A German monk by the name of Martin Luther didn’t agree with all of the Catholic Church’s doctrine.  The Catholic Church said that man is saved by works and not by faith, but Luther believed the opposite. 

In Luther’s time, the Catholics had a practice of selling indulgences.  An indulgence is when you pay the priests to excuse your sins.  Luther didn’t agree with this practice, and neither did he believe that the pope was always right as the Church claimed.  He believed that only the Bible was always right.  All these disagreements led him to write down all the things he didn’t agree about the Church.  These Ninety-five Theses were nailed to the door at Wittenberg Church.

Luther was exiled and a trial was set for him in 1521.  At the trial the Church pressured Luther to take back all he said.  Luther refused and was condemned a heretic. That meant anybody was free to kill him without penalty.  Luther’s friends hid him and took him to the castle at Wartburg where he translated the Bible into German. Martin Luther is the founder of the Lutheran Church.

Other churches started to join Luther during the reformation, and they were called the Protestants. 

History home - Early Church - Reformation Years - Golden Period - War Years - Decline of Colonies - Life in Russia - Life in America - about this site
 

All rights reserved.  Copyright 1996-2006.  Not to be downloaded in complete form.