Martin Luther

An Augustinian friar and professor at Wittenberg whose protest against indulgences in 1517 opened the Reformation, which reformed doctrine within Roman Catholic Europe. He proclaimed to much of Europe the biblical teaching that sinners are justified by grace through faith alone, a truth never lost from Christ's churches, and he insisted that Scripture stands above popes and councils. He kept infant baptism and a church joined to the state, and he supported the state's punishment of Anabaptists. Baptists are grateful for his proclamation of justification by faith, while differing with him on baptism, the Lord's Supper, and the union of church and state.

Early life

From Law Student to Augustinian Friar

Martin Luther was born on November 10, 1483, at Eisleben in Saxony and baptized the next day, the feast of St. Martin, whose name he received. His father, Hans, worked his way up in the copper mines and smelters of Mansfeld and wanted his son to become a lawyer. Martin studied at schools in Mansfeld, Magdeburg, and Eisenach, then at the University of Erfurt, where he took his master's degree in 1505 and began the study of law.

That summer, caught in a violent thunderstorm near the village of Stotternheim, he cried out to St. Anne and vowed to become a monk. On July 17, 1505, to his father's dismay, he entered the friary of the Augustinian Hermits at Erfurt, and in 1507 he was ordained a priest. Luther threw himself into the monastic life with fierce earnestness, fasting, praying, and confessing for hours, yet he found no peace. He could not love a righteous God who, as he understood Him, demanded a righteousness Luther could never produce.

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