the other, they were viewed as scheming descendants of Eve, who would lead men astray with the sins of the flesh. The Protestant Reformation brought a shift in the interpretation of ordination. Martin Luther taught that there was no special priestly class but that “every man was his own priest.” There were at least two reasons why Luther modified the medieval view of ministry. First, he did not believe that God had set aside a special elite group of individuals who were empowered to keep God’s law