Leader of the great religious revolt of the sixteenth century in Germany; born at Eisleben, November 10 1483; died at Eisleben, February, 1546. According to historical accounts, his home life was characterized by extreme simplicity and inflexible severity. His father once beat him so mercilessly that he ran away from home and was so "embittered against him that he had to win me to himself again." He was ordained in the priesthood in 1507.  His objection to the sale of  "indulgences" caused him to write  a letter of protest to his bishop in 1517 in which he enclosed a copy of his "Disputation of Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences,"-- which came to be known as "The Ninety-Five Theses."  He nailed this letter and its contents to the  church door in Wittenburg, which was common practise in those days.  Shortly after, several printers took it, translated it into German (it was originally written in Latin for only the church officers to be able to read), printed and distributed a great number of copies. It is frequently stated that the Reformation would have been impossible or would have had little chance of popular acceptance without the rapid spread of typography.