Marshall - 1517: Martin Luther and the invention of the reformation

It is one of the greatest remembered moments in western history. With one action, lasting no more than a few minutes, a solitary monk sets in motion a chain of events which will change forever the religious, political, and cultural development of Europe, and of the wider world beyond. It is the moment, many people have thought, when the middle ages come suddenly to an end, and modernity commences. A moment which asserts the rights of individual conscience against unquestioned ancient authority; of public probity against corruption and venality; of reasoned faith against superstition and fear. The date is 31 October 1517. The place is Wittenberg, an unprepossessing town on the River Elbe in north-eastern Germany. The monk is Martin Luther, a thirty-three-year-old member of the Eremitical Order of Augustinian friars. The action is the nailing to the doors of the Schlosskirche, the church attached to Wittenberg Castle, of a single-sheet document. The document is a list of ninety-five thesesassertions or propositionsagainst papal teaching on indulgences. The result is a revolution.

Everyone, more or less, has heard of the Ninety-five Theses. They constitute one of the most famous written works of the last millennium. If a text can be iconic, then the Ninety-five Theses surely meets the criteria. Anthologies of Great Documents of Western Civilization, Milestone Documents in World History or 100 Documents That Changed the World regularly reprint them, alongside such works as Magna Carta, the American Declaration of Independence, The Communist Manifesto, and the Charter of the United Nations. A British daily newspaper recently ranked them, together with the 1833 Act abolishing slavery in the British Empire, the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, Maos Little Red Book of 1964, and Watson and Cricks 1953 detailing of the molecular structure of DNA, as one of 10 Documents that Changed the World.

The allegedly world-changing character of the Ninety-five Theses has ensured a place of honour in the mental library of European culture. Martin Luther wrote and published a great deal between 1517 and his death in 1546, but only those who have made some specialist study of his life and career can without difficulty recall the titles of any other of his works. For many people, the Ninety-five Theses are synonymous with Martin Luther, and Luther is synonymous with the Reformation, and everything which that word has come to represent in our understanding of the past. Admittedly, detailed knowledge of what the Ninety-five Theses actually say may be at something of a premium. Their numerical quantity certainly militates against easy rote learning of their contents. The compilers of a book of 101 Great Cultural Lists, beginning with the Seven Wonders of the World, have admitted that because we wanted to include only lists that could plausibly be memorized, we reluctantly excluded Luthers ninety-five theses.

But, in other ways, the sheer number of the Theses serves to reinforce their potency as a cultural point of reference. How could indulgences have been reputable or defensible when it was possible to think of so manyninety-five!good arguments against them? Ninety-five was in 1517 an entirely arbitrary number, without any previous mathematical or symbolic associations (and, as we shall see, it was not entirely clear to everyone in 1517 that the assorted Theses did add up to ninety-five). Yet, in modern times, the number has assumed a totemic significance for the definitive articulation of a compelling case. If Ten Commandments still represents the ultimate framing mechanism for any programme or manifesto, Ninety-five Theses arguably runs a close second.