Luther

As someone who was raised as a Lutheran, I have previously had a fairly skewed presentation of Martin Luther. Luther was made out to be a hero, as would be expected for the religious sect that he spawned. However, that is not necessarily the case. While Luther was one of the main people responsible for the Reformation from Catholicism to Protestantism in Europe, he still had several flaws, much like many revolutionaries. Luther initially had great intentions for his role in the Reformation. The Catholic Church was running amok with power, and its grasp on Europe at the time was overwhelming. Luther saw that changes needed to be made, and that the best way to make the change would be to make a splash with something memorable. This is what the Nailing of the 95 Theses represented. Much like the Boston Tea Party during the American Revolution drew attention to the unfairness of the Tea Tax, Luther's actions served to draw attention to the problems with the Church. When the Church predictably lashed out back at Luther for this, he did not back down from their punishments, which also was very admirable, and probably the main reason his story is so famous historically. However, this quality is only admirable to a certain point. When Luther went into seclusion, he continued to push for change in an extremist way. This was a great approach to take to initiate change, but the radical viewpoints he continued to maintain after the Nailing decreased his credibility in many circles. When peasants started using his message as a cause for political overthrow, Luther should not have been supportive of this, as this was not his main objective. Instead, he was fully behind the chaos he had spawned, acting much like the person who starts a fight with frisbees by hitting someone with one accidentally. I do not believe he initially intended to cause as much chaos as he did, but when he realized that's what was happening, he was fully on board with it, simply because it caused disorder and angered the Church. This attitude lead someone who is sometimes regarded in the same breath as Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr. to also be regarded along with the likes of Vladimir Lenin and the Joker from Batman lore. Martin Luther was a very polarizing character in German history, and while he is one of the Fathers of the Reformation, he could have done it in a far more sane manner.