500 Year Anniversary Of Martin Luther & The 95 Theses

[Liquid]

500 years ago today, on the 31st October 1517, University of Wittenberg theologian Martin Luther sent his 95 Theses or Disputation on the Power of Indulgences to the Archbishop of Mainz. He is also said to have nailed them to the doors of the churches in Wittenberg.

His paper challenged established Catholic Church dogma and papal bull. For example, he wrote that sacramental confession, having a priest listen to and accept you, is not enough for repentence; repentance is something which must come from within in a more honest acceptance of one's indulgences. He was tried for heresy and excommunicated from the Church in 1521 but the protestant reformation had begun.

The protestant reformation is arguably one of the most influential and critical events in all of European history and overflows into world history.

And it's been 500 long years since.

 

[SilkCutXJR]

You know so much about Germany! Is that Slovak flag real or are you a hidden German fellow?

I am no Christian , god forbid (pun intended)! But I think this movement of Luther and his fellow clericals and intellectuals has had an effect that spreads far wider into today´s Society than only changing Christian values. I live about 25 Minutes away from Wittenberg so in my County everything was converted to the festivities this year. I did not have time nor did I fancy going to Wittenberg on tuesday (thousands of People in basically a very small historic town centre, better ways to spend your day off) but I appreciate that Germany is celebrating it.

There are however a couple of other interesting things connected with the Event:

In east Germany, the "new states" (former GDR territory) celebrate October 31st as Reformation day. In west Germany,(old states) they have a day off because of All Saints day, November 1st. This year, because of the Anniversary, the government agreed that October 31st should be a federal Holiday for all of Germany. What basically happened is that a couple of states in West Germany snatched an additional day off´ in comparison to us here in the eastern part

What I also like is that my native federal state Saxony-Anhalt (bit like the U.S´states or counties in Britain) has changed it´s Motto this year from "welcome to the land of the early birds" (because a lot of People are working abroad and have to get up early because of the crappy economy here) into " Welcome to Saxony-Anhalt - state of origin of Reformation" with a Picture of Luther beneath, which gives my home state a far more positive and important face. The Motto can be seen frequently on motorways or in communities and it makes me proud.

PS: Last year, we celebrated 500 years of the German purity law for beer brewing, sadly the two Events did not coincide.