On April 17, 1521, a solitary monk stood before the Emperor of Germany, on trial for his life. The Pope had excommunicated him, accusing him of writing books which taught false religious doctrine, and now the Emperor was demanding that he retract his heretical teachings—or else be burned at the stake. But the defendant refused with the ringing words: "I cannot and will not retract anything, for it is neither safe nor right to act against one's conscience."

This courageous monk was Martin Luther. When he stood before the Diet of Worms on that April day, the Roman Catholic Church was the only Christian church in existence. Martin Luther was not trying to start a new religion. He had only meant to speak out against what seemed to him to be abuses in the Church. But his nailing of the famous Ninety-Five Theses on the church door in Wittenberg in 1517 was a spark that set off a tremendous explosion. For Luther had said with stout, stinging words what multitudes of Germans had felt but had not dared to say.

And now the German peasants, grateful for Luther's forthright stand, were threatening to rise in rebellion if the valiant monk was condemned to death. Martin Luther had unwittingly launched a great movement of reform, and it could not be stopped. The Protestant Reformation was born.

The inspiring story of the man who was destined to change the religious life of the Western world is told with vigor and penetration by Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, one of the best-known Protestant clergymen in the United States.

From the dust jacket