Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights:#1 There are two conundrums that make a beginning difficult to establish for the story of Martin Luther. The first is that we cannot determine the year in which he was born, although we are sure of the date. The second is that he was baptized on November 11, the feast day of Saint Martin of Tours, but his parents did not know that this was the same day as the birth of St. Martin.#2 Martin Luther was born in the final year of the reign of Pope Sixtus IV, one of a series of six popes who were comically bungling and scandalous. But for the name his parents had given him, there is nothing in the childhood or the upbringing of Martin Luther to suggest him as a candidate for the extraordinary life that followed.#3 The first of these is that Martin was born into a family of peasants. However, archaeological discoveries have shown that his father was a successful entrepreneur who owned several smelting works and moved to Eisleben with his young wife, Margarethe.#4 The Ludhers were no more or less religious than most people of their time and social station, which is to say they took God and the church very seriously. They almost certainly had a shrine in their home to Saint Anne, which was the name of Mary's mother.