The beginning of the Reformation in 1517 is marked by Martin Luther’s posting of his 95 Theses in Wittenberg, Germany - Luther’s commentary and objections to the beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, where he served as a priest. One of Luther’s complaints about liturgical practice was that the Roman mass was conducted entirely in Latin and could not be understood by anyone except the clergy involved in the service. Luther introduced music in the vernacular (common language - in this case, German) and emphasized the education of the laity, because he believed that the worship service was the chief way that people learned about the faith they confessed. 

Luther wrote many hymns to be sung in the German language. A popular notion has been that Luther used the tunes of tavern songs for his hymns; this has proved, however, to be fiction. Luther’s most enduring hymn is “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”. It was probably composed the late 1520s – but all attempts to figure out precisely when he wrote it have failed. Based on Psalm 46 (God is our refuge and strength), Luther created a metrical version of the psalm language to be sung as hymn, in contrast to the practice of singing the full text of the Psalms in their original versions using psalm tones. The tune has been viewed as based on any number of sources: Gregorian chant, a French chanson, a psalm tune, or a German song called “Silberweise”. By the end of the 20th century,”A Mighty Fortress” has been sung in over two hundred languages with nearly one hundred English translations in existence.