WI Luther abandons Catholic Church without causing the Reformation?

I was thinking about last night... Luther was asked to recant 41 of his 95 theses and when he refused he was excommunicated and after the Diet of Worms the Reformation was launched...
WI Luther goes like "Oh what a heck i will just join Orthodox Church and you all can go to hell!" thus causing no more problems to the Papacy after his excommunication?

Is it possible?
 
No. Conversion to any other church in Catholic Europe was a canonical offense. He'd still be on the inquisition's shit list. If he had chosen to also emigrate to the Ottoman Empire or Muscovy, that would have been different.
 
What's more, you already had the Hussites, some version of Reformed theology is almost a certainty, and guys like John Calvin are not going to politely back down just because Luther's not around...

Simply put something like the Reformation is more or less inevitable. It going down the way it did was not.
 
No. Conversion to any other church in Catholic Europe was a canonical offense. He'd still be on the inquisition's shit list. If he had chosen to also emigrate to the Ottoman Empire or Muscovy, that would have been different.

I wonder if he had chosen to emigrate would he cause similar problems to Orthodoxs too?
 
More like Luther would have spearheaded an earlier divide between the contemporary Orthodox Christians and the Old Believers.

I agree if he migrates to Russia... But if he goes to Constantinople or Alexandria i guess that he would sit quiet for sometime... It would be an interesting PoD if Luther manages to launch and Orthodox reformation...:D
 
In the Ottoman Empire, the Muslim overlords, not having a theological dog in the fight, could serve as a neutral arbitrator.

Now in Russia... :eek:

Well yes but constant theological quarells amongst his orthodox subjects could give a headache to the Sultan...
But i ll agree with you... Luther turning orthodox going to Russia and starting a "reformation" there would be causing worst troubles than the west...
 
Well yes but constant theological quarells amongst his orthodox subjects could give a headache to the Sultan...
But i ll agree with you... Luther turning orthodox going to Russia and starting a "reformation" there would be causing worst troubles than the west...

Why do we think that Luther would start a Reformation in Russia or the Ottoman Empire if he tried? There are reasons other than Luther's titanic personality that were necessary for the Reformation to kick off. I just don't see those same conditions in Eastern Europe.
 
Why do we think that Luther would start a Reformation in Russia or the Ottoman Empire if he tried? There are reasons other than Luther's titanic personality that were necessary for the Reformation to kick off. I just don't see those same conditions in Eastern Europe.

True... But orthodox church at the time was pretty much as corrupt as catholic church... Luther would feel annoyed if he found out that his conversion lead him to the same position he before abandoning catholicism... So he might have given a try in reforming orthodoxy...
 
There pretty much was a 'reformation' in Russia. The new liturgy against the Old Believers were protesting drew extensively on the model of the Kiev Patriarchates usage, and that had drawn in turn on the sometimes-forgotten but active Protestant-Catholic dialogue going on in Ukraine and the other parts of the PLC; in terms of things like pastoral care the revitalised Orthodox church was 'Protestant'.

Of course, there were reformations in the Catholic countries. Reformation doesn't have to mean a split.
 
Last edited:
Almost every major Christian denomination was in the Ottoman Empire. Syriac Orthodox, Assyrians, Copts, Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Calvinists, etc.

Well if a "reformation" under Luther happens inside Ottoman Empire i am sure that the Sultan wouldnt be happy that his subjects would kill each other for theological reasons...
I agree that most denominations were under Ottoman rule but except of some minor clashes they didnt cause any real problem... A real problem would be if something like a "peasants war" happens because of this theological controversy in the Ottoman Empire...
 
Top