On the 31st October 1517 - five hundred years ago this week - the friar Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg in Germany. Europe would never be the same again.
The fallout from his argument with aspects of Catholic teaching and practice created, according to one of our guests today, 'one of the most highly-charged and transformative periods in history.'
The Protestant Reformation shaped modern Europe and its political, social and cultural life, as well as radically changing its religious landscape.
Today we seek to explore the essence of the Reformation and assess some of its multiple consequences. We look for its impact on Wales, assess the astonishing man at its heart, and ask what he'd have made of today's church, with its apparently unending variety. Joining Roy Jenkins are
the journalist and broadcaster Peter Stanford, who's marking the anniversary with his book "Martin Luther: Catholic Dissident";
Diarmaid MacCulloch, much celebrated writer and broadcaster, and Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford University. He's the author of "All Things Made New - Writings on the Reformation"; and Dr David Ceri Jones Head of the Department of History and Welsh History at Aberystwyth University. Show less