Reluctant Revolutionary

Martin Luther: Reluctant Revolutionary

When watching the Reluctant Revolutionary it made me realize how much courage it must have take Martin Luther to nail his thought of the Christian Religion to its front door. This was a time where the people doubted the church, and Martin Luther was one to speak up about it. The church was the most powerful force during this time and for someone to bash the church was insane. One main reason why Martin Luther created the 95 theses is because of the Catholic Church granting indulgences, which was the idea that if you were to pay the Catholic Church a certain amount of money then there would be a place for you in heaven. Another reason why Martin Luther’s actions are very courageous is that, Heresy during this time was seen as a pretty extreme offense, which in some cases leads to death by drowning of burning.  Martin Luther’s goal of the 95 theses was to point out the flaws in the Catholic Church, which the Roman Empire took offense too. This lead to a large uproar between the church and the people of the Roman Empire. Another reason why Luther’s ideas were so popular during this time was due to the printing press. With the printing press Martin Luther was able to spread his ideas quicker. Which leads into the reason of why Luther’s changes in the Catholic religion swayed many German readers. With the use of the printing press Martin Luther translated his ideas into a German bible. This bible united a large group of the German population and was one of the main reasons why he had such an impact on the German society.

 

Martin Luther, Religious Refomer

All in all I believe that Martin Luther is a very courageous man for standing up to such a religious powerhouse. Luther’s situation is a lot like Martin Luther King Jr’s. Situation with equal rights for African Americans, and just like Martin Luther he faced a lot of doubt and animosity. But, with commitment to what he believed in, Martin Luther gave people a different path toward God. I enjoyed this video very much and it gave me a good insight of not only Martin Luther but how German people live.

The 95 theses: the document Martin Luther nailed to the Catholic Church, telling the church what he felt was wrong with the Roman Catholic Church. 

Germany A New History Blog

In the chapter I read it was interesting to find out how the German people came about. One big topic that I would like to talk about is how others saw the German people during the Holy Roman Empire stage. I learned that the word German was a way to describe these barbaric people that were coming across the Rhine in the land called Germania. Also, for a number of years these German people didn’t even know that they were being called German. These people never had very much power and were first used as soldier for the Empire. Also, when Germany started to rise and began forming its own identity, there were many parts of Germany that were far behind in population. For example in the reading it say the largest city in Germany had about 40,000 people while in France the largest city they had was about 100,000 people. Along with population I also found it interesting how much of the German population was effected by wars and plagues. In one part I read it said that the Black Plague wiped out about 2/3 of the German population. With the rapid growth of German people during this time and it would have been interesting to see how much quicker Germany would developed.

This image portrays the Black Plague

Another big topic that played a key role in the development of Germany was religion. One of the more important events that happened with the development in Germany was when the pope and emperor split apart from each other. It reminded me a lot of our time now and how religion and politics are somewhat separate from each other. Another big role religion played in Germany’s development was the Protestant and Lutheran religions. With the creation of these two religions it united people of Germany. But, with this came a lot of controversy, which eventually lead up to the thirty years war, which was fought to restore the catholic unity.

This is an image showing the 30 years war

Another part in the book that really interested me was how much the border of Germany changed over time. With all of the wars that were fought through the European development I found it quite confusing and difficult to keep up with the changes that the land dealt with. I would have understood it a little better if the author decided to put more maps in the book so that it was easier to read and find out how much Germany has actually changed overtime.