97 Fun Facts About Martin Luther

Martin Luther is remembered as the seminal figure of which movement?

Luther launched the Protestant Reformation with his Ninety-five Theses of 1517; his theology became the basis of Lutheranism, though he asked his followers to call themselves simply Christians or Evangelicals.

In which town was Luther born in 1483, and where did he also die?

Luther was born in Eisleben on 10 November 1483 and died there on 18 February 1546, three days after preaching his last sermon in the town.

What did Luther's father Hans do for a living?

Hans Luder, a former miner, leased copper mines and smelters around Mansfeld and sat on the town council; he was determined that Martin, his eldest son, should become a lawyer.

At which university did Luther study, later describing it as 'a beer house and whorehouse'?

Luther entered the University of Erfurt at 17 in 1501, took his master's degree in 1505 and enrolled in law there before dropping out almost at once.

Caught in a thunderstorm in July 1505, Luther cried out a vow to which saint that he would become a monk?

He cried 'Help, Saint Anna, I will become a monk!'; taking the words as an unbreakable vow, he sold his books and entered a monastery on 17 July 1505.

Which religious order did Luther join in 1505?

He joined the Augustinians in July 1505; his superior Johann von Staupitz, worried by his excessive introspection, steered him toward an academic career.

At which university did Luther teach theology from 1508 for the rest of his career?

At Wittenberg he received his doctorate on 19 October 1512 and two days later succeeded Staupitz as chair of theology, a post he held until his death in 1546.

Luther's core doctrine held that a sinner is declared righteous by what alone?

Luther held that a sinner is made right with God by faith alone (sola fide); in the Smalcald Articles of 1537 he called this 'the first and chief article' of Christian doctrine.

Which Dominican friar's sale of indulgences in Germany prompted Luther's protest in 1517?

Johann Tetzel, a Dominican, preached the 1517 indulgence meant to fund the rebuilding of St Peter's in Rome, though half the takings were secretly diverted to repay the debts of the archbishop who had licensed the sale.

How did the indulgence jingle 'As soon as the coin in the coffer rings' end?

The jingle ended 'the soul from purgatory springs'; Luther's Thesis 27 condemned preachers who claim a soul flies out of purgatory as soon as the coin clinks in the chest.

What was the formal title of the document known as the Ninety-five Theses?

The Ninety-five Theses bore the formal title 'Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences'; Luther wrote them in Latin in 1517 as propositions for an academic debate on indulgences.

According to the traditional story, where did Luther nail his theses in 1517?

Tradition has Luther nailing the theses to the door of All Saints' Church in Wittenberg in 1517; some scholars doubt it, since the story rests on a colleague who only reached Wittenberg in 1518.

Which thesis asked why the pope, richer than Crassus, did not build St Peter's himself?

Historian Hans Hillerbrand notes the tone was 'searching, rather than doctrinaire', with an undercurrent of challenge.

Which cardinal questioned Luther for three days at Augsburg in 1518, in hearings that became a shouting match?

Cardinal Cajetan, the papal legate, examined Luther at Augsburg on 12-14 October 1518 and demanded that he recant; Luther refused and slipped out of the city by night.

At the 1519 Leipzig Debate, which theologian branded Luther 'a new Jan Hus'?

Johann Eck, debating Luther at Leipzig in 1519, branded him a new Jan Hus after Luther denied that popes or councils were infallible; Hus had been burned for similar views in 1415.

Which 1520 papal bull threatened Luther with excommunication unless he recanted 41 propositions?

Exsurge Domine, issued on 15 June 1520, condemned 41 of Luther's propositions and gave him 60 days to recant; he burned the bull publicly at Wittenberg on 10 December 1520.

Which pope excommunicated Luther in January 1521?

The excommunication was still in force when Luther died and has never been lifted.

For which feast did Luther write the hymn 'Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her'?

'Vom Himmel hoch' (From Heaven Above to Earth I Come) is Luther's Christmas hymn of 1534, retelling the angel's message to the shepherds in the Nativity story.

Which words attributed to Luther at Worms do scholars consider unreliable, appearing only in later versions?

'Here I stand, I can do no other' is absent from the earliest accounts of Worms; what is recorded ends 'I cannot and will not recant anything... May God help me. Amen.'

Which prince protected Luther, obtaining his safe conduct to Worms and then staging his 'kidnapping'?

Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, had Luther seized on 4 May 1521 by masked horsemen posing as highway robbers near Altenstein on his way home from Worms, then hidden in one of his castles.

