When Martin Luther rebelled against the Church of Rome and nailed his Ninety-five Theses to a church door in Wittenberg he sent shock waves through the Christian World.

This was the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, which would cleave Christendom in two.

But where did Luther’s ideas come from?

And what actually occurred during the Reformation?

James Aitken Wylie in his seminal work, The History of Protestantism explains the origins of this religious revolution through to its impact across the world.

Through exposing the precursors of Protestantism, such as the Waldenses, and explaining how the Roman Catholic church had developed since the fall of the Roman Empire, Wylie is able to explain how mid-sixteenth century Europe became a hotbed of discussions on religion and the position of the Church of Rome.

He uncovers how the founding fathers from Luther and Hus to Calvin and Zwingli forged their churches under the oppression of the Roman Catholic leaders, and sometimes in conflict with other Protestant churches.

Wylie uncovers how different nations reacted to the advent of Protestantism through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, including Switzerland, France, Scandinavia, England and the multitude of German states in the Holy Roman Empire.

Protestantism had no centralized organization to define doctrine so across these varying regions differing churches developed. Wylie explains their different theological positions and why such differences arose.

The History of Protestantism is essential reading for anyone interested in how this faith broke with Rome and survived through its tumultuous first few centuries to develop into the religion that it is recognizable as today.

James Aitken Wylie was a Scottish historian of religion and Presbyterian minister. He was a prolific writer and is most famous for his twenty-four book long The History of Protestantism, which was first published in 1878. Wylie died before completing his History of the Scottish Nation in 1890.