Before 1500 the only area in Europe that had an established printing press was Germany. Bibles were its first major product. But even before mid-century, there was history’s first secular best-seller. It was about the Prince of Wallachia, Vlad the Impaler, Count Dracula.
The reason it was a best-seller was because Eastern Europe was Germany’s Wild West. A third of Wallachia’s population consisted of German settler and a lot of them were subjected to the agonizing impaling Dracula was so fond of. Dracula was already well known in Germany from information coming in from German settlers who had families or traded in Germany.
Probably everyone here has seen woodcuts from that first best-seller.
This makes the general point that Germans had a lot of contact, much of it unfriendly, with Eastern Europeans that our British- and French-oriented history does not even notice.
A century before Luther was born, John Huss led a Czech “Bohemian” revolt against the Catholic Church. Huss was burned alive but the rebellion continued and won a lot of victories. Those battles caused a huge loss of German life. So when Luther arrived at Worms to appear before the Emperor he was accused of being like John Huss.
Huss’s writings were not widely available, so he was given Huss’s writings to read. Luther came back from reading them and said to the Emperor and his fellow Germans that he could find nothing wrong with Huss’s theology.
Agreeing with Huss was exactly like agreeing with RACISM. It was what Huss’ followers DID with his writings that was being condemned. But Luther could only concentrate on whether what Huss said was, in his opinion, TRUE or not.
So Luther, standing before his fellow Germans and the Emperor, simply could not disagree with what Huss said. From Luther’s point of view it was “discredited” but it was TRUE.
I am awed by the courage it took Luther to say that.
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