From the viewpoint of eight common citizens, 'Lay Theology in the Reformation' investigates the arrival of the Protestant Reformation. These eight citizens were significantly disturbed by events of 1521-1525- enough to write treatises, letters, dialogues, and sermons, which were published. These documents should be considered testimony to the interest of laypeople in the affairs of the church, and their willingness to debate complicated theological training. Furthermore, the works are some of the the first documents of lay theology and piety. However, these writings are also propaganda: disappointed with the Catholic clergy and with secular authorities, the authors of these pamphlets were invited to prophesy, preach, and convert their readers/listeners lest Christ return soon to find his church unprepared. A new apostolate was arranged for laypeople, something the clergy had feared for centuries and something which civic authorities feared as a potential source of radical ideas.