Lutheranism: The First Break from Rome and Its Lasting Legacy. Lutheranism is often celebrated as the first branch of Protestantism, when Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the church door at Wittenberg. His protest against indulgences, papal abuses, and corrupt theology sparked the Reformation. Yet while Luther recovered the biblical doctrine of justification by faith, Lutheranism still carried forward many Catholic structures and introduced new fractures into th