A peasant drags his digging fork behind him as he walks the dark road.
He notices a light on his left, challenging the reign of the night. Standing near a church front, Andreas Karlstadt gives a heated speech to a bunch of peasants huddled around the fire. Although Andreas talks with great passion, the peasant rather turns his gaze away from the church and anyone around it. But then he hears Andreas mentioning Martin Luther. He has heard this name before. It must be that rebel, the peasant thinks, that one priest who dared to stand up against the Pope. He is now curious to hear what Andreas has to say. He stops and listens more carefully but cannot hear much from the distance. He walks toward them, and as he does Andreas’s voice becomes more and more clear.
“This is not the church of God,” Andreas says while pointing to the church, “maybe the church of the Pope, but not of God. It serves well the establishment: the Pope, the princes, and the lords, but cannot care less about the peasants, the real servants of God who work tirelessly with their bare hands just to feed their family.”
By now, the peasant is near the fire, which sheds light on his hand as well as the rotten wound on his palm. He is Otto, the indignant farmer with an unhealed pain in his heart and an old, infected injury on his palm.
Thomas Müntzer, Luther’s young ally in reformation, stands a bit behind Andreas in the dark, passionately mouthing Andrea’s words and intently watching the peasants’ reaction to them.
“Why does the church take the tithe from the peasants in Saxony,” Andreas continues, “and then sends it all the way to Rome?! Doesn’t it make more sense to spend the Saxons’ money in Saxony for the good of the Saxons?”
Thomas watches the peasants supportively nod their heads. Being short-tempered, the rage quickly takes over when he hears his own words from Andreas’s mouth.
Hearing the word ‘tithe’ Otto’s fury resurfaces on his face, which grabs Thomas’s attention.
“No, no, God-fearing people, no,” Andreas continues. “That is not the church of God. Devils are more present there than the saints are! We need a new church, a true church that stands up for the truth in the Bible; dedicated to the worship of God only, free from any idolatry, and empty from all the man-made statues, monuments, and any icon that distracts us from Him. It is time to take the devil’s work down,” Andreas finishes with a revolutionary tone.
Thomas notices Otto furiously clenching his injured fist. A look of anguish crosses Thomas’s face when he sees Otto’s rotten injury. With his other hand, Otto lifts his digging fork and forcefully hits it against the ground. Dust rises from the impact.
Feeling Otto’s pain, Thomas steps forward into the light. He stares at the digging fork as the dust around it settles. It looks more like a weapon to him.
Behind his modest desk in Wartburg castle, where he is in hiding, under faint candlelight, Luther tirelessly translates the Bible from Greek to German.
Putting the last paper on top of the rest, he takes a look at the stack of the papers, proud and satisfied. After countless hours of hard work, he has finished his grand project to bring freedom to common Germans. His tired eyes barely open, a faint smile finds its way onto his face.
He is taking a relaxed breath when suddenly the door opens. Luther worryingly turns to the door.
A soldier rushes in, kneels, and hands in a royal letter. The letter is from Pfaffinger, informing of the unrest that is spreading in the city.
Without missing a beat, Luther packs. Packing does not take long: the Bible’s translation, a black cross necklace, and… that is it. That is all he has, and that is all he needs.
Luther rides in a cart next to the driver. The cart runs relatively fast. The driver looks back. Quite a few soldiers escort the cart. He turns his gaze on Luther. With the black cross necklace hanging from his neck, Luther tightly holds the translation of the Bible under his arm.