LUTHERAN CHURCH
(Lutheranism)
This quotation illustrates two things. First, the enmity between the Protestants and the Catholic Church which the Lutherans had recently left. See for another anti-Catholic example of the Eastern Orthodox—{635099}. Second, the Muslim Ottoman Turks had recently conquered Constantinople and were very far from Iceland which was safe from their aggression. None the less, the hatred and fear of the Muslims had spread so far and fast in the Christian world, that even Christians who were in no danger prayed to be saved from them. Islamophobia was already well established in the middle of the 15th century.
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism that identifies with the teachings of Martin Luther, a 16th-century German reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation. The reaction of the government and church authorities to the international spread of his writings, beginning with the 95 Theses, divided Western Christianity. During the Reformation, Lutheranism became the state religion of numerous states of Northern Europe, especially in northern Germany and the Nordic countries. Lutheran clergy became civil servants and the Lutheran churches became part of the state.
