Eisleben lay at the eastern foot of the Harz Mountains, where vegetation was lush, hills rolled one after another, wheat and barley grew in the fields, and villages dotted the mountains. It was Martin Luther's hometown.
In 1483, when he was born, wine was still being made in the north of the town, but it was not a drink for ordinary people's tables. People drank beer from morning till night; wine was only available during Sunday Mass.
Like many young men of his day, Luther often lingered in the town taverns during his student years. By the time he went to Wittenberg to continue his studies for a master's degree in theology, it had become Saxony's main beer-producing city.
Frederick III, the ruler of Saxony at the time, was a renowned "wise prince." He had traveled to the Holy Land of Jerusalem in 1493 and been made a Knight of the Holy Sepulchre. He was one of the most learned and versatile German princes of that age, and he was also a beer enthusiast.
In 1513, Pope Leo X, formerly Giovanni de' Medici, had his guests drink wine from golden barrels in celebration. When the new pope entered Rome, wine spouted from the fountains along the route of his carriage. Yet the cost of these celebrations came from the pope's own private fortune, not the Church's assets. The Church spent most of its money on building St. Peter's Basilica.
Indulgences had in fact been issued for centuries, but by the sixteenth century they had become more direct and public, with the practice growing increasingly excessive.
After Luther's theses were made public, he became a "celebrity." People watched his every move at all times; even every glass of beer he drank was recorded. His enemies therefore called him the "Wittenberg Drunkard."