In the early 1500s, the Roman Catholic Church would undergo one of the greatest changes in its history. A single man would proclaim his beliefs, challenging and condemning the corrupt practices of church. This man was Martin Luther, arguably the greatest theologian of his day. Although he ignited the fire that would spread throughout Europe, Luther was not single handed in his quest for truth in Christian practices and doctrines. The most important concept to grasp from the reformation is that it did not take place because Luther willed it to, “but rather because the time was ripe for it, and because the Reformer and many others with him were ready to fulfill their historical responsibility.” (Gonzalez, p.21)

Born in 1483, in Eisleben, Germany, Martin Luther experienced a childhood that would later prove to shape his life, attitudes, and decisions. His parents were extremely strict, believed in hard work, and raised Luther with harsh punishments. Luther’s father had his life planned out for him; he was to become successful, a lawyer, through rigorous schooling, work, and discipline. Luther’s parents held the family to the strong beliefs of being devout Christians, and Luther was an alter boy and a member of the church choir growing up. With the recurring themes of salvation and damnation reflecting themselves in both family and church, Luther’s attitude became one of servitude, passion and sincerity.

Luther would survive a near death experience during a severe thunderstorm. Overwhelmed, he felt surrounded by the fear of death and hell, which prodded him to join the Augustinian monastery. Here, Luther was one of the most diligent, hard working monks. He would put his body through the severest of punishments, as recommended by his teachers. He was convinced that God was a severe judge, and to be saved from His wrath he must use all the means of grace offered by the church.

Becoming priest and teacher himself, Luther would discover his true feelings about the church. He would be overwhelmed by terror when celebrating his first mass, thinking he was holding and offering nothing less than the actual body of Christ. These feelings of extremity would evolve, consuming his thoughts on his own sin, to the point that he had tortured himself enough to conclude that what he felt for God was not love but hatred. In his teachings of Romans, Luther would come to the conclusion that the justice of God did not mean the punishment of sinners. In fact, “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” (Romans 1:17) The “righteousness” of the righteous was actually not their own but God’s. In addition to this, Luther’s pilgrimage to Rome proved to greaten his questioning of the Church. He saw the signs of a corrupt, powerful, political institution who used religion to wring money from their people and enhance their own wealth and pleasures.

With all these experiences and thoughts, the boiling point was when Pope Leo issued the sale of indulgences to bring in funds for Saint Peter’s Basilica and other lavish construction. To “buy their way” to salvation and through purgatory, the poorest people would spend their last dime on these indulgences, believing it was the only option. Luther responded with his 95 theses, attacking the sale of indulgences and their theological basis. The theses were spread by the recent invention of the printing press, gathering the fellowship of many along the way. This would spark a war between the church and Luther’s followers, one which would be influenced by political aspirations of the church and surrounding powers.

Martin Luther’s life was a journey of finding salvation and through that condemning the church of their faults. As a child he grew up in a strict household, he was severely punished for mistakes and disobedience. He was sent to the best schools so that one day he would become a lawyer as his father wished. He was also a devote member of his church being both an altar boy and a part of the choir. In this stage of his life he believed God to be a severe judge and that the church was a ruling body to be strictly obeyed. As he grew older he was sent to Erfurt college to study law. Soon before he was to graduate from the college the black plague swept through the city and he encountered widespread death and fear of God’s retribution. During this time, he also was put into peril by a thunderstorm, during which he became aware that if he did not repent he would be going to hell. So he made a deal with God on that day that if he were to survive he would become a monk. Against his parents will he joined the Augustinian monastery, a very strict monastery that he believed would keep him away from the world thus earning his way into heaven. In his time in the monastery he did not believe that he was getting any closer to God, despite living the way that made so many others sure of their salvation he still felt that he was unsaved. In order to get closer to his salvation he went on a pilgrimage to Rome. There he found that the Papacy was concerned primarily with earning money and earthly pleasures. He found that they were selling experiences that were supposed to be used to save the souls of people. He began to doubt then that the church’s teachings would truly lead him to salvation, and even became angry at God. He went back to the monastery and continued to doubt his salvation until his confessioner made him take a position at the University of Wittenberg. He was employed as a professor of biblical studies, where he began to have a deeper understanding of God when he not only had to study the word but teach it to others. Through his study he discovered a new meaning to Romans 1:17 where he realized that people could not earn their way into heaven as it is not their own righteousness that saved them but God. He now believed that salvation was between a person and God, not a person and the church. It was only after this revelation that he truly believed his soul to be saved. It still was not until after Pope Leo X took the papacy that he wrote his 95 theses against the church, and most notably the Pope’s sale of indulgences. This greatly angered the Pope who declared him a heretic, the punishment of which was death. But his constant attempts to capture Luther were unsuccessful both because of the local church support of Luther and the change in the Imperial Throne in which he was given temporary truce in order to win favor with Frederick the Wise of Saxony, who was the candidate of choice of the Pope. When Frederick the Wise lost the seat of the Imperial Throne he had Luther taken away and protected him from both the Emperor and the Pope.

Martin Luther was an important religious theorist during the 1500’s who is well-known for his publication of 95 claims which countered the teachings of the Roman-Catholic church at the time. His work, though not intended to, caused such an uproar in the religious community that it created new ideologies which then led to the development of some of the many different denominations of Christianity in modern society.

Martin Luther’s childhood influenced his relationship with God and the church in powerful ways. He was an altar boy and choir member in his youth which began his faith at a very young age, giving him a very long journey with Christianity. His parents had very high expectations for him not only to be a devout Christian, but also for him to be a successful and well-educated man. Martin Luther’s parents were very strict when raising him, often giving severe physical punishments for his wrongdoings which led to the development of a fear towards punishment. This fear of punishment along with many of the things Martin Luther learned from his parents later translated into his religious life; he went from an unforgiving father to a God who seemed impossible to satisfy.

Following a near-death experience, Martin Luther withdrew from the university he was attending and joined an Augustinian monastery with the goal of securing his place in Heaven. He was convinced that the only way of achieving salvation was by separating oneself from worldly goods; he cut his hair, wore uncomfortable robes, and chose a grueling lifestyle only fit for those who were aptly gifted both spiritually and mentally.

As a monk, Martin Luther had begun to develop an understanding that salvation was earned through the process of confession and penance to achieve absolution. After some time he was sent on a pilgrimage to Rome, which was essentially the capital for the Christian faith at the time. During his pilgrimage, Luther witnessed new practices that seemed to conflict what was learned at the monastery. In Rome, religion and money seemed to be equal through the distribution of indulgences. Indulgences were a way that the Pope issued forgiveness for sins through payment to the church. The sales of indulgences was the primary method of the Pope who had depleted the treasury to regain funds for projects that he deemed fit along with his expensive desire to indulge in the finer things. Through the contrast in Martin Luther’s beliefs and those of the Roman-Catholic Church he developed a belief that the church was falling for the same worldly pleasures that he spent most of his life trying to separate himself from.

After his time in Rome, Martin Luther went to scripture to determine for himself if these indulgences were in fact justified. Through his studies, Luther developed and posted a 95-point thesis which points out how the church was both wrong in selling forgiveness and a way out of purgatory and how God, not any member of the church, is the one and only source of forgiveness. This document was extremely popular for Christians, becoming the most widely published work at the time. Martin Luther’s challenge of church practice was seen as an act of heresy and unintentionally began a war of ideologies between himself and the religious leaders of the time.