Martin Luther

He took the degree of bachelor of arts and master of arts three years later. While in Erfurt, Luther was sick and depressed several times. He lived in fear of death, for he thought that to be saved you had to have lived a life of poverty and complete humilty. He had not done so. Then one night a thunderstorm arose and lightning struck very close several different times. Finally lightning struck right next to him and he vowed to St. Anna that he would become a monk if he would at that moment he would be saved. Saved he was.
             Luther's stay in the monastery was not a good one. He learned that most of the monks did not hold their position seriously. He worked hard to "earn" his salvation by doing the bidding of the monastery, but finally Dr. Staupitz of the monastery told Martin that it was futile to try to earn salvation for it is faith by which you will be saved. After a year and a half of study at Erfurt, Luther was called to be the lecturer on moral philosophy at the newly founded University of Wittenburg, founded by Frederick the Elector of Saxony.
             Luther was offered the chance to go to Rome, which was the holy city at the time. He expected this to be a life-changing experience, but it only disappointed him. He spent four weeks there and found that it was a worldly and ungodly place, and that the pope and the catholic leaders were not the excellent Christian warriors he had expected. He quoted a current phrase. "If there is a hell, Rome is built over it. While he was there in Rome he visited the chapel Sancta Sanctorum which had twenty-eight steps which had supposedly been taken from the judgement hall of Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem. It was said to offer salvation for everyone who climbed the steps on their knees. Luther climbed the steps, but halfway up he remembered the passage; "The just shall live by faith." It was then that he realized that he had been living a lie. This was his first major step into the light.