Martin Luther and the break with Rome

Martin Luther was born on November 10, 1483, in Eisleben, Saxony, the son of a miner who hoped his son would become a lawyer. He studied liberal arts at the University of Erfurt before, according to tradition, a thunderstorm near Stotternheim in July 1505 led him to vow to enter religious life; he subsequently entered the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt, was ordained a priest in 1507, and earned his doctorate from the University of Wittenberg in 1512, where he took up the chair of biblical studies. A journey to Rome in 1510-1511 left him deeply unsettled by the worldliness he observed in the papal curia, and he underwent a profound spiritual crisis, the "Anfechtung," rooted in his inability to feel worthy before divine justice despite rigorous ascetic practice. His so-called "tower experience" (Turmerlebnis), occurring around 1515-1519, led him to reinterpret Romans 1:17 and conclude that the "righteousness of God" is a free gift received through faith, not something earned by human merit, a reading shaped by his study of nominalist theology and by the guidance of his superior, Johann von Staupitz.