1517: Martin Luther and the Invention of the Reformation

Martin Luther's posting of the 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on 31 October 1517 is one of the most famous events of Western history. But did it actually happen?

Leading Reformation historian Peter Marshall reviews the available evidence for the 500th anniversary, and concludes that, very probably, it did not.

Discover how - and why - a 'non-event' ended up becoming a defining episode of the modern historical imagination as Marshall explores the multiple ways in which the figure of Martin Luther, and the nature of the Reformation itself, have been remembered and used for their own purposes by subsequent generations of Protestants and others - in Germany, Britain, the United States and elsewhere.

Peter Marshall is Professor of History, University of Warwick, and is a leading expert in the history of the Reformation and its impact in the British Isles and beyond. He is a winner of the Harold J. Grimm Prize for Reformation History, and has been shortlisted for the Longman/History Today Book of the Year Award. He is co-editor of the English Historical Review, and a frequent reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement, Literary Review, The Tablet and other periodicals.