100 Fun Facts About Martin Luther

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

His theology forms the basis of Lutheranism, though he insisted his followers call themselves simply Christians or Evangelicals.

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

He was baptised the next morning on the feast of St Martin of Tours, and preached his last sermon there three days before his death.

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

He was determined that his eldest son should become a lawyer.

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

He entered at 17, took his master's in 1505 and enrolled in law 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 came to see the cry as a vow he could never break, sold his books and entered the Augustinian monastery within a fortnight.

Which religious order did Luther join in 1505?

His superior Johann von Staupitz, worried by his excessive introspection, pushed him into an academic career.

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

He received his doctorate in 1512 and succeeded Staupitz as chair of theology two days later.

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

He called this doctrine 'the chief article of the whole Christian doctrine'.

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

The money was for rebuilding St Peter's in Rome, with half going to pay off the Archbishop of Mainz's debts.

Complete the jingle Luther objected to: 'As soon as the coin in the coffer rings...'

Luther insisted forgiveness was God's alone to grant.

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

Luther enclosed it in a letter to Archbishop Albert of Mainz in 1517.

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

Several scholars doubt the door-nailing ever happened; the tale rests on Melanchthon, who was not in town at the time.

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?

Luther slipped out of the city at night with help from a Carmelite friar.

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

Luther had asserted that neither popes nor councils were infallible; Hus had been burned in 1415 for similar views.

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

It gave him 60 days; instead he burned it publicly 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.

Before which assembly did Luther refuse to recant in April 1521, with Emperor Charles V presiding?

The resulting edict declared him an outlaw and made it a crime to give him food or shelter.

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

What is recorded is: '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'?

Masked horsemen posing as highway robbers spirited Luther away in the forest near his university town.

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

He grew a beard and lived there disguised as a knight.

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

The name means 'Knight George'; he grew his hair and beard to look the part.

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

He worked from the Greek and finished it in about ten weeks; it was printed in September 1522.

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

Luther kept refining the translation until his death, and it helped shape a standard German language.

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

The painter's portraits are the reason we know what Luther looked like.

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 disputed Trinitarian verse in 1 John was inserted back into the text by others after his death.

Whom did Luther marry in June 1525?

She was 26 and a former nun; he was 41 and had expected 'the death of a heretic' rather than a wedding.

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

A Torgau merchant who delivered fish to the convent drove them to Luther's town in his covered wagon.

How many children did Luther and Katharina have?

Elisabeth died in infancy and Magdalene died in his arms at 13; Katharina also farmed and took in boarders.

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

Luther called his wife 'my Katie' and said he would not swap his poverty for the riches of Croesus.

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

He later wrote, 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?

Luther counted it, with the Catechism, as one of the only two of his books worth keeping.

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

His death closed the revolutionary phase of the Reformation; radicalism took refuge in the Anabaptist movement.

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?

Luther could not attend the Diet, so he steered the negotiations from the fortress and wrote a dozen works.

At the 1529 Marburg Colloquy, Luther and Zwingli agreed on fourteen of fifteen points. What was the exception?

The dispute still paved the way for the Augsburg Confession and the Schmalkaldic League.

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

Its first line paraphrases Psalm 46; the German is 'Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott'.

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

Luther was staying at the Coburg Fortress during the Diet of Augsburg at the time.

What is the title of Luther's notorious 60,000-word antisemitic treatise of 1543?

It called for synagogues to be burned; historians widely see it as an 'ideal underpinning' later exploited by the Nazis.

What caused Luther's death in February 1546?

He died at 2:45 a.m. aged 62, in the town where he was born.

Where is Luther buried?

The Castle Church is the same one whose door he supposedly nailed the theses to.

Which of Luther's three great 1520 treatises urged the empire's rulers to reform the church?

The other two of that year attacked the sacramental system and set out his doctrine of Christian liberty.

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

Luther came back in March 1522 and preached the eight 'Invocavit Sermons' urging patience over violence.

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

He lectured on the Psalms, Hebrews and Galatians as well between 1510 and 1520.

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

Even so, the Catholic Church has never lifted Luther's excommunication.

Reformation Day is celebrated by Protestants on which date?

It marks the day in 1517 that Luther sent his theses to the Archbishop of Mainz, and by tradition nailed them up.

What honorific is part of the official names of Luther's birthplace and university town?

'Luther City' marks their connections to his life and death.

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

He 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?

The Bishop of Brandenburg, Jerome Schultz, performed the ordination on 3 April.

To which prelate did Luther send his Theses in a letter dated 31 October 1517?

The indulgences were sold under his authority; his Mainz theologians advised prohibiting Luther and referring the case to Rome.

Which theologian wrote 106 counter-theses for Johann Tetzel in response to Luther's Ninety-five?

Tetzel defended them at Frankfurt on the Oder in January 1518; Wittenberg students seized and burned 800 printed copies.

What did Luther and his friends do on 31 October 1527 to mark ten years since the Theses?

