A brief retelling of the birth of the Protestant Reformation with the hanging of Luther’s 95 Theses on October 31, 1517.

This approaching October 31, 2017, when most people in the USA will be celebrating “Hallow-een,” with pumpkins, eating pumpkin pie, going “trick-or-treat”-ing, and make-believe witches riding broomsticks, Christians will either be in worship on All-Saints Eve –November 1^st is all Saints’ Day with a reading from Hebrews 11:1-12:3 – or celebrating the “eve” of the Protestant Reformation.

On October 31, 1517, an Augustinian monk walked from the monastery and school where he taught to All Saints Cathedral in Wittenberg, a city in the electorate of Saxony in present-day Germany. Clenched in his fist was a rolled-up scroll which was flattened out on the door of the Cathedral and then secured there. On the scroll were 95 theses as an invitation to a debate. The monk’s name was Martin Luther, the son of Hans and Margarethe (nee: Lindemann) Luther.

Luther got the debate he wanted but the “protest” he made was “contested” by one John Eck who sided with the wishes of Pope Leo X.

Luther became the center of attention throughout Europe. The nailing of the 95 Theses on the door of all Saints Cathedral was not the one incident which brought about European-wide attention. What did bring attention was the circulation of the 95 Theses in several cities from east to west and north and south throughout the German domains—Saxony, Bavaria, the Rhineland, the Palatine, Austria, and Alsace-Lorraine, and also into Switzerland. In point of fact, it took twelve years for an actual “Protestant Reformation” to take place. It was on April 19, 1529, when six Princes and representatives of 14 imperial Free Cities gathered at the Memorial Church in the city of Speyer to issue a petition calling for the Imperial Diet to not hinder the spread of the evangelical faith as expounded by the Lutherans across the whole of Europe. It was called a “Protest.” Since it was a Testimony on behalf of Luther and the spread of what he represented, it was called the “Letter of Protestation.” It was printed and made public. It was signed by Johann, Elector of Saxony; Georg, Margrave of Brandenburg; Ernst, Duke of Braunschweig-Lineburg; Philipp, Landgrave of Hesse; and Wolfgang, Prince of Anhalt.

The text was then sent to the Holy Roman Emperor by an embassy. From this time the supporters of Luther were called “Protestants,” and not because of what they were against but what they were for. Later the term “Protestant” was used to designate the whole renewal movement which included the “reforms” sought by John Calvin, Huldrich Zwingli, Bathasar Hubmaier, Menno Simons, and others. The story of the Reformation is much larger than Luther and that is another story in and of itself.

Luther’s letter of protest on October 31, 1517 lit the fires of renewal across all of Europe and into England, which has since become referred to the Protestant Reformation.

Worcester, PA, October, 2017 – Christian History Institute (CHI), publisher of Christian History magazine (CHM), announces its set of four magazine issues, #115 “Luther leads the way;” #118, “The People’s Reformation;” #120, “Calvin, Councils and Confessions;” and #122, “The Catholic Reformation.” With this series set, Christian History Magazine commemorates the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation, which began October 31, 1517. These magazine issues and others are available at no-cost, on the website and by subscription, at: www.ChristianHistoryInstitute.org.

Issue #115 examines the life and impact of Martin Luther, leader and inspiration of the most significant reformation of faith since the time of Jesus Christ. Influenced by early reformers such as John Wycliffe and Jan Hus, Luther not only translated the Bible into the German language, but inspired a church and cultural revolution in Europe by discovering and defining the doctrine of salvation by faith, dependent upon scripture alone. His revelation challenged the foundations of a dominant and corrupt Catholic Church and helped inspire institutions that over time, underwrote Western Civilization.

Seldom has the life of one man affected his culture more than that of Luther, who revolutionized, music, theology, law, education, marriage and politics. Over the course of his life of sixty-three years (1483 – 1546), Luther opposed a corrupted and elite Catholic Church establishment and identified a dynamic Faith, defined by a personal relationship with a historical and living creator and savior. With Luther’s leadership, beginning with his distribution of 95 theses on indulgences in 1517, the reformation movement would not only reveal corrupt church practices but incite an explosion of freedoms and diversity, ending the European medieval period of history and ushering in modern times.

CHM issue #118 examines a Reformation movement that cast European society and culture into extraordinary and rapid change. In a short fifty-year period, the ideas of Luther, Huldrych Zwingli, Martin Bucer, John Calvin and other reformers would challenge the rule of a fractured and corrupt Catholic church, as well as kings and magistrates, causing one of the most extreme periods of radical social change in recorded history.

The ideas and forces of the Reformation resulted in widespread public scandal, such as priests and nuns getting married (often to each other); peasants rebelling against the prevailing class system and demanding rights from overlords; churches violently attacked and artwork plundered by parishioners eager to abolish superstition, idolatry and relic worship. Church services were transformed as Christians sought to reinvent church meetings. New roles for women were created as new denominations opened options to women, such as the pastor’s wife, while the role of nun declined. Kings and rulers chose sides and attacked those of opposing beliefs. Both Protestants and Catholics tracked down and killed Anabaptists, whose opposition to infant baptism was considered worthy of public torture and death by burning, which was considered appropriate for heresy judgments.