ABSTRACT
Most of us—when we consider the sixteenth-century Reformation—immediately think of Martin Luther in October 1517 nailing up his Ninety-five Theses against indulgences on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenburg. By his act, this obscure Augustinian professor, quite rightly, has been regarded as the catalyst of a protest movement that shook the Western world. No matter that what probably was posted represented a mere handwritten “list” of theses, and it wasn’t until February of 1518 when his Sermon on Indulgences and Grace was printed that Dr. Luther produced the “first best seller of the Reformation.” 1 Yet we may still pinpoint October 31, 1517, as the critical point of departure for the creation of Protestant Europe.
