally 51:46.560 --> 51:51.300 capable of understanding God's word and can receive salvation without the help of 51:51.300 --> 51:52.020 intermediaries. 51:52.860 --> 51:57.820 Because literacy was crucial to reading the Bible, Luther lobbied Germany's nobles 51:57.820 --> 52:00.320 to provide schools for all boys and girls. 52:01.060 --> 52:04.520 And Luther loved music, which he figured the devil hated. 52:05.140 --> 52:09.480 In perhaps his deepest depression, Luther wrote one of Christendom's greatest 52:09.480 --> 52:11.300 hymns, A Mighty Fortress. 52:12.260 --> 52:16.760 He composed many other hymns that put the basic elements of Christian worship into 52:16.760 --> 52:17.160 song. 52:18.240 --> 52:22.980 To this day, Protestant churches are particularly alive with great organs and 52:22.980 --> 52:23.760 choral music. 52:24.440 --> 52:28.880 Luther, who believed he who sings praise double, would have enjoyed the singing of 52:28.880 --> 52:33.520 the visiting Dresden Boys' Choir as they performed in his hometown church in 52:33.520 --> 52:34.180 Wittenberg. 52:36.160 --> 52:39.480 Luther died in 1546 at age 62. 52:40.180 --> 52:44.040 A massive funeral procession accompanied his body to the castle church in 52:44.040 --> 52:45.280 Wittenberg, where he's buried. 52:46.000 --> 52:48.220 To this day, pilgrims bring flowers. 52:57.280 --> 53:01.560 After Luther's death, until the dawn of the 20th century, the Reformation helped 53:01.560 --> 53:04.320 open the way for fundamental changes in Western society. 53:04.320 --> 53:09.960 With a less controlling role of the church in everyday life, secular forces were free 53:09.960 --> 53:10.520 to flourish. 53:11.600 --> 53:14.660 Secular thinking, including science, would thrive. 53:15.600 --> 53:19.220 Literacy increased across Europe as people had the freedom to read the Bible. 53:20.440 --> 53:24.820 Free-market capitalism thrived in Northern Europe, fueled by the Protestant work 53:24.820 --> 53:25.180 ethic. 53:26.100 --> 53:30.860 Non-religious secular arts were able to flourish, and, eventually, a democratic 53:30.860 --> 53:34.640 spirit was kindled as people were emboldened to stand up to power, 53:34.960 --> 53:38.260 and there was a greater separation between church and state. 53:38.980 --> 53:43.360 For most of the 500 years since the Reformation, relations between Catholics 53:43.360 --> 53:45.100 and Protestants have been troubled. 53:45.580 --> 53:49.080 But there was one lesson Europe learned the hard way — tolerance. 53:50.160 --> 53:53.020 And in our lifetime, huge strides have been made. 53:53.380 --> 53:57.560 More than ever, Protestants and Catholics are coming together and see themselves 53:57.560 --> 54:00.660 merely as different expressions of the same faith. 54:01.580 --> 54:04.460 The Reformation was more than a religious event. 54:04.860 --> 54:07.860 It was part of the societal weave we call progress. 54:08.320 --> 54:10.640 And progress comes out of struggle. 54:11.560 --> 54:14.160 Religious freedom grew out of the Protestant Reformation. 54:15.500 --> 54:17.940 Political freedom came out of the French Revolution. 54:19.500 --> 54:24.300 And personal freedom is the cry of the civil rights movement in our age. 54:25.660 --> 54:27.660 It's all hard-earned. 54:28.160 --> 54:31.920 It's not always pretty, but it is worth the trouble. 54:36.040 --> 54:40.280 Martin Luther was a pivotal character in history who stood up for what he believed. 54:40.620 --> 54:45.400 The Reformation he unleashed helped create a more tolerant society that eventually 54:45.400 --> 54:49.320 allowed diversity in how people strive to better understand God. 54:49.700 --> 54:50.760 I'm Rick Steves. 54:51.020 --> 54:52.140 Thanks for joining us.