Luther's Ninety-Five Theses

October 31, 1517

An obscure German friar nailed, or perhaps mailed, ninety-five Latin propositions to the church door at Wittenberg, attacking the sale of indulgences. Within a decade his protest cracked Western Christianity in two and unleashed wars of religion that would scar Europe for over a century. The theses, written in Latin for scholarly debate, were translated and distributed by printers without permission, demonstrating print's revolutionary power.