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Description

Back during the European middle ages, the Catholic Church was the dominant force in most people's lives. Politics, property, religion, everything was regulated by the power of the Church and the Pope, both of which were often manipulated by the Assassins and Templars. However, the firm hold that the Catholic Church had over Europe would eventually be severely threatened by one man, a frantic monk named Martin Luther.

Luther was known for being absolutely obsessed with his religion, constantly begging forgiveness for his sins and constantly searching for a means to cleanse his soul for salvation. Annoyed by how obsessive and frantic he became, his teachers sent him off to the University of Wittenberg to be rid of him so that they could get some sleep. While studying scripture there, Luther came to the conclusion that true salvation could only be achieved through faith, not through actions as the Catholic Church preached. Now this sounds like a great individualistic idea at first, but we'll talk about that later. As you can imagine, this led to some major conflict. His radical new ideas threatened to unbalance the established social order of the whole continent, and so Assassins like Desiderius Erasmus kept a close eye on him to make sure things didn't get out of hand. But oh, how things did get out of hand.

In 1517, a Catholic friar named Johann Tetzel started selling indulgences (official documents that were pretty much “get out of hell free” cards from the Church) at ridiculously high prices to Wittenberg peasants. Luther was outraged at this, believing such a practice to be an abuse of power by the Church, and so he wrote up his famous 95 Theses and nailed them to the Church door, which was pretty much the 16th century equivalent of someone posting a rant on Tumblr. Soon after, Luther would become more and more radical, claiming that the Catholic priesthood had no real power and that individuals were the ones responsible for their own salvation. This of course was the kind of power-combating action that went over well with the Assassins, but again, we'll talk more about Luther’s true intentions later In 1521, he was called to defend his ideas in front of Charles V at the Diet of Worms, which sounds really unappetizing if you ask me. Just sayin’.

While Luther walked away from the meeting without winning his case, he certainly didn't quit. He continued to spread his ideals, and he did so with the aid of the newly-invented printing press, which he used to produce copies of the Bible in the people's local German, allowing everyone to finally read scripture themselves instead of being constricted to Latin-speaking priests. But Luther didn't do this because he wanted to spread freedom of interpretation or discussion of meaning. Oh no. He did it because he believed that if everyone could read scripture, then everyone would all come to the same “one true interpretation” that he came to. Excuse me for a moment.

*goes off into the next room and laughs hysterically for about five minutes before returning*

Alright. I'm back. Sorry, that was just really funny, the idea of “one true interpretation”. Ha. But yeah, no, this is not what happened. At all. People had different interpretations, as they rightfully should, and many took the new movement as a chance to look to themselves to run their own lives, which of course the Assassins supported. But the Templars took Luther’s side, especially when the lower classes began to revolt against the clergy and nobles because they suddenly realized that their voices mattered, and weren't being heard. Luther and his Templar friends had these revolts slaughtered in the name of the “order” they claimed to represent, because Luther believed that the classes had to stay where they were, that the powerful had a right to lord over the peasants. Once the Templars realized that this new movement offered a newer, subtler form of taking power, many were quick to split off from the Catholic nobility and join the Reformation. The promise of money moving from the hands of the Vatican to the hands of the Templars also pushed their order to switch over.

Nonetheless, the Protestant Reformation had a massive influence, even if it wasn't the one intended by the guy who started it. People were encouraged to become more literate and look to themselves for guidance. Protestantism kicked off as a major branch of Christianity that guided several future political and social movements. Several other branches broke off from there as well, like the Zwinglianists and the Calvinists and Anabaptists, etc. Plus, this was the time period where my own ancestors started entering the history books. The Spaenhauers were a Swiss family with deep Assassin roots that helped lead the Brotherhood through the Reformation, much like the Auditores did during the Renaissance. They aided the lower classes throughout Central Europe to combat the nobility and reclaim their freedom and equality. So I guess despite the insanity that ensued from it all, the Protestant Reformation wasn't all bad. But that Martin Luther guy… yeah I'm still gonna keep him on the list of people I would not invite to a party. Just sayin’

Description

Back during the European middle ages, the Catholic Church was the dominant force in most people's lives. Politics, property, religion, everything was regulated by the power of the Church and the Pope, both of which were often manipulated by the Assassins and Templars. However, the firm hold that the Catholic Church had over Europe would eventually be severely threatened by one man, a frantic monk named Martin Luther.

