In the tumultuous days of the Protestant schism, Reformers used art as a tool to “re-educate” simple Christians. One powerful and damning visual aid was the Passional Christi und Antichristi by Lucas Cranach the Elder, which bore a close connection to the writings of Martin Luther and his disciple, Philip Melanchthon. (A passional is a small book depicting scenes of the life of Christ or the saints meant for pious meditation by the unlearned.)
Cranach and Luther were colleagues and business associates, both of whom worked under the patronage of the Wittenberg Electors: Frederick the Wise, John the Steadfast, and John Frederick the Magnanimous, said to be the most powerful princes of the empire after Maximilian I and Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperors. The rulers’ sanction of Cranach and Luther granted them authority, public respect, and freedom to promote the ideas of the Reformation. Luther, aware of the importance of polemical images, commissioned Cranach to illustrate his biblical translations, the Lord’s Prayer, and other tracts.
Because of the friendship and business association between Cranach and Luther, one may assume that the artist was sympathetic to the Reformer’s cause, and that Luther’s ideas influenced Cranach’s iconography.
The influence of the Reformation led to a flood of widely published anti-Roman propaganda, of which this pamphlet is but one example. The anti-Roman attack was not restricted to well-known theological or political arguments by major Reformation figures, such as Luther’s Ninety-five Theses. Even before the schism, the European populace was already seething with eschatological and astrological prophecies, many of which predicted the end of the Catholic Church. Such topics also filled later anti-Catholic tracts and appeared in the accompanying illustrations.
Broadsheets showing scenes such as commoners defecating into a papal tiara indicate the anti-papal atmosphere. As early as Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (ca. 1386-1390), clerical characters were targets of satire. Mystery plays of fifteenth-century Germany revealed a similar anti-Roman bias, in which Church leaders were made to appear ridiculous and became popular figures of humor. The sport of stag hunting served as yet another image for anti-clericalism; Cranach adapted the stag hunt to depict women “stalking” the clergy.
The fascination with “monsters” during this pre-Reformation period was also an occasion for anticlerical propaganda. For example, in 1496, a strange creature found in Rome was named the “Papstesel” or the pope’s donkey, and, in 1522, the Saxons “discovered” a monster which they described as part calf and part monk. These monsters, widely publicized and often the subject of broadsheets, were sometimes considered to be political omens.[R.W. Scribner. For the Sake of Simple Folk. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981, p. 127.]
The figure of the Antichrist was frequently represented in mystery plays, broadsheets, and prophecies. His appearance (as well as other “signs,” such as monsters) was popularly believed to precede the destruction of the present institution of the Church and to herald the Apocalypse. After the discovery of the monster of Saxony in 1522, Luther and Melanchthon (Luther’s colleague at the University of Wittenberg) published an exegesis of these “extraordinary” phenomena, explaining them as portents of the “imminent end of papism and monkery.”[André Chastel, The Sack of Rome, 1527, p. 79. From Grisar and Heege, Luther’s Kampfbilder, ch. 1; and J. Ceard, La Nature et les Prodiges (Geneva, 1977), pp. 79-83.]
Luther believed, or at least proclaimed, certain events to signify the demise of “papism,” the Church as an institution, the hierarchical authority of the pope and bishops. Luther’s apocalyptic interpretation of the monsters and other “signs” indicate that he expected and looked forward to the end of the Catholic Church and its head; Luther may have been the first to identify the pope with the Antichrist of Scripture. Calvin himself admitted that the belief in the coming of the Antichrist as a prelude to the defeat of Satan and the everlasting reign of God was shared equally among Reform theologians and their public.
It was in this pervasive anti-Roman atmosphere, under the protection and patronage of the electors, and under the influence of Luther and other Wittenberg Reformers, that Cranach produced his anti-papist propaganda and gave Reformation ideas visual form.
In May of 1521, Cranach and his workshop created twenty-six woodcuts as illustrations to correlate with texts by Philip Melanchthon for a widely published pamphlet, Passional Christi und Antichristi. For each pair of woodcuts, Cranach juxtaposed a scene depicting Christ with a scene from the life of the “Antichrist,” pictured as the pope.
