Martin Luther

Martin Luther, a German Augustinian friar and professor of theology at Wittenberg, set in motion the Protestant Reformation. Trained in law before a thunderstorm vow sent him to the cloister, he was ordained in 1507 and earned his doctorate in 1512.

The tower discovery Tormented by the question of how a sinner could stand before a righteous God, Luther found release in Paul: "the righteous shall live by faith" (Romans 1). He came to teach *justification by faith alone* — that God declares the sinner righteous as a free gift received by faith, not earned by works — reading Galatians 3 and the Psalms in his Wittenberg lectures.

The Ninety-Five Theses On 31 October 1517 Luther posted (by the traditional account) his Ninety-Five Theses against the sale of indulgences — the claim that payments could remit the punishment of sin. Printed and spread rapidly, they ignited a controversy that Luther had not foreseen. Summoned to defend himself, he refused to recant at the Diet of Worms in 1521 — "Here I stand; I can do no other" in the traditional wording — and was declared an outlaw, then sheltered at the Wartburg, where he translated the New Testament into German.

The five *solas* and the break with Rome Luther's reform crystallised in principles later summarised as Scripture alone, faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone, glory to God alone. He rejected the papacy's authority over Scripture, reduced the sacraments, and married the former nun Katharina von Bora, modelling a married clergy. In [On the Bondage of the Will](/christianity/library/books/bondage-of-the-will) he answered Erasmus, arguing that the fallen will cannot turn to God without grace — the book he thought his most important.

Contested legacy Luther's later writings include violent polemics — against the rebelling peasants of 1525, against the papacy, and, notoriously, against the Jews, texts widely condemned and, in the twentieth century, exploited by antisemites; his modern heirs have formally repudiated them. These belong honestly to his record. The Catholic tradition regards his break as a schism and rejects *sola fide* as he framed it; Lutheran and wider Protestant traditions honour him as the reformer who recovered the gospel of grace. Both positions are presented here, not adjudicated.

Legacy Luther's German Bible shaped the German language; his hymns, catechisms, and doctrine of justification founded a tradition that bears his name and reshaped Western Christianity.