livered his earliest theological lectures, were the Psalms and the E)iistle to the Bomans. The kctures rested upon a study of the Vulgate and of the fathers. Philos- ophy he still jirized, but most of all as a handmaid to true theology, which, he says, " searches for the kernel of the iiut, the marrow of the fruit."
A journey to Rome was made bj' Luther in 1510, on foot. He went partly in the interests of his order, and yet more as a pilgrim. As the Eternal City rose before liis eyes, he fell on his knees, and fervently exclaimed, " Hail, sacred Rome ! thrice hallowed with the blood of martyrs !" St. Peter's was half finished. The man now looked upon it who was to make its completion the bank- ruptcy of Kome, though Kome held the world's coffers in her hands. New Rome stood on the heaped graves of the dead, old pagan city. Luther was not insensible to the historical and antiquarian interest which clus- tered around everj' site, but everj' other feeling was sub- ordinate to the religious one. He was full of honest fervor, fuU of pious credidity. He went up the staircase of Pilate on his knees, yet with his heart protesting as he crept : Not thus do " the just live by faith." He looked upon the handkerchief of Veronica ; he gazed on the heads of Paul and Peter, and his strong sight was too much for his strong credence — he pronounced the heads carvings in wood, and bad carvings. Luther saw the pomps and the corruptions of Rome, but his heart remained fixed still in its strong love to the " Roman Church, honored of God above all others" (1519).
The visitation of the cloisters of Misnia and Thurin- gia, conducted by Luther (1516), in the absence of the provincial Staupitz (who was then in the Netherlands), was the means of opening Luther's e3-es to the corruptions among the people and the clergy, but did not shake his faith in the Church. "Llis first prejudices were enlist- ed in the service of the worst portion of the Roman Catholic Church ; his opening reason was subjected to the most dangerous perversion ; and a sure and earlj"- path was opened to his professional ambition. Such was not the discipline which could prepare the mind for any indejiendent exertion ; such were not the circum- stances from which any ordinary mind could have emerged into the clear atmosphere of truth. In dignity a professor, in theology an Augustinian, in philosophy a Nominalist, by education a mendicant monk, Luther seemed destined to he a pillar of the Roman Catholic Church, and a patron of all its corruptions."
The first light of the Gospel as Luther sheds it, beams forth in his lectures on the Psalms and Romans. Among his earliest works are his series of sermons on the Ten Commandments, his exposition of the penitential psalms, printed in 1517, and his exposition of the Lord's Prayer, delivered during Lent in 1517, and printed in 1518. He had become a student of Taulcr and of the " German theology." The infiuence of the pure and profound mys- ticism of these books shows itself in all of Luther's later life, for true mysticism is the internal mirror of the truth of (iod. Luther's advance in Biblical study, and the in- fluence of tills loftier mysticism, brought him more and more out from the influence of Aristotle and of scholasti- cism. He was unconsciously preparing for the opening of tliat grand part which he was to play in the history of the Church and in the history of mankind.
The traflic in uirliiff/enres (q. v.) had been brought into the vicinity of AVittenberg, witli the approval of the archbishop of Mayence, by Tetzel, a Dominican monk. The expressions with which Tetzel recommend- ed his treasure appear to have been marked with pecul- iar impudence and indecency. But the act had in it- selfnothing novel or uncommon ; the sale of indulgences had long been recognised as the practice of the Roman Catholic Church, and was sometimes censured by its more firm or more prudent members. But the crisis had at length arrived in which the iniquity- could no longer be repeated with impunity. The cup was at length full, and the hand of Luther was destined to dash it to the ground. In the attitude which Luther took
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toward this traffic, his design was not to array himself against the Church, but to vindicate her against what he believed to be an abuse of her sacred name. At the confessional and in the pulpit he began to warn his peo- ple. He wrote earnest letters of remonstrance to the bishops of Brandenburg and Mayence, liolding in re- gard to repentance that a distinction is to be made be- tween the internal repentance, which is of the heart, and the external thing of confession and satisfaction. Receiving unfavorable comments on his position from the prelates, he determined to make his opposition pnblic.