Martin Luther (1483–1546) was the German monk who initiated the Protestant Reformation that challenged the teachings and the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. Luther preached that salvation came by grace through faith alone rather than by deeds.
Born in Eisleben, Saxony, Luther studied at the University of Erfurt, became an Augustinian friar, and later a doctor of Theology. In 1510, he visited Rome as a representative of many Augustinian monasteries, and was horrified by the corruption he found there. Outraged, he published his “95 Theses” and condemned papal abuses and the sale of indulgences. Between 1519 and 1520, Luther wrote a series of pamphlets developing his ideas, which spread quickly throughout Europe.
Within a year, Pope Leo X dismissed Luther as an outspoken “son of iniquity.” Excommunicated in 1521, Luther refused to recant his assertions at an assembly of the Holy Roman Empire. It was at this gathering that he pronounced his famous words, “Here I stand, I can do no other, God help me.”
Emperor Charles V declared Luther an outlaw and a heretic. In 1534, Luther published a complete translation of the Bible into German, underlining his belief that people should be able to read it in their own language. The translation contributed significantly to the spread and development of the German language.
The foremost ideas of Luther’s reform movement were treasured by the Lutheran Churches who summarized Luther’s essential message in their Book of Concord (1580.)
In his final years, Luther wrote diatribes against the Jews, the papacy and the Anabaptists, a radical wing of the Reformation movement. He wrote Against the Jews and Their Lies (1542,) calling upon authorities to burn Jewish synagogues and to expel Jews if they did not convert to Christianity. Some scholars believe that these points of view sowed the seeds of anti-Semitism in Germany.
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Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave.
—Martin Luther
Topics: Society, Marriage
I would advise no one to send his child where the Holy Scriptures are not supreme. Every institution that does not unceasingly pursue the study of Gods word becomes corrupt. Because of this we can see what kind of people they become in the universities and what they are like now. Nobody is to blame for this except the pope, the bishops, and the prelates, who are all charged with training young people. The universities only ought to turn out men who are experts in the Holy Scriptures, men who can become bishops and priests, and stand in the front line against heretics, the devil, and all the world. But where do you find that? I greatly fear that the universities, unless they teach the Holy Scriptures diligently and impress them on the young students, are wide gates to hell.
—Martin Luther
Faith must trample under foot all reason, sense, and understanding.
—Martin Luther
Topics: Faith
For truth and duty it is ever the fitting time; who waits until circumstances completely favor his undertaking, will never accomplish anything.
—Martin Luther
Topics: Opportunity
Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.
—Martin Luther
Topics: Faith
Everything that is done in the world is done by the hopeful. No matter your age. No matter your circumstances. No matter your financial wealth. Without hope, nothing is possible. But with hope…well…watch out.
—Martin Luther
We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone.
—Martin Luther
In our sad condition our only consolation is the expectancy of another life. Here below all is incomprehensible.
—Martin Luther
Topics: Hope
When I am angry I can pray well and preach well.
—Martin Luther
Topics: Anger
Everything that is done in the world is done by hope. No merchant or tradesman would set himself to work if he did not hope to reap benefit thereby.
—Martin Luther
Topics: World, Hope
Music is the art of the prophets, the only art that can calm the agitations of the soul; it is one of the most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us.
—Martin Luther
Topics: Music
There is no wisdom save in truth. Truth is everlasting, but our ideas about truth are changeable. Only a little of the first fruits of wisdom, only a few fragments of the boundless heights, breadths and depths of truth, have I been able to gather.
—Martin Luther
Topics: Virtues, Wisdom, Truth
The defects of a preacher are soon spied. Let him be endued with ten virtues, and have but one fault, and that one fault will eclipse and darken all his virtues and gifts, so evil is the world in these times.
—Martin Luther
Faith is a living and unshakable confidence, a belief in the grace of God so assured that a man would die a thousand deaths for its sake.
—Martin Luther
Topics: Faith, Belief
If you could understand a single grain of wheat, you would die of wonder.
—Martin Luther
Faith, like light, should always be simple and unbending; while love, like warmth, should beam forth on every side, and bend to every necessity of our brethren.
—Martin Luther
Topics: Faith, Love
The human heart is like a ship on a stormy sea driven about by winds blowing from all four corners of heaven.
—Martin Luther
Topics: Decisions, Indecision
To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.
—Martin Luther
Topics: Prayer
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