Luther

receivers, MARTIN, ., in chemical (loo'thür,) experiments. one of the greatest of Church reformers, was B. at Eisleben, Germany, 1483. After studying at the University of Erfurt, he became a monk of the Augustine order in that city, and in 1507 was made prof. of philosophy at Wittenberg. After a visit to Rome, in pursuance of a vow he had made, his ideas regarding the tenets and practices of the Roman Church underwent a gradual change. In 1512 he began openly to declare his heterodox views upon scriptural theology, and, 5 years later, openly opposed the sale of indulgences authorized by Pope Leo X. These views, embodied in his celebrated " ninety five propositions," at once plunged him into bitter controversy and exposed him to as bitter persecution. He soon found friends, however, among some of the most powerful of the German princes. Summoned by the 36 3V Pope to defend his opinions, through the intervention of the Elector of Saxony, it was arranged that a hearing should be given to L.at A ugs burg before the Papal legate. That interview was held, and it decided nothing. L. then continued his public discu ions, and also gave vent to his polemical innovations in writings-one of which, the De Captivitate Babylonica Ecclesiæ, created so great a sensation that a Papal bull was i ued, condemning to a public auto-da-fé it and others of his productions. L., however,finding that the crisis had come, proceeded to the walls of Wittenberg, attended by a number of his friends and disciples, there burned the Pope's bull, and by that act dis severed forever his remaining ties with the Church of Rome. After this L.became the spokesman of a propaganda whose labors never rested till the spirit of the Protestant religion had taken deep and lasting root throughout N. Germany, and thence extended among her Scand in avian neighbors. Cited to appear before the Diet of Worms, 1521, L. appeared there, attended by a retinue of the Protestant princes and nobles of Germany, and after ably pleading his cause -that of religious liberty-before the emperor Charles V. in person, he was seized, on his returning home, at the instigation of his friend, the Elector of Saxony, and carried to the castle of Wartburg, where he remained for a period of 10 months. Returning then to Wittenberg, he doffed his monastic character, married, published his translation of the New Testament in 1522, and his German version of the Old Testament in 1534. The closing years of the life of L. were pa ed in comparative tranquillity. D. 1546. [s. 561]