A thunderstorm sent Martin Luther into a monastery instead of law school
In July 1505 a lightning bolt struck near a young law student riding back to Erfurt. Terrified of death and judgement, Martin Luther became a friar. Twelve years later his Ninety-five Theses opened a quarrel with Rome that split Western Christianity and rearranged German faith, language and family life.
Luther was born on 10 November 1483 in Eisleben and baptised the next day, the feast of Martin of Tours. His father, Hans, leased copper mines and smelters in Mansfeld, sat on the town council and wanted his eldest son to become a lawyer. Schooling in Mansfeld, Magdeburg and Eisenach, which Luther later likened to purgatory, led to the University of Erfurt at 17 and a master's degree in 1505. He started law but quit almost at once, finding it an uncertain calling. Two tutors taught him to test even great authorities against experience.
The friend's sudden death and the storm both appear as reasons for his abrupt entry into the Augustinian order. Fasting, prayer and endless confession left him in despair rather than peace. Ordained in 1507, he began teaching theology at Wittenberg in 1508 and in 1512 succeeded his superior, Johann von Staupitz, in the theology chair he held for the rest of his life. Lecturing on the Psalms and on Paul's letters between 1510 and 1520, partly with Erasmus's new annotated text, he arrived at his central conviction: God declares sinners righteous as a free gift received through faith, not as a reward for merit.
When the Dominican Johann Tetzel arrived in 1516 selling indulgences to fund St Peter's in Rome, Luther responded with his theses of 1517. Pope Leo X demanded he recant, then excommunicated him in January 1521, and the emperor Charles V declared him an outlaw at the Diet of Worms that year. His teaching that scripture alone reveals the Gospel undercut the authority of pope and bishops.
His German Bible of 1534 put scripture in ordinary hands, helped standardise the language and influenced Tyndale's English version. His hymns shaped Protestant singing, and his marriage to the former nun Katharina von Bora became a model for married clergy. He also wrote vicious attacks on Jews, calling for synagogues to be burned; some historians argue this rhetoric fed German antisemitism for centuries. He died on 18 February 1546.
Source: Martin Luther
