It is after midnight when a BANGING sound fills up the entire hollow interior of All Saints’ church. The sound is coming from outside. Who would dare to disturb the long-lasting peace of this holy place at this ungodly hour? No one but Prof. Martin Luther, who is equipped with nothing but reason and faith in the Holy Bible.
Luther is hammering a small nail on the door of All Saints’ Church. The tiny nail cannot be harmful to this powerful establishment; the words in the papers that hang from it can. It is The 95 Theses, Luther’s criticism of indulgences; the very first article that ignites the Protestantism movement. The banging sound becomes louder and louder. Each time the hammer hits the nail, a vivid shaking noise is also heard. The last bang is the loudest, which is followed by the sound of a building collapsing.
The pillars of the Pope’s bed are shaking while the Pope slumps off the bed. It is as if the entire building was coming down on him. He looks quite vulnerable in his sleepwear. Without missing a bit, he crawls under the bed. The Pope’s terrified eyes suggest that he is woken up from a nightmare. Little he knows that his worst nightmare is awaiting him in the waking life.
Breathing heavily, the Pope’s terrified eyes scan the room. Although a few moments have passed by, the building has not collapsed yet. His chair seems to be sitting fine on the corner. The candles on the shelf above the fireplace are still lit. Wouldn’t they have fallen if it was an earthquake? The Pope wonders. He cautiously crawls back from under the bed when he notices his portrayal still hanging on the wall.
“Your Holiness, did you call me?” his assistant says while running into the room, holding a candle. He does not wait for the response and runs to help Pope Leo X that is crawling on the floor in his sleepwear.
Two weeks later, summoned by the Pope, top counselors have gathered from all the corners of the Holy Roman Empire in order to seek a solution for the developing threat of Martin Luther. They are standing in a line before the Pope, who is sitting on his luxurious chair at the top of the meeting room in front of the fireplace. Although not in his sleepwear, the Pope looks vulnerable again, with the traces of the nightmare he had two weeks ago still visible on his face.
Starting with a tone that indicates agreement with the content, a counselor reviews the main points in Luther’s 95 Theses.
“Then in Theses 27-29, he attacks the idea that as soon as payment is made, the payer’s loved one is released from purgatory. He sees it as encouraging sinful greed and says it is impossible to be certain because only God has the ultimate power in forgiving punishments in purgatory.”
“In Theses 41-47, he suggests that Christians are to be taught that giving to the poor is incomparably more important than buying indulgences…” The counselor’s voice gradually starts sounding hesitant. “… and that doing good works makes a person better while buying indulgences does not.”
Fighting doubts about whether he should continue or not, the counselor looks up and reads the room for a few moments. Receiving no command to stop, he takes his eyes off his colleagues and turns it back at the paper. He gulps in fear when he sees the next words. After clearing his throat a couple of times, he finally gathers the will to continue, but this time with a fragile voice.
“In Theses 48-52, he continues that if the Pope actually knew what was being preached in his name he would rather St. Peter’s Basilica be burned down…” He looks up and continues slowly with a hesitant tone. “… than built up with the skin, flesh, and bones of his sheep.” The counselor reads the last part with pain while looking ahead instead of looking at the paper. He kind of knows that it is too much already and that he might get into trouble if he continues.
The Pope’s hand, armed with a giant diamond ring, rises, making a stop gesture. The counselor takes a relaxed breath, shows respect, and takes a step back.
The pope turns his gaze to the other side, where two counselors standing near each other: Thomas Cajetan and Johann Eck, who will later interrogate Luther in 1521 at the Diet of Worms. Eck, prepared to take a stance, is quite disappointed when Pope’s hand passes over him and points to Cajetan instead.
Thomas Cajetan, happy to see the Pope’s permission, steps forward, shows respect, and says: “The execution power of Your Holiness in Saxony is not as strong as it should be. A well-deserved punishment, hence, would be hard to enforce. I mean, it would be different if he was here in Rome, or even in Spain, but in Saxony…”
Johann Eck expresses his dissatisfaction by his furrowed brow and irritated frown.
“He is nothing more than a theologian anyway,” Cajetan continues, “and the reach of his words is not beyond academics and students. Laypeople would probably not even notice a bunch of letters written in Latin anyway. My advice would be against a non-executable punishment that might actually reward this little scholar with subsequent popularity by bringing him to the attention of masses.”
Furious with the presented advice, Johann Eck looks like he would burst if he does not object. Nevertheless, he swallows his rage when he reads in the Pope’s face his agreement with Cajetan’s view.
“In a few years,” Cajetan says optimistically, “people would not even remember who Luther was, and his writings are to be forgotten forever.”
Thomas Cajetan finishes with a very big smile on his face, naively oblivious to the reach and power of the printing press, the newest invention of mankind. The game is soon going to be changed in favor of Luther.