Martin Luther, Reformer
31 October -- Commemoration
If celebrated as a Lesser Festival,
Common of Pastors, page 483
Martin Luther was born in 1483 at Eisleben in Saxony and
educated at the cathedral school in Magdeburg and the
university in Erfurt. He joined an order of Augustinian
hermits there and was ordained priest in 1507, becoming a
lecturer in the university at Wittenberg. He became vicar
of his Order in 1515, having charge of a dozen monasteries.
His Christian faith began to take on a new shape, with his
increasing dissatisfaction with the worship and order of the
Church. He became convinced that the gospels taught that
humanity is saved by faith and not by works, finding support
in the writings of St Augustine of Hippo. He refuted the
teaching of the Letter of James, calling it 'an epistle of
straw'. Martin sought to debate the whole matter by posting
ninety-five theses or propositions on the door of the Castle
Church in Wittenburg on this day in the year 1517. The
hierarchy chose to see it as a direct attack on the Church,
which forced Martin into open rebellion. The Protestant
Reformation spread throughout Germany and then Europe, many
seeing it as liberation from a Church that held them in fear
rather than love. Martin Luther died in 1546, having
effected a renaissance in the Church, both Protestant and
Catholic.