The Schmalkaldic War demonstrated the military power of the Lutheran states, but it also led to internal tensions. The Organizational Founding: From Movement to Church While the theological founding occurred in 1517, the organizational founding of the Lutheran Church as a structured entity happened in the 1520s.
Lutheran Church Founded Top Down 1523
This singular act of protest was not intended to create a new church but to spark an academic debate regarding the sale of indulgences and the corruption within the Holy Roman Empire. Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, marking the effective founding of the Lutheran movement.
Luther, a professor of biblical theology, viewed this as a distortion of the Gospel. Luther refused at the Diet of Worms, declaring that his conscience was captive to the Word of God, which effectively made him an outlaw and cemented the division.
Lutheran Church Founded Top Down 1523
These documents emphasized salvation through grace by faith alone (*sola fide*) and the authority of scripture (*sola scriptura*), drawing a clear line between Lutheran soteriology and the Catholic understanding of merit and works. It included Luther’s Small and Large Catechisms, which remain essential instructional texts.
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