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. These rulers, such as Frederick the Wise and later John the Steadfast, adopted Lutheranism and established state churches.
Lutheran Theology 1517: Justification by Faith
As Luther’s ideas spread, German princes saw an opportunity to assert political independence from the Holy Roman Emperor and the Catholic hierarchy. Luther, a professor of biblical theology, viewed this as a distortion of the Gospel.
The resolution came in 1555 with the Peace of Augsburg, which established the principle of *cuius regio, eius religio* (“whose realm, his religion”). The creation of the Augsburg Confession in 1530, a foundational document that codified Lutheran doctrine and distinguished it from other Protestant movements.
Lutheran Theology 1517: The Birth of a Reformation Movement
This treaty legally recognized the Lutheran Church (alongside Catholicism) within the Empire, allowing rulers to determine the faith of their territory. 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.
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