April 17, 1521 It wasn’t some kind of crazy fad diet. Europe was in a state of flux during the early 1500s. The Renaissance celebrated humanism and undermined contemporary Christian culture. A threat to the church came from Martin Luther. Luther, a professor at the University of Wittenberg in Germany, was forthright about his convictions regarding justification by faith, papal authority, and the sacraments. The Reformation had begun when Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to