In the sixteenth century, one seemingly innocuous act of posting a notice on a community bulletin board with an old rusty hammer resulted in the shattering of the medieval Christian Church. It wasn't just a split into two parts like splitting a chunk of firewood with the swing of an ax. But it was the shattering of an institution that dominated Western Culture into hundreds, if not thousands, of pieces. Some of those pieces became well respected and established Protestant Christian denominations while others became off-beat and eerie cults and sects. This event is known as the Protestant Reformation, and it is a story that has all the elements of an epic tale handed down from sages and told in the rhyming songs of minstrels. It has bravery, heroes, villains, successes, failures, adventure, drama, romance, wars, betrayal, loyalty, conviction, hypocrisy, and even comedy. This book will tell you what happened, but more importantly, the reason it happened.