The Lightning in the Enlightenment

July 2, 1505 – A 21-year-old law student named Martin Luther was walking near Erfurt, Germany when a lightning bolt knocked him to the ground. Terrified, he cried out: “Help me, St. Anne! I will become a monk.”

He survived — and within two weeks left law school to join an Augustinian monastery.

Twelve years later, Luther posted 95 propositions on the church door at Wittenberg, challenging abuses like the sale of indulgences — documents that claimed to shorten time in purgatory. His central claim was radical: forgiveness and salvation come through faith and God’s grace alone, not through money or human authority.

Thanks to the newly invented printing press, Luther’s ideas spread like wildfire, sparking the Protestant Reformation.

That lightning bolt set in motion a chain of change that led to greater literacy, new concepts of religious freedom, and eventually, two centuries later, the Enlightenment.