also addressed by one of the leaders in Washington's new era of educational progress, the Assistant Superintendent of Schools, Robert L. Haycock, who mentioned among other needs the need of a school psychiatrist.

Since this periodical circulates across the water, it might be well to explain that our local school system already has a school psychologist supported partly by contributions from certain public-spirited organizations. Dr. Jessie Lasalle has a group of volunteer workers under her supervision and the good work already visible is limited only by the limited funds. With the generosity of the last Congress which made possible the Five Year Building Program with $19,000,000 available for school buildings, the salary increases now being enjoyed by the teachers, the Compulsory School Attendance law, with the sincere constructive statesmanship of a man like Senator Capper of Kansas, with the deep faith and acts of the President of the United States in the cause of public education, with the leadership of the president of the Department of Superintendence of the National Education Association, Dr. Frank W. Ballou, and with the establishment of a Child Guidance Clinic or the employment of a school psychiatrist which is only a matter of time, we in the District of Columbia may yet resume our rightful place in the vanguard of the great educational army fighting the greatest, most expensive and wasteful foe-IGNORANCE.

The Evolution of Martin Luther as a Reformer

I

WILLIAM R. LINGO, DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY,

JAMESTOWN HIGH SCHOOL, JAMESTOWN, N. Y.

..................✨T will be the purpose of this paper to trace briefly the life of Luther from his entrance into the convent at Erfurt to his return to Wartburg after the Diet of Worms. An effort will be made to treat the subject in such a way as to show his development from a novice in the monastery at Erfurt into a reformer of the Roman Catholic Church. To accomplish this, it seems advisable to discuss briefly the following phases of Luther's career which fall within the period 1505-1520;

(a) at Erufurt

(b) at Wittenberg

(c) the ninety-five Theses

(d) the Debate at Leipsig

(e) Excommunication
(f) the Diet of Worms

It is interesting to observe how early the critical and reforming spirit began to develop in Luther. In his earliest writings which we have, which consist of notes on the works of St. Augustine, he displays an enthusiasm for the author but at the same time he shows an aversion for the philosophy of Aristotle. This was, of course, a departure in that it opposed the prevailing religious philosophy of the day which was scholasticism. About the same time he began to look upon the traditions of the church with suspicion. As an example he compared closely the style and context of the supposed writing of St. Augustine in the Basel edition and found two of them forgeries. Very early, also, he began to criticize the excessive number of indulgences, compulsory facts, supers'itious outgrowths of saint worship, excessive number of festal days, inadequate education of parish priests, arrogance of monks, stupidity and irreligion of jurists, and especially the hair-splitting arguments of the scholastics.

Luther's development at Erfurt is characterized mainly by his emancipation from some of the principles of the church but not to the extent that he could be stamped as a reformer. Among these departures might be mentioned his attitude toward the oppressive doctrines of William Occam. Occamist theology taught meditation, prayer, and especially asceticism, all of which duties Luther at first filled with punctuality. By 1515, however, he had begun to free himself from the scholasticism of what he called the "hog-doctors," but some of their doctrines remained as a part of his convictions. Twelve long years of monastic life at Erfurt did it require to fit him for the great movement which he was to sponsor, but his experiences there led him to the perception of the principles which formed the groundwork of his preaching as a reformer.

The spirit of reform in Luther was further developed by his visit to Rome. The deep devotion of pilgrims at Rome impressed Luther and he himself is said to have started to climb the sacred stairs reputed to have come from the courtroom of Pontius Pilate. But any favorable impressions which he might have had were more than offset by his horror at the worldliness of the Holy City. He was disgusted with lies told about churches and catacombs, surprised at the pomp and splendor of the papacy, and taken aback at the way priests hurried through mass, yet with all these inconsistencies he was not quite yet ready to give up faith in the authority of the hierarchy. There is no doubt, however, but that the visit to Rome eventually helped Luther to determine his stand against the papacy.

In a study of the growth of Luther's spirit of reform no little importance is to be attached to his lectures at Wittenberg. Melancthon said that from Luther's lectures at Wittenberg a new day was now seen to dawn on Christian doctrine.1 The reformer's humanistic tendencies which meant opposition to the traditions of the church were shown in his upholding John Reuchlin who was declared a heretic for opposing

1 Kostlin: Life of Luther, p. 68.

the burning of the Jewish sacred books. He refuted many errors in the church, among others that men could earn forgiveness by their works and that mere outward penance would justify them in the sight of God. The whole groundwork of his faith and the basis for his future struggle were brought out in these lectures. "As yet, however, he was only seeking to combat those abuses which were outside the spirit and teaching of the Catholic Church, when the scandals of traffic in indulgences called him to the field of battle. And only when in this battle the pope and the hierarchy sought to rob him of his doctrine of salvation and his firm stand on the scriptures did he lay hands on the strongholds of churchdom."2

We now come to what fanned the spark of Luther's reform spirit into a flame, namely the question of the sale of indulgences. It was maintained by the Catholic Church that forgiveness of sins must be gained by the so-called sacrament of penance which included private confession and the granting of absolution by an official of the church. Even after absolution he who had confessed must still discharge heavy burdens of punishment. This system was supposed to touch even the life after death when souls of the departed might be "prayed out of purgatory." Leo X, who was one of the most worldly of popes and who had much less religious fervor than renaissance spirit, devised the scheme of granting these privileges for a money consideration. His avowed purpose was to beautify and improve St. Peter's Church and to defend Christendom against the Turk. The sale of indulgences in Germany was delegated to the Archbishop of Mayence who in turn sent his agent Tetzel to the neighborhood of Wittenberg. From a sermon of Luther's delivered in the spring of 1516 it is easily seen that he rejected the abuse of indulgences and not the indulgences themselves. He contended that what should be regarded with reverence and considered as a means

2 Kostlin: Life of Luther, p. 80.

3 The past tense of the verb is used merely to avoid shift of tenses.

of salvation for the souls of men had been distorted into a dishonest scheme for pecuniary profit. However, on October 31, 1517, he posted the ninety-five theses and for the first time publicly attacked the ecclesiastical power of the papacy from the standpoint that, in his conviction, it invaded the territory reserved to a Power not of this world.

In 1518 Luther met Dr. John Eck in debate at Leipsig. It is important to note here the marked distinction between Luther's position in 1517 and in 1519. Formerly he had evidently no intentions of striking directly at the main principles upon which the church was based but in preparation for his debate with Eck he became convinced of the absurdity of the claims of the papacy. He discovered that many of the documents appealed to in their support were untrustworthy and that the whole structure was based on fraud and that it was of recent growth. From merely denouncing the sale of indulgences to a denial of the very principles on which the church was founded constituted a rapid stride in the direction of a final break with the papacy. Luther's development as a reformer had been gradual and he was fully prepared for the final break when the occasion should present itself, but the Leipsig debate must have convinced him that he was no longer in harmony with the Roman Church. It was not until December 10, 1520 that Luther finally broke with the papacy and publicly renounced the pope's authority by burning the bull of excommunication which had been issued against him.

Luther attained to the climax of his career as a reformer at the Diet of Worms on March 6, 1521. After considerable indecision on the part of the emperor, safe conduct to and from Worms was finally granted to the condemned heretic in order that he might at least present his views if not recant his heresies. That the reformer had begun to command marked consideration even from his enemies is shown by the fact that the summons for him to appear was couched in respectful terms and an imperial messenger of Lutheran tendencies was despatched to Wittenberg to escort Luther to