In the fall of 1511, the two men sat under a pear tree in front of the Black Cloister monastery, Martin’s new home in Wittenberg. There Staupitz gave Martin some unwelcome news. Martin had a new assignment: “You will be a preacher and a teacher of the Bible.” Martin panicked. “I’m not qualified,” he said. Then, he rattled off a list of reasons he couldn’t do it. 

With God’s Help

Martin Luther knelt before the altar in the monastery chapel. This was the official ceremony when Martin was made a monk. “What do you seek here?” asked a priest leading the service.

“God’s grace, and your mercy,” answered Martin.1

The priest next asked, “Are you married?” Martin had been born twenty-one years before in Eisleben, Germany, on November 10, 1483. He was christened at Saints Peter and Paul Church the next day. Martin was raised as a faithful Roman Catholic. That was the only Christian church present in Western Europe at the time. Soon after Martin’s birth, the family moved to Mansfeld where, at age seven, Martin entered the Mansfeld Latin School. Martin learned Latin grammar and prayers, and he memorized Aesop’s Fables. Since those early years, Martin had been a diligent student—first in Mansfeld and most recently at the university in Erfurt. He’d had little time for anything but studying. No, Martin had never been married.

“Are you hiding a secret sickness?” Martin’s entire reason for coming to the monastery was to please God and find grace through his good works. Martin was willing to do anything for God’s favor. He felt guilt and fear over his sin-sick soul, but he wasn’t hiding any physical sickness.

Martin answered “No” to each question. Then, the priest explained what life as a monk would involve. Martin could never get married, and he would be poor. He’d wear rough clothing, eat simple meals, and go without food regularly. Martin would have to wake up in the middle of the night for prayer, and he’d work hard at chores throughout the day.

“Are you ready to take up these burdens?”

“Yes, with God’s help,” Martin declared.

Next, the monks at the ceremony sang a hymn, and Martin lay on the floor with his arms stretched out wide in the shape of a cross. From that day forward, Martin committed to a life characterized by self-sacrifice.

From the Monastery to Rome

Despite this difficult life in the monastery, Martin thrived. He was a diligent monk. He excelled at his studies. He diligently kept the routine of the seven daily prayer vigils, and he fasted, sometimes for three days in a row without touching a crumb. “I was a good monk,” Martin later wrote, “and I kept the rule of my order so strictly that I might say that if ever a monk got to heaven by his monkery it was I.”2

Five years after entering the monastery, Martin walked 700 miles across the Alps, from Erfurt, Germany, to Rome, Italy. Why did he go? Was it to see Rome’s magnificent buildings, monuments, and art?

No, Martin Luther went to Rome for the saints. The Catholic church teaches that when godly saints behave better than they need to, they can store up a surplus of goodness in the Church’s heavenly bank account. To receive a portion of these “heavenly merits” and reduce the consequences due for their sins, Christians in Martin Luther’s time were told they could earn, or purchase, an indulgence. An indulgence is like a coupon for the saints’ heavenly merits. Christians could buy these coupons by giving money to the church, or by praying and taking communion at a sacred shrine dedicated to a saint.

When Martin arrived in Rome, he spent any extra time he had visiting these sacred shrines. He stopped at ones that supposedly displayed the apostle Peter’s skull, the finger of doubting Thomas, and the chains that bound Paul while he was in prison.

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