Context
The Passional Christi und Antichristi was published in the year 1521 in Wittenberg, Germany, just four years after Martin Luther had posted his “95 Theses”. In the same year that this pamphlet was printed, the Pope responded to Luther’s opposition of the Catholic church by excommunicating him. Luther was passionate about advocating for a reform from the Catholic church and therefore one of the main purposes of the pamphlet was to excite debate by comparing the Pope to the Antichrist, a symbol that the Christian religion had reserved for one who would present themselves as the Christ in the last days of the Earth.
In his pamphlet, Luther used a side-by-side comparison of the Pope as the Antichrist and contrasted him to the life and actions of Jesus Christ. The illustrations depicted the entitled life that the Pope lived at the expense of his Catholic servants who funded his luxury and listened to his every command; in contrast, the woodcut illustrations next to the Pope’s image would depict a humbling example of Jesus Christ as depicted from accounts in the Bible.
Luther and his protestant ideologies and polemic writings drew many supporters who found themselves curious to understand more about the Christian religion and felt that the current church system failed to provide them with a personal understanding of God. Under the Catholic Church, believers would sit in services and listen to sermons that were conducted completely in Latin and revolved around Latin scriptures; in 1521, very few people in Wittenberg Germany were literate in their own German vernacular and so the Latin services too presented a challenge to Catholics who failed to understand their own religion. The issue of indulgences was primarily brought up in Luther’s 95 theses but can also be argued to be an underlying issue in the Passional Christi und Antichristi and his view of the papal authority as abusers of the people’s work and money.
The Catholic response to Luther’s widespread pamphlets and woodcut propaganda is cleverly named by The Morgan Library and Museum (https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/online/word-and-image/4) as the “Media War”. The supporters and clergymen of the Catholic Church took to writing counter-pamphlets to attack Luther and label him and his followers as heretics. The supporters who responded to Luther’s opposition to indulgences and exposition of the Pope’s abuses took to using propaganda of their own which often included caricatures of Luther as a follower of demonic instruction and leader of evil.
Luther encouraged readers to make up their own understandings and decisions about god rather than having the papacy force it to them, this in itself angered the papacy and papal supporters. The papal supporter, Thomas Murner labelled followers of Luther’s teachings as “ the ignorant and rebellious commoners who should not be involved in such disputes about matters of faith”. (https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft3q2nb278&chunk.id=d0e6818&toc.depth=1&toc.id=d0e6682&brand=eschol)
It’s clear that the papal supporters wished for the Catholics to remain submissive and not question religion or face labelling as heretics by the church. This in itself presented a challenge not just to Luther but to those who subscribed to his teachings and it can be understood that the Passional Christi und Antichristi was challenged because of the existing threats of the Catholic Church.
Additionally, when understanding the challenge that the pamphlet alongside Luther’s other works presented, the question of endangerment can also be flipped to say that while the “Passional Christi und Antichristi” was challenged and likely endangered, it was also an endangerment to papal Latin oral traditions.