Martin Luther King and John Calvin were both very important leaders of the Protestant Although they were both against the Roman Catholic Church, they brought aboutvery different ideas in religion. Martin Luther founded the group that are today known as Lutherans. He was ordaineda priest in 1507. He dealt with questions dealing with the structure of the church and with itsmoral values. These questions were important in Luther's eyes, but the most important was howto find favor with God. Luther tried to pray, fast, and repent, but he never felt self-satisfaction. He eventually concluded that God's love was not a prize or a reward to be earned or won, but agift to be accepted. Luther further concluded that until man stops trying to achieve God's favorthrough his own achievements he cannot truly understand God's grace. Luther also had the ideathat one did not need a priest to talk to God, he believed that one could pray and repent withoutthe help of anyone else. This was the idea for which Luther became famous. In 1517, Luther was involved in a controversy which involved indulgences. Indulgenceswere the idea that a person could donate money to a worthy cause in exchange for forgivenessof their sins. Luther opposed this idea and stated his beliefs in his Ninety-Five Thesis, which heposted on the castle door in Wittenberg, Germany. In 1519, Luther had a debate in Leipzig with Johann Eck, a Roman Catholic theologian. During this debate, Luther denied the supremacy of the Pope and stated that church councilscould make mistakes. In 1521, Luther was excommunicated by Pope Leo X. Luther was then ordered toappear before a council which demanded that he retract his teachings. Luther intern stated thatunless he was inspired to do so by scripture he would not "since it is neither safe nor right to goagainst conscience."Possible the most important contribution of Luther to society was his translation of theBible into German. This mad...
