I very much enjoyed Nigel Willmott’s inspirational “To Rome with Luther as a guide” (22 November). It has always intrigued me where Br Martin spent the nights on that epic walk from north-east Germany to the Eternal City – presumably at the houses of his own and other religious orders.However, Luther’s purpose in 1510-11 was more complicated than Willmott suggests. Rather than its being intended “to plead with the Pope for [the observant Augustinians] to be allowed to keep their independence from direct Vatican control”, the visit was designed to appeal to the Holy See against the incorporation of Luther’s Erfurt Augustinian convent in a unitary German observance, as mooted by the vicar general Johann von Staupitz.Apart from getting th