Identifier: martinluthermanh00mcgi (find matches)
Title: Martin Luther, the man and his work
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: McGiffert, Arthur Cushman, 1861-1933
Subjects: Luther, Martin, 1483-1546
Publisher: New York, The Century Co.
Contributing Library: Princeton Theological Seminary Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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hus reached by his own independent patha position very common in his day was characteristicof him. Over and over again the same thing hap-pened, and in it lies one- of the secrets of the tremen-dous influence he wielded. In February, 1517, he sent his friend Lang a paperfull, as he said, of blasphemies and curses againstAristotle, Porphyry, and the dogmatic theologians,asking him to show it to his old teacher Trutvetter andothers. He realized the radical character of his atti-tude. That it would excite criticism he was wellaware, and both now and later, as his letters show, hewas almost boyishly eager to know what his friendswould say. In May he wrote Lang, Our theology andthat of St. Augustine, by the grace of God, are makingexcellent progress and gaining control in our univer-sity. Aristotle is gradually declining, and his per-manent extinction is not far off.,, This was no idleboast. He was actually winning over to his own pointof view one colleague after another, and his influence
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the original painting in the Lffizi Gallery, FlorenceLUCAS CRANACH, PAINTED BY HIMSELF PREACHER AND PROFESSOR 65 in the Wittenberg faculty was daily increasing. Evenbeyond Wittenberg, too, his ideas were gainingground. Under his direction, in September, 1517, anumber of theses denouncing Aristotles influence intheology were defended by one of his pupils in a dis-putation for the masters degree. Upon reading themChristopher Scheurl, then residing in Nuremberg,wrote that a great change in theological studies wasin prospect, and soon it would be possible to become atheologian without either Aristotle or Plato. In thishe was only giving voice to an opinion shared by manyof his acquaintances, whose admiration for the youngWittenberg professor was steadily growing. In some places, on the other hand, Luther was ac-quiring a bad name for himself, and especially with hisold teachers at Erfurt his reputation was not improv-ing. They not unnaturally thought him over-proud,self-conceited, and pre

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