Note 1062 — Chapter XIV · (continued 5)

We may here mention what K. A. Meissinger, of Strasburg, says: “The period previous to 1517 has been looked upon as Luther’s age of immaturity and shyness, and his own numerous statements on the subject have contributed not a little to this fiction. The legend of Martin, the zealous young Papist, seeking to get to heaven by his monkish practices and wasting away in utter despair, gives (a fact which has become apparent only of recent years) quite a false picture of that decisive and truly momentous period in the inward growth of the great Reformer” (“Der junge Luther,” Frankfurter Ztng., 1910, No. 300).