Martin Luther
1483 – 1546 · Germany and Austria
Luther, Martinus LutherusMartin Luther was an Augustinian friar and professor at Wittenberg whose Ninety-Five Theses of 1517, written against the sale of indulgences, began the Reformation. Excommunicated and outlawed after refusing to recant at Worms, he translated the Bible into German, married a former nun, and wrote at a furious pace: the Three Treatises of 1520 set out the priesthood of all believers and the freedom of a Christian, and his answer to the peasants’ revolt showed the limits of that freedom. The lists read him for the theology and for the prose, which made the modern German language.
Works on the lists
The Ninety-Five ThesesTwo Kinds of RighteousnessOn the Freedom of a ChristianThree TreatisesTo the Christian Nobility of the German NationPreface to the Epistle of St. Paul to the RomansConcerning Governmental AuthorityFriendly Admonition to Peace Concerning the Twelve Articles of the Swabian PeasantsTable-Talk