Welcome to five minutes in church history hosted by Dr Stephen Nichols, where we take a little

break from the present to go exploring the past. Travel back in time as we look at the people,

events, and even the places that have shaped the story of Christianity.

This is our story, our family history.

Let's get started.

On this episode of five minutes in church history, we are returning to the city of

Strasbourg. It was just a few weeks ago that we took a little tour along the Rhine

River and mentioned the city of Strasbourg. I want to

return there with you and look at one of Strasbourg's leading lights and a leading

reformer Martin Butzer. Now the first thing we need to say about Butzer is how to pronounce his name. It's spelled

B-U-C-E-R, but it's pronounced as if it were T-Z-E-R, so it's Martin Butzer.

He was born in 1491, and he died in 1551.

He was a monk.

He was an Augustinian monk, in 1517 he found himself in the city of Heidelberg and the

Augustinian chapter house.

Now a year later in 1518 in April of 1518 to be exact Martin Luther came to Heidelberg.

Luther was also an Augustinian monk and a few months prior Luther had penned his 95 theses and nailed them to the church door at

Vittenberg and began the Protestant Reformation.

Well, as an Augustinian monk, his fellow brothers in the Augustinian order wanted to and the

Augustinian order wanted to take him up on his offer for debate. And so they invited him to the chapter house or the sort of head of the Augustinian

monasteries in that region to Heidelberg for a debate.

And rather than simply debate the 95 theses that he had penned at Vittenberg, Luther wrote a whole

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