On This Day in Church History
A real event from the story of the church on each calendar day, told with its setting and what came of it, and quoted word for word from sources published before 1931.
Luther's Ninety-Five Theses
October 31, 1517 · Wittenberg, Germany
The setting
Martin Luther was an Augustinian monk and professor of theology at Wittenberg. He was troubled that indulgences were being sold to ordinary people as a way to escape punishment for sin, and he wanted the issue debated.
The story
Dated October 31, 1517, Luther put out ninety-five statements for academic debate on the power of indulgences. The opening line invited scholars to discuss them, out of love for the truth. They were written in Latin for scholars, but printers soon spread them across Germany.
The first thesis set the tone for everything that followed: Christ's call to repent is not a single act but describes the whole life of a believer. Later theses argued that the church's true treasure is not money or merit, but the gospel itself.
“Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said Poenitentiam agite, willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance.”
“The true treasure of the Church is the Most Holy Gospel of the glory and the grace of God.”
What happened next
The debate Luther hoped for became a movement. Within a few years he was excommunicated and stood before the emperor at Worms in 1521. The Reformation reshaped Western Christianity and put the Bible in ordinary people's hands in their own languages.
Why it matters: Luther's first thesis is still a good daily reminder: following Jesus means a whole life of turning back to God.
Source: Martin Luther, Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences, in Works of Martin Luther, vol. 1 (A. J. Holman, Philadelphia, 1915), Opening statement and Theses 1, 62. Public domain.
Church Family Tree
One church, many branches →
Nine eras of church history, a family tree of the major traditions, and how the Pentecostal revival, fed by many Protestant streams, produced the Assemblies of God.
Other days
October 16
Latimer and Ridley: "Play the Man"
1555 · Oxford, England
October 19
Disaster at the Surrey Gardens Music Hall
1856 · London, England
October 20
Wesley and the Wednesbury Mob
1743 · Wednesbury and Walsall, England
October 24
First Communion on Aniwa
1869 · Aniwa, New Hebrides (Vanuatu)
October 28
The Battle of the Milvian Bridge
312 · Rome, Italy
October 29
The Last Diary Entry of James Hannington
1885 · Busoga, near Uganda
October 31
Luther's Ninety-Five Theses
1517 · Wittenberg, Germany
November 5
The Patons Land on Tanna
1858 · Tanna, New Hebrides (Vanuatu)
November 6
Jonathan Edwards Writes "A Faithful Narrative"
1736 · Northampton, Massachusetts
November 10
"Dr. Livingstone, I Presume?"
1871 · Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika
November 11
The Mayflower Compact
1620 · Cape Cod, Massachusetts
November 12
Müller Opens His Second Orphan House
1857 · Ashley Down, Bristol, England
November 14
Samuel Seabury Consecrated America's First Bishop
1784 · Aberdeen, Scotland