ducation was at such a low ebb, and the
advantages offered by the schools were so poor, and of such a doubtful
character, that but few persons cared to avail themselves of their
privileges. Even the universities failed to educate. Luther says, "Is it
not pitiable that a boy has been obliged to study twenty years or longer
to learn enough bad Latin to become a priest, and read mass?" Again he
says, "Such teachers and masters we have been obliged to have
everywhere, who have known nothing themselves, and have been able to
teach nothing good or useful."

There was need, then, of reform in education as well as in religion, and
Luther took the burden of both upon his shoulders. As an educational
reformer, he has earned for himself the world's gratitude. It must be
admitted that Luther's main purpose was the reformation of the Church,
and that his educational work merely grew out of the need of general
intelligence as a necessary adjunct to that work. Of the existing
conditions, Compayre well says, "With La Salle and the foundation of the
Institute of the Brethren of the Christian Schools, the historian of
education recognizes the Catholic origin of primary instruction; in the
decrees and laws of the French Revolution, its lay and philosophical
origin; but it is to the Protestant Reformation,--to Luther in the
sixteenth century, and to Comenius in the seventeenth,--that must be
ascribed the honor of having first organized schools for the people. In
its origin, the primary school is the child of Protestantism, and its
cradle was the Reformation."[53]

LUTHER (1483-1546)

Martin Luther was born at Eisleben, Germany, of poor and humble parents.
He was brought up under the rigid discipline of the typical German home,
in which the rod was not spared. Upon this point he writes, "My parents'
severity made me timid; their sternness and the strict life they led me
made me afterward go into a monastery and become a monk. They meant
well, but they did not understand the art of adjusting their
punishments."

When he was fourteen years of age, his parents, then in better
circumstances, sent him to Magdeburg to prepare for the university. But
the expense being too great, he was withdrawn from this school and sent
to Eisenach, where he could live with relatives. Here he sang in the
street for alms, and his sweet voice attracted the attention of Ursula
Cotta, a wealthy lady, who took him to her own home and gave him an
excellent teach