THE MONK OF WITTENBERG AND THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION REMEMBERED Anno Domini 1517: Martin Luther, a thirty-three year old German monk, priest, theologian, academic and a seminal figure nails his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Church of All Saints, Wittenberg, Saxony in the Holy Roman Empire (an area of which is now Germany). In these theses (a disputation which in Latin is called, Disputatio pro declarative virtutis indulgentiarum), Luther vehemently and radically criticises what he perceived as clerical improprieties and ecclesiastical malpractices especially the sales of Indulgence, usury, Simony, nepotism and pluralism, sparking off a debate that would widen until it touches on many doctrines and devotional practices of the Catholic Church. This would lead to the unending proliferation of churches and Christian sects and denomination, beginning with the creation of new national protestant churches, the largest of which were the Lutheran, the Baltics and the Reformed churches. The effect of the Ninety-Five Theses was powered and spread by Johann Gutenbergs invention of the printing press, a technology that provided for the first time a means of rapid dissemination of new ideas.
Posted on: Sun, 25 May 2014 10:59:14 +0000
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