500 years - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 2017 - 68 Euro Cent

500 years ago, on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther published his 95 theses in Wittenberg against the then practiced indulgences of the Catholic Church and thus set in motion a process of reform in the Christian world. The so-called Mitterbach Bible from the period around 1650, which is depicted on this stamp, is kept in the Protestant parsonage Mitterbach on Erlaufsee and still used today on high feast days. The Reformation was an event that went far beyond the purely ecclesiastical framework and significantly influenced the entire social and cultural history. Even before Luther there had been efforts to renew the church, but the year 1517 is considered the beginning of the reform process. This took place in different forms, which led to different denominations within the newly evangelical churches. In Austria, the three largest Protestant churches are the Evangelical Church AB (Augsburg Confession), also called Lutheran Church, which includes the majority of the Protestant population and is primarily oriented to Luther's teachings, the Evangelical Church HB (Helvetian Confession) or Reformed Church the Reformers Ulrich Zwingli and John Calvin and the Evangelical Methodist Church after John Wesley. All three churches celebrate the Reformation Year 2017 together under the motto "Freedom and Responsibility": Freedom is reflected in the willingness to take responsibility - for a peaceful and just living together, even across confessional boundaries.