Romanism, Relics, and Purgatory

Into this world add a total spiritual darkness, a complete void of truth, add in the unbridled lusts of the flesh. Now you have a picture of Germany in the early days of the 1500's (the 16th century) when Martin Luther was in his late teens and early twenties.

Life was at a low ebb. Most of the peasant, farm working men drank to drunkenness and lived a rough life. The Roman Catholic Church condemned all but a few saints to an endless labyrinth of fire called purgatory. The souls of the sinful were burned in great painfulness until the price of their sins was finally paid and they were purged. So life was even more hopeless, it was bad here and bad there.