37 pages • 1 hour read
William ManchesterA World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1992A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses
When Martin Luther posted his Ninety-Five Theses on the door of the church, it was an unprecedented act of bravery and conviction. A less-esteemed man might have been sent immediately to the inquisitors for condemnation and torture. The theses were not only denouncements of the sale of indulgences by the clergy, but arguments against the practice that were well-honed by Luther’s reason. The arguments were meant to persuade people that the sale of indulgences was itself wrong and a sin, effectively casting the Vatican as an advocate of sin. What Luther had done could not be undone—not that he was interested in recanting—and anti-Church resentment could not be quelled as followers rallied to Luther’s cause. All of the conflicts that follow the Ninety-Five Theses in Part 2 of the book are directly tied to the revolution that Luther started with this one act. The theses are a symbol of courage, intellectual rigor, and the power of reason to affect change on a massive scale.
The Printing Press
When Johannes Gutenberg invented the first printing press, the resulting effects cannot be overstated. Prior to the ability to print and produce information quickly, news traveled slowly between villages, if at all. A polemicist like Martin Luther or a satirist like Erasmus would not have been able to disseminate their views quickly or to many people if every pamphlet had to be copied out by hand or shared among many readers.
Because the printing press itself was reproducible, an instrument for spreading knowledge could now be present in many places at once, free of Church observation and control. Materials could also be printed in common languages, giving everyone who could read a chance to read in their own language, rather than being denied the ability to read a tract that existed only in Latin, the language of the elites. The printing press created an excitement around literacy and led to greater enrollment in schools.
Indulgences
After committing a sin, a person could pay a Church leader for an “indulgence.” Purchasing an indulgence meant that forgiveness for the sin had been bought, rather than atoned for by more traditional means of repentance. This took some of the gravity out committing a sin for anyone who could pay to be forgiven. There was little reason not to commit a sin if being forgiven was as simple as a transaction after the fact. Indulgences became the focal point of Luther’s campaign for reform. The selling of indulgences was an affront to logic but also an unvarnished example of the hypocrisy and greed of the medieval popes. Indulgences allowed for more sins to be committed as the Church enriched itself.
