St. Thomas and Duns Scotus, without being affected by his sceptical tendency. He acknowledged
the authority of Aristotle, whom he afterward denounced and disowned as "a damned heathen."^127
He excited the admiration of his brethren by his ability in disputation on scholastic questions.
His heart was not satisfied with brain work. His chief concern was to become a saint and
to earn a place in heaven. "If ever," he said afterward, "a monk got to heaven by monkery, I would
have gotten there." He observed the minutest details of discipline. No one surpassed him in prayer,
fasting, night watches, self-mortification. He was already held up as a model of sanctity.
But he was sadly disappointed in his hope to escape sin and temptation behind the walls of
the cloister. He found no peace and rest in all his pious exercises. The more he seemed to advance
externally, the more he felt the burden of sin within. He had to contend with temptations of anger,
envy, hatred and pride. He saw sin everywhere, even in the smallest trifles. The Scriptures impressed
upon him the terrors of divine justice. He could not trust in God as a reconciled Father, as a God
of love and mercy but trembled before him, as a God of wrath, as a consuming fire. He could not
get over the words: "I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God." His confessor once told him: "Thou
art a fool, God is not angry with thee, but thou art angry with God." He remembered this afterward
as "a great and glorious word," but at that time it made no impression on him. He could not point
to any particular transgression; it was sin as an all-pervading power and vitiating principle, sin as
a corruption of nature, sin as a state of alienation from God and hostility to God, that weighed on
his mind like an incubus and brought him at times to the brink of despair.
He passed through that conflict between the law of God and the law of sin which is described
by Paul (Rom. vii.), and which; ends with the cry: "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver
me out of the body of this death?" He had not yet learned to add: "I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death."
§ 22. Luther and Staupitz.
The mystic writings of Staupitz have been republished in part by Knaake in Johannis Staupitii
Opera. Potsdam, 1867, vol. I. His "Nachfolge Christi" was first published in 1515; his book
"Von der Liebe Gottes" (especially esteemed by Luther) in 1518, and passed through several
editions; republ. by Liesching, Stuttgart, 1862. His last work "Von, dem heiligen rechten
christlichen Glauben," appeared after his death, 1525, and is directed against Luther’s doctrine
of justification by faith without works. His twenty-four letters have been published by Kolde:
Die Deutsche Augustiner Congregation und Johann von Staupitz. Gotha, 1879, p. 435 sqq.
II. On Luther and Staupitz: Grimm: De Joh. Staupitio ejusque in sacr. instaur. meritis, in Illgen’s
"Zeitschrift für Hist. Theol.," 1837 (VII, 74–79). Ullmann: Die Reformatoren vor der
Reformation, vol. II., 256–284 (very good, see there the older literature). Döllinger: Die
Reformation, I., 153–155. Kahnis: Deutsche Reformat., I., 150 sqq. Albr. Ritschl: Die Lehre
v. der Rechtfertigung und Versöhnung, 2d ed., I., 124–129 (on Staupitz’s theology). Mallet: in
Herzog,2 XIV., 648–653. Paul Zeller: Staupitz. Seine relig. dogmat. Anschauungen und
(^127) "Der vermaladeite Heide Aristoteles." Luther’s attitude to scholasticism and the great Greek philosopher changed again when, in
support of the eucharistic presence, he had to resort to the scholastic distinctions between various kinds of presence. Comp. Fr. Aug.
Berthold Nitzsch, Luther und Aristoteles. Kiel, 1883.