The Reformation began in 1517 when the monk Martin Luther published his Ninety-Five Theses challenging the sale of indulgences, an act traditionally located at Wittenberg. The movement, aided by the printing press and vernacular Bibles, rejected papal authority and split Western Christendom into Catholic and emerging Protestant confessions such as Lutheran and Reformed. It spread rapidly through German, Swiss, Dutch, Scandinavian and English lands, often allied with princes and city governments. The schism reordered religious and political loyalties across Europe.
It reshaped European politics, literacy and the relationship between church and state, and helped drive a century of confessional warfare. In cities it altered the use of churches, monastic property and civic ritual, with lasting effects on the religious geography of towns.