| Bibliography | pages xv-xxv |
| Introduction | pages xxvii-xxxix |
| CHAPTER I. COURSE OF STUDIES AND FIRST YEARS IN THE MONASTERY | pages 3-60 |
| 1. Luther’s Novitiate and Early Life. |
| The new postulant at the gate of the Erfurt priory. Luther’s youth; his parents; early education; stay at Eisenach. Enters the University of Erfurt. Humanist friends. His novitiate. Troubles of conscience quieted by Staupitz, the Vicar of the Saxon Congregation of Augustinian Hermits. Luther’s professors | pages 3-12 |
| 2. Fidelity to His New Calling; His Temptations. |
| Luther’s theological course. Lectures and lecturers; Bible-study; first Mass. His father on his vocation; his father’s character. Luther’s inward troubles; falls into a fit in choir; Melanchthon on Luther’s attacks of fear. St. Bernard on certainty of salvation. Luther’s “own way” with his difficulties. He is sent to Wittenberg and back to Erfurt. Learned occupations. Luther’s assurance manifest in his earliest notes, the glosses on Peter Lombard; his glosses on Augustine; his fame; his virulent temper; his acquaintance with Hus. Oldecop, Dungersheim and Emser on his moral character in early days. Humanistic influences. Luther is chosen by the Observantines to represent them in Rome | pages 12-29 |
| 3. The Journey to Rome. |
| Dissensions within the Congregation. Staupitz opposed by seven Observantine priories, on whose behalf Luther proceeds to Rome. The visit’s evil effect on the monk. His opinion of the Curia and the moral state of Rome. An episode at the Scala Santa. Luther’s belief in the Primacy not shaken by what he saw. On the Holy Mass; his petition to be secularised; perils of an Italian journey. Luther returns to Wittenberg and forsakes the cause of the Observantines | pages 29-38 |
| 4. The Little World of Wittenberg and the Great World in Church and State. |
| Luther takes the doctorate; his first lectures; his surroundings at the University of Wittenberg; the professors; Humanism; schemes for reform; Mutian, Spalatin, Reuchlin, the “Letters of Obscure Men,” Erasmus. Luther’s road not that of his Humanist friends. Currents of thought in the age of discovery and awakened learning; decay of Church life; attempts at reform; abasement of clergy; abuses rampant everywhere; sad state of the Curia. Signs of the coming storm. Luther’s way prepared by the course of events. A curious academic dispute | pages 38-60 |
| CHAPTER II. HARBINGERS OF CHANGE | pages 61-103 |
| 1. Sources Old and New. |
| Peculiar difficulties of the problem. Process of Luther’s inward estrangement from the Church. The sources, particularly those recently brought to light. The marginal notes in Luther’s books now at Zwickau. His letters; earliest scriptural notes, i.e. the glosses and scholia; lectures on Scripture; sermons, 1515-1516; earliest printed works; his Disputations. Two stages of his development, the first till 1517, the second till the end of 1518 | pages 61-67 |
| 2. Luther’s Commentary on the Psalms (1513-15). Dispute with the Observantines and the “Self-Righteous.” |
| His passionate opposition to the Observantines in his Order, and to “righteousness by works,” a presage of the coming change. He vents his ire on the “Little Saints” of the Order in his discourse at Gotha. On righteousness by grace and righteousness by works; on the force of concupiscence and original sin. No essential divergence from the Church’s belief and tradition to be found in the Commentary on the Psalms; reminiscences of Augustine; mystical trend; defects of Luther’s early work | pages 67-78 |
| 3. Excerpts from the Oldest Sermons. His Adversaries. |
| The sermons and their testimony to Luther’s scorn for the Observantines. Echoes of the controversy proceeding within the Order. The Leitzkau discourse and its mysticism | pages 78-84 |
| 4. Preliminary Remarks on Young Luther’s Relations to Scholasticism and Mysticism. |
| His early prejudice against Scholasticism, its psychological reason; his poor opinion of Aristotle and the Schoolmen. Martin Pollich’s misgivings. Luther’s leaning to mysticism, its cause. Esteem for Tauler and the “Theologia Deutsch.” His letter to G. Leiffer | pages 84-88 |
| 5. Excerpts from the Earliest Letters. |
| Signs of a change in Luther’s letter to G. Spenlein; self-despair and trust in Christ. To Johann Lang on a work wrongly ascribed to St. Augustine and on his difficulties with his colleagues at Wittenberg. To Spalatin on Erasmus; his dislike of everything savouring of Pelagianism | pages 88-93 |
| 6. The Theological Goal. |
| The first shaping of Luther’s heretical views, in the Commentary on Romans. Imputation of Christ’s righteousness; uncertainty of justification; original sin remains after baptism, being identical with concupiscence; impossibility of fulfilling the law without justification; absence of all human freedom for good; sinful character of natural virtue; all “venial” sins really mortal; no such thing as merit; predestination | pages 93-103 |
| CHAPTER III. THE STARTING-POINT | pages 374-404 |
| 1. The Second Stage of His Development: Assurance of Salvation. |
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