The first set of woodcuts depicts Jesus fleeing in humility from admiring followers who wish to crown him, while the pope, on the other hand, must forcibly defend himself from those who would remove his tiara and depose him. Melanchthon’s text points out that the papal claim to secular power was based on a spurious document called the Donation of Constantine. The exposure of that document as a forgery caused a sensation in Germany in 1520 when it revealed that the basis of papal political power was false. Here Cranach plays to an already disenchanted public to create even stronger anti-papal sentiment. Luther wrote angrily, “It is not fitting for the pope to arrogate to himself superiority over the secular authorities.”[John Dillenberger, ed., Martin Luther: Selections From His Writings. Garden City: Doubleday, 1961, p. 439.]
Like Cranach’s illustration, Melanchthon’s text echoes Luther’s criticism of papal power. It refers to the coming of bishops who will show contempt for secular rulers. Melanchthon, a master of Greek, arrived at Wittenberg in response to Luther’s request that the elector provide the University with a language scholar. He quotes here from a passage in 2 Peter 2 about false teachers to come. Melanchthon, however, translates the biblical text much too loosely. Where the original Greek word for “teacher” appears, Melanchthon uses, not the German word for teacher, but the German word for bishop, making the scriptural passage seem to refer to the Church as an institution. Under Luther’s influence, Melanchthon sacrifices the integrity of the text to imply an inherent anti-Romanism in the scripture. It is unclear whether he recognized the irony of thus mistranslating the words of the first pope.
The anti-papal theme continues in the second set of woodcuts, which contrasts Christ crowned with thorns with the pope crowned with his triple tiara.
The third set depicts the antithesis between Christian humility and worldly pride. Christ is shown washing the feet of the disciples while the pope’s feet are kissed by the nobility as he looks on disdainfully (Fig. 1).
Again, Luther’s writings refer directly to this issue; in 1520, speaking of the pope’s secular power, he writes: “Never again should his iniquitous Arrogance be permitted to make the emperor kiss the pope’s feet. . . .”[Dillenberger, p. 439.] The resemblance between Cranach’s Antichrist and the corpulent Pope Leo X, who reigned from 1513 to 1522 (the pamphlet being complete in 1521,) is apparent.[Scribner, p. 274, note 74.]
In the sixth set of woodcuts Christ describes to his disciples the life they must lead in order to follow him, as he invites them to take up the cross. In contrast, the papal figure is borne in a litter and accompanied by five men (Fig. 2). The Antichrist is shown surrounded by grandeur and stately architecture, while Jesus stands upon a dirt path in the countryside. Melanchthon’s commentary explains that the pope rejects humility on the grounds that it is poor governmental policy.
Cranach here illustrates Luther’s writings in Freedom of a Christian (1520), in which Luther warns Pope Leo that he must be a servant to all and not allow others to exalt him: “A man is a vicar only when his superior is absent. If the pope rules, while Christ is absent and does not dwell in his heart, what else is he but a vicar of Christ? What is the church under such a vicar but a mass of people without Christ? Indeed, what is such a vicar but an antichrist and an idol?”[Dillenberger, p. 51.]
Influenced by Luther’s written criticism of Pope Leo, Cranach illustrates the pope as being such a “vicar,” exalted and served. The image is made even more mordant by comparison to the humble goodness of Christ.
The seventh pair of illustrations shows Christ preaching while the Antichrist consumes large amounts of food and drink. As in the previous set, the Antichrist is associated with manmade and worldly goods, while Christ is depicted within God’s own creation, nature.
The eighth set illustrates the humble scene of Christ’s nativity, opposed to the image of a warring pope, armed to ensure his station and property, for which he will risk much, even the disturbance of civil authority and the shedding of Christian blood (Fig. 3).
