One Simple Scrap of Paper

by

Almost the only type of bookmarks I avoid buying are religious ones. Yet in my collection are half a dozen with a religious premise. At least as interesting as what they are is how they came to be in the collection of a person wholly opposed to organized religion.

I suppose the reason  could be summed up in one word: splendor.  Each of these bookmarks is sufficiently beautiful to overcome what I see as a major flaw. The one depicting Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the door of a church is a perfect example of a religious-themed bookmark so enticing I couldn’t pass it up.

This silk bookmark, though heavily damaged, still shows clearly the famous incident that set off one of history’s most dramatic and influential revolutions even though Luther himself said, “I would never have thought that such a storm would rise from Rome over one simple scrap of paper.”

A storm indeed.

Luther (1483-1546), who had been born into physical, social, political, and religious worlds dominated by the Catholic Church, was the initiator of the Protestant Reformation. Despite his father’s determination that he become a lawyer, Luther dropped out almost immediately. Instead he became a monk based, he said, on an incident that occurred during a thunderstorm when a thunderbolt nearly struck him. His father was furious.

Though Luther devoted himself to the monastic life, he later described this time as when he made Christ “the jailor and hangsman of my poor soul.” His superior at the monastery encouraged Luther to pursue an academic career to distract him from too much introspection. So shortly after being ordained to the priesthood in 1507 he began teaching at the University of Wittenberg where he would spend the rest of his career as Doctor in Bible.

In 1516-1517, a papal commissioner was sent to Germany by the Catholic Church to sell indulgences in order to raise money to rebuild St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. (Indulgences are the full or partial remission of punishment due for sins that already have been forgiven. In other words, you could buy forgiveness.) Church doctrine stated that faith alone, whether fiduciary or dogmatic, was insufficient. Active good works were required, and donating money to the church was a primary “good work.”

In late 1517, Luther wrote to the Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg protesting the sale of indulgences, and enclosed a copy of the “Disputation of Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences.” This document was to become known as the 95 Theses. They were all offensive to the church hierarchy, but Thesis 86 was particularly so: “Why does the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of St. Peter with the money of poor believers rather than with his own money?”

Whether he actually nailed the theses on the door of All Saints Church (or Castle Church) in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, is still debated today. Luther did not move to Wittenberg until a year after the alleged event, yet it was also the custom at Wittenberg University to advertise a disputation by posting theses on that door. Regardless, the 95 Theses, thanks to the development of the printing press, were quickly translated from Latin into German and widely copied. Within two weeks, the copies had spread throughout Germany and within two months throughout Europe.

The Archbishop didn’t bother to reply to Luther’s letter, but he did forward them to Rome after checking them for heresy. (He needed the revenue from the indulgences to help pay off a papal dispensation for his tenure of more than one term as archbishop.) On June 15, 1520, Pope Leo X warned Luther he risked excommunication unless he recanted forty-one of his sentences from his writings, including the 95 Theses, with sixty days. Luther refused. At the Diet of Worms meeting (a general assembly of the estates of the Holy Roman Empire) three months later, on April 18, 1521, he still refused to recant his writings: “I cannot and will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience.” Luther was declared an “outlaw,” his literature banned, and his arrest mandated. The order even allowed anyone to kill Luther without legal consequences.

But his escape had been planned, and he lived at Wartburg Castle incognito from May 1521 to March 1522. During that time he translated the New Testament from Greek to German and continued to write, widening his condemnations from individual church practices to doctrines. When he finally returned to Wittenberg, he again took a public role, preaching eight sermons during eight days in Lent.

What he also found that he did not like were radical reformers who were using his writings to foment social unrest. He worked with the authorities to help restore public order, but the radicalism had spread beyond his ability to help curb it. Revolts broke out among the peasants and even among indebted nobility, then they turned into war. While Luther sympathized with some of the grievances, he was furious as the destruction of convents, monasteries, and libraries. Eventually, when the realization that Luther did not back them sunk it, the rebels lay down their weapons, and the initial revolutionary stage of the Reformation ended. 

For Luther, another change he never anticipated happened. He married. His bride was a former nun, one of twelve he had helped to escape, using herring barrels, from the Nibmschen Cistercian convent in April 1523. Her name was Katharina von Bora, and they wed on June 13. The marriage of the Reformation’s father set the seal of approval for clerical marriages.

By 1525, Luther was increasingly occupied in organizing a new church. Within four years, he established a supervisory body, laid down a new form of worship services, and wrote a summary of the new faith in the form of two catechisms (still used today). But he did not wish to impose one controlling system for another so he concentrated on the church in the Electorate of Saxony and acted only as an advisor to churches elsewhere.

He still continued his writing and translations, which included his German translation of the New Testament in 1522, and a collaborative translation of the Old Testament in 1534—all tailored to his own doctrine.

But the years of struggle and harassment had taken their toll on him, He suffered from a variety of ailments that left him increasingly weaker and ill-tempered. His last sermon was delivered at Eisleban, his place of birth, on February 15, 1546, only three days before his death. He was buried at the Castle Church in Wittenberg, beneath the pulpit.

As for the other bookmarks, they all bear either words or signs of religion though nothing specific. The two images of “Mother and Child” are common ones, but the artwork around them bears a slight resemblance to that of medieval script. At least it’s supposed to suggest that. The honeybees are meant to reflect the “words sweeter than honey” that “God’s words” are meant to be.

All of these bookmarks particularly well done, artists’ work in celluloid and paper, beauty that makes them worthy additions to even this atheist’s collection.

Bookmark specifications: Birth of the Reformation
Dimensions: 7 " x 2"
Material: Silk
Manufacturer: Unknown
Date: Probably 1917, the quadricentennial anniversary of the birth of the Reformation
Acquired: eBay

Bookmark specifications: “Mother and Child”
Dimensions: 8 3/4" x 1 1/2"
Material: Paper
Manufacturer: Unknown
Date: Unknown
Acquired: eBay

Bookmark specifications: “They Word is Truth”
Dimensions: 3 1/2" x 1 1/2" 
Material: Paper
Manufacturer: Unknown
Date: Unknown
Acquired: eBay

Bookmark specifications: Sweeter than honey
Dimensions: 5" x 1 1/2"
Material: Celluloid
Manufacturer: Unknown
Date: Unknown
Acquired: eBay

Bookmark specifications: “Good Book, Good Friend”
Dimensions: 7" x 2 1/2"
Material: Paper
Manufacturer: Unknown
Date: Unknown
Acquired: eBay

Almost since her childhood days of Mother Goose, Lauren has been giving her opinion on books to anyone who will listen. That “talent” eventually took her out of magazine writing and into book reviewing in 2000 for an online review site where she cut her teeth (as well as a few authors). Stints as book editor for her local newspaper and contributing editor to Booklist and Bookmarks magazines has reinforced her belief that she has interesting things to say about books. Lauren shares her home with several significant others including three cats, nearly 1,300 bookmarks and approximately the same number of books that, whether previously read or not, constitute her to-be-read stack. She is a member of the National Books Critics Circle (NBCC) as well as a longtime book design judge for Publishers Marketing Association’s Benjamin Franklin Awards. Contact Lauren.