Bad for Business: Luther Against the Papacy

This paper analyzes Martin Luther’s criticism of increasingly corrupt church practices, including, the papacy’s granting of indulgences, the promotion of pilgrimage, the preservation and exploitation of relics, the cult of saints, and the belief in saintly intercession. I will examine how Luther’s critiques of these practices were expressed in the religious propaganda that circulated during this period by looking at the interplay between image and text found in the polemical pamphlet, the Passional Christi und Antichristi, which was jointly produced by Martin Luther and the artist Lucas Cranach the Elder in 1521. The Passional presents thirteen pairs of contrasting images which comment upon events in the life of Christ and compare them to the perceived abuses of the papacy. These visual dialogues illustrate the extent and nature of the opposition to the papacy during the Protestant Reformation.