500 Years Ago October 31st
Reformation
October 31, 1517, a German professor, scholar, and monk named Martin Luther wrote the “Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences.” Many in the Church world know it as The 95 Theses. Luther proposed a list of questions for debate on the Church’s practice of asking parishioners for payments for the forgiveness of sin. He attached the 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenburg, Germany.
The following is an excerpt from the 2003 movie, LUTHER
Dating the Reformation
Historians usually date the start of the Protestant Reformation to the 1517 publication of Martin Luther’s “95 Theses.” Its ending can be placed anywhere from the 1555 Peace of Augsburg, which allowed for the coexistence of Catholicism and Lutheranism in Germany, to the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years’ War. The key ideas of the Reformation—a call to purify the church and a belief that the Bible, not tradition, should be the sole source of spiritual authority—were not themselves novel. However, Luther and the other reformers became the first to skillfully use the power of the printing press to give their ideas a wide audience.
Worthy note: No reformer was more adept than Martin Luther at using the power of the press to spread his ideas. Between 1518 and 1525, Luther published more works than the next 17 most prolific reformers combined.
For you lover’s of Church History, more can be gleaned here: http://www.history.com/topics/reformation
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