In which castle did Luther hide from May 1521 to March 1522, calling it 'my Patmos'?

Luther hid at the Wartburg, above Eisenach, from 4 May 1521 to early March 1522, growing a beard and living there in disguise.

Under what alias did Luther live while in hiding in 1521-22?

As 'Junker Jörg' (Knight George) Luther passed for a minor nobleman while in hiding, growing his hair and beard to look the part for ten months.

What major work did Luther complete during his ten months in hiding in 1521-22?

His German translation of the New Testament, made from the Greek in about eleven weeks while in hiding, was printed in September 1522 as the 'September Testament'.

The complete Luther Bible, with the Old Testament, was published in which year?

The complete Luther Bible, Old and New Testaments with the Apocrypha, appeared in 1534; Luther kept refining the translation until his death, and it helped shape standard German.

Which artist made anti-papal woodcuts for the Luther Bible and witnessed Luther's wedding?

Lucas Cranach the Elder cut anti-papal woodcuts for the 1522 New Testament, stood witness at Luther's wedding in 1525, and painted the portraits that fix how Luther looked.

Luther's German translation influenced which English one, itself a forerunner of the King James Version?

Luther used the German of the Saxon chancellery so both northern and southern Germans could read it.

Which biblical passage did Luther leave out of his translation, rejecting it as a forgery?

The Johannine Comma, the Trinitarian clause in 1 John 5:7, was left out by Luther as a later insertion; other editors put it into Luther Bibles only after his death.

Which New Testament book did Luther call 'an epistle of straw' in his 1522 preface?

In the preface to his 1522 German New Testament Luther called James 'an epistle of straw' beside the Gospels and Paul's letters, because it said little about Christ.

How were the twelve nuns, including Luther's future wife, smuggled out of their convent in 1523?

On Easter eve, 4 April 1523, a merchant who delivered herring to the Nimbschen convent drove the twelve nuns away in his covered wagon, hidden among the herring barrels.

How many children did Luther and Katharina have?

They had six children between 1526 and 1534: Hans, Elisabeth, Magdalena, Martin, Paul and Margarethe; Elisabeth died in infancy and Magdalena died in Luther's arms at 13.

Where did the Luthers set up home, a wedding present from Elector John the Steadfast?

Elector John the Steadfast gave the couple the Black Cloister, the former monastery where Luther had lived as a friar; it stayed the family home, filled with students, relatives and boarders.

In which pamphlet did Luther urge the nobles to 'smite, slay, and stab' the rebels of 1525?

'Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants' appeared in May 1525; Luther later said, half boasting, that he had 'slain all the peasants, for it was I who ordered them to be struck dead'.

Luther's 1525 work On the Bondage of the Will was a reply to which humanist scholar's On Free Will?

Erasmus's 'On Free Will' of 1524 challenged Luther, whose reply 'On the Bondage of the Will' he later counted as one of only two of his books worth keeping.

Which radical preacher, executed after the 1525 Battle of Frankenhausen, led peasants in Thuringia?

Thomas Müntzer, the radical preacher of Mühlhausen, led Thuringian peasants to defeat at Frankenhausen on 15 May 1525 and was beheaded twelve days later.

What did Luther write in 1529 in a large version for pastors and a small one to be memorised?

He wanted the basics understood, not learned by rote 'the way monkeys do it'; the Small Catechism is still in use today.

Which colleague drafted the Augsburg Confession of 1530 while the outlawed Luther waited at Veste Coburg?

Philipp Melanchthon drafted the Augsburg Confession, presented to Charles V on 25 June 1530, while Luther, under the imperial ban, advised by letter from the Coburg fortress.

Luther's best-known hymn, called the 'Battle Hymn of the Reformation', is known in English as what?

'A Mighty Fortress Is Our God' is the English 'Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott', written between 1527 and 1529 as a paraphrase of Psalm 46.

The Luther rose, the symbol of Lutheranism, was designed as a seal for Luther in 1530 at whose behest?

Prince John Frederick of Saxony had the seal made for Luther in 1530, while Luther sat out the Diet of Augsburg at the Coburg fortress; Luther explained its symbols in a letter to Lazarus Spengler.

What is the title of Luther's notorious antisemitic treatise of 1543?

'On the Jews and Their Lies' (1543) urged that synagogues be burned and Jewish homes razed; historians see its rhetoric as an 'ideal underpinning' later exploited by the Nazis.

