Martin Luther — Movies, Bio, Popularity, Filmography & Fame Trend

Summary

Updated 2026-07-17

A 16th-century German priest who nailed a list of grievances to a church door and fractured Christianity forever. His challenge to papal authority didn't just split the Church — it redrew the map of Europe and made Scripture accessible in a language ordinary people could read.

Biography

About

Born in Eisleben in 1483, Luther was ordained a priest in 1507 and spent his early years as an Augustinian friar. By 1517 he'd grown convinced the Roman Catholic Church had corrupted the Gospel, particularly through the sale of indulgences, and he laid out his objections in the Ninety-five Theses. Pope Leo X demanded he recant in 1520; Luther refused and was excommunicated in January 1521, then condemned as an outlaw by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms later that year. He taught that salvation came through faith alone, not human merit, and that the Bible — not priests or popes…

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In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Martin Luther

Martin Luther

said25 Aug 1538

August 25, 1538, the conversation fell upon witches who spoil milk, eggs, and butter in farm yards. Dr.

— Statement of 25 August 1538, in Table-Talk, as translated by William Hazlitt (1857), DLXXVII

Martin Luther

said20 Aug 1538

One should hasten to put such witches to death.

— Statement of 20 August 1538; as quoted in Conversations With Martin Luther (1915), translated and edited by Preserved Smith and Herbert

Martin Luther

said9 Jul 1537

Regarding the plan to collect my writings in volumes, I am quite cool and not at all eager about it because, roused by a Saturnian hunger, I would rather see them all devoured.

— Letter to Wolfgang Capito (9 July 1537)

Martin Luther

said1529

The heathen really make their self-invented notions and dreams of God and idol. Ultimately, they put their trust in that which is nothing. So it is with all idolatry.

— "On Infant Baptism," Large Catechism (1529)

Martin Luther

said1529