Luther and the Evangelicals made excellent use of propaganda. Two examples of this propaganda are woodcuts entitled Two Kinds of Sermons and Christ in the Sheep Shed. Propaganda is not meant in its common negative sense, but in the sense that the woodcuts were effective at communicating the Evangelical’s message. Woodcuts were meant to be hung in public places, such as a tavern. Woodcuts had two primary features, the image and accompanying text. These woodcuts were primarily directed towards illiterate peasants, most of whom would only base their judgment solely off of the image portion of the woodcut. The text below the image was based around one or more Bible verses and was meant to be read out loud to crowds. This only happened on certain occasions, however, most people would have seen it in passing and not during a reading.

Because of this, while the text below the image illuminated and clarified the creator’s original meaning, it is important to first analyze the image and then analyze the image combined with the text. This will not only allow one to grasp the effect the woodcut would have had on the peasants, but also to decipher how the creator intended for it to be taken. Working off of this principle, the images alone for Two Kinds of Sermons and Christ in the Sheep Shed will first be examined; secondly, the textual themes will be examined. Because of their position on different sides of the Peasant’s War, it will be necessary to analyze each image separately. Throughout this process, it will be shown that while several significant departures will appear, the overall message will be unchanged.

Visual Themes

Christ in the Sheep Shed is a woodcut dating from 1524. The shed is the central image. It is of shoddy construction as evidenced by the uneven boards and nail holes, the holes in the roof and side, in contrast to the well constructed barn in the background. Jesus is standing at the door of the shed. Inside the shed there are only sheep. There is a hole in the side of the shed where a sheep gazes at the crowds. Lay persons are indicated by the carrying of tools and plain hoods, the clergy are indicated by cups, monk or nun robes, or large girth. Peasants are walking up to the door of the shed. On each side there are ladders with accompanying crowds. Members of the clergy and laity are making their way up the ladders. Once they have reached the top they look puzzled, for there is nothing there and no place to go. By one of the ladders, there is an angel reading from a Bible, attempting to convince two lay women to abandon their Catholic effects and join Christ in the shed. There is a pervasive sense of commotion. Everyone is moving about, trying to find their way. The only people that are stationary are the religious authorities, Jesus and the Angel.

The image would have immediately connected with an illiterate peasant in two ways. First, it approached the viewer on their level, using imagery that illiterate peasants would understand, the imagery of husbandry (Wunderli, 1992, pp. 11-13). Secondly, it conjured up images of salvation with the presence of Jesus and the symbol of the saved, sheep. Thus, the scene invokes not only the struggle and commotion of everyday life, but also the struggle and effort necessary to enter into heaven. Once someone comes to Jesus, they are transformed to sheep, a symbol of salvation. (Handout, p. 2)

The image also demonstrates the manifold follies of the Catholic Church. Using a strictly visual approach, it is unclear how the image of the sheep shed is to be taken. One might assume that the shed is a construction of the Catholic Church, due to its shoddy construction. Under this assumption, it was an artificial structure that the Catholic Church had built around Christ, one that prevented the laity to enter into the presence of Jesus where salvation could take place. However, it is possible to consider the sheep shed as a construct of Christ. If so, it would reiterate the longstanding belief that things that there was a disconnect between what the world finds important and what God finds important. This was a reoccurring theme of the Evangelical writing and preaching. (Lindberg, p. 71) It would speak against all of the decorations and building projects that have come from the indulgences and taxes levied against the populace.

Then there are the ladders; they represent the system of salvation that the Catholic Church has put in place in their effort to lead their people to heaven. (Ozment, p. 233) This path ultimately leads to nowhere. In addition to the unnecessary structure of doctrines and rituals, the Catholic Church’s ascension model of works salvation that leads not to salvation, but to confusion, in contrast to the simple message of salvation that Luther saw in the New Testament. (Lindberg, p. 50) For Luther, anything that a person needed to know could be found there in plain language. One did not need the unnecessary and awkward formulations of doctrine that the Catholic Church had come to employ through their misuse of Scholasticism. (Ozment, p. 231)

The cleric on his knees next to the angel looks as if he is either worshiping the angel or trying to lure a sheep away from the fold of Christ. So either the Catholic Church is engaging in idol worship, worshiping something besides God, or they are trying to lure the saved away from their salvation. The first interpretation would speak to the Evangelicals not holding saints up as high as the Catholics did. (Lindberg, p. 151) The second would hearken back to Luther’s Babylonian Captivity of the Church where Luther explicitly warns about the danger in Catholic theology. (Luther, p. 152) Either interpretation would have suited the Evangelical propagandist, as each is a condemnation of the Catholic Church in the strongest of terms.