They toasted the 'trampling out of indulgences'; Melanchthon later fixed the posting of the Theses as the Reformation's start in his 1548 life of Luther.

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

No copy of any Wittenberg printing survives, which is unsurprising as Luther was not yet famous.

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

Charles V presided; the Edict of Worms of 25 May declared Luther a heretic and enemy of the state whom anyone could kill without penalty.

How many of Luther's books were read out by title when he was asked at Worms whether they were his?

Luther's lawyer Schurff asked for the titles to be read; Johann von Eck, the presiding officer, demanded he revoke their heresies.

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

The Antwerp Augustinian prior was forced into a public recantation in February 1522; Diets of Nuremberg in 1522 and 1524 failed to enforce the edict against Luther himself.

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

Luther said she convinced him of whatever she pleased and gave her complete control over the house.

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?

The instrument was later recreated as the waldzither, which became 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 explained that the colour was chosen because it belongs to the spirits and angels; the rose sits in a sky-blue field ringed with gold.

Luther compared his boyhood Latin schooling to what?

He attended Latin schools in Mansfeld, Magdeburg and Eisenach, all focused on grammar, logic and rhetoric.

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

He prayed and consulted friends overnight, then gave his famous refusal the next day.

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

He also expected it to please his father, who had wanted him to become a lawyer and start a family.

Where did Luther place the Apocrypha in his Bible?

It is a common misconception that he removed books; he grouped them rather than scattering them among the other books.

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

She also bred and sold cattle and, in times of epidemic, operated a hospital with nurses.

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

Years of kidney stones, arthritis and angina made him short-tempered and harsher in his writing.

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

He differed from Calvin and Melanchthon on this, describing souls entering 'a prepared bedchamber in which they sleep in peace'.

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

He wanted it exposed to scrutiny, and said 'Let the Turk believe and live as he will, just as one lets the papacy and other false Christians live.'

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

The line continues 'but let your trust in Christ be stronger'; the letter was written to Melanchthon on 1 August 1521.

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

He was also an alchemist who developed drugs produced by Saxon pharmacies, including a drinkable gold called Aurum potabile.

Which bull formally excommunicated Luther on 3 January 1521?

It followed the earlier warning bull whose 60-day deadline Luther had answered 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?

They preached the equality of man, adult baptism and Christ's imminent return; Luther banished them after his return from hiding.

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

He said the ravages could not be repaired by writing, 'but only by my personal presence and living word'.

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

The same friend later conducted Luther's funeral with Melanchthon, and published a Low German version of his New Testament.

Luther's decision to marry surprised one close colleague, who called it what?

Months earlier Luther had written that he would never take a wife because he daily expected 'the death of a heretic'.

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?

It is based on the Latin 'Veni redemptor gentium'; Bach built cantata BWV 62 on it.

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

The words mean 'This is my body'; Luther insisted on the real presence of Christ in the bread and wine against Zwingli's symbolic reading.

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

He also suffered vertigo, fainting, tinnitus and a cataract, and in 1536 an ear infection ruptured an eardrum.

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

The scrap of paper was found after his death in Eisleben in February 1546.

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

He switched from Latin to German to reach a broader audience and was the most widely read author of his generation.

Luther is shown with a swan because of a prophecy by Jan Hus, whose name meant what?

Awaiting execution in 1414, Hus reportedly said they would roast a goose now but hear a swan sing in a hundred years; Lutheran churches often use a swan weather vane.

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

Stacy Keach played Luther in the film; Albert Finney had created the role on stage in 1961.

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

The post covered Saxony and Thuringia and required him to travel between the houses on visitation.

Luther supplied four of the eight songs in which first Lutheran hymnal of 1524?

The same year he wrote 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?

He sent it to colleagues as a sample psalm-hymn; the expanded five-stanza version was sung at his own funeral.

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

The theses claimed the law belonged only to city hall; Luther answered with six series of counter-theses and four disputations.

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?

When conversions failed he grew increasingly bitter, culminating in the notorious treatises of 1543.

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

In Germany it is a civic holiday in seven states, and Switzerland marks it on the first Sunday after 31 October.

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

The Katharinenportal still stands at the Lutherhaus, now the world's largest museum of the Reformation.

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

The disputation's 28 theses moved beyond indulgences to a full theology of grace, and provoked Johann Eck's challenge to debate.

Melanchthon traced Luther's turn to the cloister to the sudden death of which friend?

Speculation about the cause ranges from lightning and plague to pleurisy, or even that Luther killed him in a duel.

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

In it he argued that every good work designed to attract God's favour is a sin, one of his most emphatic statements on faith.

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

Luther gave her complete control of the household, saying she convinced him of whatever she pleased.

Which Wittenberg printer issued the complete 1534 Bible with 117 woodcuts?

It ran to 1,824 pages in two volumes and went on sale at the Michaelmas fair; an unbound copy cost a labourer about a month's wages.

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

The escape took place on Holy Saturday; the nuns' families refused to take them back, fearing complicity in a crime under canon law.