Augustinian friar, Martin Luther, is synonymous with the Protestant Reformation. Any discussion of that movement inevitably includes lengthy discourse concerning his contribution and influence over a faction of Christianity, albeit perpetually splintered, which endures to this day. Not unlike the centuries that preceded it, the sixteenth century was one of political and religious turmoil. While Martin Luther may have been the catalyst that sparked the protestant reformation, he was far from the first and only person who sought reform. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries saw the rise of John Wycliffe and his followers, the Lollards, and Jan Hus and his followers, the Hussites. While both men and their legacies served to inform the reformation to come, neither were as …show more content…
“Lutheranism dates from 31 October, 1517, when Luther affixed his theses to the church door of the castle of Wittenberg. Although he did not break with the Catholic Church until three years later, he had already come substantially to his later views on the plan of salvation” (McHugh). Luther did not initially seek to start his own religion. Instead he sought to reform the Church. Many speculate as to whether or not the Protestant Reformation would have happened at all had Rome granted Martin Luther an audience when he still sought reformation from within the Church. It is an impossible question to answer. Certainly much of Luther’s animosity toward the Papacy is borne from Rome’s disregard. One might say that this bitterness could have been avoided had a meeting been held, but it would not account for some of the other core tenets of Lutheranism; such as Sola Scriptura. While there are numerous and unnumbered distinctions between the modern Lutheran Church and Catholicism, the primary principles of Lutheranism that set it apart from Catholicism are as