Likewise, there are multiple possible interpretations of the person falling into the shed from the roof. Working under the interpretation of the shed as a false construction of the Catholic Church, the person falling through the hole in the roof would indicate some people are still saved in spite of the errors of the Catholic Church. Perhaps peasants who saw the image this way would remember hearing part of Luther’s The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, where he spoke of salvation for the laity that had faith despite their being deceived by Rome even though Luther would go on to speak to the danger of remaining in the Catholic system (Luther, pp. 143-144, 152-153). Another possible interpretation is that the person falling through the roof is, in fact, a Catholic sneaking into the shed. This would further caricaturize Catholics in opposition to Christ’s intentions.

What were Christ’s intentions then? Rather than going through all the work associated with the Catholic system of salvation, Christ is seen on the ground at the door of the shed, beckoning all that would approach. The peasants are listening to his call. In addition to the direct call of Christ, the agents of God are showcased together, the angel and the Bible. It is from the Bible that the angel is working, elevating the Bible above even the angels in its authority

Without the text to illuminate and clarify the intended meanings of the image, the onlooker is presented with multiple meanings. Despite this problem, all of the meanings shared a similar thesis; the Catholic Church does not lead a person to salvation and that true salvation is offered and directly accessed through Jesus Christ.

Figure 2: Two Kinds of Sermons 1529 CE printed by Wolfgand Resch

The Content of Two Sermons is a woodcut dating to 1529 CE. The setting for this woodcut is the inside of a German church. A pillar divides the room in two. It depicts two sermons taking place simultaneously. On the left side is an Evangelical preacher in an unadorned pulpit reading from the Bible. The crowd below him is all reading intently along with him from their Bibles, listening intently, or in deep prayer. The crowd on the left is made up of members of all class from noble to peasant. To the right of the pillar is a catholic crowd attending a sermon by a Catholic monk. The Monk is a portly fellow; there is no Bible in sight. The only thing that accompanies him on his lavish pulpit is what seems to be a bag of food or money on the side of the pulpit. The crowd is focused on many things. Some are playing with their rosaries; others are gazing lustfully at the ladies in the front of the crowd. Others still are eating or conversing amongst themselves. There are people who are looking off into the distance, their minds elsewhere. It is quite obvious that the monk is not being heard and is ineffective. From the style of their dress, everyone in on the right of the pillar appears to be from the upper classes of society. In the middle of the image there is a man standing with his arms open wide, inviting the onlooker to pick a side. Most of his body is on the leftward Evangelical side of the pillar, indicating which choice should be made.

Just like the first woodcut, this one is rife with symbolism. Visually, the peasant would immediately identify with the Lutheran, or Evangelical side of the hall. Those on the left side of the hall were genuinely concerned with religion, as the onlooker would have been (Wunderli, p. 59). The image revolves around a series of opposite parings: monk vs. preacher, rosary vs. bible, noble vs. peasant. For the Lutheran propagandists, the purpose was to elevate one as part and parcel of true religion and to debase the other as indicative of false religion. The positioning of the classes is important. On the Evangelical side, there is class harmony. However, Catholicism only has nobles on its side, suggesting that Catholicism is only for the self-serving nobles. This would have played to the sensibilities of the peasants. Richard Wunderli in Peasant Fires describes such sentiments, “They wanted salvation in their material and spiritual lives.” (Wunderli, p. 50)

The image uses two recognizable symbols to distinguish between the truly pious and the counterfeit – the Bible and the rosary. For Luther, there was something mystical about reading from the Bible. They were the only words of God that a person had access to here on Earth. (Lindberg, p. 42) Notice that the Bible is featured prominently throughout the Evangelical side of the woodcut. The use of the Bible here is a two-way street. First, to persons converted to Luther’s cause, it would have reinforced the idea that the peasants were truly religious. To the onlooker who was perhaps still undecided in the whole affair, having all of the peasants on the Evangelical side with Bibles suggested that real religion was found in the Evangelical camp. At the very least, the proximity suggested that all peasants were, or should be Lutherans.

