Martin Luther is born into a world dominated by the Catholic Church. F or the keenly spiritual Luther, the Church's promise of salvation is i rresistible. Caught in a thunderstorm and terrified by the possiblity of imminent death, he vows to become a monk. But after entering the mo nastery, Luther becomes increasingly doubful that the Church can actua lly offer him salvation. His views crystallize further when he travels to Rome and finds the capital of Catholicism swamped in corruption. W racked by despair, Luther finds release in the pages of the Bible, dis covering that it is not the Church, but his own individual faith that will guaratee his salvation. With this revelation he turns on the Chur ch. He attacks its practice of selling Indulgences in his famous 95 Th eses, putting himself on an irreversible path to conflict with the mos t powerful institution of the day.
