The Protestant Reformation and the Fracture of Christian Europe

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther published his 95 Theses in Wittenberg, launching a challenge to papal authority, the sale of indulgences promoted by Johann Tetzel, and several traditional Catholic sacraments. Summoned before the Diet of Worms in 1521, Luther refused to recant and was formally excommunicated, yet Elector Frederick of Saxony sheltered him at Wartburg Castle, where Luther translated the New Testament into German in 1522, giving ordinary readers direct access to scripture for the first time. His doctrines of "sola fide" (faith alone) and "sola scriptura" (scripture alone) rejected the traditional model of ecclesiastical mediation between believers and God. The recently invented printing press allowed these ideas to spread across Europe with unprecedented speed, turning a regional theological dispute into a continental phenomenon.