Era

The Reformation

Also Known As Protestant Reformation

The Early Modern World

The Reformation, or Protestant Reformation, was the religious and political upheaval that permanently split western Christianity, conventionally dated from 31 October 1517, when the German theologian Martin Luther is said to have posted his Ninety-five Theses against the sale of indulgences on the door of the Wittenberg castle church, to the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which ended the Thirty Years' War fought substantially over the religious division Luther began. It produced the Lutheran, Reformed and Anabaptist traditions that broke from the authority of the Pope in Rome, prompted the Catholic Church's own Counter-Reformation, and reshaped the political map of Central Europe through decades of religious warfare.

Facts

Start Year

1517 1

Geographic Scope

Centered on the German-speaking lands, especially Electoral Saxony where Luther worked, spreading across much of Western and Central Europe, including Switzerland, France, the Low Countries, Scandinavia and the British Isles. 1

Disputed

End Year

1648 1

The Peace of Westphalia in 1648, ending the Thirty Years' War, is the most commonly cited close; other historians end the period earlier, with the Peace of Augsburg in 1555.

FAQs

Did Martin Luther really nail the Ninety-five Theses to the church door?

The nailing is a tradition that modern scholarship has challenged; the posting of the theses in 1517 is not in doubt.

The story is a tradition, and modern scholarship has challenged it. Luther did post a series of arguments against the sale of indulgences on 31 October 1517, known today as the Ninety-five Theses. The tradition says he nailed them to the door of the Wittenberg church. Whether he posted them at the church, sent them to his bishop, or did both is not settled, but either way his friends and supporters copied them, and the printing press spread them quickly through Germany in 1518.

Connections

Associated With

Society of Jesus

The Fugger Banking and Merchant House

In Era

The Early Modern Period

Source Wikipedia

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