What was the Reformation? And why did so many Catholics at that particular time in history, the early 16th century, reject the authority of the Church to embrace it? In the first talk of this series, we attempt to summarize the nature of the Reformation as well as some of the most important causes of it. Luther is thought to have caused the Reformation, and he did, but only in the sense that a man who lights a match in a room filled with gas causes a fire.