On the other hand, all of the Catholics have rosaries. What are the people with the rosaries doing? They are either distracted or actively engaging in sins, such as lust, during the sermon. These immoral people, the ones who were practicing counterfeit religion, were the same people who were oppressing the onlooker. The people who took too much in taxes, who feasted while the peasants starved, were the ones with the rosaries, a symbol of the Catholic religion. This symbol and those holding it were identified as one and the same in the woodcut. This identification of the nobles with the Catholic Church had the reverse, but equally potent effect that the identification of the Bible with the Peasants had. Even more so than before, the image said that all Catholics are set against the peasants, as there are, or should be no Catholic peasants.

Who are giving the sermons? For the Evangelicals, it is a Lutheran Preacher. He stands tall, reading from the Bible. It is he that leads the peasants in real religion. In contrast, the leader of the immoral nobles in their false religion is a fat mendicant monk. This preaching monk stands as a complete opposite to the Lutheran preacher. He is the religious leader of the nobles. The intricately decorated pulpit and his girth both speak to the same problem. The monk, and the Catholic Church by extension, has gotten fat the same way they have – at the expense of the peasants. (Ozment, p. 279)

With the reinforcing themes of peasants vs. noble, Bible vs. rosary, and preacher vs. monk, the onlooker is invited, no practically forced to come to the same conclusion the propagandist did, that is, Catholicism was corrupt and Evangelicalism was the path to heaven. In times of subsistence living, the secular and religious upper class had grown fat at the expense of the peasantry (Wunderli, p. 72). The woodcut played off of these notions and transferred them onto the nobles’ religious nature. With honest, god-fearing men and women that the peasant could easily identify with contrasted with the fat, lazy, fraudulent Catholics, who because of their class were seen as oppressors, it was an easy choice for the peasant.

While there are many similarities and a unified message that the Catholic Church just does get it, there is one major difference between the two images. It is obvious that the Catholic Church does not understand the true gospel in the woodcuts, but notice who is getting it. In the earlier woodcut, Christ in the Sheep Shed, that dates from 1524 CE, the only people that are being admitted into the sheep shed and therefore are the only people with real religion are the peasants. However, in the later woodcut, The Contents of Two Sermons that dates from 1529 CE, notice that the crowd that gets it now consists of peasants and nobles. What accounts for this difference? It was the Peasants’ War of 1525. This devastating class conflict resulted in thousands of deaths on both sides and was finally ended when the princely armies returned from their wars with France in Italy. The devastation of the conflict was blamed in part on the Evangelists for empowering the peasants to rebel. Shortly after the conflict ended the peasant-only crowds disappear from woodcuts.(Lindberg, p. 278) This disappearance testifies to both the awareness and the effectiveness of the propagandists. This adaptability played an important part in the success of spreading Luther’s message throughout Germany.

Textual Themes

The accompanying text for each image both clarifies and deepens the message of the image. The texts’ prose was easy on the ears. The poetic structure made it easy to memorize and internalize – features of effective propaganda. When read aloud, the texts clarified and explained Evangelical concepts in a way that ordinary illiterate peasants could understand. Given the religious sensibilities of the peasants at the time, conveying this message would have been instrumental to converting the peasant to the Evangelical cause.

In the examination of the purely visual themes in Christ in the Sheep Shed it was mentioned that some of the symbols would have more than one possible meaning for a peasant onlooker. Without any accompanying explanation, a variety of peasants would leave the woodcut with a variety of explanations. This was not a major problem because each of the meanings would have the same overall effect of tearing down the Catholic Church and building up the Evangelicals as bearers of the true religion.

The Christ in the Sheep Shed text clarifies the two polyvalent visual metaphors in the image, the shed itself and the person falling in through the roof. It immediately orients the picture with Bible verses taken out of the Gospel of John. It is through these verses that the image is meant to be read. John 10:1 identifies the shed as a construct of Christ. This activates the “simple religion as true religion” interpretation of the sheep shed (see page 3). The other metaphor the orientation clears up is that of the man falling through the roof. Earlier it was stated that this person either was someone saved despite the Catholic religion, or it indicated that the Catholics were trying to find salvation in opposition to what Christ wanted. The text of John 10:1 indicates that anyone entering other than through the door is a “thief and a robber.” This eliminates the first possibility and directly triggers the second. The only polyvalent metaphor the text does not clarify is the cleric on his knees next to the angel. However, as stated on page 4, either interpretation would suit the propagandist. The Contents of Two Sermons does not contain nearly the ambiguities like Christ in the Sheep Shed. However, the accompanying verses orient the listener. Jeremiah and Ezekiel invoke the themes of the text: that tradition is unnecessary, a warning against false teachers, the word of God, and the provision of God for his people.