In his ninth set, Cranach creates a motif of Christ’s humble entrance into Jerusalem. This Cranach contrasts to the Antichrist’s pompous procession, proclaiming his status (Fig. 4). Christ’s peaceful manner differs from the aggressive demeanor of the Antichrist. The image of the Antichrist may refer to the papal ride to hell, a subject of broadsheets familiar at this time.[Scribner, pp. 70-71.] In the upper right corner of this woodcut, demons surge amid the fires of hell, and foot-soldiers lead the papal party in that direction.
In the eleventh set, the pope is shown concerned solely with such material matters as feast days, tonsures, clerics, and religious, while Christ instead proclaims that the Kingdom of God is that of internals, things spiritual in nature.[Scribner, p. 153.] Luther’s “Open Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation,” written in June, 1520, parallels the Passional illustrations of this set. Luther’s letter is concerned, in part, with the Church’s objection to any censure of the Church by temporal authority. The Catholic position is that spiritual power is superior to temporal. But Luther criticizes concern for external ecclesial power, saying, “. . . a pope or a bishop anoints, confers tonsures, ordains, consecrates or prescribes dress unlike that of the laity-this may make hypocrites and graven images, but it never makes a Christian or ‘spiritual’ man.”[Luther, Martin. “Open Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation.” June, 1520.]
The text accompanying this set of woodcuts closely parallels this quote from Luther’s letter. Melanchthon writes that “papal law is wholly concerned with externals-the ordering of clothes, tonsures, feast days, consecrations, benefices, monkish sects and priests.”[Scribner, p 153.]
The twelfth set concerns integrity and proper execution of one’s duties (Fig. 5). The left woodcut shows Christ forcefully driving the moneychangers from the temple. On the right the pope, as the Antichrist, collects money from the sale of indulgences. Melanchthon cites a biblical passage which describes the Antichrist as present in God’s temple, displaying himself as God. Cranach clearly implies that the papal Antichrist has replaced the moneychangers of the gospel.
Another of Luther’s manifestos of 1520 also criticizes the sale of indulgences and warns: “The pope seduces you away from the gifts of God which you receive unpaid for, to his own ‘gifts’ which you must buy. . . . Be content with the one sure norm; what you have to buy from the pope is neither good nor godly.”[Dillenberger, p. 460.]
In the final pair of illustrations, the sinful actions of the Antichrist result in condemnation at the Final Judgment (Fig. 6). With crowning finality, Cranach depicts Christ’s glorious ascension from earth to heaven amid angels, while the Antichrist, in full papal garb, is forced by demons toward hell, where tortured sinners are consumed bodily by eternal fires.
Cranach’s illustrations are meant to serve a pedagogical purpose, the widespread “education” of the largely illiterate populace. Incorporating a simple, narrative style with a narrowly limited scope, Cranach’s illustrations are effectively didactic. He uses an appropriate medium, the pamphlet, to capitalize on the prevailing fascination with the Apocalypse and with strong anti-papal sentiment. He sets up a simplistic, readily g.asped if misleading, antithesis between Christ and the hierarchical Church, depicted as Antichrist. Each pictorial representation instills in the uneducated viewer both an intensified devotion to the life of Christ and a vivid if not violent disgust for the papal institution in general and the contemporary pope, Leo X, in particular. In juxtaposing the actions of the papal figure with scenes from the life of Christ, Cranach creates an antithesis of Christ, an adversary of Good, and a figure that the Christian man must oppose.
Cranach possessed a thorough understanding of Luther’s theological positions as well as Luther’s views on the Church as an operating institution. The Passional Christi und Antichristi is described by art historian Scribner as the “. . . most successful work of visual propaganda produced by the Reformation. . . .”[Scribner, p. 149.]
With artistic skill, Cranach adeptly translated Luther’s and Melanchthon’s polemics into visual images. The pedagogical quality of Cranach’s work lent itself to Luther’s canny use of religious art. Cranach understood how best to convey an idea to the masses. He carefully chose motifs with which the public was familiar and depicted them in a simple style, catering to popular prejudices and superstitions to create an effective dialectic. Cranach’s works served as powerful, didactic symbols which profoundly influenced the German laity during the confusion of the Protestant Reformation.