LUTHER, 31AnTrg, the greatest of the Protestant reformers of the 16th c., was b. at Eisleben on Nov. 10, 1483. His father was a miner in bumble circumstances; his mother, as 3Ielanchthon records, was a woman of exemplary virtue (exemplar virtutum), and peculiarly esteemed in her walk of life. Shortly after Martin's birth, his parents removed to Mansfeld, where their circumstances ere long improved by industry and per severance. Their son was sent to school; and both at home and in school, his training was of a severe and hardening character. His father sometimes whipped him, he says, " for a mere trifle till the blood came," and lie was subjected to the scholasfIc rod fifteen times in one dayl Scholastic aud parental severity was the rule in these days; but -whatever may have been the character of Luther's schoolmaster at Mansfeld, there is no reason to believe that his father was a man of exceptionally stern character. While he whipped his son soundly, lie also tenderly cared for him, and was in the habit of carrying him to and from school in his arms with gentle solicitude. Luther's schooling was completed at Magdeburg and Eisenach, and at the latter place he attracted the notice of a good lady of the name of Cotta, who provided him with a comfortable home during his stay there.
When he had reached his eighteenth year, lie entered the university of, Erfurt, with the view of qualifying himself for the legal profession. He went through the usual studies in the classics and the schoolmen, and took his degree of doctor of philosophy, or master of arts, in 1505, when he was 21 years of age. Previous to this, however, a profound change of feeling had begun in him. Chancing one day to exarnine the Vulgate in the university library, lie saw with astonishment that there were more gospels and epistles than in the lectionaries. He was arrested by the contents of his newly found treasure. His heart was deeply touched, and he resolved to devote himself to a spiritual life. He separated himself from his friends and fellow-students,. and withdrew into the
Au„crustine convent at Erfurt.
lIere lie spent the next three years of his life--years of peculiar interest and signifi .canee; for it was during this time that he laid, in the study of the Bible and of Augustine, the foundation of those doctrinal convictions which were afterwards to rouse and strengthen him in his struggle against the papacy. He describes very vividly the spiritual crisis through which he passed, the burden of sin which so long lay upon him, " too heavy to be borne;" and the relief that he at length found in the clear apprehension of the doctrine of the " forgiveness of sins" through the grace of Christ.
In the year 1507 Luther was ordained a priest, and in the following year he removed to Wittenberg, destined to derive its chief celebrity from his name. He became a teacher in the new university, founded there by the elector Frederick of Saxony. At first, he lectured on dialectics and physics, but his heart was already given to theology, and in 1509 he became a bachelor of theology, and comnienced lecturing on the holy Scriptures. His lectures made a great impression, and the novelty of his views already began to excite attention. " This monk," said the rector of the university, " will puzzle our doctors, and bring in a new doctrine." Besides lecturing, he began to preach, and his sermons reached a wider audience, and produced a still rnore powerful influence. His words, as Melanchtlion said, were " born not on his lips, but in his soul," and they moved profoundly the souls of all who heard them.
In 1510 or 1511 he was sent on a mission to Rome, and he has described very vividly what he saw and heard there. His devout and unquestioning reverence, for lie was yet, in his own subsequent view, " a most insane papist," appears in strange conflict with his awakened thoughtfulness and the moral indignation at the abuses of the papacy • beginning to stir in him.