Germany/Martin Luther

• Germany was in a dark place filled with disease and poverty
• The people had hope found in the Church and the promise of heaven
• the church was corrupt though
• Martin Luther stirred Europe into a rebellion against the church
• Martin Luther came from humble origins
• He grew up in a small town in Northern Germany where the Church was the most important thing in peoples' lives
• The Church taught that if you obeyed its rules then you would be taken to heaven when you died
• Luther's father had very high expectations of his son
• The fear of punishment drove him for the rest of their lives
• Luther worked very hard and was committed to his studies and was on his way to becoming a lawyer which is what his father always wanted
• Then just before he became the lawyer his father wanted the Black Death hit
• 3 of his closest friends were killed by the disease
• This show of what he believed was God's wrath was a major turning point in his life
• One night when he got stuck in a thunderstorm he prayed to God and he vowed to become a monk if he survived
• Luther joined one of the strictest monasteries in Europe.
• Luther was a very dedicated monk
• In later years he said that being a monk had severely hurt his health because of how extreme he was in the monastery
• Luther was concerned that he would never please God and never get to heaven
• He had a feeling of hopelessness that he would never receive salvation
• He went to Rome on a pilgrimage to Rome
• In October of 1510 they arrived in Rome
• When he got to Rome it was in the height of the Renaissance
• When he was in Rome he was disappointed in the Church
• The Church was also taking profits from the members
• The Church was selling people indulgences which took time off of purgatory
• because of how disappointed he was in the Church he questioned his faith for the first time in his life
• being a monk became awful for Martin Luther
• One day a man offered him to be the head of Biblical studies at the new university in Yittenburg