WHO WAS MARTIN LUTHER AND WHAT WAS HIS ROLE IN THE REFORMATION?
Martin Luther (pictured above) was born in 1483 in the town of Eisleben in the area of Germany called Thuringia. His parents brought him up in the strict religious environment of the Roman Catholic Church. They provided for his education by enrolling him in the Latin schools of Thuringia. The young Luther was a promising student, so his father sent him to the University of Erfurt in 1501 to study law. He did very well at his studies and graduated with a Master of Arts degree in 1505. But Luther was a troubled and morbidly unhappy man. Like many others of his time, Luther was distressed by his sins and lived in terrible and constant fear of God’s angry judgment. After being caught in a ferocious thunderstorm that seemed to threaten his very life, Luther abandoned his plans to practice law and entered an Augustinian monastery in Erfurt in 1505. He hoped that this serious religious vocation would allow him opportunities to do enough good works to please God and escape eternal punishment.
