Martin Luther was born in Eisleben, Germany in 1483, the son of a successful thuringian miner of rural origin. He attended the Latin School in Mansfeld from 1488 onwards, continuing his education in Magdeburg and later in Eisenach. Between 1501 and 1505 Luther began his studies at the University of Erfurt. Where he joined the law faculty because of the encouragement of his parents. .
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In 1505, however, he made a decision that changed the course of his life radically: he decided to enter the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt after a near death experience in a lighting storm.He cried out to Saint Anne for help, promising to enter the monastery if he escaped death. This decision shaped the rest of his life, and his search for a merciful God and His Will to develop the Reformation of the Church. Luther's reformation of the church began in 1517 with a solid foundation provided by German humanist who voiced their criticism of the Roman Catholic church. .
Martin Luther believed in justification by faith alone. Jusification by faith alone means that it is your justification of God that will bring salvation into the heaven. This disputed the Catholic church's teaching of faith and good works will allow you to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Luther next attacked the sale of indulgences by the Roman Catholic church.An indulgence was the sale of a remission of the temporal penalty that a priest imposed on penitents as a " work of satisfaction" for their mortal sins.He responded to sale of indulgences by the posting of the 95 theses on the door of the castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany.The 95 theses protested that indulgences actually remitted sins and released the dead from punishment in purgatory. Luther believed that the sale of indulgences seemed to make salvation something that could be bought and sold.
His public criticism of the misuse of letters of indulgence in 1517 did not result in the desired discussion with Pope Clement the seventh.