Martin Luther

Martin Luther was born on November 10, 1483, in Eisleben, in Saxony, Germany. His father, Hans Luther, was a miner who rose to become a successful owner of copper mines. His mother, Margarethe, was a pious woman. Martin grew up in Mansfeld, in a family that was ambitious for its son. He was sent to school in Magdeburg and Eisenach and then to the University of Erfurt, where he studied for a law degree. He was a gifted student. His father planned that he would become a lawyer and bring honor to the family.

In July 1505, as he was returning to the university, he was caught in a violent thunderstorm. A bolt of lightning struck the ground near him, and he was thrown to the earth. In terror, he cried out to St. Anne, the patron saint of miners, that if he were saved, he would become a monk. He survived, and he kept his vow. Two weeks later, he entered the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt, to the anger and sorrow of his father. He was twenty-one. He gave himself to the monastic life with great zeal. He fasted, prayed and confessed for hours. He said later that if anyone could have gained heaven by being a monk, it would have been he.

But he was tormented by a sense of his own sin. He could not find peace. He confessed his sins for hours at a time and was still unsure whether he had remembered them all. He feared the righteousness of God, which he understood as the justice that punishes sinners. He hated God, he said. His superior, Johann von Staupitz, sent him to study theology and to teach at the new university of Wittenberg. In 1512, he received a doctorate in theology and was appointed professor of the Bible. In the course of preparing his lectures on the Psalms and on the letter to the Romans, he found a new understanding. He saw that the righteousness of God was a gift, given to those who have faith. He said that he felt that he had been born again and had entered paradise.

On October 31, 1517, he posted Ninety-Five Theses on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, in protest against the sale of indulgences, which were certificates that claimed to reduce the punishment of sin. The theses were a call for debate, but they spread quickly through Germany, thanks to the printing press. He became a figure of national importance. In 1518, he defended his views at the Heidelberg Disputation. In 1519, he debated Johann Eck at Leipzig, and he said that popes and councils could err. In 1520, he published three great treatises, including The Freedom of a Christian, in which he set out his teaching on faith and works. The pope issued a bull threatening him with excommunication, and he burned it publicly.

In April 1521, he was summoned to appear before the emperor, Charles V, at the Diet of Worms. He was asked to recant his writings. He asked for time and then gave his answer. He said that unless he was convinced by the testimony of Scripture or by plain reason, he could not recant, because his conscience was bound to the Word of God. It is said that he added that he could do no other. He was declared an outlaw. On the way home, he was seized by friends and taken to the Wartburg castle, where he was hidden for ten months. There he translated the New Testament into German. The Bible was published in 1522, and the whole in 1534. It shaped the German language.

He returned to Wittenberg and directed the reform of the church. He wrote a great many works, including the Large and Small Catechisms, and hymns, among them A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. In 1525, he married Katharina von Bora, a former nun, and they had six children. Their home was a place of warmth and hospitality. He was a man of humor and strong feeling, who loved music and good company. He also suffered from poor health, from depression and from a stubborn conscience.

He had grave faults. He took the side of the princes in the Peasants' War of 1525 and wrote harshly against the rebels. In his later years, he wrote violent attacks on the Jews, including a work in 1543 that called for the burning of their synagogues. These writings are a terrible blot on his record and have been used for evil. He was often intemperate and rough in his language. He also fell out with other reformers, including Zwingli, over the Lord's Supper.

He died on February 18, 1546, in Eisleben, the town where he was born, at the age of sixty-two. His last written words are said to have been that we are beggars. His life shows the power of a single conscience bound to the Word of God and also the danger of a mind that is not checked by love. The Reformation that began with him changed the world.