Ep. 242: A Drunken German Lights a Fire

n spring 1518 Martin Luther assured Pope Leo X that he was a dutiful son of the Church. But was he still one?
The 95 Theses were the perfect opening salvo: provocative, popular and, crucially, not obviously heretical.
Archbishop Albrecht’s own theologians in Mainz refused to condemn them and passed the problem on to Rome.
Then Luther did something new: he wrote the Sermon on Indulgences and Grace in punchy German for ordinary readers.
It became an early bestseller and helped create a mass market for public debate in print.
Tetzel’s Dominicans hit back with counter-theses, which Wittenberg students promptly burned.
Leo X tried to deal with it inside the Augustinian order, but at Heidelberg Luther’s brothers cheered him instead.
There he set out his theology of the cross and denied that fallen humans can earn salvation by their own free will.
After a defiant sermon on excommunication, Rome turned to the papal theologian Prierias, whose verdict was simple: whoever questions the pope is a heretic.
A summons to Rome followed, and a lone friar now faced the full weight of the papacy.