This quick study on Reformation History was given at the end of service at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on October 22, 2017. The text of the study is included and you may play the audio of the study here.
Frederick the Wise refused to hand his star professor over to the pope and his armies. The man brought him a bunch of money, and quite a bit of attention to his university. Luther was good for business. Plus, remember Frederick was a pious, religious man. Who would he be if he handed one of his monk-professors over for execution. Now, Frederick did this to the pope. Where would the pope go?
The pope would go to the emperor. The emperor of the Holy Roman Empire wasn’t exactly a Caesar or a Genghis Khan. In fact, the Holy Roman Empire had shrunk so much over the millennia, that in 1517, it really wasn’t much more than Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, some of France, some of Poland, northern Italy, and a few other, small areas. The Holy Roman Empire shouldn’t be confused with the Roman Empire. It’s not as if they just took over for the Caesars. But, when the Roman Empire collapsed, the major institution that was left was the Church, and so it is easy to see how influential they could become in politics.
It should also be understood that the Church wasn’t just in the Holy Roman Empire, but all across the world, in so many countries. Yet, Luther was a German, and he was a citizen of that country and of the Empire, and the pope, while not a citizen of the Empire, enjoyed a close relationship with the emperor because of the relative geographic proximity it had to Rome itself. Beyond this, the Holy Roman Empire had a military force that one did not want to reckon with. The biggest threat they faced were the Turkish hordes (today, we call them Muslims), who were literally, at one point, knocking on the gate to Vienna to overtake the city. Yet the armies of the emperor held them off until they went into retreat.
So, the Empire had quite a bit of power, and the pope had quite a bit of influence with the emperor. Yet, when Leo X asked the emperor, Maximillian, he didn’t get a lot of support back. After all, the emperor was fighting the French, the Swiss, the Turks, and others for years. He was a brilliant general. So, imagine his surprise when the injury that would essentially end his military career didn’t come in war but came by falling off his horse and hurting his leg. Apparently, it was so bad that from 1514 until 1519 when he died, he travelled everywhere in his own coffin. The guy was horrifically depressed, and the pope couldn’t do anything about not getting what he wanted from the emperor.
That is, until 1519. Maximillian died in January of that year. The electors of the empire had to get together, including Frederick the Wise. What was especially interesting is that there were four candidates, Henry VIII (yes, that one), Francis I of France, Charles V, the grandson of Maximillian, and Frederick the Wise, himself. It was up to the electors to decide who the next emperor would be, and, in June, after a good amount of discussion, fighting, and voting, they eventually settled on Charles V. Frederick actually was nominated for the position, and easily removed himself from consideration.
Charles would feel a bit of indebtedness towards Frederick, not only for withdrawing, but also for electing him to role of the emperor. So it was when the Pope Leo wrote to Charles. Leo couldn’t get what he wanted under Maximillian, maybe he’d get it from the grandson. But now Charles V was torn. He was the emperor over Germany, but he hadn’t spent much time there to be able to relate to the people. In fact, he literally couldn’t speak to the people; he didn’t know German. On top of that, he was being called to interfere with one of Frederick’s subjects. But, he was a loyal Roman Catholic. What was he supposed to do? What was he going to do? We’ll find out next week.
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