The Other Halloween

Before pumpkins, witches and plastic teeth, All Hallow's Eve (Oct 31st) had quite a different meaning across Europe.

On

that day, in 1517, the German church reformer Martin Luther is alleged

to have nailed his "95 Theses" to the door of the Castle Church in

Wittenberg, thus sparking the Protestant Reformation.

In a

very modern-sounding critique of corruption in high places, one of

Luther's theses asked the question, "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?"

The Theses were

a series of short questions challenging the selling of indulgences -

written documents authorised by the Roman Catholic Church which

promised the remission of punishment for sins. These were being sold in

Luther's native city in order to raise money for the building of the St

Peter's Basilica in Rome. The local bishop - himself heavily in debt -

allowed the sale to go ahead in return for a cut of the profits.

The outraged Luther - at the time an Augustinian monk and Doctor of

Theology at the University of Wittenberg - objected to the idea that

forgiveness could be bought and sold in this way and penned the Theses

which, according to tradition, he than nailed to the church door. At

the time, church doors were regularly used as public notice boards, so

the act is certainly historically possible.

The theses, which challenged not only the sale of indulgences but also

other aspects of medieval Catholic teaching, soon caused a sensation

across Europe, being quickly translated from their original Latin into

German, French, Italian and English. Within a few years, Luther had

become the focus of a growing protest against Roman Catholic theology and

practice, a development which would drive the reformer to renounce his

monastic vows, be excommunicated by the pope, marry a former nun and

start new churches across the Empire.

At the heart of Luther's protest - the authority of the Bible over that

of church tradition, and the centrality of faith in Christ as the means

by which sins are forgiven - laid the foundation for a movement that resulted in new churches, new movements and, not surprisingly, new

controversies.

The Reformation had begun, without a carved pumpkin in sight.