Skip to main content

Luther & the German Reformation - timeline

1483    Luther born

1510    Luther's trip to Rome

1513    Luther begins his work as a lecturer at Wittenberg university 

1517    95 Theses

1518    Heidelberg disputation

1519    Leipzig disputation (Eck) 

1520    Luther writes three key pamphlets 

1521    Luther's excommunication by the Pope enters into force. 

            Luther stands trial before Diet of Worms

            Luther whisked away to hiding place in Wartburg Castle

In Luther's absence, others undertook the reform of the church locally, including radical elements such as the Zwickau prophets (Carlstadt, Zwilling and others)   

1522    Luther completes translation of the New Testament into German in Wartburg Castle 

            Luther returns to Wittenberg and restores order, preaching on eight consecutive days.   

1524    Luther's followers go to different places bringing the new teaching, e.g. Latvia (1524), Denmark (1525) 

1524-5 Peasants' uprising led by Thomas Muntzer; Luther sides with the rulers and calls for massacre of rebels.  

1529    Colloquy of Augsburg; Luther and Zwingli unable to agree on doctrine 

1530    Augsburg Confession 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The history of the Christian Church in twenty places

α. Jerusalem (30 or 33 AD) The place where Christ, the Son-of-God-become-man, died on the Cross, was raised from the dead on the third day, and from where he ascended back to heaven. This is also where the Holy Spirit was poured out on the first disciples. Sometime after AD 44 (Acts 12), Peter, John and other Apostles dispersed across the world to bear testimony to the risen Christ. 1. Ephesus (approx. 100 AD) The place where the Apostles, Paul and John, handed over to the next generation of Christian leaders, which included the “Apostolic Fathers”. One such “Apostolic Father”, Ignatius of Antioch, passed through Ephesus on his way to martyrdom at Rome, and addressed a letter to the church at Ephesus. 2. Athens (second century) The centre of Greek thought, which Justin Martyr and other Second Century Apologists addressed in their presentations of the Christian faith, proclaiming Christ as the Logos (the Word or principle underlying the universe). 3. Lyon (from 177) The church in ...

Wilfrid of Ripon (634-709)

Our family recently visited Ripon in Yorkshire, an historic town associated with a figure called Wilfrid. On our visit to the Cathedral, it turned out that there was no biography available in the Cathedral shop, so I am minded to write my own. While this history is full of unfamiliar roles and concepts, nevertheless, these were our, albeit imperfect, Christian forefathers. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 3, warns of "boasting in men" and then goes on to say, "All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future -- all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's." It is in that spirit that I have penned the present brief life of Wilfrid of Ripon. The 600s is a long time ago, and at that time the map of our country looked quite different to the way it looks today. Just 200 years earlier, settlers (the Angles, Saxons and Jutes) had sailed across the North Sea from what is now Germany, Denmark and the...

George of Lydda ("Saint George")

Saint George, the patron saint of England, was an historical figure, although many things ascribed to him are not historical.  George of Lydda was born into a noble family in an area called Cappadocia (now Turkey), which at the time was populated by Greek speaking citizens of the Roman Empire. George was born around 280. His mother appears to have come from Diospolis/Lydda (now known as Lod, near Tel Aviv), the place where he was later to die. When his father died, George and his mother moved back to the town of her birth.  George was a soldier in the Roman army at the time of Emperor Diocletian. When the protracted persecution of Christians unleashed by Diocletian began to be directed at Christians in the army, George was martryred by decapitation at Lydda in the year 303.  George's death was said to have inspired Empress Alexandra of Rome (d. 314) to become Christian.  The later stories of dragon-slaying are not historical and do not appear in early hagiographies (...