Their births separated by 71 years
and about 400 miles, Joan of Arc and Martin Luther may seem an unlikely pair to
compare. Joan was an illiterate who was
executed at the age of 19; Luther was an academic who knew at least four
languages and at 19 had no idea he was destined to become a monk, let alone a
monk who would change the world. Despite
their differences, Luther and Joan were similar in their unshakable faith in
God and their dogged determination to follow God’s will rather than the will of
earthly authorities.
Martin Luther and Joan of Arc were
both born into relatively well-off peasant families. Their parents taught them about God and
brought them up according to medieval Catholic tradition; Luther also attended
school. Their immersion in medieval folk
Christianity meant that they viewed God and the forces of good, and also the
forces of evil, as having a very real presence in their everyday lives such
that they attached great significance to their interactions with celestial
forces. Pivotal moments in their lives
occurred when they chose to make decisions based on these interactions rather
than on their parents’ wishes.
Joan’s parents had every reason to
expect that her life would follow the typical cycle of peasant life that had
continued for generations: that she would marry in her early to mid-teen years
in an arranged marriage and spend the rest of her life producing and raising
lots of children. Starting at about age
12, Joan heard voices from God and believed that God wanted her to help Charles
VII attain the throne of France. A
marriage would greatly impede her freedom of action and her ability to go to the
aid of the dauphin, so when her parents arranged a husband for her, she refused
to marry. The next time she disobeyed
her parents was when she ran away to meet Robert de Baudricourt in her effort
to gain access to Charles. Joan did not
despise her parents or want to disappoint them but she felt a higher duty to
her God.
A repudiation of his parents’ wishes
in favor of his duty to God was a critical experience for Martin Luther as
well. Luther’s father recognized that
Luther was an intellectually gifted young man and wanted him to direct his
talents towards becoming a lawyer so that he could support his parents in their
old age. One night when riding in a
storm, Luther was nearly killed by a lightning bolt and swore to become a monk
out of gratitude that his life had been spared.
Soon after, Luther joined a monastery; his father was livid and the two
were not on speaking terms for quite some time.
Luther went out of his way to arrange for his father to be present at
his first mass when he became a priest, showing that Luther respected his
father and wanted his approval, but his fear of God and sense of duty to keep a
promise to God were more important to Luther than his relationship with his
parents.
Born into the peasant class, neither
Martin Luther, nor Joan of Arc would have been able to accomplish what they did
if not for the help and protection of a powerful noble. For Joan, that noble was Charles VII. Joan had sufficiently impressed Robert de
Baudricourt and his companions that he sent her to Charles with a cautious
endorsement. Charles, so it seems, was
skeptical of the quixotic teenager, but the people of his court liked her and
his situation was desperate enough that he was willing to try anything and
agreed to give her command of some troops to aid in breaking the English siege
of Orléans. Had Baudricourt not been
sympathetic or Charles not been obliging, Joan would never have had the
opportunity to become a world-changing military commander.
Luther’s dependence on leadership
was for protection and he was fortunate to live in the realm of a curious duke
who did not want Luther to be squelched until it could be fairly proven that he
was wrong. Luther took his duties as a
priest seriously and felt a deep responsibility for the souls of his
parishioners. The selling of indulgences
near his church led him to question the practice and eventually to post a list
of 95 objections (theses) that he wished to debate. The theses, originally written in Latin and
intended only for review by other theologians, were soon, and against Luther’s
wishes, translated to German and distributed throughout Germany. The Pope commanded Luther to appear in Rome to
be questioned but Frederick the Wise, duke of Saxony, did not think that Luther
would be treated fairly in Rome and insisted that he be questioned in
Germany. As Luther researched his
defense, he became more and more convinced that the Church was wrong about many
topics, not just indulgences. Frederick
continued to protect him even though both Pope and Emperor wanted him
dead. Without Frederick’s protection,
Luther’s career would have been short and sad.
