How the Reformation sowed the seeds of Brexit | Martin Kettle

The 500th anniversary of Lutheranism will pass unmarked in Britain. But it left a toxic and destructive legacy

Five hundred years after he challenged the authority of the papacy by nailing his 95 theses to the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany, Martin Luther no longer means much in the UK, this still supposedly Protestant country. The anniversary of Luther’s historic act of defiance on 31 October will pass mostly unremarked, certain to be eclipsed by the autumn trashfest that is the Americanised version of Halloween.

These days, the name Luther is more likely to invoke a TV detective series starring Idris Elba than the monk from a Saxon coalmining family who rocked Europe to its core half a millennium ago. The words Martin Luther are more associated with the great American civil rights leader than the man after whom Dr King was named.

Related: After 500 years, Europe’s Reformation scars have all but healed, study finds

It used to be common in England to believe that the Reformation had given this country a special advantage in the world

Related: The Reformation should have been a warning to Remainers

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