On October 31, half a millennium ago, German theologian Martin Luther unleashed a revolution that changed the course of history, in particular, the religious and political history of the world. According to legend, Luther pinned 95 theses (a list of questions and propositions for debate) on the doors of a Wittenberg church in Germany. And, this started the Reformation movement. Luther was protesting the corrupt practices of the Church, mainly the “selling of pardons”. In other words, you could pay the church to be free of wrongdoing.
Reformation paved the way for a new secular age, a world in which church and state, conscience and politics, remained separate on principle. It resulted in European universities getting strengthened, in the grand sacred music of J. S. Bach, the baroque altar-pieces of Peter Paul Rubens and even the capitalism of Dutch merchants.
Luther pioneered the use of the printing press to give his ideas a wide audience. He was responsible for a third of all local language publications that came out of Germany between 1520 and 1546. Learning was now something to be valued for its own sake.
After he refused to go back on his stand, Martin Luther hid in the town of Eisenbach, and began to translate the New Testament in the Bible which was in Latin, into German.
School for all
His enduring influence on education can be seen in his correspondence to the municipal authorities throughout Germany in 1524 urging them to establish elementary schools for children. Luther said every town should have a girls’ school.
The reformer did not take any royalty from the publishers of his books, though they sold well. He married Katherina von Bora and willed it to her, at a time when men did not do so. He wrote many hymns and some of them continue to be sung in churches across the world today. He said, next to the word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world.
Born in a peasant family in 1483, Martin grew up in the mining town of Mansfeld. After school in Magdeburg , he went to University at Erfurt, entered Law school as that was what his father wanted him to do, but did not complete the course. Drawn to the church, Martin took vows as a Augustinian monk and received his doctorate and became a varsity Professor. He said, “God does not need our good works, but our neighbour does”.
