LUTHIB 441 LXJTHU
after the event, to which neither his father, his early for five weeks at one time, but threatened to drive him biographers, nor his table companions before whom into insanity fSeckendort, op. cit.. I, fol. 21 b). The it is claimed the remark was made, allude, though it prescribed and regulated ascetical exercises were ar-
the (theological) attitude of the Reformer back into of singularity in his communit^r. Like every victim of
the days of his monastic faith "(Hausrath, op. cit., 48). scrupulosity, he saw nothing in himself but wicked-
Having acquitted himself with evident success, and ness and corruption. God was the minister of wrath
in a manner to please both parties, Luther retiuned to and vengeance. His sorrow for sin was^ devoid of
Wittenberg in 1512, and received the appointment of humble charity and childlike confidence in the par-
sub-prior. His academic promotions followed in quick doning mercy of God and Jesus Christ. This anger of
succession. On 4 October he was made licentiate, God, which pursued him like his shadow, could only be
and on 19 October, under the deanship of Carlstadt — averted by his own righteousness ", by.the efficacy
successively friend, rival, and enemy — he was ad- of servile works". Such an attitude of mind was
vanced to the doctorate, being then in his thirtieth necessarily followed by hopeless discouragement and
year. On 22 October be was formally admitted to the sullen despondency, creating a condition of soul in
senate of the faculty of theology, and received the which he actually *' hated God and was angry at him",
appointment as lecturer on the Bible in 1513. His blasphemed God, and deplored that he was ever bom
further appointment as district vicar in 1515 made (Jurgens, op. cit., I, 577-585). This abnormal con-
him the official representative of the vicar-general in dition produced a brooding melancholy, physical.
Saxony and Thuringia. His duties were manifold mental, and spiritual depression, which later, by a
and 1^ li^e busy. Little time was left for intellectual strange process of reasoning, he ascribed to the teach^
pursuits, and the increasing irregularity in the perform- ing of the Church concerning good works, while all the
ance of nis religious duties could only bode ill for his time he was living in direct and absolute opposition to
future. He himself teUs us that he needed two secre- its doctrinal teaching and disciplinary code,
taries or chancellors, wrote letters all dav, preached at Of course this self-willed positiveness and hypochon-
table, also in the monastery and parochial churches, driac asceticism, as usuallV happens in cases of mor-
was superintendent of studies, and as vicar of the bidly scrupulous natures, f ouna no relief in the sacra-
order had as much to do as eleven priors; he lectured ments. His general confessions at Erfurt and Rome
on the Psalms and St. Paul, besides the demand made did not touch the root of the evil. His whole being was
on his economic resourcefulness in managing a monas- wrought up to such an acute tension that he actually re-
tery of twenty-two priests, tweWe young men, in all gretted his parents were not deadL that he might avail
fort^-one inmates (De Wctte, op. cit., I, 41). His himself of the facilities Rome afforded to save them
official letters breathe a deep solicitude for the waver- from purgatory. For religion's sake he was ready to
ing, gentle sympathy for the fallen; they show pro- become " the most brutal murderer", — " to kill all who
found touches of religious feeling and rare practical even by syllable refused submission to the pope"
sense, though not unmarred with counsels that have (Sllmmuiche Werke.XXXX, Erlangcn, 284). Such a
unorthodox tendencies. The plague which afflicted tense and neurotic physical condition demanded a re-
Wittenberg in 1516 found him courageously at his action, and, as frequently occurs in analogous cases, it
post, which, in spite of the concern of his friends, he went to the diametric extreme. The undue importance
would not abandon. he had placed on his own strength in the spiritual pro-
But in Luther's spiritual life significant, if not omi- cess of justificatioiu he now peremptorily and com-
nous, changes were likewise discernible. Whether pletely rejected. He convinced himself that man. as a
he entered " the monastery and deserted the world to conseauence of original sin, was totally depraved, desti-
fiee from despair" (JOrgens, op. cit., I, 522) and did tuteot free will, that all works, even thougn directed to-
not find the coveted peace; whether the expressed ap- wards the good, were nothing more than an outgrowth
prehensions of his father that the ** call from heaven '. of his corrupted will, and in the judgments of God in
to the monastic life might be a satanic delusion' reality mortal sins. Man can be saved by faith alone,
stirred up thoughts of doubt; whether his sudden, Our faith in Christ makes His merits our possession,
violent resolve was the result of one of those ** sporadic envelopes us in the garb of righteousness, which our
overmastering torpors which interrupt the circulatory guilt and sinfulness hide, and supplies in abimdance
system or indicate arterial convulsion" (Hausrath, every defect of human righteousness. "Be a sinner
" Luthers Leben". I, 22), a heritage of his depressing and sin on bravely, but have stronger faith and rejoice
childhood, and a cnronic condition that clung to him to in Christ, who is the victor of sin, death, and the world.
the end of his life; or whether deeper studies, for which Do not for a moment imagine that this life is the abid-
he had little or no time, created doubts that would not ing place of justice: sin must be committed. To you
be solved and aroused a conscience that would not be it ought to be sufficient that you acknowledge the
stilled, it is evident that his vocation, if it ever existed. Lamb that takes away the sins of the world, the sin
was in jeopardy, that the morbid interior conflict cannot tear you away irom him, even though you corn-
marked a drifting from old moorings, and that the very mit adultery a hundred times a day and commit as
remedies adopted to re-establish peace all the more many murders" (Enders^ " Brief wechsel", III, 208).
effectually banished it. This condition of morbidity The new doctrine of justification by faith, now in its
finally developed into formal scrupulosity. Lifrao- inchoate stage, gradusJly developed, and was finally
lions of the rules, breaches of discipline, distorted fixed by Luther as one of the central doctrines of
ascetic practices followed in auick succession and with Christianity. The epoch-making event connected
increasing gravity; these, followed by spasmodic, con- with the publication of the papal Bull of Indulgences
vulsive reactions^ made Ufe an agony. The solemn in Germany, which was that of Julius II renewed in
obligation of reciting the daily Office, an obligation adaptable form by Leo X, to raise funds for the con-
binding imder the penalty of mortal sin, was neglected struction of St. Peter's Church in Rome, brought his
to allow more ample time for study, with the result spiritual difficulties to a crisis,
that the Breviary was abandoned for weeks. Then in Albert of Brandenburg was heavily involved in debt,
paroxysmal remorse Luther would lock himself into not, as Protestant and Catholic historians relate, on ac-
his cell and by one retroactive act make amends for all count of his pallium ('"Pastor, ^'History of the Popes ",
he neglected; he would abstain from all food and drink, VII, 19CK3. 330), but to pay a bribe to an imknown
torture himself by harrowing mortifications, to an ex- agent in Home, to buy off a rival, in order tba^^Sssa
tent that not only made him the victim of insomnia archbishop mi^^ht ^uyyj ^ ^^Jwra&x-^ ^ ^-^^^^^as^^a^-
