October 31: Today is the anniversary of the day when Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Godness power to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral in 1517.

Martin Luther, shown in a portrait by Lucas Cranach the Elder, initiated the Protestant Reformation in 1517.

Martin Luther was a Catholic monk who increasingly alienated by selling indulgences to reduce the pains of purgatory after death. That practice enriched many senior prelates offered and sold pardons from the pulpits. The Pope authorized the indulgences market to raise funds for the Vatican.

The Protestant Reformation was a schism within Western Christianity that began with John Wycliffe, Jan Hus, Martin Luther and John Calvin, mainly. People were harassed with the corruption of the Church of Rome and went for support when Luther nailed his theses to protest. The "reformers" as they themselves called themselves protested against the doctrines, rituals, church leadership and structure of the Roman Catholic Church.

Pope Leo X excommunicated Luther. However, Luther got the physical and financial support to translate and publish the Bible in German. The separation of the assets in fixed assets, jewelry, artwork and other riches, caused harassment of the Catholic Church that led to the Thirty Years' War between 1618 and 1648.

On Saturday, October 31, 1517, a 33-year-old theology professor at Wittenberg University walked over to the Castle Church in Wittenberg and nailed a paper of 95 theses to the door, hoping to spark an academic discussion about their contents. In God’s providence and unbeknownst to anyone else that day, it would become a key event in igniting the Reformation.

Pope Leo X was appointed at the age of 38 years. He became Cardinal at 13 years old. He received minor orders at 8 years of age. He was the son of Lorenzo the Magnificent of the Medicis dynasty in Florence, the most powerful family of the Renaissance.

Luther´s Reformation led to religious wars within the Holy Roman Empire which culminated in the Thirty Years’ War between 1618 and 1648 when The Peace of Westphalia was signed to end the religious conflict.