Martin Luther (November 10, 1483 February 18, 1546) was a German monk,Plass, Ewald M. "Monasticism," in What Luther Says: An Anthology. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, 2:964. theologian, university professor, Father of Protestantism,"What ELCA Lutherns Believe." Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. July 26, 2008 <<a href='http://archive.elca.org/communication/brief.html'>http://archive.elca.org/communication/brief.html>. and church reformer whose ideas influenced the Protestant Reformation and changed the course of Western civilization.Hillerbrand, Hans J. "Martin Luther: Significance," Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2007.

Luther's theology challenged the authority of the papacy by holding that the Bible is the only infallible source of religious authority and that all baptized Christians under Jesus are a universal priesthood. According to Luther, salvation is a free gift of God, received only by true repentance and faith in Jesus as the Messiah, a faith given by God and unmediated by the church.

At the Diet of Worms assembly over freedom of conscience in 1521, Luther's confrontation with the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and his refusal to submit to the authority of the Emperor resulted in his being excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church and being declared an outlaw of the state as a consequence.

His translation of the Bible into the vernacular of the people made the Scriptures more accessible to them, and had a tremendous political impact on the church and on German culture. It furthered the development of a standard version of the German language, added several principles to the art of translation, and influenced the translation of the English King James Bible.Tyndale's New Testament, trans. from the Greek by William Tyndale in 1534 in a modern-spelling edition and with an introduction by David Daniell. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989, ix–x. His hymns inspired the development of congregational singing within Christianity.Bainton, Roland. Here I Stand: a Life of Martin Luther. New York: Penguin, 1995, 269. His marriage to Katharina von Bora set a model for the practice of clerical marriage within Protestantism.Bainton, Roland. Here I Stand: a Life of Martin Luther''. New York: Penguin, 1995, 223.

Much scholarly debate has concentrated on Luther's writings about the Jews. His statements that Jews' homes should be destroyed, their synagogues burned, money confiscated and liberty curtailed were revived and used in propaganda by the Nazis in 1933–45. As a result of this and his revolutionary theological views, his legacy remains controversial.

Birth and education