The Turk was slashing his way up the valley of the Danube into the heart
of Europe. God sat far off, not as a loving father but as a vengeful
law-court judge inflicting all sorts of misery on mankind. In the forest
lurked witches and demons seeking to drag the unwary to destruction.
Into such a world threatened by the sword, ruled by fear, and plagued by
superstition, Martin Luther was born on November 10, 1483, in Eisleben,
Germany. Within such a world he became a man disdainful of bodily harm,
convinced of God’s love and mercy, endowed with abundant common sense—a
Christian worthy of study and emulation. Although his station of birth
was lowly, greatness sought him out, and the whole world has felt the
impact of his life.
The Luther child was baptized in the Church of St. Peter the morning
after his birth and was named Martin for the saint of the day. His
parents, Hans and Margarethe Luther, were simple, industrious folk. They
had moved recently from the farming community of Möhra, home of the
Luther family, to Eisleben where Hans hoped to make his fortune in the
copper mines.
When Martin was about six months old the family moved to near-by
Mansfeld. The first years there were hard and it was with difficulty
that Hans scraped together money to send his son to school. By the time
Martin was thirteen, however, his father was able to send him to a
school conducted by the Brothers of the Common Life at Magdeburg. As was
the custom, he earned his board by singing and begging from door to door
with one of the school choirs.
He stayed in Magdeburg for only a year and then was sent to the parish
school of St. George in Eisenach. While again earning his keep by
singing and begging, he became acquainted with Frau Ursula Cotta, a
woman of culture and refinement, who took the promising young scholar
into her home.
Hans Luther had been working diligently and by the time his son was
seventeen the family budget permitted his entrance to the University of
Erfurt. Martin worked diligently too, and at the end of four years had
passed not only his bachelor’s but his master’s examinations.