What caused Luther's death in February 1546?

An apoplectic stroke robbed him of speech and he died at 2:45 a.m. on 18 February 1546, aged 62, in the town of his birth.

Where is Luther buried?

Luther was buried on 22 February 1546 before the pulpit of Wittenberg's Castle Church, four days after his death, after his body was carried home in a solemn procession.

Which 1520 treatise by Luther attacked the 'three walls' the Romanists had built around themselves?

'To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation' (August 1520) tore down three 'walls': that spiritual power outranks temporal, that only the pope may interpret Scripture, and that only he may call a council.

Which reformer's image-smashing in Wittenberg did Luther return from hiding to reverse in 1522?

Andreas Karlstadt had pushed through image-smashing and a radical Mass in Luther's absence; Luther returned in March 1522 and preached the eight Invocavit Sermons urging patience over force.

Lecturing on which biblical book gave Luther his understanding of 'the righteousness of God'?

Lecturing on Romans in 1515-16 he came to read 'the righteousness of God' (Romans 1:17) as a righteousness God gives rather than the justice by which he punishes.

In 1999 Lutherans and Catholics signed a joint declaration on which doctrine that had divided them since Luther?

The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, signed at Augsburg in 1999 by the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church, set out a shared understanding of justification by God's grace.

Reformation Day is celebrated by Protestants on which date?

Reformation Day falls on 31 October, the date in 1517 on which Luther sent his theses to his archbishop and, by tradition, nailed them to the church door.

Luther's German Mass of 1526 changed communion so that everyone received what?

The Deutsche Messe of 1526 gave the laity both the bread and the wine; Luther kept the elevation of the host but made vestments, altar and candles optional.

What did Luther say his mother's enemies had called her?

Her name was Margarethe Lindemann; the family surname was originally spelled Luder.

In which year was Luther ordained a priest?

Luther was ordained on 3 April 1507 by Jerome Schultz, Bishop of Brandenburg, two years after entering the monastery, and celebrated his first Mass on 2 May 1507.

To which prelate did Luther send his Theses with a covering letter in 1517?

Albert of Brandenburg, Archbishop of Mainz, had licensed the indulgence sale; his Mainz theologians advised him to prohibit Luther's preaching and refer the case to Rome.

Which theologian wrote 106 counter-theses against Luther's Ninety-five, defended at Frankfurt on the Oder in 1518?

Konrad Wimpina, a Frankfurt on the Oder professor, drafted the 106 theses that the indulgence preacher defended there in January 1518; Wittenberg students seized and burned 800 printed copies.

In which three cities were the Latin Theses printed as pamphlets or placards soon after 1517?

Printers in Basel, Leipzig and Nuremberg issued the Latin Theses as placards or pamphlets within months; no copy of any Wittenberg printing survives, Luther not yet being famous.

In which building was the Diet of Worms held from January to May 1521?

The Diet sat in the Bischofshof, the bishop's palace beside Worms Cathedral; its Edict of 25 May 1521 outlawed Luther as a heretic whom anyone could kill without penalty.

On which date in 1521 did Luther give his final refusal to recant at Worms?

Luther reached Worms on 16 April 1521, appeared before the Diet on 17 and 18 April, and on the 18th refused to recant unless convinced by Scripture or plain reason.

Who was the first Luther-supporting cleric prosecuted under the Edict of Worms, in December 1521?

Jacob Proost, prior of the Antwerp Augustinians, was arrested in December 1521 and forced into a public recantation in February 1522; Diets at Nuremberg in 1522 and 1524 failed to enforce the edict against Luther.

What nickname did Luther give his wife Katharina, reflecting her control of the household?

He called her 'Herr Käthe' (Lord Katie), saying she convinced him of whatever she pleased, and gave her full control of the household and its finances.

In which town did Katharina von Bora die in 1552, after being thrown from her cart into a ditch?

She had fled plague and harvest failure in Wittenberg and lingered for three months; she is buried in Torgau's St Mary's Church, far from Luther's grave.

Which instrument did Luther often play to accompany hymn singing?

Luther was a skilled player of the lute, which he used to accompany hymn singing; the instrument was later recreated as the waldzither, a national instrument of Germany in the 20th century.

In Luther's seal, a heart bearing a black cross sits in the middle of a rose of which colour?

Luther said the rose must be white, not red, because white is the colour of the spirits and angels; the rose sits in a sky-blue field ringed with gold.

