Actually, That Warn’t Me

A reader writes:

I watched the Luther movie last week and then heard your comments on it during the CA show last week.

You made a comment when Tetzel said ‘ that for money, he would forgive any man who ravaged the virgin Mary herself.’ that Tetzel probably never said that.

You were right.   It was Martin Luther who said it.

In his book Table Talk (1569), section CCCCLI, Luther writes "Had one ravished the Virgin Mary, or crucified Christ anew, the pope would, for money, have pardoned him."

Much obliged for the primary source!

Actually, though, it warn’t me who said that. It was Mr. Decent Films, Steven Greydanus. (You can tell when it’s him speaking on the show ’cause he dasn’t use words like "warn’t.")

To tell you the truth, I remembered reading Luther alluding to one ravishing the Virgin Mary, but I couldn’t remember in what context he was using the phrase in. Even when a devout Protestant, I found his very use of the phrase repulsive. Don’t know if it was a phrase he used a lot or just in this case. Also don’t know if it was unique to him or if others of his age also used it.

I do know that Luther was regarded as a remarkably crude fellow by other in his day.

You should see some of the cartoons he had drawn.

(Maybe I’ll scan them and post them sometime.)

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

8 thoughts on “Actually, That Warn’t Me”

  1. “Actually, though, it warn’t me who said that. It was Mr. Decent Films, Steven Greydanus. (You can tell when it’s him speaking on the show ’cause he dasn’t use words like “warn’t.”
    I listened to one of your ‘shows’ recently and I noticed that you had a tendency to say ‘dudn’t’.
    :p
    God Bless.

  3. I think that Luther was also known for liking his beer. So maybe he made the comments attributed to him after downing a few.

  4. I wasn’t meaning to come across as being snippety, I thought it quite endearing actually.
    Interesting links, they provided slightly more imformation than I was anticipating,(i’m of the shallow variety- can’t take info overload without a severe cerebral trauma) but interesting all the same.
    God Bless.

  5. Re: the Luthor film . . . I find it interesting that so many of the reviews on Amazon, Netflix, etc, praise the film for it’s historical authenticity when so much of it is quite easily, & charitably, debunked. Shows the power of visual media like film that folks all too often believe what they see to be researched, accurate, & truthful. Seems the over-used phrase “based on a true story” now equates to “absolute fact” to most folks.

  7. Two out of two University of Nebraska at Omaha students I’ve surveyed love your manner of speech. My favorite was hearing you say that Jesus is “one in bein’ with the Father.” The Texan Creed. 🙂

  8. “You made a comment when Tetzel said ‘ that for money, he would forgive any man who ravaged the virgin Mary herself.’ that Tetzel probably never said that.”
    “You were right. It was Martin Luther who said it.”
    Actually Luther didn’t say it in the sense that Tetzel allegedly said it. He only said that the pope would forgive somone if given enough money.

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