Luther flees to the New World

After the Reichstag of Worms, Luther flees because of the Reichsacht against him. Unfortunately , Friedrich of Saxony dies suddenly and Luther is not hidden in Eisenach. His flight continue. Eventually he is brought by sympathizers to a ship and travels incognito to the New World. Could he translate the Bible into an Indian language and start there an alternate Reformation among the not long converted natives ?
 
In the 1520s, the only regular ships going are Spanish, and the Spanish are very keen on keeping everybody out of their colonies who isn't a proven Catholic of good standing. I don't think he could manage a disguise that good. More realistically, Russia or the Ottoman Empire might be a refuge if Germany's no longer safe.
 
It would be pretty easy to convert the "NATIVE AMERICANS" to a reformed religion, but why would they want to convert?

Luther is just one man, while their French and Spanish colonial masters, who are heavily catholic, have guns and jurisdiction. It would not play well to them to harbour a heretic.
 
In the 1520s, the only regular ships going are Spanish, and the Spanish are very keen on keeping everybody out of their colonies who isn't a proven Catholic of good standing. I don't think he could manage a disguise that good. More realistically, Russia or the Ottoman Empire might be a refuge if Germany's no longer safe.

Scandinavia or England is another option for him to find refuge?

Out of the other two, Russia would be the best position for Luther, close enough to gain support in Western Europe with the opportunity to convert the Russian Orthodox.

The Ottoman Empire, may not be best for a German preaching the reformed word of Christ to Muslims.
 
Scandinavia or England is another option for him to find refuge?

Unlikely. England had just stepped up the intensity of combating heresy. There were still Lollards around. It was not a good place for someone the pope wanted dead. Scandinavia might have gone better, but the incentive to protect a foreign interloper is hard to see.

Out of the other two, Russia would be the best position for Luther, close enough to gain support in Western Europe with the opportunity to convert the Russian Orthodox.

But Luther doesn't want to convert anyone at this point. He sees himself as a theological scholar fighting abuses. Since orthodox views (despite tremendous differences in style) are fairly close to Lutheran ones, he might even find a spiritual home there. I doubt he would account for much in the way of a social movement, though. The preconditions aren't there, and his biggest asset - his way with language and print-friendly writing style - would be lost in translation.

The Ottoman Empire, may not be best for a German preaching the reformed word of Christ to Muslims.

Why would he want to preach to Muslims? Aside from the fact that that's illegal (and there is no authority but it is from the LOrd - he said that), there are more than enough Christians to talk to. Christians whoser views of the Catholic church agree with his own, ironically. Luther might be welcome to the Orthodox communities as a recusant, an intellectual who left the Roman heresy after seeing through its lies to understand the true nature of Christianity.

Remember, Luther in 1520 is not the intellectual leader of a new church. He's a professor with big ideas and the balls to stare down authorities, but more importantly, Luther in 1520 is Catholic. By his lights, a better Catholic than the pope, which was not unusual at the time. THere is still scope for his development to go differently.
 
If you want Luther in the New World, there seems one remotely plausible late-PoD way.

[Lots of handwaving] At the Diet of Augsburg 1530, Luther's envoy Philipp Melanchthon (writer of the Lutheran basic creed, the Confessio Augustana) meets Bartholomäus V. Welser, the famous banker and lord proprietor of Klein-Venedig. Welser becomes convinced that Luther knows a lot about the right way to read the bible, but cannot openly support him.

Still, he thinks that the heathens of the New World need to hear the Word of God in the right way. Melanchthon travles to Wittenberg and convinces Luther that he himself has to travel there to organize a truly pious church in Neu-Augsburg (Santa Ana de Coro). Little Johannes, Elisabeth, Magdalena and Martin jr. are noisy and demanding, so a long vacation seems appropriate.

So when the Welser galleons sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda, onboard is another German, called Junker Jörg/Don Jorge by the others ...
 
If you want Luther in the New World, there seems one remotely plausible late-PoD way.

[Lots of handwaving] At the Diet of Augsburg 1530, Luther's envoy Philipp Melanchthon (writer of the Lutheran basic creed, the Confessio Augustana) meets Bartholomäus V. Welser, the famous banker and lord proprietor of Klein-Venedig. Welser becomes convinced that Luther knows a lot about the right way to read the bible, but cannot openly support him.

Still, he thinks that the heathens of the New World need to hear the Word of God in the right way. Melanchthon travles to Wittenberg and convinces Luther that he himself has to travel there to organize a truly pious church in Neu-Augsburg (Santa Ana de Coro). Little Johannes, Elisabeth, Magdalena and Martin jr. are noisy and demanding, so a long vacation seems appropriate.

So when the Welser galleons sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda, onboard is another German, called Junker Jörg/Don Jorge by the others ...

Wow! You mean it's not ASB? Good work.
 
The closest save haven for Martin Luther would have been Bohemia, where by the 1530's a reformed christian religion has already been practised for more than a century in the form of the Hussite church.
 
The closest save haven for Martin Luther would have been Bohemia, where by the 1530's a reformed christian religion has already been practised for more than a century in the form of the Hussite church.

Luthor loathed Jan Hus and thought of him being a heretic.
 
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