as were his industry and his powers of application, yet they were put
to the most severe tests to enable him to complete the programme he
had set himself to accomplish. His lectures at the university, his
sermons preached in the Augustinian church, his visitations of the
houses of his order in the district over which he was vicar, his
correspondence, partly routine and partly entailed by his close
relations with some of the leading men in Germany, occupied all his
time even to the exclusion of the spiritual exercises enjoined by his
rule. Very frequently he neglected to celebrate Mass or even to read
the divine office, and then alarmed by his negligence and guilt he had
recourse to extraordinary forms of penance. Fits of laxity were
followed by fits of scrupulousness until at last he was driven at
times almost to despair. It was then that he called to mind the
consoling advice given to him by his superior that he should put his
trust in the merits of Christ, and the teaching of St. Augustine on
the frailty of human nature unless it was aided and supported by
divine Grace. He began to develop the idea that justification could
not be acquired by good works, that concupiscence could not be
overcome, and that consequently man could be justified only by the
imputation of the merits of Christ. Years before, views such as these
had been passing through his mind, as may be seen in his sermons
against the Augustinians of the strict observance, but they found
adequate expression only in his commentaries on the Epistles of St.
Paul to the Romans and to the Galatians (1515-6). Still, as yet, he
held strongly to the principle of authority in matters of religion,
and inveighed against heretics who would dare to set aside the
authority of the Pope in order to follow their own judgment. In
reality, however, his own teaching on merit and justification was no
longer in harmony with Catholic doctrine, and only a slight occasion
was required to bring him into open and definite conflict with the