4. If Luther was not the child of Satan, however, few laboured so strenuously in his service. His name originally was Luder; but as the vulgar meaning of that word was not the most elegant, he changed it to Luther. Applying himself at an early age to literature, he went to Erfurt, in Thuringia, and at the age of twenty years graduated as a Master of Philosophy. While pursuing his legal and philosophical studies in that University, he happened to take a walk in the country with a fellow-student, who was struck dead by lightning at his side. Under the influence of terror, and not moved by devotion, he made a vow to enter into religion, and became an Augustinian Friar, in the Convent of Erfurt[1]. "It was not," he says, "by my own free will I became a monk, but terrified by a sudden death, I made a vow to that effect." This took place in 1504, in the 22nd year of his age, and was a matter of great surprise to his father and friends, who previously never perceived in him any tendency to piety[2].
5. After his profession and ordination he was commanded by his superiors, as an exercise of humility, to beg through the streets, as was the custom of the Order at that period. He refused, and in the year 1508 left the Convent and Academy of Erfurt, in which he was employed, greatly to the satisfaction of his colleagues in that University, who could not bear his violent temper, and went to Wittemberg, where Duke Frederick, Elector of Saxony, had a little before founded a University, in which he obtained the chair of Philosophy. He was soon after sent to Rome, to settle some dispute raised in his Order, and having satisfactorily arranged everything, he returned to Wittemberg, and received from Andrew Carlostad, Dean of the University, the dignity of Doctor of Theology. The entire expense of taking his degree was borne by the Elector, who conceived a very great liking for him[3]. He was certainly a man of fine genius, a subtle reasoner, deeply read in the Schoolmen and Holy Fathers, but, even then, as Cochleus tells us, filled with vices—proud, ambitious, petulant, seditious, evil-tongued—and even his moral character was tainted[4]; he was a man of great eloquence, both in speaking and writing, but so rude and rugged, that in all his works we scarcely find a polished period; he was so vain of himself, that he despised the most learned writers of the Church, and he especially attacked the doctrines of St. Thomas, so much esteemed by the Council of Trent.
6. Leo X., wishing, as Hermant tells us[5], to raise a fund for the recovery of the Holy Land, or, according to the more generally received opinion[6], to finish the building of St. Peter's Church, commenced by Julius II., committed to Cardinal Albert, Arch-
- ↑ Luther Præfat. ad lib. de Vot. Mon.
- ↑ Nat. Alex. ibid. sec. 1, n. 1; Gotti, loc. cit. sec. 2.
- ↑ Hermant, Histor. Conc. t. 1, c. 228; Nat. Alex. t. 19, art. 11, sec. 1, n. 1; Van Ranst, Hær. p. 298; Gotti, Ver. Rel. c. 108, sec. 2, n. 6.
- ↑ Nat. Alex. sec. 1, n. 3; Hermant, loc. cit.; Van Ranst, loc. cit.
- ↑ Hermant, loc. cit. c. 227.
- ↑ Nat. Alex., Gotti, Van Ranst, Bernino, &c.
