Martin Luther’s father was a miner with ambitions – he wanted to better himself and provide his children with a good education. Martin upset his father’s plan by becoming a monk rather than a lawyer, but by the age of 29 he was a professor of theology. In addition to his college duties he preached almost every day and visited people on pastoral duties – he kept two secretaries very busy.

Luther’s father, meanwhile, became a town councillor, the part owner of six mines and owned a large house in the main street.

What happened to make this son of the upwardly mobile establishment into the revolutionary who nailed 95 Theses onto the church door at Wittenberg, affecting not only the whole of the Christian church but also breaking the power of a European superstate? This is the story of a passionate, flawed and courageous man who loved his family and the people around him; a man who went further in challenging the status quo than any other in history, the man who started the Reformation.

Thomas Lindsay was a distinguished Professor and Principal at the Free Church College, Glasgow in the late 1800s. He had an international academic reputation and ability to communicate his learning in a readable style.