According to legend, on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther, a Catholic monk of the Augustinian order serving in Wittenberg, Germany, nailed a document containing ninety five theses (points for discussion and debate) to the door of a chapel in Wittenberg. Luther's motive for this act was to provoke debate about what he regarded as errors in Roman Catholic Church teachings and practices and to correct abuses in the Church, particularly the practice of selling indulgences. The issues that Luther raised generated a much-wider debate, which in time split Western Christianity. The immediate outcome of that split was to be Lutheranism, a form of Protestant Christianity that enlisted millions of people with its appeal to freedom of conscience and freedom of speech.