Martin luther biography wittenberg germany

Martin Luther, c.1520  ©Luther was a German theologian whose writings inspired the Protestant Reformation.

Martin Luther was born on 10 November 1483 in Eisleben.

His father was a copper miner. Luther studied at the University of Erfurt and in 1505 decided to join a monastic order, becoming an Augustinian friar. He was ordained in 1507, began teaching at the University of Wittenberg and in 1512 was made a doctor of Theology.

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In 1510 he visited Rome on behalf of a number of Augustinian monasteries, and was appalled by the corruption he found there.

Luther became increasingly angry about the clergy selling 'indulgences' - promised remission from punishments for sin, either for someone still living or for one who had died and was believed to be in purgatory.

On 31 October 1517, he published his '95 Theses', attacking papal abuses and the sale of indulgences.

Luther had come to believe that Christians are saved through faith and not through their o