nal reformers had not yet come. The little
Martin was beaten and tormented, and had to sing in the streets for
bread.

Ambition roused his parents to send him to the University of Erfurt
that he might study law. He took his degree as Doctor of Philosophy in
1505--the event {53} was celebrated by a torchlight procession and
rejoicing, after the student-custom of those parts.

Then Martin Luther, appalled by the sudden death of a comrade in a
thunderstorm, resolved to devote himself to God. Luther was a genial
youth, and gave a supper to his friends before he left them; there were
feasting and laughter and a burst of song. That same evening the door
of a convent opened to receive a novice with two books, Vergil and
Plautus, in his hand.

The novice had to perform the meanest tasks, sweeping floors and
begging in the street on behalf of his brethren of the Augustinian
Order. "Go through the street with a sack and get food for us," they
clamoured, driving him out that they might resume their idleness.

Staupnitz, the head of the Order, visited the convent and was
interested in the young man to whom fasting and penance did not bring
the peace he craved. Oppressed by his sins, Luther lived a life of
misery. He read the Bible constantly, having discovered the Holy Book
by chance within the convent walls. At last, the words of the creed
brought comfort to him "_I believe_ in the forgiveness of sins." He
despaired of his soul no longer. "It was as if I had found the door of
Paradise wide open," he said joyfully, and devoted himself more closely
to the study of the Scriptures.

The fame of Luther's learning spread beyond the convent of his Order.
He was summoned to teach philosophy and theology at Wittenberg, a new
university, founded by Frederick, the Elector of Saxony. The boldness
of the lecturer's spirit was first shown in his sermons against
"indulgences," one of the worst abuses of the Roman Church.

The Pope claimed to inherit the keys of St Peter, {54} which opened the
treasury containing the good works of the saints and the boundless
merits of Jesus Christ. He professed to be able to transfer a portion
of this merit to any person who gave a sum of money to purchase pardon
for sins. "Indulgences" had been first granted to pilgrims and
Crusaders. They were further extended to those who aided pious works,
such as the building of St Peter's. The Pope, Leo X, had found the
papal treasury exhausted by his