Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

So, the Diet of Worms, then.

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    So, the Diet of Worms, then.

    Alternate histories game:

    Say Charles V, upon listening to Martin Luther, had, instead of pondering sanctions said: "Christ, Mart, these 95 theses of yours are actually pretty good. I would be out of my mind to punish you. Come on in and have a cup of tea."

    What are the major ways in which the world be different today?

    #2
    So, the Diet of Worms, then.

    Monty Python would have had less material to work with.

    Comment


      #3
      So, the Diet of Worms, then.

      I don't think they had tea in central Europe in those days.

      Comment


        #4
        So, the Diet of Worms, then.

        I think they might have drunk some mead together. Or a sickly German white wine.

        Comment


          #5
          So, the Diet of Worms, then.

          Ok, mead instead of tea. What happens next?

          Comment


            #6
            So, the Diet of Worms, then.

            I imagine they'd have drunk a half decent riesling, rather than a sickly wine.

            I suppose you'd have not had a 100 years war, fragmenting of the Holy Roman Empire, you'd probably have not had disposessed fundamentalist losers heading off and making North America WASP rather than Spanish catholic.

            Without a reformation you may well have lost the critical thinking that led to the enlightenment, too. Arguably Christianity would have atrophied in the same way that Islam appeared to after about 1400.

            Basically, the world would be very different.

            Comment


              #7
              So, the Diet of Worms, then.

              I wouldn't be sat here wondering what the fuck this thread is on about, for starters.

              Diet of worms, though. I'm even confused about that. Do you mean, a diet consisting only of worms, much like that kid who only ate marmite sandwiches, but with worms. OR do you mean what worms eat, which I guess is not a lot, seeing as they don't have mouths. Do they exist on osmosis? Is their skin a semi-permeable membrane?

              Comment


                #8
                So, the Diet of Worms, then.

                Diet = Conference (can't think of the mot juste)
                Worms = Place in Germany
                Diet of Worms - Major church conference on how to deal with religious heterodoxy in the 16th century.

                Comment


                  #9
                  So, the Diet of Worms, then.

                  On the hypothetical as stated, the most likely immediate outcome would have been that Charles V would have poisoned/deposed/excommunicated; it wasn't as if the Counter Reformation was all his idea.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    So, the Diet of Worms, then.

                    The world would have been like (the other) Lyra's in The Northern Lights, "Pope John Calvin" and all.

                    Maybe.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      So, the Diet of Worms, then.

                      Boy, you guys are pessimistic. No shouts for the papacy being forced to accept a slimmed down role, similar to that of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and a United Italy emerging slightly earlier?

                      No thoughts that the "protestant ethic" might have swept all of Europe rather than be restriced to the north? With consequent faster economic growth in Europe's periphery?

                      No religious division in Europe might have allowed a better defense of the east against the Turks. Mohacs might have gone rather better than it did, and the House of Habsburg might not have got its hands on Bohemia, Moravia and Hungary.

                      Comment

                      Working...
                      X