Wednesday, January 17, 2024

It is the 17th of January 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

Today I get to tell a story that links Reformation Europe, a strange and apocryphal dream, curious relics, a headless baby and Disney’s Robin Hood. Let’s get weird.

 

Last week I told the story of Maximilian I of the Habsburg dynasty. He was the guy who was responsible for consolidating much of Western Europe in the late 1400s and early 1500s. He was deft enough to maneuver amongst kings and princes such that the Holy Roman Empire was as vast AND peaceful as it had been in some time and that this led to the events culminating in Luther’s stand against Rome and the Reformation. I am forever intrigued by the political machinations that took place, separate from the theological conversations that worked parallel to them.

 

The Holy Roman Emperor was a curious position in Medieval and Early Modern Europe in that it was an elected position. Various territories had been granted the right to be Electorates- their leader would be one of the seven votes to decide who would be the titular head of Western Europe.

 

One such Electorate came from the Medieval house of Wettin which had been given the lands that today make up north central Germany- the Saxon lands. The Wettin line would, in 1485, be divided between two brothers: Albert and Ernest. Ernest was given the title of Elector, and he handed this down to his son, Frederick III, who was born on, this, the 17th of January in 1463. This eccentric would become known for his piety, relics and political abilities. This last trait earned him the sobriquet: “the Wise”.

 

In 1502 he founded a new University, the University of Wittenberg. As a man with an appreciation of the new Humanist movement, this would be a jewel in his crown. He would fund and promote the University with the best professors he could find. This, coupled with his reputation for pacifying disputes, earned him the title of President of the Imperial Governing Council which Maximilian saw as the key to getting his grandson, the future Charles V elected as his successor.

 

Of course, his University would become famous as the home of the young Martin Luther and would become the epicenter of the Reformation after the posting and printing of the 95 Theses on October 31st, 1517.

 

A curious bit of propaganda would be derived from the supposed events in the bed chamber of Elector Frederick the night before Theses were posted. It was told (and conveyed in art) that Frederick had a dream that: “Almighty God was sending a monk to me with a nice, honest face, who was the natural son of St. Paul, the dear apostle.” And that this monk would write with a quill which would extend all the way to Rome stabbing a lion in the ear and knocking over the Papal tiara. The quill was said to be made from a goose- the nickname of Jan Hus whose reforming work was said to presage Luthers.

 

The story is well-trod territory around these parts. Luther posts the theses, is called to recant by the new Emperor Charles V, refuses to and is protected by Frederick such that the Reformation could take root. But Frederick was a son of the Catholic Church with an extensive relic collection that included things such as a twig from the burning bush and milk from the Virgin Mary. These relics would be part of the indulgence system Luther fought against, so why would he protect the Reformer? Enter the story of the dream- a common trope to explain the seemingly unexplainable.

 

Perhaps political expediency and the desire to protect a homegrown bona fide celebrity seem too profane, albeit they are more likely reasons.

 

The story of the relic-collecting elector would receive more curious embellishment when he died, and Luther is said to have remarked that at the death of Frederick, he saw a rainbow, “a child born without a head,” and also “another with club feet.”

Weird, and your reminder that the Reformation helped mark the turn into the modern world but was thoroughly medieval in many parts. 

 

Frederick’s heirs would adopt the Reformation, and Saxony and its famous University would be the center of the Lutheran Reformation for the next century. And it was all kicked off by the political machinations of the man, who, in 2003’s Luther movie, was portrayed by Peter Ustinov, the voice of Prince John, the lion in Disney’s Robin Hood. Boom.

 

We remember the political machinations behind the Reformation and Frederick of the House of Wettin on this, the anniversary of his birth on this day in 1463.

 

 

 

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary- from Luke 18

15 People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 17 Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 17th of January 2024 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by whose own dream of headless babies and club feet he wrote off as due to indigestion- He is Christopher Gillespie

 

The show is written and read by a man whose son, for Christmas, found him a collector's item figurine of Robin Hood as a fox from the cartoon movie- way to go Coert- I’m Dan van Voorhis

 

 

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.