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VIII. THE RAPID SPREAD OF LUTHERANISM
Lutheranism was spreading rapidly through the various means being used to promote reform:
Feverish missionary activity was to win most of northern Germany within a decade for the Reform. This success was achieved through a wave of propaganda unequaled hitherto and in its precise form never repeated. The primary tools were the tract and the cartoon. The number of pamphlets issued in Germany in the four years 1521 through 1524 exceeds the quantity for any other four years of German history until the present…. In all this Luther himself took the lead, and his own pamphlets in the vernacular ran into the hundreds; but a vast cohort assisted him, and the printers who brought out these highly controversial materials were an intrepid breed who risked their establishments and their lives. [32]
In addition to the tracts, cartoons were also used to get across the message of reformation:
All the external abuses of the Roman Church were easy to lampoon. The familiar theme of the contrast between Christ and the pope was exploited. Christ is seen carrying on a dialogue with the pope, saying, “I have nowhere to lay my head.” The pope comments, “Sicily is mine. Corsica is mine. Assisi is mine. Perugia is mine.” Christ: “He who believes and is baptized will be saved.” Pope: “He who contributes and receives indulgences will be absolved.” Christ: “Feed my sheep.” Pope: “I shear mine.” Christ: “Put up your sword.” Pope: “Pope Julius killed sixteen hundred in one day.” [33]
A Reformation woodcut shows Luther at his desk when he is interrupted by the Devil with a letter:
We Lucifer, lord of eternal darkness and ruler of all the kingdoms of the world, declare to you, Martin Luther, our wrath and displeasure. We have learned from our legates, Cardinals Campeggio and Lang, the damage you have done in that you have revived the Bible which at our behest has been little used for the last four hundred years. You have persuaded monks and nuns to leave the cloisters in which formerly they served us well, and you are yourself an apostate from our service. Therefore we will persecute you with burning, drowning, and beheading. This is a formal declaration of war, and you will receive no other notice. Sealed with our hellish seal in the City of Damnation on the last day of September, 1524. [34]
Poems were being penned. One such poem written by a shoemaker from Nurnberg was titled, “The Wittenberg Nightingale”:
Luther teaches that we all
Are involved in Adam’s fall.
If man beholds himself within,
He feels the bite and curse of sin.
When dread, despair, and terror seize,
Contrite he falls upon his knees.
Then breaks for him the light of day.
Then the gospel may have sway.
Then sees he Christ of God the Son,
Who for us all things has done.
The law fulfilled, the debt is paid,
Death overcome, the curse allayed,
Hell destroyed, the devil bound,
Grace for us with God has found.
Christ, the Lamb, removes all sin.
By faith alone in Christ we win. [35]
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