7. To raise the money necessary to equip and transport their soldiers to the distant East, the barons had to sell their lands, which had the effect of breaking down to a very great extent the feudal system of land tenure, and with it the obligations that it imposed. The direct result of this was to enlarge the liberties of the people. For the same purpose--to raise money for carrying on the holy wars in the East--kings granted to the towns political privileges, a circumstance which also contributed vastly to the progress of popular liberty. Thus the way was prepared for that religious revolution of the sixteenth century known in history as the Reformation. 8. Martin Luther.--The Reformation is usually considered to have begun with the fearless preaching of Martin Luther against the sale of indulgences, A. D., 1517. Luther was born at Eisleben [Is-la-ben], Germany, A. D., 1483. His father was a miner of Mansfield in the same country. After attending the school of Magdeburg [Mag-de-boorg] and Eisenach [Is-sen-ak] he was sent to study philosophy and jurisprudence at Erfurt [Er-foort]. Much against the will of his father, he abandoned the pursuit of these studies, and joined himself to the Augustine Eremites, a rigid order of mendicant monks. His good temper, industry and abilities won for him the good opinions of his superiors. In 1508 he was sent by his vicar-general to be professor of philosophy at Wittemburg. While here he applied himself to Biblical theology and soon discovered a wide discrepancy between the religion of the scriptures and that of the church. Two years after becoming a professor at Wittemburg, he made a journey to Rome on some business connected {209} with the Augustine order of monks; and was not a little shocked at the corruption and depravity of the Italian clergy. That visit to Rome did much to dispel the veneration in which he had held the "Holy See," and armed him for his subsequent conflict with it.