Luther was known for being absolutely obsessed with his religion, constantly begging forgiveness for his sins and constantly searching for a means to cleanse his soul for salvation. Annoyed by how obsessive and frantic he became, his teachers sent him off to the University of Wittenberg to be rid of him so that they could get some sleep. While studying scripture there, Luther came to the conclusion that true salvation could only be achieved through faith, not through actions as the Catholic Church preached. Now this sounds like a great individualistic idea at first, but we'll talk about that later. As you can imagine, this led to some major conflict. His radical new ideas threatened to unbalance the established social order of the whole continent, and so Assassins like Desiderius Erasmus kept a close eye on him to make sure things didn't get out of hand. But oh, how things did get out of hand.

In 1517, a Catholic friar named Johann Tetzel started selling indulgences (official documents that were pretty much “get out of hell free” cards from the Church) at ridiculously high prices to Wittenberg peasants. Luther was outraged at this, believing such a practice to be an abuse of power by the Church, and so he wrote up his famous 95 Theses and nailed them to the Church door, which was pretty much the 16th century equivalent of someone posting a rant on Tumblr. Soon after, Luther would become more and more radical, claiming that the Catholic priesthood had no real power and that individuals were the ones responsible for their own salvation. This of course was the kind of power-combating action that went over well with the Assassins, but again, we'll talk more about Luther’s true intentions later In 1521, he was called to defend his ideas in front of Charles V at the Diet of Worms, which sounds really unappetizing if you ask me. Just sayin’.

While Luther walked away from the meeting without winning his case, he certainly didn't quit. He continued to spread his ideals, and he did so with the aid of the newly-invented printing press, which he used to produce copies of the Bible in the people's local German, allowing everyone to finally read scripture themselves instead of being constricted to Latin-speaking priests. But Luther didn't do this because he wanted to spread freedom of interpretation or discussion of meaning. Oh no. He did it because he believed that if everyone could read scripture, then everyone would all come to the same “one true interpretation” that he came to. Excuse me for a moment.

*goes off into the next room and laughs hysterically for about five minutes before returning*

Alright. I'm back. Sorry, that was just really funny, the idea of “one true interpretation”. Ha. But yeah, no, this is not what happened. At all. People had different interpretations, as they rightfully should, and many took the new movement as a chance to look to themselves to run their own lives, which of course the Assassins supported. But the Templars took Luther’s side, especially when the lower classes began to revolt against the clergy and nobles because they suddenly realized that their voices mattered, and weren't being heard. Luther and his Templar friends had these revolts slaughtered in the name of the “order” they claimed to represent, because Luther believed that the classes had to stay where they were, that the powerful had a right to lord over the peasants. Once the Templars realized that this new movement offered a newer, subtler form of taking power, many were quick to split off from the Catholic nobility and join the Reformation. The promise of money moving from the hands of the Vatican to the hands of the Templars also pushed their order to switch over.

Nonetheless, the Protestant Reformation had a massive influence, even if it wasn't the one intended by the guy who started it. People were encouraged to become more literate and look to themselves for guidance. Protestantism kicked off as a major branch of Christianity that guided several future political and social movements. Several other branches broke off from there as well, like the Zwinglianists and the Calvinists and Anabaptists, etc. Plus, this was the time period where my own ancestors started entering the history books. The Spaenhauers were a Swiss family with deep Assassin roots that helped lead the Brotherhood through the Reformation, much like the Auditores did during the Renaissance. They aided the lower classes throughout Central Europe to combat the nobility and reclaim their freedom and equality. So I guess despite the insanity that ensued from it all, the Protestant Reformation wasn't all bad. But that Martin Luther guy… yeah I'm still gonna keep him on the list of people I would not invite to a party. Just sayin’