Luther Martin - Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet

When Martin Luther nailed a sheet of paper to the church door of a small university town on 31 October 1517, he set off a process that changed the Western world for ever.

Luthers ideas spread like wildfire. His attack on the Church soon convulsed Germany, divided Europe and polarised peoples beliefs. His opinions triggered decades of religious persecution, social unrest and war. And in the long run, his ideas paradoxically helped break the grip of religion in every sphere of life.

But the man who started the Reformation was deeply flawed. He was a religious fundamentalist, a Jew-hater and a political reactionary. He was a fervent believer who was tormented by doubt, a brilliant writer who shaped the German language and a vicious and foul-mouthed polemicist. He was a married ex-monk who liberated sexuality from the stigma of sin, but also a man who insisted that women should know their place. For him the Devil was not just a figure of speech but a very real and physical presence.

In this first historical biography for many decades, distinguished historian Lyndal Roper gives us a flesh-and-blood figure, warts and all. She reveals the often contradictory psychological forces that drove Luther forward insecurity and self-righteousness, anger and humility and the dynamics they unleashed which turned a small act of protest into a battle against the power of the Church.

Lyndal Roper is Regius Professor of History at Oxford and one of the most respected historians at work in Britain today. An expert on early modern Germany, her previous books include a study of witchcraft, Witch Craze: Terror and Fantasy in Baroque Germany.

. Eisleben, from Daniel Meissner, Thesaurus Philo-Politicus. Das ist politischer Schatzkstlein gutter Herzen und bestendiger Freund, Augsburg 1625 (akg-images).

. Altarpiece at Mansfeld Castle (photograph by Nadja Pentzlin).

. Georg Agricola, De re metallica, Basel 1556, pp. 232, 330, 326.

als Golt / Silber / Zcyn / Kupferertz Eisen stein / Bleyertz / vnd vom Qecksilber, Erfurt 1527 (VD 16 R 35050, fo. Cv (v). SLUB Dresden/Digitale Sammlungen, 3.A.8150).

. Lucas Cranach, Hans Luder, 1527 (Albertina Vienna).

. Erfurt, from Hartmann Schedel, Weltchronik, Nuremberg 1493 (Bridgeman Art Library).

das gantz Jar. Babst Julius. der Zehendt. [=Leo X.], Nuremberg 1515 (VD 16 K 259, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich).

. Hans Holbein, Anna Laminit, 1511 (Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin).

. Map of Wittenberg, 1623 (Stdtische Sammlungen der Lutherstadt Wittenberg/Ratsarchiv, Spezialgrundriss, 1742; Karte Nr. 60).

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. Lucas Cranach the Elder, Dye Zaigung des hochlobwirdigen Hailigthumbs der Stifft-Kirchen aller Hailigen zu Wittenberg, 1509 (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich, Rar. 99).

. Lucas Cranach the Elder, Christoph Scheurl, c.1509 (Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nuremberg, Inv.-Nr. Gm 2332).

VD 16 D 1745, Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz Berlin).

. Eyn deutsch Theologia: das ist Eyn edles Buchleyn, Wittenberg 1518 (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich, 4 P.lat. 1580).

. Lucas Cranach the Elder, Karlstadts Wagon, woodcut, 1519, (Bridgeman Art Library).

Munich, Res/4 Th.u. 104, VII, 31).

. Martin Luther, Ein Sermon geprediget tzu Leipgk vffm Schlo am tag Petri vn pau li im xviiij. Jar, durch den wirdigen vater Doctorem Martinu Luther augustiner zu Wittenburgk, Leipzig, 1519 (Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbttel, VD16 L 6193).

, 1522 (VD 16 A 1009, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich).

. Thomas Murner, Von dem grossen Lutherischen Narren, 1522 (VD 16 M 7089, Universittsbibliothek Leipzig).

. Lucas Cranach the Elder, Martin Luther, 1520 (Getty Images).

. Luther, De Captivitate Babylonica Ecclesiae (Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbttel).

boke van Doctore Martino Luther vorbrant syn, Lbeck 1520 (VD 16 L 7375, Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbttel).

. Albrecht Drer, Avarice (Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna/Getty Images).

. Martin Luther, Von der freyheyt eynes Christenmenschen, Wittenberg 1520 (Universitts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen Anhalt in Halle, Saale, sign. Ib 4187a).

German Hercules, c.1519 (Getty Images).

. Lucas Cranach the Elder, Georg Spalatin Honouring the Cross, 1515 (Kupferstichkabinett Berlin).

. Martin Luther by Hans Baldung Grien, in Acta et res gestae, D. Martini Lvtheri, Strasbourg 1521 (VD 16 ZV 61, Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz Berlin).

(VD 16 B 9935, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich).

. Lucas Cranach the Elder, Luther as Junker Jrg, 1522 (Getty Images).

. Melanchthon, Cranach et al., Passional Christi und Antichristi, Wittenberg 1521 (Getty Images).

. Andreas Karlstadt, by unknown artist, 1541/2? (Universittsbibliothek Bern).

Staatsbibliothek Munich).

. Erasmus Alberus, Absag brieff des Frsten dyser welt [et]c. wider Martinum Lutther, Saltzpurg (i.e. Nuremberg), 1524 (VD 16 A 1472, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich).

. Diepold Peringer, Ain schne aulegung vber das gtlich gebet, Erfurt 1522 (VD16 P 1395, Universitts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen Anhalt in Halle, Saale).

geprediget vom Pawren zu Werdt bey Nrmberg am Sontag vor Fanacht, von dem freyen willen des Mennschen, Nuremberg 1524 (VD 16 P 1410, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich).

. Lucas Cranach the Elder, Martin Luther and Katharina von Bora, 1526 (Bridgeman Art Library).

. Johann Hasenberg, Lvdvs lvdentem lvdervm lvdens, Leipzig 1530 (VD 16 H 714, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich).

Holbein the Younger, Portrait of Erasmus, 1523 (Bridgeman Art Library).

. Lucas Cranach the Elder, Martin Luther, 1532 (Bridgeman Art Library).

. Lucas Cranach the Elder, True Portrait of Luther, 1546 (Albertina Vienna).

. Lucas Cranach the Elder, Luther and the Saxon Elector in front of a Crucifix (Bridgeman Art Library).

Euangelij willen verbrant, ein selige geschicht, Nuremberg 1528 (VD 16 L 7268, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich).

. Suredabus Cancrinus, Ein new wunderbarlich mnchs schiffung, Strasbourg 1531 (Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz Berlin).

. The Papal Ass, from Philipp Melanchthon, Deuttung der Czwo Grewlichen Figuren..., Wittenberg 1523 (Bridgeman Art Library).

Calf, from Philipp Melanchthon, Deuttung der Czwo Grewlichen Figuren..., Wittenberg 1523 (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich).

. Lucas Cranach the Elder, Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon, 1543 (Bridgeman Art Library).

. Heinrich Aldegrever, Jan of Leyden, A King of the Anabaptists, copper etching, 1536 (Bridgeman Art Library).

(Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, KHM-Museumsverband, KK 3879).

. Hans Daucher?, Anna Kasper Dornle, 1525 (Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, KHM-Museumsverband, KK3893).

. Martin Luther, Anton Lauterbach, Johann Aurifaber, Colloqvia Oder Tischreden Dr Martini Lutheri, Frankfurt am Main 1569 (VD 16 L 6756, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich).

, 1532 (Landeskirchliches Archiv Kiel, 91.3, Landeskirche Hamburg Gemeindliche Fotosammlung, Nr. 841).

. Fabian von Auerswald, Ringer kunst, Wittenberg 1539 (