Martin Luther

Martin Luther was born in 1483 at Eisleben in Germany, the son of a mine owner who wanted him to become a lawyer. In 1505, nearly struck by lightning in a thunderstorm, he vowed in terror to Saint Anne to become a monk, and entered the Augustinian order. Teaching the Bible at the University of Wittenberg, he came to understand through the letters of Paul that salvation comes not through good works but through faith alone. In 1517 he publicly attacked the Church's sale of indulgences and set off the Reformation. At the Diet of Worms in 1521 he refused to recant and was declared an outlaw; while in hiding at the Wartburg he translated the New Testament into German, laying the foundations of the modern German language.