I believe the Cottas of Eisenach in the late 1400s gave Martin Luther more than a place to live, or exposure to the arts and a more gracious way of life in general.  Their family had been heavily involved in church reform long before Luther was born, and fought against many of the same corrupt practices that Luther would later also target, such as simony (selling church offices for profit) and the sale of church indulgences (believed at the time to be a kind of get-out-of-jail-free card in matters of sin and prospective damnation, and prized among cynical clergymen for the income they provided). 

I find it inconceivable that in the course of educating their young protégé in the ways of the bigger world, my Cotta ancestors would have skipped a topic that two of their members had been so passionate about that they gave their lives for it.

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