Page 48 - 100 Events That Made History

The 95 Nailing notices to the door

of the local church was a
Theses community’s attention.
common way of bringing
a matter to the local

When a German monk decided to tell the
Catholic Church to clean up its act, he
sparked a huge protest movement that
led to the emergence of Protestantism.

How a one-man religious
PROTEST went viral

From lawyer to monk
Martin Luther was born in Germany
in 1483. He was studying to be a
lawyer when, one day, he was caught By the way…
in a violent storm. The terrified young I was famous for my bad
man prayed to his favorite saint, “If temper—maybe because
you save me, St. Anne, I’LL BECOME I suffered from awful
A MONK!” When Luther escaped constipation all my life!
unharmed, he kept his promise.

St. Peter’s Basilica in
Rome was built mainly A Church gone bad
with money from After many years, Luther came to feel
Papal Indulgences. that the Catholic Church had gone
astray. Many priests were LAZY AND
CORRUPT. The head of the Church,
the Pope, raised money by selling
“Papal Indulgences”—a system
where people gave money to the
Pope and, in return, he forgave
their sins, on behalf of God.
Luther wanted the Church to
set a better example.

What came before…

In 1054, the CHRISTIAN CHURCH The pope who excommunicated
SPLIT. The Roman Catholic Luther, Leo X (left), was from the
Church in the West was ruled rich and powerful MEDICI FAMILY
by the Pope. The eastern Greek of Florence, Italy. The family
Orthodox Church was led by produced a total of four popes
the Patriarch of Constantinople. and two queens of France.
46