Reformation Trivia
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107 free Reformation trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
60 free Reformation trivia questions with answers. The Protestant Reformation split Western Christianity, redrew the map of Europe and put the Bible into ordinary people's languages. This quiz covers the whole story: the forerunners Wycliffe and Hus, Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses and his stand at Worms, the year hiding in the Wartburg, Zwingli in Zurich and Calvin in Geneva, the Anabaptists, Henry VIII's break with Rome, Cranmer and Tyndale, the Counter-Reformation and the Council of Trent, and the religious wars that ended at Westphalia. It works for a Reformation Day event, a church youth group, a history class or anyone who wants to test what they remember from the 1500s. Easy questions ask what Luther nailed to the church door and where; the hard ones want the Swiss sausage incident, the pope's medal after St Bartholomew's Day and the printer of the 1534 Luther Bible. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the people, documents and events involved, and each question carries the sentence that supports it.
30 of 107 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Luther is said to have posted his theses on 31 October 1517, the eve of which feast?
All Saints' Day
All Saints' Day: whatever happened at the church door, that same day he mailed a copy, with a letter setting out his objections, to Archbishop Albert of Mainz.
Q 02In which town did Luther post his Ninety-five Theses?
Wittenberg
Wittenberg: the defiant hammer blows are probably legend; if he posted them at all, it was likely a routine notice announcing an academic debate.
Q 03The Ninety-five Theses attacked the sale of what?
Indulgences
Indulgences: they were banned in Luther's town, so many townspeople travelled to nearby towns to buy them.
Q 04Luther's theses attacked a papal fundraising drive meant to pay for building what?
St. Peter's Basilica
St. Peter's Basilica: under a secret deal, half the German takings went to repay the Fugger bank, which had lent Archbishop Albert the fees for his high office.
Q 05Which Dominican friar's fundraising campaign in nearby towns prompted Luther to act?
Johann Tetzel
Johann Tetzel: as he lay dying in 1519, Luther wrote to comfort him, telling him not to be troubled because the uproar had not begun on his account.
Q 06In what language were the Ninety-five Theses written?
Latin
Latin: they were written for a scholars' debate, yet once others translated them into German they quickly spread across Germany.
Q 07Which invention allowed the Reformation's ideas to spread across Europe so quickly?
The printing press
The printing press: presses turned Luther's short, punchy treatises into unexpected bestsellers, carrying his ideas far beyond the scholars he first wrote for.
Q 08Where was Martin Luther born in 1483?
Eisleben
Eisleben: his family moved away when he was a baby, yet he came back and died in the same town in 1546, aged 62.
Q 09What was Luther's father's line of work?
Copper mining
Copper mining: the trade made Hans Luder prosperous enough to send his eldest son to university, where he meant Martin to become a lawyer.
Q 10Which saint did Luther call on when, caught in a 1505 thunderstorm, he vowed to become a monk?
Saint Anne
Saint Anne: he later said he cried out to her as lightning struck nearby, and he kept the vow, quitting his law studies and selling his books, to his father's fury.
Q 11Luther belonged to which religious order?
Augustinians
Augustinians: he threw himself into fasting, long prayers and pilgrimage, yet later called his years as a friar a time of deep spiritual despair.
Q 12Which papal bull of 1520 threatened Luther with excommunication, and which he publicly burned?
Exsurge Domine
Exsurge Domine: Luther burned it along with books of church law, and in January Pope Leo X excommunicated him with a new bull.
Q 13Which Holy Roman Emperor presided over the Diet of Worms in 1521?
Charles V
Charles V: though firmly on the pope's side, he honoured the promise of safe passage, so Luther left Worms without being arrested.
Q 21Luther's hymn A Mighty Fortress Is Our God paraphrases the opening of which biblical text?
Psalm 46
Psalm 46: the psalm inspired its opening, and Bach later built his Cantata 80 on the hymn.
Q 22What was Luther's response to the German Peasants' War of 1524-25?
He urged the nobles to crush the rebels
He urged the nobles to crush the rebels: his pamphlet told princes to kill rebels without mercy, and their armies went on to slaughter tens of thousands.
Q 23Which radical preacher led the peasant army to defeat at Frankenhausen in 1525?
Thomas Müntzer
Q 14What did Luther refuse to do at the Diet of Worms?
Recant his writings
Recant his writings: he said going against conscience was neither right nor safe, but the famous line 'Here I stand' appears only in later versions of his speech.
Q 15What did the Edict of Worms do?
Declared Luther an outlaw
Declared Luther an outlaw: anyone could now kill him without legal consequence, and his books were ordered destroyed.
Q 16After the Diet of Worms, Frederick the Wise had Luther taken to which castle for safety?
Wartburg
Wartburg: his 'kidnapping' on the road home was staged by Frederick's men, and he lived there as a knight called Junker Jörg, growing out his hair and beard.
Q 17While hiding after the Diet of Worms, Luther is said to have thrown what at the Devil?
An inkwell
An inkwell: the tale is only legend, though Luther and his friends did tell of his fights with Satan in those months, when he translated the New Testament into German.
Q 18Katharina von Bora, whom Luther married in 1525, had been what?
A nun
A nun: Luther found husbands or jobs for all the women who fled with her except Katharina, whose matches fell through before she married him.
Q 19How were Katharina von Bora and her companions smuggled to freedom in 1523?
Hidden among fish barrels
Hidden among fish barrels: a merchant who regularly delivered herring to them drove the wagon out on Easter Eve, at Luther's request.
Q 20What did Katharina von Bora run to support the Luther household and its student boarders?
A brewery
A brewery: she ran the family farm too, but after Luther died, war laid waste to their land and she had to live on a prince's generosity.
Thomas Müntzer: after the rout he hid in a house in town, but the bag of letters he carried gave him away, and he was tortured and executed.
Q 24Where does the word 'Protestant' come from?
A protest at the Diet of Speyer in 1529
A protest at the Diet of Speyer in 1529: when the diet barred any further religious change, Lutheran princes and 14 free cities lodged a formal protest.
Q 25Which Swiss city was the base of reformer Huldrych Zwingli?
Zurich
Zurich: arriving at its Grossmünster in 1519, he ignored the Church's set cycle of readings and preached straight through the Gospel of Matthew.
Q 26What food was defiantly eaten during Lent in 1522 in an incident that launched Zwingli's reformation?
Sausages
Sausages: Zwingli was there but ate none, yet he preached that the Gospel gives no Lenten command, and the city's break with Rome followed.
Q 27Luther and Zwingli met at Marburg in 1529 but could not agree on what?
Christ's presence in the Eucharist
Christ's presence in the Eucharist: Luther insisted Christ was truly present, Zwingli saw a remembrance, and the rift kept their movements apart.
Q 28How did Zwingli die in 1531?
Killed in battle
Killed in battle: his push to force the Reformation on the Catholic cantons led to war, and he fell at Kappel.
Q 29What does the name Anabaptist mean?
One who baptizes again
One who baptizes again: members held infant baptism invalid, so they baptized believers who professed their faith, even if christened as babies.
Q 30Which three groups are direct descendants of the early Anabaptists?
Amish, Hutterites and Mennonites
Amish, Hutterites and Mennonites: the Amish began as a breakaway from the Mennonites, led by the Swiss preacher Jakob Ammann, whose name they took.