Page 49 - 100 Events That Made History

Hammer time
On October 31, 1517, Luther nailed Did you know?
a notice to the door of the Church in In hiding at Frederick’s castle,
Wittenberg, listing the 95 things he Luther disguised himself
calling himself “Junker
believed were wrong with the by growing a beard and
Church. The Pope and other Jörg”—“Sir George.”
Church leaders were furious,
but many people agreed with
Luther. His “95 THESES” John Calvin created a strict
were translated from version of Protestantism at his
Latin and distributed church in Geneva, Switzerland.
all over Germany.
Luther had started a
religious revolution!

How it changed the world
Though he only set out to reform
the Church, Luther’s actions led to
a new type of Christianity called
Protestantism, which 800 million
people worldwide follow today. The
95 Theses led to the era of religious
upheaval we call the Reformation.

Reform spreads
Luther was excommunicated (banned) from the
Church and declared an outlaw. He WENT INTO
HIDING, but was protected by his local prince,
Frederick the Wise. He continued to speak out
against the Church, and, alongside other reformers,
such as Frenchman John Calvin and John Knox
from Scotland, he began to lay the foundations for
the Protestant branch of Christianity, which took
root in northern Europe.

What came after…

Arguments over the
Reformation led to the THIRTY In England, the Reformation
YEARS’ WAR (1618–48). During began when King HENRY VIII
the conflict, Germany lost divorced his wife, was
up to 40 percent of its excommunicated by the Pope,
population, and a third of and set himself up as head
its towns were destroyed. of the new Church of England.
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