Luther - Synopsis

Luther, in case you aren't familiar with self descriptive movie titles, is about Luther. Martin Luther (1483-1549), that is-- the German monk who started the Protestant reformation. This movie was effectively a screen-play biography of Martin Luther's life, starting from the incident where he became an Augustininan monk after being narrowly spared his life during a thunderstorm. Luther (played by Joseph Fiennes) joins a monastary, and becomes a priest in the Roman Catholic church. While at the monastary, he is constantly overcome by guilt, feeling that he is too sinful before a just God, and that he is unworthy to be a priest, expressed by his self loathing confessions and prayers. His mentor comes into his chamber one night, hearing Luther burdened with guilt in prayer, and basically tells him that rather than torture himself with guilt, he should cast himself upon Jesus and ask Jesus to save him. This seems to be the point in Luther's life where he is really converted from a man acting out of fear to a man responding to forgiveness. Luther then goes on a pilgrimage to Rome, where he sees depravity even amongst the clergy. He sees the selling of indulgences and amulets, and is shocked to the core by the dissonance between what he sees and the ideals he believes in. After returning to the monastary, Luther is sent away to be trained in the scriptures and in theology. Meanwhile Pope Leo X comes to power in Rome, where he is hoped to be the pope that reforms Christendom. As part of his ambition, he wishes to build a new Basilica at St. Peters, but a significant portion of the financing would be based on the sale of indulgences, primarily carried out by John Tetzel (Alfed Molina).

Upon gaining a teaching position as a doctorate of theology, Luther starts to criticize various practices in the church, such as the forgery of holy relics and the use of such hoaxes for raising money by unscrupulous fundraisers. At this point Luther starts to get on the nerves of the Prince, but he really starts bugging the powers when he nails the 95 theses (95 objections to the sale of indulgences by the church) on the door of the Cathedral. Local printers took his 95 theses and published it, and before long, Luther is a popular folk hero. The Roman Catholic authorities asks him to recant his writings. He refuses to recant, and goes into hiding, where he translates the New Testament into German. Meanwhile on account of overzealous supporters of his, a massive rebellion breaks out and is brutally put down. However, Luther's support is pretty solid amongst the princes, and the movie leaves off with the German princes standing up to the Emperor, who attempts to force them to submit to Rome. Oh, and though I'm not sure how to fit this into my synopsis, Luther leaves the priesthood, marries a former nun, and the epilogue ays that he has six children and lives to a ripe old age.