There's a story, perhaps a myth, that on his way to law school Martin Luther was nearly struck by lighting and having survived the close encounter he decided to become a monk.Supposing it's true,which I feel is a little questionable, what if that lighting killed him?
Did the protestant reformation need Martin Luther to happen? Criticisms that Martin made already happened and the person was burned. Perhaps, Luther was practically obstinate which facilitated the breaking up of christian religion. The violence that followed was very brutal for centuries war was made on the idea this place protestant were Catholics, kill them or vice-versa.
If there was no reformation was does that mean for the political ecosystem? That there is no freedom of religion and people would still be Catholic and have their daily lives by the Catholic church. The freedom of religion was largely adopted because people were tired of all of the violence.
I've heard that without the sectarian violence of Protestants and Catholics violence that the human race would be advanced five hundred years. I have also heard the opposite view that without the Protestant Reformation, and freedom of religion that was sparked from it, the world be rather backward as people would be punished for violating catholic dogma.
I've also heard that the Western Hemishere would be divided by Portuguese and Spain also,the theory is that basically people would listen to the Pope to have the New Continent divided along Spanish and Portuguese lines or there would be a stronger Iberian union that would last and the western Hemisphere would just basically be one Iberia with different segments being more Spanish or Portuguese or that the cultures would blend into a homogeneous culture since it had little political boundaries and monarchies would be the main government type, as secularism wouldn't rise without the infighting that the split created.
That being said, I feel that Protestant reformation,was somewhat invetiable due to the ability to reproduce works quickly thanks to the printing press. Not sure if the violence was necessarily inevitable but the way I see, no Luther there would still be a reformation just maybe not then, it would just be taken up by someone else for perhaps a different person for different reasons but a reformation would happen.