Reformation Day

Reformation Day

Reformation Day is a Protestant Christian religious holiday celebrated on 31 October, alongside All Hallows’ Eve during the triduum of Allhallowtide. Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses on the door of the All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Electorate of Saxony in the Holy Roman Empire, on October 31, 1517.

About Reformation Day in brief

Summary Reformation DayReformation Day is a Protestant Christian religious holiday celebrated on 31 October, alongside All Hallows’ Eve during the triduum of Allhallowtide. The holiday is a significant one for both Lutheran and Calvinist Churches, although other Protestant communities also tend to commemorate the day. The Roman Catholic Church recognized it only recently, and often sends its official representatives in ecumenical spirit to various commemoration events held by Protestants. It is lawfully and officially recognized in some states of Germany and sovereign countries of Slovenia and Chile. This document may be from 1567, however, dating from the first year of Luther’s life. The first Sunday after 15 October, every year, is to be observed in the city of Regensburg, Germany, in order for the New Church in New Regensberg to be opened for the first time since the Reformation. The day Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses on the door of the All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Electorate of Saxony in the Holy Roman Empire, is regarded as the start of the reformation. It has never been proven that Luther posted the theses on October 31, 1517, but available data suggest that it was the day when Luther sent his work to Albert of Brandenburg, the Archbishop of Mainz. Some scholars have questioned Melanchthon’s account, since he did not move to Wittensberg until a year later and no contemporaneous evidence exists for Luther’s posting of theses.

Others counter that such evidence is unnecessary because it was custom at Wittenburg university to advertise a disputation by posting theses in the church of Allaints’ Church, also known as Castle Church. Luther’s writings circulated widely, reaching France, England, Italy, and England as early as 1519. He published a commentary on the Psalms on Galatians and his Work on the Babylonian Captivity of a Christian Nation in 1520: On the Christian Nation, On the Babylonians and On the Freedom of aChristian Nation. In 1516–17, Johann Tetzel, a Dominican friar and papal commissioner for indulgences, was sent to Germany to raise money to rebuild St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. He enclosed in his letter a copy of his \”Disputation of Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences\”, which came to be known as the Ninety. Theses 86 asks: Why does the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of St. Peter with the money of poor believers rather than with his own money? Luther objected to a saying attributed to Tetzel that \”As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs. \” He insisted that, since forgiveness was God’s alone to grant, those who claimed that indulgence absolved buyers from all punishments and granted them salvation were in error.