ABSTRACT
T he hour and the man met in the life of Martin Luther, the son of a Turingian peasant. The land of his birth exemplified to the full the conditions that paved the way for revolt: the lack of a strong central government, the papal exactions that had made of Germany in England’s default the milch-cow of the Papacy, the encouragement of the new learning resulting in the rapid growth of new universities, the grave inefficiency and even degradation of the parochial clergy which had driven evangelical religion to shelter under the revived asceticism of some of the mendicant Orders. All these helped to produce in Luther the experience which was to set the whole world ablaze. At first sight he seems signally deficient in the gifts that make the successful reformer. Without ever perceiving it, he was essentially a revolutionary. Interested in the new learning so far as it affected Biblical studies, he was no humanist, and ultimately he broke with the leaders of that movement. A founder of Churches, he could not organise his followers into a truly independent body. A theologian, he was completely incapable of organising a consistent theological system. His titanic strength lay in the supreme fervour of his spirit. He recapitulated more completely than anyone else has ever done the experience of S. Paul, and felt as whole-heartedly as the great apostle the tragic conflict between works and grace. With all the force of his being he had felt the terror of the wrath to come, and had sought escape from it by his own efforts. And then he had realised that his own merits could avail nothing, but that he must accept God’s free gift simply, like a little child who could do nothing to deserve it. To him, as to countless others who have in some small degree shared that experience, it made the universe a new creation. This was essential Christianity, the good news, to proclaim which the Saviour came from heaven and gave His life. And this it was that the Church should have proclaimed. But as he looked round upon the Church of his day, Luther found it intent only upon using its great powers as means of sordid gain. It was for this reason that he came to the conclusion that the whole imposing structure of medieval Catholicism must be swept away and a return made to the stark simplicity of the original gospel.
