his sins he would not place himself on a level with Paul
or Peter, but rather choose a point of self-humiliation by the side of
the penitent thief.

His work on the revolution of the celestial bodies was passing through
the press at the time of his fatal illness in 1543, when he had
completed his seventieth year and was brought to him just before he
breathed his last; and thus, as has been beautifully expressed, he was
"made to touch the first printed copy of his book when the sense of
touch was gone, seeing it only as a dim object through the deepening
dusk."

He is buried under a flat stone in one of the side aisles of his own
cathedral at Frauenburg. On his monument is painted a half-length
portrait, pale, thin, aged, but with an expression of countenance
intelligent and pleasant. His hair and eyes are black; he is habited as
a priest; his hands are joined in prayer; before him is a crucifix, at
his feet a skull, and behind him are a globe and a pair of compasses.
His devotion, his deadness to the world, and his love of science are
thus aptly symbolized.

MARTIN LUTHER

(1483-1546)

[Illustration: Luther and a group of men. [TN]]

Martin Luther, the greatest of the Protestant Reformers of the sixteenth
century, was born at Eisleben on November 10, 1483. His father was a
miner in humble circumstances; his mother, as Melancthon records, was a
woman of exemplary virtue, and particularly esteemed in her walk of
life. Shortly after Martin's birth his parents removed to Mansfeld,
where their circumstances ere long improved by industry and
perseverance. Their son was sent to school; and both at home and in
school his training was severe. His father sometimes whipped him, he
says, "for a mere trifle till the blood came," and he was subjected to
the scholastic rod fifteen times in one day! Luther's schooling was
completed at Magdeburg and Eisenach, and at the latter place he
attracted by his singing the notice of a good lady of the name of Cotta,
who welcomed the lad into her family and provided him with a comfortable
home during his stay there. Here under Trebonius he made good progress
in Latin. In 1501, when he had reached his eighteenth year, he entered
the university of Erfurt, with the view of qualifying himself for the
legal profession. He went through the usual studies in the classics and
the schoolmen, and took his degree of doctor of philosophy, or master of
arts, in 1505, when he was twenty-one yea