This evening let’s take a trip back in time. Back when there was a cathedral or church in every town of Europe. Back when people lived and died in the same often square mile in which they were born. Back to the end of the Dark Ages when there were no books, normal people didn’t read and superstition reigned supreme.
Into this world add a total spiritual darkness, a complete void of truth, add in the unbridled lusts of the flesh. Now you have a picture of Germany in the early days of the 1500’s (the 16th century) when Martin Luther was in his late teens and early twenties.
Life was at a low ebb. Most of the peasant, farm working men drank to drunkenness and lived a rough life. The Roman Catholic Church condemned all but a few saints to an endless labyrinth of fire called purgatory. The souls of the sinful were burned in great painfulness until the price of their sins was finally paid and they were purged. So life was even more hopeless, it was bad here and bad there.
Then to town comes a stream of ancient objects called relics. These are items found during the Crusades in the Holy Land. These relics are said to possess wonderful powers. The most talked about power was to reduce a person’s years in Purgatory.
Add to this the fact that in Luther’s day, the Roman church was enduring a playboy pope, Leo X of the house of Medici. Leo came to the papal chair by great price to his family who bought him the position. He paid them back by selling the offices of the church to whomever could pay well for the privilege. The archbishop of Mainz, the primate of Germany, having borrowed the money to buy his office, was allowed to issue indulgences to recoup his expenses.
APO-03 & NR6-13 – To Purgatory & BACK! (990912PM)
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