MILES MATHIS looks behind the mainstream history of Martin Luther. His conclusion:

So the Reformation wasn’t actually about religion at all, at least not from the viewpoint of the governors who pulled it. From their perspective, religion was just a cover for the real machinations, which were entirely financial. Again, same as now. Same as always. Reform was simply the excuse for them to seize church assets. Once seized, the Church couldn’t just be eliminated, since it continued to perform an important function at the time: more misdirection. It kept the citizens’ eyes looking up to heaven, and while their gaze was so diverted, they could be robbed the more easily. So the governors needed to “reform” the Church, making some cosmetic changes that would appeal to the citizenry, while keeping the main planks in place. In pursuit of that, some real improvements were made—such as the “more direct line to God” idea of Luther—but the governors were more interested in the idea of weaning the audience off of expensive furnishings, which they wished to steal for their own castles. In that line, they needed to accustom church goers to more spare surroundings: much less gold, fewer paintings and sculptures . . . in short a stripped-down worship. That is the true source of all Puritanism and Amishness: more for the rich and less for the poor.

The Church survived. And will always survive.

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