100 free Martin Luther trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Martin Luther was a miner's son who meant to be a lawyer, promised Saint Anna in a thunderstorm that he would be a monk instead, and ended up splitting Western Christianity. This quiz follows the man from Eisleben and Erfurt through the Augustinian cloister to Wittenberg, the indulgence-seller Tetzel, the Ninety-five Theses (nailed to a door or not), the shouting match with Cardinal Cajetan, the burning of the papal bull, the Diet of Worms and the staged kidnapping that hid him in the Wartburg as 'Junker Jörg'. It then covers what he built and what he broke: the New Testament translated in ten weeks, the full German Bible, the marriage to a nun smuggled out in a fish wagon, six children in a former monastery, the catechisms, the German Mass, the hymn called the Battle Hymn of the Reformation, the Marburg row with Zwingli over the Eucharist, and the harsher side too, from the call to slay the rebellious peasants to the antisemitic treatises of 1543. Easy questions suit anyone who did the Reformation at school; the expert tier asks which thesis mentions Crassus. For the wider movement, Calvin, Zwingli and Henry VIII, try our Reformation quiz. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Luther, his wife, the Wartburg and his works, and the supporting sentence is attached to each question.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Martin Luther is remembered as the seminal figure of which movement?
The Protestant Reformation
His theology forms the basis of Lutheranism, though he insisted his followers call themselves simply Christians or Evangelicals.
Q 02In which town was Luther born in 1483, and where did he also die?
Eisleben
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.
Q 03What did Luther's father Hans do for a living?
Leased copper mines and smelters
He was determined that his eldest son should become a lawyer.
Q 04At which university did Luther study, later describing it as 'a beer house and whorehouse'?
Erfurt
He entered at 17, took his master's in 1505 and enrolled in law before dropping out almost at once.
Q 05Caught in a thunderstorm in July 1505, Luther cried out a vow to which saint that he would become a monk?
Anna
He came to see the cry as a vow he could never break, sold his books and entered the Augustinian monastery within a fortnight.
Q 06Which religious order did Luther join in 1505?
The Augustinians
His superior Johann von Staupitz, worried by his excessive introspection, pushed him into an academic career.
Q 07At which university did Luther teach theology from 1508 for the rest of his career?
Wittenberg
He received his doctorate in 1512 and succeeded Staupitz as chair of theology two days later.
Q 08Luther's core doctrine held that a sinner is declared righteous by what alone?
Faith
He called this doctrine 'the chief article of the whole Christian doctrine'.
Q 09Which Dominican friar's sale of indulgences in Germany prompted Luther's protest in 1517?
Johann Tetzel
The money was for rebuilding St Peter's in Rome, with half going to pay off the Archbishop of Mainz's debts.
Q 10Complete the jingle Luther objected to: 'As soon as the coin in the coffer rings...'
the soul from purgatory springs
Luther insisted forgiveness was God's alone to grant.
Q 11What was the formal title of the document known as the Ninety-five Theses?
Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences
Luther enclosed it in a letter to Archbishop Albert of Mainz in 1517.
Q 12According to the traditional story, where did Luther nail his theses in 1517?
All Saints' Church, Wittenberg
Several scholars doubt the door-nailing ever happened; the tale rests on Melanchthon, who was not in town at the time.
Q 13Which thesis asked why the pope, richer than Crassus, did not build St Peter's himself?
Number 86
Q 21In which castle did Luther hide from May 1521 to March 1522, calling it 'my Patmos'?
Wartburg
He grew a beard and lived there disguised as a knight.
Q 22Under what alias did Luther live while in hiding in 1521-22?
Junker Jörg
The name means 'Knight George'; he grew his hair and beard to look the part.
Q 23What major work did Luther complete during his ten months in hiding in 1521-22?
A German translation of the New Testament
He worked from the Greek and finished it in about ten weeks; it was printed in September 1522.
Historian Hans Hillerbrand notes the tone was 'searching, rather than doctrinaire', with an undercurrent of challenge.
Q 14Which cardinal questioned Luther for three days at Augsburg in 1518, in hearings that became a shouting match?
Cajetan
Luther slipped out of the city at night with help from a Carmelite friar.
Q 15At the 1519 Leipzig Debate, which theologian branded Luther 'a new Jan Hus'?
Johann Eck
Luther had asserted that neither popes nor councils were infallible; Hus had been burned in 1415 for similar views.
Q 16Which 1520 papal bull threatened Luther with excommunication unless he recanted 41 propositions?
Exsurge Domine
It gave him 60 days; instead he burned it publicly on 10 December 1520.
Q 17Which pope excommunicated Luther in January 1521?
Leo X
The excommunication was still in force when Luther died and has never been lifted.
Q 18Before which assembly did Luther refuse to recant in April 1521, with Emperor Charles V presiding?
The Diet of Worms
The resulting edict declared him an outlaw and made it a crime to give him food or shelter.
Q 19Which four words attributed to Luther at Worms do scholars consider unreliable, appearing only in later versions?
Here I stand
What is recorded is: 'I cannot and will not recant anything... May God help me. Amen.'
Q 20Which prince protected Luther, obtaining his safe conduct to Worms and then staging his 'kidnapping'?
Frederick III, Elector of Saxony
Masked horsemen posing as highway robbers spirited Luther away in the forest near his university town.
Q 24The complete Luther Bible, with the Old Testament, was published in which year?
1534
Luther kept refining the translation until his death, and it helped shape a standard German language.
Q 25Which artist made anti-papal woodcuts for the Luther Bible and witnessed Luther's wedding?
Lucas Cranach the Elder
The painter's portraits are the reason we know what Luther looked like.
Q 26Luther's German translation influenced which English one, itself a forerunner of the King James Version?
The Tyndale Bible
Luther used the German of the Saxon chancellery so both northern and southern Germans could read it.
Q 27Which biblical passage did Luther leave out of his translation, rejecting it as a forgery?
The Johannine Comma
The disputed Trinitarian verse in 1 John was inserted back into the text by others after his death.
Q 28Whom did Luther marry in June 1525?
Katharina von Bora
She was 26 and a former nun; he was 41 and had expected 'the death of a heretic' rather than a wedding.
Q 29How were the twelve nuns, including Luther's future wife, smuggled out of their convent in 1523?
Hidden among herring barrels
A Torgau merchant who delivered fish to the convent drove them to Luther's town in his covered wagon.
Q 30How many children did Luther and Katharina have?
Six
Elisabeth died in infancy and Magdalene died in his arms at 13; Katharina also farmed and took in boarders.