Preview

Martin Luther

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
540 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Martin Luther
Introduction
Few if any men have changed the course of history like Martin Luther, the great Protestant revolutionary whose belief in his faith would overthrow the all-powerful Catholic Church and reshape Medieval Europe. Martin Luther was a German monk, priest, and professor of theology and seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation, whose translation of the Bible into German, underlining his belief that people should be able to read it in their own language; contributed significantly to the spread and development of the German language and added several principles to the art of translation. His the epic tale of the birth of the modern age, the collapse of medieval feudalism, and the first shaping of ideals of freedom and liberty that lie at the heart of the 21st century.
The aim of this essay is to discuss the life and achievements of Martin Luther, and points out the significant qualities that made him outshine
Martin Luther's early life
Martin Luther had risen from the peasantry, his father was determined to see his son ascend to civil service and bring further honour to the family. He was sent to schools in Mansfield, Magdeburg and Eisenach. When he was seventeen years old he entered the University of Erfurt. He received his Bachelor’s degree and after three years he received his Master’s degree. According to his father’s wishes, Martin enrolled in the law school of the university. He kept on studying academic degree and preparing himself to enroll the country of origin. All that changed during a thunderstorm in the summer of 1505. A lightening bolt struck near to him as he was returning to school. Terrified, he cried out, "Help, St. Anne! I'll become a monk!" Spared of his life, but regretting his words, Luther kept his bargain, dropped out of law school and entered the monastery there.
Luther's struggle to find peace with God
Young Brother Martin fully dedicated himself to monastic life, the effort to do good works to please God and to serve others

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In the sixteenth centenary the Roman Catholic Church was the ruling power in Europe. They had created an empire and controlled the land and the people. There was nothing more that people feared at this time than being excommunicated from the church. For this reason, people would not dare challenge the church as they feared going to hell. A man by the name of Martin Luther joined the Catholic church as he searched to find himself and save his soul. He quickly realized that the Catholic church was full of corruption and took a stand. Martin Luther wanted to expose the church and follow God the right way. Luther believed that faith alone and a change of heart was enough for a person to be saved from the hell. Martin Luther had a conservative way of thinking however he had many liberal ideas.…

    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Luther's 95 Thesis

    • 256 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the 1600s there was a man named Martin Luther. He was the son of Saxon Miner. Martin Luther had a good affect on his society because he made the 95 thesis, he devoted his life to the catholic church, and publshed the Smalcald Articles. Martin Luther was a good affect on his society because he made the 95 thesis .…

    • 256 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Martin Luther has impacted many people. He was a professor of theology and a German priest and wrote the 95 thesis. His revolutionary ideas served as the catalyst for the eventual breaking away from the Catholic Church and were later instrumental in forming the movement known as the Protestant Reformation. Luther wrote his radical “95 Thesis” to express his growing concern with the corruption within the church. In essence, his thesis called for a full reform of the Catholic church and challenged other scholars to debate with him on matters of church policy. Luther published his “95 Thesis” fully realizing that he faced excommunication and even death for protesting the traditions and beliefs of the Catholic church. To do so was considered heresy…

    • 367 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Martin Luther was a German priest whose frustration with the abuses Roman Catholic Church ignited a change. In 1510 he visited…

    • 448 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Martin Luther was a man with a purpose. Born in 1483 in Eisleben, Martin Luther was a German Monk who started one of the greatest religious revolutions in the history of the Western world. Before discussing the impact of his revolution on the modern world, we must first establish some background information about the man and the Roman Catholic Church.…

    • 783 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The end of the fifteenth century had left Christendom with a Church in great need of reform. The Church had been greatly weakened by the events of the past few centuries. The fourteenth century’s Great Famine and Black Death had battered the public’s trust in the Church, as had the Papal Schism spanning from 1378-1417. When the ideas of Martin Luther began to spread in the early 1500s, the Church became afraid for its power, its reputation, and its finances. Luther was promising people that they would be saved through their faith alone—what place did that leave for the Church and its teachings? In any other time in human history, Luther’s ideas likely would have been quietly beaten down and buried, but a very unique set of circumstances allowed the ideas of a small-town monk and professor to take on the immense power of the Catholic Church. While others’ ideas could be ignored, the Church was intensely threatened by Luther because his ideas questioned the role and necessity of their already-weakened institution, called for an end to indulgences, endangered social stability, and exposed the failings of the Church by returning to the Bible as the only source of God’s truth.…

    • 1741 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Martin Luther was a very important figure in the reformation and in the translating of the Bible. According to Pettegree, Luther was a person who was very social and got along with everyone (3). He was a humble man and took no pride or expected no fame from his involvement with the reformation. Martin Luther did not expect fame to come with his work; however, he ended up becoming one of the most famous people in the Lutheran religion. In fact, Martin Luther is what the Lutheran religion is based on and named after.…

    • 908 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    By the 1500’s many issues shows signs of disorder within the Church. The idea of selling indulgences (forgiveness for sin) for clergy benefit began to negatively spread throughout the people, along with opposition to pluralism (holding more than one office). This sparked many attempts to reform the church through individual groups, one of which being the Brotherhood of Common Life. One of their accomplishments was starting schools for the poor, in which educated none other than Martin Luther. By the time he became a priest, many people had already failed to reform the church. When Martin Luther entered Rome, he briefly supported the church before realizing the hidden corruption, and his optimism towards converting the Jews was accounted for before realizing their stubborn views of God. While his loving ideas towards peasants turned into hatred of rebellion, it proved to be a consistency because he had always believed peasants belonged in their place. These ideas changed due to the naïve spirit he entered with before being awakened by the truth.…

