Podcast: History of the Germans from the Middle Ages to Reunification
Erschienen: 12.11.2026
Dauer: 00:52:09
In June and July 1519, Martin Luther finally got the open debate he had been demanding, and it went badly for him. Johannes Eck, the formidable Ingolstadt theologian, used a quarrel with Luther's colleague Andreas Karlstadt to lure Luther to Leipzig, onto the territory of Duke George of Saxony.This episode follows how the debate came about despite Rome's efforts to prevent it, the theatrics of the Wittenbergers' arrival, and how Eck steered Luther away from indulgences and towards papal authority. Pushed into a corner, Luther declared that some of Jan Hus's condemned teachings were "Christian and evangelical", and so that even a church council could err. In Leipzig that made him a Hussite and a heretic, and it turned Duke George into his implacable foe.And yet Luther came out of it stronger. His pamphlets outsold Eck's, humanist satire made Eck a laughing stock, and the bull Exsurge Domine condemned him without arguing from scripture. With no way back, Luther began to link his fight with the papacy to his own search for a merciful God, which is where the Reformation proper begins.Chapter0:00 | Introduction: Lyndal Roper on Leipzig1:24 | Supporting the show2:48 | After Augsburg: Luther a de facto prisoner in Saxony6:55 | Enter Johannes Eck, Luther's nemesis9:41 | Rome plays for time: Karl von Miltitz and the imperial election11:42 | Eck goes after Karlstadt14:47 | Finding a venue: why Leipzig18:57 | A football derby of the mind19:45 | The Wittenbergers arrive (and Karlstadt lands in the mud)24:04 | Eck versus Karlstadt on free will25:12 | Luther's turn: Matthew 16:18 and the power of the popes28:40 | Eck plays the Hus card30:22 | "Some of Hus's theses are Christian and evangelical"34:54 | The battle of the pamphlets37:49 | Brand Luther: the economics of short pamphlets40:51 | Humanist satire and the demolition of Eck43:03 | Exsurge Domine44:51 | Luther's reaction: the papacy as Antichrist47:04 | How Rome pushed Luther towards the Reformation49:11 | The other struggle: sinner and God51:15 | Next time and related episodesBooks and sourcesLyndal Roper, Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet (London: Bodley Head, 2016). Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (New York and Nashville: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1950). The portrait of Eck's Andrew Pettegree, Brand Luther: 1517, Printing, and the Making of the Reformation (New York: Penguin Press, 2015). Heinz Schilling, Martin Luther: Rebel in an Age of Upheaval, translated by Rona Johnston (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017). Volker Leppin, Martin Luther: A Late Medieval Life (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic). ★ Support this podcast ★
Weitere Informationen und umfangreichere Shownotes gibt es ggf. auf der Podcast-Website.
Podcast-Website: Episode "Ep. 244: Martin Luther #6 - The Leipzig Disputation"
