Originally published at: Animation explains Martin Luther and the Reformation in under 5 minutes | Boing Boing
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Martin Luther, a man of legendary flatulence and a scatological eschatology.
“I am of a different mind ten times in the course of a day. But I resist the devil, and often it is with a fart that I chase him away. When he tempts me with silly sins I say, “Devil, yesterday I broke wind too. Have you written it down on your list?” …I remind myself of the forgiveness of sin and of Christ and I remind Satan of the abomination of the pope. This abomination is so great that I am of good cheer and rejoice, and I confess that the abomination of the papacy after the time of Christ is a great consolation in me.”
“I’m fed up with the world, and it is fed up with me. I’m quite content with that. The world thinks that if it is only rid of me everything will be fine, and it will accomplish this. After all, it’s as I’ve often said: I’m like a ripe stool and the world’s like a gigantic anus , and so we’re about to let go of each other.” (Martin Luther, Table Talk, 5537).
“’Silence, you heretic! What comes out of our mouth must be kept!’ I hear it— which mouth do you mean? The one from which the farts come? (You can keep that yourself!) Or the one into which the good Corsican wine flows? (Let a clog shit into that!)” (Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 41: 281)
“I was frightened and thought I was dreaming, it was such a thunderclap, such a great horrid fart did the papal ass let go here! He certainly pressed with great might to let out such a thunderous fart—it is a wonder that it did not tear his hole and belly apart!** If I were to ask here, ‘But what did all the other apostles, especially St. Paul, pasture?’ perhaps the big fart of the papal ass will say that maybe they pastured rats, mice, and lice, or, if it went well, sows, just so that the papal ass remains the shepherd, and all apostles swineherds. ” (Martin Luther, Against The Roman Papacy an Institution of the Devil, 1545)
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I like the silly treatment of a story that, being about organised religion, has many absurd and ironic elements. The animation and character design is great, too.
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I really quite liked the 2003 Joseph Fiennes movie Luther, though it’s not the most historically accurate account. If nothing else, it has a great soundtrack.
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Chronic constipation gave him a certain frame of mind. I guess those worms were low in fiber.
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Furthering Luther’s conviction to flatulence is one of Luther’s most famous quotes:
Wenn Ich in Wittenberg furzen sie riechen es in Rom!
(If I break wind in Wittenberg, they smell it in Rome)
(Once had a chemistry extra-credit question which started out: “given a thousand kilometers between Wittenberg and Rome, what kind of diffusion constant would Luther’s farts have if…”)
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A lot of parallels can be drawn to the current state of the American religious right and their pursuit of wealth and power over any positive actions that would benefit the poor. They don’t seem to struggle with the moral implications of their idolatry of Donald Trump.
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Now this was an eye-opening reply.
As a college freshman many moons ago, I was discussing with my neighbor what we had been studying in a history class I was taking, and I mentioned Martin Luther. He replied something like “Oh? That guy would throw his poop.”
I hadn’t heard anything about that, and not having any context I didn’t continue that thread of the conversation, but for years after my neighbor’ comment would usually resurface whenever I’d hear about Martin Luther. His poop comment would rattle around in my head a little, but not enough to make me go research this or anything, partly because I wasn’t sure he was serious.
It resurfaced this one time a couple of years ago I had a breakthrough. Poop = feces, which rhymes with “theses” — it had been a clever pun on my neighbor’s part! Or so I thought until just now.
Man, sometimes the poop really is just poop.
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Came here to mention same. There are no “good guys” in the story of Martin Luther. Sure, the Catholic Church was terrible. However, the author of the 95 Theses was also the author of On the Jews and Their Lies, Warning against the Jews, and was tireless in his antisemitism:
They are our public enemies. They do not stop blaspheming our Lord Christ, calling the Virgin Mary a whore, Christ, a bastard. [...] If they could kill us all, they would gladly do it.
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