Hey folks, Barry Cooper here.

In this episode, Martin will be reflecting on some potentially scary moments

from his childhood.

So if you're listening with kids, you might want to consider previewing the episode yourself before listening.

Okay, here we go. It's November the 10th, 1520, Martin Luther's 37th birthday.

As he sits in a local tavern, he's in reflective mood.

Given his reputation as a stubborn and combative monk rising up against the might of Rome, he

chuckles to himself.

He well remembers how timorous and sensitive he was as a younger man, how he was terrified of

the wrath of God, terrified at the thought of demons, and terrified of the Prince of Darkness himself.

Many regions are inhabited by Devas.

Prussia is full of them and Lapland full of witches.

In my native country, on the top of a high mountain called Poublesberg,

there is a lake into which if a stone be thrown,

a tempest would arise over the whole region.

The dark waters of the lake are the abode of captive demons.

His fear of spiritual beings was rooted in personal experience.

I recall in my earliest days in Mansfield seeing a devil

depart from the body of a possessed man.

Yeah, yeah, at the convent, just at the ringing of the bell at Vespas it was.

That was my early life.

Bells, relics, priests and monks, steeper and spires, masses for the dead,

...