Empires - Martin Luther DVD

The dramatic story of the collapse of the medieval world.

Martin LutherMartin Luther is the dramatic story of the collapse of the medieval world and the birth of the modern age. Martin Luther's attack on the all-powerful Catholic Church was a knife to the heart of an empire that had endured for over a thousand years. Nailing his treatise to the doors of the Wittenberg Cathedral, this previously obscure German monk changed the world forever, unleashing forces that plunged Europe into war and chaos. But Luther would do more than revolutionise the Church, he offered the Christian world a new vision of man's relationship with God and, in turn, redefined man's relationship with authority in general.
Episode 1 ~ Driven To DefianceMartin Luther is born into a world dominated by the Catholic Church. For the keenly spiritual Luther, the Church's promise of salvation is irresistible. Caught in a thunderstorm and terrified by the possibility of imminent death, he vows to become a monk. But after entering the monastery, Luther becomes increasingly doubtful that the Church can actually offer him salvation. His views crystallise further when he travels to Rome and finds the capital of Catholicism swamped in corruption. Wracked by despair, Luther finds release in the pages of the Bible, discovering that it is not the Church, but his own individual faith that will guarantee his salvation. With this revelation, he turns on the Church. In his famous 95 Theses he attacks its practice of selling Indulgences which the Church claimed absolved past sins and guaranteed access to Heaven, putting himself on an irreversible path to conflict with the most powerful institution of the day.
Episode 2 ~ The Reluctant RevolutionaryThe Catholic Church uses all of its might to try and silence Luther, including accusations of heresy and excommunication. Protected by his local ruler, Frederick the Wise, Luther continues to write radical critiques of the Church. In the process, he develops a new system of faith that places the freedom of the individual belie