Helen

=__Martin Luther__=

Here are a few details about my life...
I was born on the 10th of November in 1483 in Eisleben, which is in Saxony. This is also the place where I died on the 18th of February in 1564, when I was 62 years old. My mother's name is Margarethe, she used to be a hard-working women, and my father is called Hans, he worked as a leaseholder in copper mines. I was baptized the morning after my birth, as a Catholic. When I was just one year old, my family and me moved to Mansfeld, because of my dad's work. I had some brothers and sisters, but my favourite sibling was my brother Jacob, because we where very close. My father wanted me to become a lawyer, so that's what I studied after I left the University of Erfurt, but they almost kicked me out immediately, because I believed that law represents uncertainty. I had two big idols, who influenced many actions in my life; my tutors Bartholomaeus Arnoldi von Usingen and Jodocus Trutfetter. However, I left law school, because I believed that reason could be used to question anything, but God. I became a monk and my father was really disappointed in me, he said this was all a waste of my education.

[[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/03/Lutherbibel.jpg/220px-Lutherbibel.jpg width="247" height="201" align="left"]]I contributed to the Renaissance in the following ways...
I translated the Bible from Latin into German, to make it understandable for people who didn't speak Latin (which was nearly everyone, except for popes, priests and other people in high positions). I was strongly against the claim that God would give us freedom if we would pay him money. This influenced quite some poeple and the people who identified with me and what I tought were called Lutherans. On October 31st, 1517, I confronted the church with my complaint of their selling of indulgences (selling of indulgences is what the curch did; to tell the people to pay them money, 'so that God wouldn't punish them') by writting a letter to Albert of Mainz, my bishop. I also wrote a lot about my believes and my work spread out through Europe within two months. This informed many people about what the church was really up to.

I think these contribution were particularly important because...
With the translation of the Bible, almost everyone could read the holy book by themselves and could make up their own mind about what thy interpreted, thought and believed. Also, the number of people who could read increased, because more people wanted to learn to read, so that they could read the bible and dind't have to listen to the things the church said. It was important that finally someone stopped the church from telling lies to people and from gouging all the people's money. The result of my effort: the Protestan Reformation evolved and I was the iconic figure of the whole thing.

This is a video about Martin Luther and the Reformation:
media type="youtube" key="EFqWnEpZvjs" height="315" width="420" align="center"

__Reference List__
 * Wikipedia //Martin Luther,// []
 * Heiligenlexikon, [|www.heiligenlexikon.de/.../Martin_Luther.html]
 * Luther, [|www.luther.de/]
 * Youtube, []
 * Lutherbibel, [|de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutherbibel]