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In 1483, the Plague was running rampant in Germany. Entire towns were being wiped out in days, children did not live long. People turned to the church for hope and sanctuary. Even though it was extremely corrupt during this time, it was their last hope.
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Martin Luther left his small town for a busy metropolis. It had almost everything a college student could want by having many taverns and even it's own brothel. It was centered around the Church more than it was manufacturing goods.
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Where Martin Luther went to school, there was an outbreak of the plague. It left many people in the city dead and they believed it was because God was punishing them for their sins. Luther lost three of his friends during this time.
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Martin Luther was awarded his doctorate in theology in 1512 and become a teacher at the University of Wittenberg.
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After studying the Bible, he came to the conclusion of his problems. He figured out how a hopeless sinner could be accepted by God. He decided that humans were saved through the promises of God. This is because of him dying on the cross.
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Pope Leo X continued the construction of Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome. He also began the sale of indulgences which angured Luther greatly.
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Luther began to confront church officials with his new beliefs as time went on. He was forced into seeing that the implication of faith was justifiable alone. He then released the Ninety-Five Theses by nailing it to the door of the church.
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The tension in the church was rising as Luther continued to question the church and it's practices. He began to see the consequences of questioning the church and now his own theology.
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Martin Luther published three pamphlets in 1520 and began to break even further away from the church. In one he called on the German princes in hope’s they would over throw the papacy and reform the church. in another one he attacked the sacramental system. Finally, was a treatise for the doctrine of salvation.
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He was summoned to appear before the imperial diet if the Holy Roman Empire. Here, he refused to say he no longer believed in the documents he created, this was the start of the Reformation. Luther became an outlaw to the empire.
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Martin Luther was excommunicated from the church in January of 1521.
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Luther returned go Wittenberg and began to organize a new reformed church. He started Lutheranism and it spread rapidly.
