Protestant Reformation

Standing before the most powerful man in Europe, the Holy Roman Emperor, Martin Luther refused to recant his criticisms of church practice. He knew full well that this moment of defiance could end with his execution. Some years earlier, Luther had sparked a firestorm by nailing his 95 Theses to a church door, exposing the deep corruption of the Catholic Church. He wasn’t the first to do this. A century prior, the Czech reformer Jan Hus spoke out against some of the very same failings — and the Church burned him alive for it. Even in Luther's own time, scholars like Desiderius Erasmus were quietly dismantling church teachings with new, radical translations of the Bible. What sets Luther apart from the others is the extent to which his calls for reform really resonated with the public. Today, we would say that he “went viral.” His criticisms hit exactly the right notes, at exactly the right moment, for a continent that was ready to burn the old world down.