    • 1053 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Martin Luther was a man of many great things, Martin standout amongst the most persuasive figures in Christian history when he started the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century. Martin received a Master degree in arts where he wanted to study law. During the early 1500 Martin life change which put him on a new path from what he was doing. Martin was put in a life or death situation where he sob out for a Savior, right then and there he vowed if he made if through the storm in was in he would become a monk. Martin thought that by becoming a monk and doing Gods will he would find…

    • 113 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Life in Europe changed dramatically in the sixteenth century. The church was extremely powerful and central to all parts of the lives of Europeans, but the events that took place during this new reformation would challenge that. Once the church was challenged, change was almost immediate. What once was a unifying force split, and although a period of violence and unrest followed, it was a major turning point in history sparked by Martin Luther and the posting of his 95 Theses. Martin Luther was born in 1483 during the time of the Renaissance when there was a growing attitude of rejecting medieval values and a turn towards education, humanism, and other more classical values (Class Lecture, 2/22/16).…

    • 1819 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    References: Edwards, M. U. (2011). Luther, Martin. Web: World Book. Retrieved August 23, 2011, from…

    • 2355 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    However Martin Luther was steadfast in his beliefs and appeared to be quite brave in the face of the very powerful and oppressive Roman Catholic Church. He was quite educated, and though he was very critical and confrontation in his written and spoken words, he was nonetheless peaceful in his actions. His words and works brought about significant change. Depending on religious points of view, some may agree and others disagree with Martin Luther and his specific teachings. However, one thing that few if any would disagree with is that Martin Luther changed the world he lived in for what he believed to be the better. He stood up for his belief system and tirelessly worked toward a goal of change and reform. He had the courage to stand in the face of an empire – one in which he was a part of and put down his foot and say “this isn’t right” and then go on to make things different. In the end that is exactly what being a leader is all…

    • 1260 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    He entered the monastery of the Augustinian Hermits and devoted his life to “prayer, fasting, and ascetic practices – going without sleep, enduring bone-chilling cold without a blanket, and flagellating himself.” During this time of study, Luther began to unwrap the word righteous to which he found troubling. From Romans 1:17 “For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.’” Luther began to understand that he could not live as righteous; in fact, no man could live in such a manner. Luther remarked, “I hated that word, ‘the righteousness of God,’ by which I had been taught according to the custom and use of all teachers ... [that] God is righteous and punishes the unrighteous sinner.” Recognizing his “spiritual struggles” the Abbott, Johann Von Staupitz transferred Luther to the monastery at Wittenberg. While at Wittenberg, Luther continued his studies in religion earning and “began his second set of degrees, taking another B.A. in…

    • 1626 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Martin Luther was one of the greatest monks, priests, and theological teachers of Germany, along with being the symbol of the Protestant Reformation. He did not start off so religious however. One day he was caught in a frightening and dangerous storm. He prayed to God begging not to be killed, and vowed to become a monk if he survived. He did live, upholding his word to the lord, and joined a monastery. He joined an Augustinian friary in 1505, where he suffered from anfechtung, or spiritual anxiety. He never knew if he was doing enough good works to achieve salvation and gain entrance to the kingdom of heaven, as it was believed by the Catholic religion that it took good works along with faith in order to enter. To take his mind off of his religious worries, he was recommended to a teaching post at the University of Wittenberg. There, he taught theology and was quite popular among his students. Luther suffered from constant constipation, so he often read the bible while on the toilet. One day while doing this a certain passage from the epistle of St. Paul to the Romans: “the just shall live by faith,” which led to Luther’s core belief of sola fide, or faith alone. Through this belief, Luther believed that the only thing needed to achieve salvation was to live by faith alone, which challenged the Roman Catholic Church’s theology that both faith and good works were necessary. Luther shared his beliefs with the people of the Holy Roman Empire, demanding change to the way theology was widely taught. He agreed with parts of the current teachings and was conservative, wanting to keep parts of the religion the same. He kept the sacraments, however reduced the amount of them from 7 to 2. He was also like many Roman Catholic religious figures,…

    • 1706 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Martin Luther King

    • 460 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" was a response to "A Call for Unity" by eight white clergymen. His letter was a rebuttal to the clergymen's unjust proposals. He informs the clergymen of his views and the reasons for his “direct action” on the issue of desegregation. King also attacks the “white moderate” on their actions and expresses his disappointment with their unconstitutional measures. His powerful words, "...it is even more unfortunate that the city's white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative." By using the phrases "even more unfortunate" and "no alternative", King is able to emphasize that there was absolutely nothing else the Negro population in Birmingham could do. After devising this compelling statement, King then proceeds into his argument concerning the essential steps of any nonviolent campaign. King's asserts the reasons and underlying conflicts that are fueling the unrest among blacks and whites in Birmingham. He explains the existence of an injustice; the intense segregation present in Birmingham. In fact, he uses extremes such as "Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States," to strengthen his point of view.…

    • 460 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays