AHC: St. Martin Luther

Ok, how can we get the Catholic Church to make Martin Luther a Saint? The only restriction on your pod is that he can't be too different personality wise then OTL, basically, he should still oppose the same things he did in our timeline.
 

Philip

Donor
Make other Reformers look very heretical compared to him, as well as making them appear around the same time as he.

This could work. Have some of the Radical Reformers (or someone who thinks like them) show up a littler earlier. Luther could becomes focused on defending the Catholic understanding of the Eucharist. Add in a Vatican more interested (it doesn't have to be that much) reforming the political side of the Church for good measure.
 

Orry

Donor
Monthly Donor
This could work. Have some of the Radical Reformers (or someone who thinks like them) show up a littler earlier. Luther could becomes focused on defending the Catholic understanding of the Eucharist. Add in a Vatican more interested (it doesn't have to be that much) reforming the political side of the Church for good measure.

Find a reason for the Council of Trent to happen a lot earlier - it did fix a lot of the 'political' issues such as pluralities etc that would help.

Sans Papal infalibility I guess Luther would be quite at home in the 21st Century Roman Church so if you get get rid of the gross excesses - which the church itself later condemmed - you have a good chance of keeping him as a 'Doctor' of the Church.
 

Philip

Donor
For even more AH fun, have the New Finnish interpretation of Luther be correct. See if you can get Luther recognized as Martin I, Patriarch of Germany, by the East.
 
Ok, how can we get the Catholic Church to make Martin Luther a Saint? The only restriction on your pod is that he can't be too different personality wise then OTL, basically, he should still oppose the same things he did in our timeline.

Historically, your chances of becoming a saint are highest if you found a monastic order. It's also an effective (if slow) way of challenging Church authority on doctrinal matters - for example see St Francis of Assisi.

As for what the Lutherian Order would look like - well I can see it emphasising scholarship, particularly biblical scholarship. They might also encourage the use of vernacular translations of the bible and be early adopters of the printing press.

Cheers,
Nigel.
 
I, like Orry, think that an earlier Council of Trent its the better option. Assuming his ideas are more or less accepted ( they have to if we want it canonized ), it will mean more freedom to individual diocese from the Pope ... any other butterflies are so many ( and so big ) that hurts ...
 
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