About one hundred years after Huss was burned, Martin Luther stood forth and began that great improvement in the condition of the Church which is called The Reformation. Luther was born in 1483, of poor parents, in the city of Eisleben, Saxony, in the center of Germany. According to the intention of his father he was to read law, but on account of his anxiety for his soul’s salvation he, at the age of twenty-two, entered a convent and became a monk. Here he faithfully performed all the requirements of a life in the convent: prayed, fasted and mortified his flesh; but he could not find peace for his soul. An old monk advised him to seek consolation in the old, then almost forgotten words: I believe in the forgiveness of sins. These words Luther took to heart, and as he diligently read the Bible and the writings of the church fathers[8], he at last clearly saw that man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. After Luther had been in a convent for three years, he was called as teacher to the university at Wittenberg. Hither came a hawker of indulgences, a monk named Tetzel, who with the greatest audacity sold forgiveness of sins for money. At this, Luther was filled with indignation, and on the 31st of October, 1517, he nailed on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg ninety-five theses against the sale of indulgences and other errors. These theses were quickly circulated throughout Germany, and many pious and educated men acknowledged that Luther was right. It was not Luther’s intention to attack the pope, for he yet believed that the papacy was instituted of God, and thought that when the pope should be informed of the true condition of the case, he would grant his approval of Luther’s act. But they thought differently in Rome. Luther was placed under the ban of the Church. In the meantime he had diligently read the Bible and history, and it was clear to him the papacy was not instituted of God. He therefore paid no attention to the ban, but took the bull[9] of the pope and burned it under an oak outside of the city of Wittenberg. He was now summoned to appear before Charles V., emperor of the Roman empire, at the diet held in the city of Worms, 1521. Many dissuaded him from going; they reminded him of the fate of Huss; but Luther answered: If there were as many devils in Worms as there are tiles on the roofs, yet would I go. When he came to Worms, he was ushered into the diet, an assembly where the emperor, the legate of the pope and many princes and bishops were gathered. It was demanded that he at once should recant everything he had taught; but Luther answered: Unless I am convinced by the Scriptures, or by clear and binding reasons, I neither can nor will recant; for it is not advisable to do anything against conscience. Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise. God help me! Amen. ----- Footnote 8: Church fathers: The early teachers in the Church. Footnote 9: Bull: The writing containing the ban. -----