Martin Luther/ John Calvin Biography

Martin Luther was born on November 10, 1483 in Eisleben Germany. His father was Hans Luther, a miner married to Margarete Luther, Martin's mother. Hans was determined for Martin to study law and eventually become a lawyer. Martin attended grammar school and once he graduated fulfilled his fathers wishes by attending law school. He then proceeded to drop out of law school, the story goes he was in a bad storm and was afraid he was not going to survive, he dropped to his knees and said “Help! Saint Anna, I will become a monk!”. This story may or may not have happened but nevertheless Martin did in fact become a monk. Luther fully dedicated himself to monastic life, devoting himself to fasting, long hours of prayer, and frequent confession. But during this time Luther was not happy, he felt he had lost touch with Christ and his religious values. He informed his superior Johann von Staupitz of this and in response Staupitz sent Luther to study theology in college. In 1512 he was awarded his Doctor of Theology, and he then joined the senate of theological faculty at the University of Wittenberg. In 1516 Johann Tetzel, a friar who went to Germany to sell indulgences to raise money for the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. A year later Luther wrote to his bishop to protest the sale of indulgences and other church practices he disagreed with, this became The Ninety-Five Theses the document Luther is most famous for. Luther never meant to confront the church, he merely viewed his arguments as scholarly objection, he just wanted to state his opinion on church practices. Whether he wanted to confront the church or not some of his theses did have a challenging tone, in one of them he suggests that the Pope use his own money rather than taking money from the poor through indulgences. The famous story about Luther is when he took a hammer and nail, and posted his theses on the door, once again there is no proof to say he actually did this, it is simply another