Straight from Martin Luther's mouth

I just finished this book on the life of Martin Luther and was that man spirited. I mean to say, not that he was full of the Spirit, which he was with what was revealed him, but have you read any of his stuff?? The guy had a vibrancy in writing, and had such mastery over humor, the english language, the scriptures and doctrine, that what he wrote to the catholic church was both challengingly and clever. I am sad I've never read his works before; and here I read only excerpts. Even so, here are some entertaining ones :)

On humbleness and when the Lord directed Peter to cast on the other side:

'I would have said, "Now look here, Master. You are a preacher, and I am not undertaking to tell you how to preach. And I am a fisherman, and you need not tell me how to fish.' But Peter was humble, and the Lord therefore made him a fisher of men.

On the monasteries/convents being incorrectly regarded as the highest christian life. The shepherds after the birth of Jesus:

Surely that must be wrong. We should correct the passage to read, 'They went and shaved their heads, fasted, told their rosaries and put on cowls.' Instead we read, 'The shepherds returned.' Where to? To their sheep. The sheep would have been in a sorry way if they had not.

On Christian duties:

If the burgomaster does his duty, there will scarcely be four who will like him. If the father disciplines his son, the lad will be ugly. It is true everywhere. The prince has nothing for his pains. One is tempted to say, 'Let the Devil be burogmaster. Let Lucifer preach. I will go to the desert and serve God there.' It is no light task to love your neighbor as yourself.

And a brief life history:

I am the son of a peasant...and the grandson and the great-grandson. My father wanted to make me into a bugomaster. He went to Mansfeld and became a miner. I became a baccalaureate and a a master. Then I became a monk and put off the brown beret. My father didn't like it, and then I got into the pope's hair and married an apostate nun. Who could have read that in the stars?

These are just some of what he said. Definitely wrote voraciously against the teachings of the catholic church (even called the pope the anichrist). I highly recommend reading about him. I read "Here I stand: A life of Martin Luther" by Roland Bainton which I thought VERY good. It was very comprehensive and covered so much historically, including the background with revolutions, princes, electors, and the different cities and countries involved and effected by the reformation. It's a complex account, but he does well in presenting it in chronological order, so that it's easy to see the logical flow of events (excepting when what happened made no sense) and it is filled with excerpts from Martin himself. So he doesn't so much tell you what he believed on certain points, but lets you read them yourself. A good first time ML book for me :)