In 1521, the Catholic Church declared war on Martin Luther. The German monk had already been excommunicated the year before, after nailing his Ninety-Five Theses--which accused the Church of rampant corruption--to the door of a Saxon church. Now, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V called for Luther "to be apprehended and punished as a notorious heretic." The edict was akin to a death sentence: If Luther was caught, he would almost inevitably be burned at the stake, his fragile movement crushed, and the nascent Protestant Reformation strangled in its cradle. In Luther's Fortress,...
In 1521, the Catholic Church declared war on Martin Luther. The German monk had already been excommunicated the year before, after nailing his Ninety-...