the sale of church offi ces, clerical ignorance, and a general failure
of the church to meet the spiritual needs of the people, who were
largely alienated by rituals in Latin. It did not help that a number of questionable individuals occupied
the papal throne, including the fun-loving bon vivant Leo X and
the warrior pope Julius II. They may have been great patrons of the
arts, but as spiritual leaders, they were considered failures.
Humanist scholars were also concerned that the church had lost
sight of the original intentions of Jesus and his followers, which
was moral reform, and had instead begun to focus on the hollow
rituals and the letter of the law. This rift in the church is essential
for understanding the history of food because along with criticism
of the dogma and rituals of the church, its food strictures also came
under attack.
Starting with Martin Luther, the
Protestant Reformation was fi rst and
foremost an attempt to return to the
original doctrines of Paul, which stated
that an individual can in no way earn his
own salvation. Justifi cation is by “faith
alone,” and despite our own failings,
grace is given to the worst of sinners
if there is true faith. These ideas were
articulated by Martin Luther in his 95
theses, which were basically topics
posted on the door of the cathedral at
Wittenberg University for discussion
among theology students.
Luther had taken holy orders and had found the ascetic rigors he
underwent extremely frustrating because he could never be sure
when God might be satisfi ed and when he had done enough to
merit salvation. Paul’s doctrines offered him comfort because they
assured him that without any merit on his part, he could be saved by
Martin Luther (1483–
1546) was a German
theologian and
religious reformer.© Photos.com/Thinkstock.