Language matters: Oct. 31 and Posting of 95 Theses (Writer's Almanac)

from Garrison Keillor's (Minnesota Public Radio list serv for Daily Birthdays/anniversaries / history):

It was on this day that a German priest and theology professor named Martin Luther published his 95 Theses, an event that led to the Protestant Reformation. At first, he was not trying to cause a split. He was hoping instead that his statements would shame the Church into mending its ways.  He was upset by corruption within the Church, and especially upset by the practice of selling indulgences, which the Pope Leo X was then using to raise funds for the restoration and refurbishing of St. Peter's Basilica. But the selling of indulgences was actually the iceberg tip of a deeper theological issue: a debate over the doctrine of Justification and its role in salvation. The Roman Catholic Church's position was that man could not be saved by faith alone; good works must accompany the faith. And at the time, buying indulgences to save one's soul and help achieve salvation in the afterlife counted as something somewhere between good works and spiritual insurance.
Luther insisted that this was wrong, theologically so, because only God could grant salvation. The pope could not, Luther said; and the practice of selling and buying indulgences was harmful to Christianity because the false assurance misled people from being faithful Christians. His language grew stronger over time, and he wrote: 'All those who consider themselves secure in their salvation through letters of indulgence will be eternally damned, and so will their teachers.'
There were attempts at mediation and counseling by the Vatican, but slowly a virulent confrontation between Luther and Pope Leo X developed. He was excommunicated, declared a heretic and an outlaw. He was a hero of many German townspeople.
He went into hiding and translated the Bible from Latin into German, an act of great linguistic importance: It helped unify the different dialects of German. Goethe later said, 'It was Luther, who has awakened and let loose the giant: the German language.' He married a nun, breaking the chastity vow, and setting a precedent for married Protestant clergy. He continued to give Mass into his old age, but celebrated it in German rather than Latin.