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'''Trouble Brewing'''

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Outwardly Luther was building up a successful monastic and academic career but inwardly he was troubled by a conviction of sin that his diligence in monastery life could not relieve. John Staupitz, his vicar-general, proved to be a good counselor at this period. And Luther also read widely in Augustine, Tauler, and the German mystics collected in the volume called German Theology. He also received help from the work of contemporary French theologian Lefèvre d’étaples on the Psalms. His biblical reading, especially in preparation for his classes on the Psalms (1513–1515), Romans (1515–1516), and Galatians (1517) proved to be the decisive factor. It was probably during this period, perhaps in 1514, that he had the famous Tower experience when he came to realize that God’s righteousness in Romans 1 is not the justice that we have to fear but the positive righteousness that God gives believers in Christ—it is a righteousness they receive by personally trusting in Christ.

Luther might easily have held and taught his new understanding of justification without interference or vital reforming impact. His colleagues at Wittenberg both on the theological faculty and in the monastery supported him, and church life went on undisturbed. In 1517, however, Luther was aroused when just across the border from Saxony John Tetzel preached an indulgence in which crude theology was accompanied by the crassest materialism. In protest Luther rapidly drew up ninety-five theses for debate, which he posted on the door of the Castle church on October 31, 1517. When translated and widely circulated, these theses brought an explosion of anti-church feeling that wrecked the indulgence. Given practical application in this way, Luther’s theology could no longer go unnoticed, and he came at once under ecclesiastical pressures ranging from attempts at intimidation to promised favors for compliance.