distinctly opposed to Catholic doctrine, but his system as such took
shape only gradually in response to the attacks of his opponents or
the demands of his friends. On the one hand, imbued with the ideas of
German Pantheistic mysticism, Luther started with the fixed principle
that man's action is controlled by necessary laws, and that even after
justification man is completely devoid of free will at least in
religious matters. According to him, human nature became so
essentially maimed and corrupted by the sin of Adam that every work
which man can do is and must be sinful, because it proceeds in some
way from concupiscence. Hence it is, he asserted, that good works are
useless in acquiring justification, which can be obtained only by
faith; and by faith he understood not the mere intellectual assent to
revealed doctrines, but a practical confidence, resulting, no doubt,
from this assent, that the merits of Christ will be applied to the
soul. Through this faith the sinner seizes upon the righteousness of
Christ, and by applying to himself the justice of his Saviour his sins
are covered up. For this reason Luther explained that justification
did not mean the actual forgiveness of sin by the infusion of some
internal habit called sanctifying grace, but only the non-imputation
of the guilt on account of the merits of Christ.

Since faith alone is necessary for justification it followed as a
logical consequence that there was no place in Luther's system for the
Sacraments, though in deference to old traditions he retained three
Sacraments, Baptism, Penance, and the Eucharist. These, however, as he
took care to explain, do not produce grace in the soul. They are mere
outward pledges that the receiver has the faith without which he
cannot be justified. Having in this way rejected the sacramental
system and the sacrificial character of the Mass, it was only natural
that he should disregard the priesthood, and proclaim that all