Huge and sophisticated, a printing press stands in the center of the factory, ready to make history. It takes a couple of strong men to operate this monster. After a lot of huffing and puffing, the most recent invention of mankind delivers a copy. A worker takes the copy and while holding the paper before him, runs through a long corridor, into the manager’s office.
Pfaffinger seems quite uncomfortable lying on the manager’s chair. Sitting on a wobbly wooden stool, the manager himself, who is also the owner of the factory, unsuccessfully tries to entertain his special guest. His gaze, however, is on the desk between them, on the coin purse that is lying next to Pfaffinger’s luxurious hat.
“Oh, baked and ready,” the manager says playfully while he gets up and takes the paper from the worker. He passes the paper to Pfaffinger while bowing. “The 95 Theses,” Pfaffinger reads the title, satisfied with the quality of the copy.
“With this new device,” the manager proudly says, “we can make a hundred copies by tomorrow.”
Pfaffinger, the paper in his hand, gives him a questioning look.
“Hundred and fifty by Tuesday?!” the manager says while trying to read Pfaffinger’s face.
Leaving the paper on the table, Pfaffinger stands up.
Having his worried eyes locked on Pfaffinger, the manager stands up as well. He can hear every beat of his heart.
Pfaffinger cleans up the dust from his sleeve that was resting on the table.
His mouth dried up, the manager gulps in anxiety.
Pfaffinger, still not saying a word, extends his hand toward the table. Picking his hat up, he leaves the coin purse and leaves.
“I like round numbers,” Pfaffinger says while leaving. “Make it a thousand, for now.”
Eyes widened, the overjoyed manager turns his gaze back at the coin purse on the table.
The printing press prints another paper.
Thomas Müntzer, Luther’s ally in reformation, reads out loud from a copy of The 95 Theses, explaining it to the small crowd that is gathered around.
“As soon as payment is made,” he reads, “the payer’s loved one is released from purgatory. Isn’t that true?” He makes eye contact with each of the peasants, watching them nod.
“As soon as payment is made!” Thomas exclaims. “Who told you so? The one who took your money.”
With a look of puzzlement crossing his face, a peasant scratches his head.
“They took your money,” he continues, “and told you that as soon as payment is made, your loved one is released from purgatory! Well, that is bullshit.”
Indignant peasants all are in shock, except one whose his skeptical eyes bore into Thomas.
Thomas waits for a few moments for the last sentence to sink in. “That’s right. You poor people have been cheated. Martin Luther explains here—”
“Who’s this Luther?” the skeptical peasant interrupts. “Is he a bishop or something?”
“Martin Luther is a professor of theology at the University of Wittenberg. He has devoted his entire life to studying the Bible. Professor Luther shows here,” Thomas continues while pointing to a copy of The 95 Theses, “that according to the Bible only God has the ultimate power in forgiving punishments in purgatory.”
The printing press prints a paper.
“Martin Luther shows that,” a monk says in a thick French accent, “giving to the poor is incomparably more important than buying indulgences.”
Standing before Notre-Dame de Paris, he is reading from a copy of The 95 Theses to the gathered crowd.
The printing press prints another paper.
“Christians are to be taught that doing good works makes a person better while buying indulgences does not.” Sitting in the corner of the garden in the Monastery of Marienthron, Katharina von Bora reads out loud a copy of The 95 Theses. Her sisters who have huddled around her find the unheard words strangely familiar.
The printing press prints another paper.
“Martin Luther says here that,” an English priest tells the crowd gathered before St Bride’s in London, “if the Pope actually knew what was being preached in his name…”
If you ascend to the sky to the point that you can see the entire Europe under your feet, you would hear the sound of many more people joined together reading The 95 Theses in different accents. Europe is getting ready for a dramatic change.