LU'THER, Almmx 14S3-1546). found er of Protestant civilization," as Ptleidere• him, was of lowly origin. The child of peasant parents, he was horn on November 10. 1483. in the heart of Germany, at Eisleben, Saxony. His father, Hans a miner. and hi. mother, Margaret, were austerely virtuous and They were able to put their son under good tu ition for a year at Magdeburg, and then at Eisen a•h for four years. Here. to eke out his scanty means, Luther with other schoolmates occasion ally sang for alms in the streets.
At the age of eighteen Luther entered the university at Erfurt, where his ability secured for him the admiration of his fellows. The new learning of the Renaissance was already astir in Germany, and Luther, attracted to it. read Ovid, Vergil. and Cicero. but devoted hin self mainly to philosophy. More. however, than by Trntvetter. his teacher in philosophy, was Lutl er impressed by the preaching of the Erfurt pastor. We i s sm a n .
His father had made great sacrifices to his son for the canter of a lawyer. and Lutl er now stood at its threshold. having taken hi. de gree of M.A. in 1505. at the age of twenty-two„ But although he was outwardly npriHtt and pure, his conscience, sensitized by early ipilney-is and education, trembled with convieth n i t rt comings to divine requirements and of eoi ire to divine wrath. Aceording to ii'- wedi.eval teaching, the surest. way to pe•fee inn was found in the cloister. This great inti m. all Un conscious of the career it was to u, 1.110.1r now made. to the astonishment of his friends and the profound displeasure 1 i- I.:then I an on: thrilling experiences, -ut-li .s a dangerous illness and the death of mar fri, ud, concurred to confirm his resolutiom and immediately after taking his degree Li cut r, •I the Augustinian =invent at Erfurt, taking, however, his Plautus and his Vergil with him.
Luther had fled from the world, but not from himself. His mental struggle grew more intense; his self-imposed austerities surpassed those of his brethren, and left their mark on his eon stitntio». Light broke upon him in the open
ing of his trouble to the kindly vicar-general of his Order, Staupitz, who had imbibed the thought of the mystics and of Saint John. that the love of God and of righteousness is the great thing, and that repentance begins in this.
At the end of two years Luther was ordained to the priesthood. and on Staupitz's recommenda tion was made professor at Wittenberg. where the Elector Frederick the Wise of Saxony had founded a university in 1502. He had persever ingly studied Saint Augustine, and knew by heart the English sehoolman William of Ocean. whose writings were. in an ecclesiastical sense, of revo lutionary tendency. Another molding influence of this period was his visit to Rome on business of his Order in 1511 during the pontificate of the warlike Julius II. He had begun Iris professor ship by lecturing on Aristotle, but soon turned to the Bible, his lectures on which drew his fel low-professors with throngs of students. Stau pitz thereupon constrained him to preach, and crowds were attracted by his unconventional presentation of biblical truths. One of these sermons s so impressed the Elector Frederick that he offered to hear the expense involved in Luther's promotion to the doctorate of in 1512. At this time he began work on what remained through life his favorite books on his central theme of justification through faith—the Epistles to the llomans and the Galatians, the latter of which he used to call humorously his wife. this first publication was an edition of the mystical treatise Theologia Germanica, which he discovered in 1516, to which he said he owed for its exposition of the Christian life more than to any other book except the Bible and Saint Augustine. His first work as an author was an Exposition of the Neren Penitential Psalms in the memorable year 1517. Meanwhile he laboriously fulfilled the duties of his Order, of which Stan pitz had made him distriet vicar, and when the plague fell upon Wittenberg he held to his post while others fled.