Martin Luther

**Martin Luther** (November 10, 1483 ‒ February 18, 1546) was a German monk and theologian of Christianity credited with leading the Protestant Reformation, a movement that marked the start of Protestantism. Luther founded the Lutheran Church, the first large Protestant church.

## Early life
Martin Luther studied philosophy at the University of Erfurt. In 1505, he entered into the Augustinian Order as a monk. Luther studied theology and ancient languages in Erfurt. In 1512 he became a doctor of theology in Wittenberg and began his lectures on the Psalms and the Letters of Saint Paul.

## Break with Catholicism
### *Ninety-Five Theses*
In October 1517, Luther wrote his *Ninety-Five Theses*. Many people think that he put them on the door of a church in Wittenberg, but no one said so at the time and so that may be a myth. Instead, he published a copy and presented it to church officials at Worms Cathedral. Luther called it *The Disputation of Doctor Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences*. It questioned the teaching of the Catholic Church, its ideas about penance, the authority of the Pope, and the usefulness of indulgences.

The Catholic Church was selling indulgences to get out of purgatory and to go right to heaven after death. Indulgences were sold for money for the dead so that they could go to heaven faster.

## Church activities
With the help of a friend, Luther hid in Wartburg Castle, near Erfurt. There, he translated the Bible. He wrote the New Testament in German, instead of the original Greek. Later, he translated the Old Testament into German from Hebrew. Until then, the Mass and the Bible were usually in Latin, which very few people understood. That made most people going to Mass not understand what the priest was saying. Luther translated the Bible so that more people could read and understand it. They now no longer depended on the priest to tell them what was in the Bible, but they could read it themselves.

Luther started his own church, the Lutheran Church, with his friend Philip Melanchthon. Luther strongly believed that his cause was righteous. He wrote harsh criticism against his enemies, especially Catholics and Jews, who he believed to be false prophets from the Devil. He rejected Jewish beliefs about the Old Testament and accused Jewish leaders of lying. He advised rulers to deal violently with the Jews in their realms. Those arguments make him controversial.

## Later life
From the Bible, Luther formed firm ideas about families. Luther knew that what a child learned at home would greatly influence his life. He said in *Table Talks*, "Sermons very little edify children, who learn little thereby; it is more needful they be taught and well instructed in schools, and at home, and that they be learned and examined what they have learned; this way profits much; 'tis very wearisome, but very necessary." Luther also preached against the Catholic Church's refusal to let priests marry. After hearing his preaching, many nuns wrote to him to ask for help in escaping their convents. Luther helped nine nuns escape from a convent. On April 4, 1524, Luther had a friend help the nuns sneak over the wall and hid them in barrels on a wagon until they were out of the city. One of the nuns was Katherine von Bora. *On the Jews and Their Lies* (1543), a 65,000-word thesis written by Luther,

In his book, he classified Jews as the biggest threat to Christianity and called for these actions against them:

* First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools [...] This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians [...]
* Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed.
* Sixth, I advise that [...] all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them [...]
* But if we are afraid that they might harm us [...] then let us emulate the common sense of other nations such as France, Spain, Bohemia [...] eject them forever from the country.

In his sermon *Warning against the Jews* on February 18, 1546, Luther said,

Meanwhile, Luther was a folk hero in Nazi Germany, and his teachings were widely circulated among the public.]] after WWII.]]

It is important to note, however, that modern-day Lutherans do not uphold Luther's anti-semitism; the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod "deeply regrets, deplores, and repudiates" it. Similarly, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America does not approve of Luther's attacks against Jewish people.

Johannes Wallman (1930–2021), a professor of church history at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, wrote in 1987:

Richard Steigmann-Gall, a history professor at Kent State University, wrote in his 2003 book *The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919–1945*:

## Movies
Since the time of the silent movies, 28 movies about Luther that have been made. The newest one, *Luther*, was released in 2003.

## Related pages
* Jan Hus
* John Calvin
* Huldrych Zwingli
* Anti-Judaism and antisemitism
* Comparison among Protestants

## References
## Other websites
* Martin Luther - Eine Bibliographie (German) 
* Full text in English of the 95 theses 
* Disputatione pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum (95 Theses, in Latin, at Wikisource)
* Project Wittenberg, a collection of Luther's text
* Repository of Luther's works at Project Gutenberg