Luther compared his boyhood Latin schooling to what?

Luther later likened his schooling to purgatory and hell; he attended Latin schools in Mansfeld, Magdeburg and Eisenach, all drilling the trivium of grammar, logic and rhetoric.

Questioned at Worms on whether he stood by his books, what did Luther do first?

Asked on his first day before the Diet whether he stood by his books, Luther requested time to think and was granted a day; he prayed and consulted friends overnight before refusing to recant.

Luther said his marriage would rile the pope, make the angels laugh and the devils do what?

Luther wrote that marrying would please his father, rile the pope, make the angels laugh and the devils weep; he had long urged clerical marriage before taking the step himself in 1525.

Where did Luther place the Apocrypha in his Bible?

Luther gathered the Apocrypha into a section at the end of the Old Testament, headed as books 'not held equal to Holy Scripture, yet useful and good to read', rather than removing them.

Which business did Katharina run at the Luther home to support the family and its boarders?

Katharina brewed the household's beer in the former monastery's brewery, bred and sold cattle, and in times of epidemic ran a hospital on the premises with other nurses.

Scolded by Katharina for his manners in his final years, what did Luther reply?

When Katharina said 'Dear husband, you are too rude,' he answered 'They are teaching me to be rude'; kidney stones, arthritis and angina had made him short-tempered.

Luther held it was not false doctrine to believe a Christian's soul does what after death?

Luther taught that the soul sleeps after death, unlike Calvin; he pictured the dead entering 'a prepared bedchamber in which they sleep in peace' until the resurrection.

Which text did Luther read in Latin translation in 1542, then oppose banning?

Luther read the Qur'an in Latin in 1542 and backed its printing at Basel the next year so its errors could be scrutinised, saying 'Let the Turk believe and live as he will'.

In a 1521 letter from hiding, Luther wrote 'Be a sinner, and let your sins be' what?

'Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger' comes from Luther's letter of 1 August 1521, written from hiding to a Wittenberg colleague.

Luther's son Paul, who served the electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, had what profession?

Paul Luther (1533-93) was physician to the electors of Saxony and Brandenburg and an alchemist who devised drugs for Saxon pharmacies, including a drinkable gold, Aurum potabile.

Which bull formally excommunicated Luther on 3 January 1521?

Decet Romanum Pontificem, issued on 3 January 1521, made the excommunication final after Luther had answered the warning bull's 60-day deadline by burning it in public.

What gesture did Luther make at the end of his refusal to recant at Worms?

Historian Michael Mullett calls the speech 'a world classic of epoch-making oratory'.

Which band of visionary zealots arrived in Wittenberg after Christmas 1521?

The Zwickau prophets reached Wittenberg on 27 December 1521, preaching the equality of man, adult baptism and Christ's imminent return; Luther confronted them after returning from hiding and they left the city.

Returning in 1522, Luther wrote to the Elector that Satan had entered his what?

Luther told the Elector in March 1522 that during his absence 'Satan has entered my sheepfold' and wrought ravages reparable 'only by my personal presence and living word'.

Which Wittenberg pastor officiated at Luther's wedding on 13 June 1525?

Johannes Bugenhagen, the town pastor and Luther's confessor, married the couple on 13 June 1525; he later preached Luther's funeral sermon and published a Low German version of the Luther Bible in the 1530s.

At Heidelberg in 1518, Luther set his 'theology of the cross' against a theology of what?

At the Heidelberg Disputation of April 1518 Luther contrasted the 'theology of the cross', which knows God through suffering, with the 'theology of glory' that seeks him in power and works.

Luther called Katharina the 'morning star of Wittenberg' because of which habit?

She managed the former monastery's vast holdings while always addressing her husband as 'Herr Doktor'.

Luther's 'Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland' became the main hymn for which season?

'Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland' (1523), Luther's version of Ambrose's 'Veni redemptor gentium', became the chief Lutheran hymn for the first Sunday in Advent; Bach built cantatas BWV 61 and 62 on it.

What did Luther write in chalk on the table at the Marburg Colloquy?

Luther chalked 'Hoc est corpus meum' ('This is my body') on the table at Marburg in October 1529 and kept pointing to Christ's words of institution throughout the debate.

Which inner-ear disorder was among Luther's chronic ailments?

Luther's chronic ailments included Ménière's disease, vertigo, fainting, tinnitus and a cataract in one eye; in 1536 an ear infection ruptured an eardrum.

