As he developed his ideas, Luther gathered followers, who came to be called Protestants. At first Protestant meant “a follower of Luther,” but with the appearance of many other reformers, it became a general term applied to all non-Catholic western European Christians.

Pulpits and printing presses spread the Protestant message all over Germany, and by the middle of the sixteenth century people of all social classes had rejected Catholic teachings and become Protestant. What was the immense appeal of Luther’s religious ideas and those of other Protestants?

Educated people and humanists were attracted by Luther’s ideas. He advocated a simpler personal religion based on faith, a return to the spirit of the early church, the centrality of the Scriptures in the liturgy and in Christian life, and the abolition of elaborate ceremonies — precisely the reforms the Christian humanists had been calling for. His insistence that everyone should read and reflect on the Scriptures attracted the literate middle classes. Luther’s ideas also appealed to townspeople who envied the church’s wealth and resented paying for it. After cities became Protestant, the city council taxed the clergy and placed them under the jurisdiction of civil courts.

The printing press also contributed to Luther’s fame and success. Many printed works included woodcuts and other illustrations, so that even those who could not read could grasp the main ideas. Hymns were also important means of conveying central points of doctrine, as was Luther’s translation of the New Testament into German in 1523.

Luther worked closely with political authorities, viewing them as fully justified in reforming the church in their territories. He instructed all Christians to obey their secular rulers, whom he saw as divinely ordained to maintain order. Individuals may have been convinced of the truth of Protestant teachings on their own, but a territory became Protestant when its ruler, brought in reformers to re-educate the territory’s clergy, sponsored public sermons, and confiscated church property. This happened in many of the states of the empire during the 1520s and then moved beyond the empire to Denmark-Norway and Sweden.