r was "not in any sense, on any subject, a systematic thinker... Luther was hot and impatient" (Hearnshaw 171). It was in 1505, at the age of 22, that he entered the novitiate of the Hermits of St. Augustine in Erfurt, Germany. He stayed there longer than the prescribed year, and in 1507 received his priesthood. He was then sent to Wittenberg, where he held the professorship of moral philosophy for a year are so before returning to Efurt. Around 1512, Luther fell into a depression. He was plagued by the feeling that he was unable to fulfill God's wishes. But from this depression sprang illumination. Luther began to develop ideas which would eventually become the groundwork for Protestantism. He saw the theory of original sin and redemption for it as a selfish form of idolatry. He cited Paul's Epistle to Rome as showing God to be a beneficent creator filled with love, not condemnation. The forgiveness of sin wasn't a holy ritual which miraculously wiped away a person's sins. He saw the rejection of sin as a spiritual and psychological miracle which took place inside of man. This kind of personal communion with the Lord would awaken confidence in God's other promises, producing a realization of man's dependence on God or, as Luther saw it, faith. Luther began preaching this doctrine. Following hard upon this realization in 1517, a well-known indulgence preacher named John Tetzel appeared on the scene. Pope Julius II had decided upon his election in 1503 to "immediately set about recreating the ancient glory of imperial Rome" (Adams 256). Part of this plan was to tear down the old St. Peter's basilica, the center of all Christianity, and build a new one. The New St. Peter's would eventually grow to become the largest church in history. In order to pay for all this work, the church increased the preaching and selling of indulgences across Europe. The area which Luther lived in had long since outlawed indulgences, but the news of the preachi...
