Martin (1483) Luther

German reformationist who was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1507 but broke from the church in 1519, denying Papal supreme power. Condemned as a heretic, he began the Reformed Church in 1525.

Martin Luther was one of a houseful of children, the son of Hans Luder, who worked in the copper mines, and his wife Margarethe, a harsh disciplinarian. He was a good student, a quiet boy. He entered Erfurt University, the best school of the time, in 1501, graduating with a BA in 1502 and an MA in 1505. His father wished him to be a lawyer, but to his disappointment, Luther was drawn to the study of the Scriptures. The legend is told that he swore to become a monk on 2 July 1505 when he survived a terrible storm.

He entered the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt and took his monk's vow in 1506. The life of a monk during Luther's time was hard, consisting of fasting, prayer and work. A monk's day began at 3:00 AM with the first hourly prayers. This time molded Luther, above all he found a close relationship to the Bible which characterized his later life and work. In 1507 he was ordained a priest, and went to the University of Wittenberg, where he lectured on philosophy and the Scriptures, becoming a powerful and influential preacher and university professor.

On a mission to Rome in 1510-11 he was appalled by the corruption present in the church. To raise money for rebuilding St. Peter’s, papal emissaries sold "indulgences," the forgiveness of sins in exchange for a fee. Luther was outraged at the shameless traffic, carried on in particular by the Dominican Johann Tetzel. Ostentatious, Tetzel even redeemed the sins of the dead and his saying was repeated, "When the money clangs in the box, the souls spring up to heaven." Luther strongly believed that one lived a life of humility in order to receive God's grace and the purchase of forgiveness was not only a hypocrisy but a distortion of the authority of the church.