After properly orienting the image and clarifying certain aspects of its interpretation, the reading of the texts would have attacked central tenants of Catholicism, replacing them with their Evangelical counterparts. Utilizing numerous tie-ins with the image, the text replaces works-righteousness with sola fidei, tradition with the sola scriptura, worry and strife with assuredness and comfort, and segregation with equality.

Throughout the two texts, there are no fewer than twenty-one references to the nature of salvation. The message in each text is that Jesus has acquired the merits necessary to clothe the sinner so that he appears righteous. Jesus’ death was a one-time sacrifice and through his death, he fulfilled the law and “abolished the curse of mankind’s sins.” (Handout, p. 3) Luther echoed this same idea. (Lindberg, p. 27) This is held in contrast to the Catholic model of salvation, which the propagandist says is based on fear, fear of Hell, purgatory, and excommunication, all of which the Catholic Church said it had power over (Handout, pp. 4, 5). The only way for the listener to escape these fears is to do what the Catholic Church says (Handout, p. 5). The papal authorities base such teachings on tradition alone. In each text their only justification is that other people in the past have done things this way. Luther was constantly attacking this rationale for tradition. (Lindberg, p. 37) In its place was the Bible. The Catholic Church also utilized the Bible, but the Evangelicals held that the Bible alone was the authority for the true Church. For the Evangelicals, it was through the words of Christ that one gained salvation, instead of through the rituals that the Catholic Church prescribed.

The texts assert that reliance on tradition is erroneous and even imply that the Catholic Church is aware of it. They ask God to allow them to continue to get away with their hoax. In addition, the papal authorities specifically reject Christ and his messengers, the Bible and the angel. The Sermons text even says that the Pope has replaced God and as an extension, is an antichrist. This was one of the most repeated slogans of the Evangelicals. (Luther, p. 124) On the other hand, the Evangelicals are the ones that heed and preach Christ’s message. They follow the word of the Lord and preach salvation through belief in Christ (Handout, p. 3). Reliance on good works will only lead one to Hell. Through following the Evangelical message, one can be free of their fear of Hell and as an extension, fear of purgatory and excommunication. The Catholic Church has invented those last two concepts. Both texts also stress the comfort that the believer receives along with salvation in the Evangelical framework. The Sheep Shed text speaks of the weak and burdened being revived. Along the same lines, the Sermons text has the Evangelical preacher speaking on the comfort of the Gospel. Central for the Evangelists was a basic trust placed in the Gospel message. (Ozment, p. 243) This is contrasted with the numerous rituals and conditions that the Papists force upon their adherents. Given a choice between a religion that adds strife and one that brings comfort, the choice is easy.

The last major theme stressed in the texts is that of segregation vs. fraternity. Each text claims that the Catholic Church furthers the inequality in society. Only the clergy actually had grace. In contrast, the Evangelical message was that grace is given to the sinners, not to the (self)righteous. Not only was the Catholic Church complicit in the unjust taxation system in Germany at the time, it added to insult injury by selling salvation. (Ozment, p. 279) The souls left anguishing in Purgatory were the poor because they could not afford to buy their way out. The Evangelicals, on the other hand, demand no such payments. They are silent on the tax issue but peasants had no quibbles about supporting a local preacher. All are welcome into the Evangelical religion, without regard to status or wealth. This ties in with the comfort found in the Gospel.

Conclusion

The woodcuts were tremendously effective pieces of propaganda. The Evangelicals were able to wrap their message in concurrent layers, first in visual metaphor, and secondly in expository prose. The visual metaphors allowed for a wide-spread influence. However, with this powerful medium, there was danger of the onlooker misreading the image. However, most of the metaphors would work towards the propagandist’s favor. To help rectify this, the accompanying text acted to both clarify and deepen the meanings in the image. As it was designed to be read aloud, the text would affect the listener much easier than if it was written in standard prose. Both the text and the image worked in tandem to first identify with the onlooker/listener and associate his grievances with the Catholic Church. Launching off of this, the woodcut would then present the Evangelical counter-message. This tactic proved to be wildly successful, perhaps too successful, as evidenced by the Peasants War of 1525 CE. Like modern day political cartoons, each woodcut played on what was happening at the time of its creation. For the modern reader, the Evangelists woodcuts provide an excellent opportunity for study of the German society through the course of the Reformation.