Holy Roman Empire
1505 Ano Domani
Somewhere near Erfurt
It was under an ever increasing cloudy sky that Martin Luther found himself walking under. He was minding his own business when a cry came up behind him.
“Stop thief!”
Worried that they were referring to him, he turned around. To his relief, it was not him they were yelling at. Instead, it was a strong, ugly man running with a sack on his back that was the apparent thief. Behind him was a gaggle of farmers bearing makeshift weapons, and all seemed prepared to use them. That did not undo the fact that the robber was outpacing them and before Luther knew it, the brute was upon him.
“Out of my way.” He growled as he shoved Luther into the ditch at the side of the road. He continued on at good speed without pause.
When Luther finally pulled himself out of the ditch, the farmers had stopped next to him, huffing and puffing.
“Damn the man.” One of the farmers muttered darkly.
It was all Luther and the farmers could do but watch the thief run off into the distance. Or at least that’s what would have happened if the lighting hadn’t hit the thief.
After a moment of stunned silence, the farmers burst out laughing and began praising God for his divine justice.
It never really occurred to Luther, as he was invited by the farmers to have something to drink with them, that if the thief had only picked a different rout, or maybe had even picked a different place to steal from, he would have been uncomfortably close to where the lighting struck.
Instead of a conviction to become a monk, he got an interesting tale to tell his friends in Erfurt.