The most striking parallel between
Luther and Joan is their uncompromising dedication to the pure word of
God. The word of God came to Joan in the
form of bright lights and voices and to Luther in the form of the Holy
Scriptures. The Word directed Joan to
liberate France from the English and Luther to liberate the Christianity from
the Pope. For Luther, the mission came
to a climax at the Diet of Worms. Luther
came before the princes of Germany and the Emperor Charles V, the most powerful
man in Europe. He was presented with a
stack of his writings, many of which were blatantly heretical, and asked if he
still stood by their contents. To answer
in the affirmative would be an insult to the Emperor and to the Church and
would almost certainly earn Luther a death sentence. Luther defended his works with a speech
ending in the words, “my conscience is captive to the Word of God... God help
me... Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise” (Bainton 144). Ninety-two years earlier Joan of Arc had
arrived at the siege of Orléans exuding an aura of confidence, inspiring the
French troops, and demanding frontal assaults on English positions. She had already led a successful storming of
one English fortification and now demanded an attack on Les Tourelles. Capturing Les Tourelles would essentially
break the siege and free the city.
Despite misgivings, the other commanders agreed to her brash tactics
and, firm in her belief that God would grant them victory, Joan personally led
the assault. During the struggle, Joan was
hit in the neck with an arrow and forced to leave the action. Later, after the wound had been treated, the
battle was becoming a stalemate. Joan
took up her battle flag. Standing there
in the ditch, rallying her troops, knowing she is doing God’s work, one can
almost hear La Pucelle defiantly announcing, “Here I stand, I cannot do
otherwise.”
The siege of Orléans was broken and
the French won a series of victories leading to the coronation of Charles VII
in Reims. Eventually, Joan of Arc was
captured by her enemies. Charles, having
already benefited enormously from her efforts and viewing her now as little
more than an annoyance, neglected to negotiate her release. Abandoned by her beloved king and sold into
the hands of the English, Joan was accused of heresy and subjected to a
kangaroo trial. During the trial, in the
face of harsh conditions and certain doom, Joan displayed an intellect,
eloquence, and adherence to her convictions that moved many of those in
attendance and would have impressed even a master of rhetoric like Martin
Luther. But it was a struggle against
the inevitable and in the end she was led weeping to the pyre; she forgave her
persecutors, prayed to God, and died a slow horrible death as the flames inched
closer and closer—her alleged crime: the wearing of trousers.
Luther was fortunate that Frederick
never abandoned him. He was
excommunicated by the Pope and declared an outlaw by Charles V, but popular
opinion favored him. Frederick, unconvinced of Luther's guilt, had him spirited
away to hide in an old castle. Luther
continued his work as a reformer by translating the entire Bible into German
and helping to guide the formation of a new church. Less admirably, and in contradiction to his
earlier opposition to violence, Luther also became acridly anti-Semitic. He
died of natural causes at the age of 62.
Luther
was a heretic, but escaped execution; Joan was not a heretic, but was burned
anyway.
Martin Luther and Joan of Arc both
left a permanent mark on the map of Europe.
Luther’s ideas helped legitimize Protestantism and led to a surge of nationalism
in the German states. He was neither the
first person, nor the last to perceive flaws in Roman Catholicism and to urge
reform. His prolificity as a writer,
complemented by the recently invented printing press, allowed him to rapidly
gain sympathizers all over Germany and even in other countries, and made it
harder to kill him without risking civil unrest. That people were so receptive to his ideas
indicates that they were already frustrated with Catholicism and ready for
reform. Had Luther never decided to
become a monk or to rebel against the Church, without a doubt somebody else
would have. Joan, in contrast, was a
freak accident of history (or perhaps a miracle of God). She was not the first person in history to be
directed by a voice from God, but that such a person should arise in France at
that particular time with her specific goals and then have the tenacity to
actually accomplish those goals is simply fantastic. If not for Joan, Charles VII would never have
become king of France, which would have left much or all of French territory in
the hands of the English and possibly resulted in a very different European map
from the one we know today.
Sources:
Spoto,
Donald. 2007. Joan: The Mysterious Life
of the Heretic Who Became a Saint. New York: Harper Collins.
Bainton,
Roland H. 1950. Here I Stand: A Life of
Martin Luther. Nashville: Abingdon Press.
Taylor,
Craig. 2006. Joan of Arc: La Pucelle.
Manchester: Manchester U P.
Oberman,
Heiko A. 1989. Luther: Man Between God
and the Devil. Yale U P.
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