Luther's last written note was in Latin except for which three German words?

Luther's final note, written on 16 February 1546, ends 'Wir sind Bettler. Hoc est verum' ('We are beggars. This is true'), two days before his death.

Between 1500 and 1530, Luther's works made up what share of everything printed in Germany?

Luther's works made up one fifth of everything printed in Germany between 1500 and 1530; he switched from Latin to German to reach a broad audience and was the most widely read author of his generation.

Luther is often depicted with which bird, thanks to a prophecy attributed to Jan Hus?

Hus, whose name means 'goose', is said to have told his judges in 1415 they would roast a goose but within a century hear a swan sing; Lutherans cast Luther as that swan, hence swan weather vanes on Lutheran churches.

Who played Luther's wife in the 1973 film of John Osborne's play Luther?

Judi Dench played Katherine von Bora opposite Stacy Keach's Luther in the 1973 American Film Theatre production; Albert Finney had created the stage role in 1961.

As provincial vicar from 1515, how many monasteries did Luther oversee?

From 1515 Luther was provincial vicar for Saxony and Thuringia, overseeing eleven monasteries and travelling between them on visitation.

Luther supplied half the songs in which first Lutheran hymnal, printed in 1524?

The Achtliederbuch of 1524 carried four Luther hymns among its eight; that year he also supplied 18 of 26 songs in the Erfurt Enchiridion and 24 of 32 in Johann Walter's choral hymnal.

Luther's 1523 hymn 'Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir' is a hymnic version of which text?

'Aus tiefer Not' paraphrases Psalm 130, 'Out of the depths I cry to thee'; Luther sent it to colleagues as a sample psalm-hymn, and the five-stanza version was sung at his funeral.

Which pastor in Luther's birthplace did he suspect of anonymous antinomian theses in 1537?

Johannes Agricola, the preacher in Luther's home town and a former student, was blamed for anonymous theses arguing the law belonged only in city hall; Luther answered in disputations and his 'Against the Antinomians' of 1539.

Threatened with exposure over Philip of Hesse's bigamy, what did Luther advise the landgrave?

Biographer Martin Brecht called the affair one of the worst mistakes Luther made; the second wife bore Philip nine children.

Which 1523 work saw Luther advise kindness toward Jews in hopes of converting them?

In 'That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew' (1523) Luther urged kindness toward Jews to win converts; when conversions did not come he grew bitter, culminating in the treatises of 1543.

Which non-German country celebrates Reformation Day as a holiday for its cultural impact?

Slovenia has kept Reformation Day as a public holiday since 1992, honouring the cultural legacy of Primož Trubar, whose 1550 catechism was the first book printed in Slovene.

What did Luther add to his Wittenberg home as a birthday present for his wife?

The carved stone doorway, the Katharinenportal of 1540, was Luther's birthday gift to Katharina and survives at the Lutherhaus in Wittenberg.

Which future Strasbourg reformer became a follower after hearing Luther at Heidelberg in 1518?

Martin Bucer, then a young Dominican, heard Luther defend his 28 theses at Heidelberg in April 1518 and was won over; he later led the Reformation in Strasbourg from 1523.

An early biographer traced Luther's turn to the cloister to the sudden death of which friend?

The friend was Hieronimus Buntz, a fellow student who died suddenly; speculation about the cause ranges from lightning and plague to pleurisy, or even a duel with Luther.

While in hiding in 1521, Luther wrote a Refutation of the Argument of which Louvain theologian?

Jacobus Latomus had defended the Louvain theologians' condemnation of Luther; 'Against Latomus' (1521), written from hiding, argued that every good work designed to attract God's favour is a sin.

Luther nicknamed Katharina the 'boss of' which farm the family owned?

In 1540 the Luthers bought the small estate of Zulsdorf, south of Leipzig, which Katharina ran herself, so Luther addressed her as 'the boss of Zulsdorf'.

Which Wittenberg printer issued the first complete Luther Bible, with 117 woodcuts?

Hans Lufft, Wittenberg's leading printer, issued the first complete Luther Bible with 117 woodcuts in six parts; over the next forty years his presses printed around 100,000 copies.

Which merchant, who supplied fish to the convent, drove the nuns' escape wagon in 1523?

Leonhard Köppe, a merchant and town councillor who delivered herring to the Nimbschen convent, drove the nuns out on Holy Saturday 1523; their families refused to take them back, as aiding runaway nuns broke canon law.