It was not Luther’s idea to start a new Church, much less a whole movement. He was a devout Roman Catholic priest. He simply wanted to call attention to some of the more egregious excesses then taking place within the Church. That’s why, on October 31st, 1517, he wrote a letter to his Bishop, asking him to explain 95 particular issues that he, Luther, had with the Church as it was then organized. Luther knew the answers, of course, and he simultaneously nailed a copy of the 95 questions to the Church door in Wittenberg, where he, Luther, was a professor. This was standard practice in those days, if one wanted to start a public debate. Posting things on the Church door was sort of like putting them on Facebook, nowadays. If a couple intended to get married, the fact was posted on the Church door. If someone had an unpaid bill, he could post the fact on the Church door, before taking repossession action. Luther was doing nothing new and nothing revolutionary. He was following the rules as they then stood. But what he didn’t know was that a lot of other people had been asking the same questions, and that the Pope was looking for somebody to make an example of, to quiet some of the debate.
The Pope ordered Luther to appear in Rome to defend himself. Almost always, at that particular time in history, such a defense was generally followed by a brief visit with the Inquisitors, and, if you were still alive after that, a stint as the center of attention at a stake, while a large fire cleansed you of your heresy. Luther knew this, but had little choice. He headed for Rome. Along the way, while still in Germany, a local Prince who agreed with him “kidnapped” Luther. That is, he captured him on the road and held him in his castle. Luther, who may or may not have agreed to the arrangement, stayed there and wrote. In time, all of Germany was up in the air over Luther’s writings. Eventually, about half of Germany came down on his side, and about half on the Popes’.
As Luther moved further and further away from the “official” position of the Pope, he began to take direct actions that led, eventually, to a whole new Church. Luther himself never wanted it to be called “Lutheran”, but it became so. He translated the Bible into German so the German people could read it in their own language. He rejected celibacy for priests as being unbiblical, and eventually himself married an ex-nun who he had earlier helped escape from a convent. He rejected all sorts of human “works” as necessary to salvation, and insisted instead that we are all justified by faith, alone.