Note 559 — Chapter VI · Attempts to Control Textbooks

“At least he [Martin Luther] imagined that he had made the discovery that the doctrine of the Church concerning the remission of sins was altogether wrong. He thereby implied that Christ, contrary to His solemn promise, had allowed the Church to fall into a most disastrous error. The new system, which gradually developed in Luther’s mind, confused the nature of sin with concupiscence, which is a consequence of original sin, and while it makes man inclined to sin is no sin in itself. By the sin of Adam, he thought human nature was corrupted beyond recovery; man’s acts can only be bad; but Jesus Christ covers the soul with His infinite merits, which, as it were, conceal all trespasses from the eye of the just God; if sinful man expresses his firm ‘belief’ in this merciful dispensation, God will not punish him, though the sin is not taken away, but merely covered; the sinner therefore remains a sinner;.... It is evident that such a justification is no justification at all, and it will always remain a riddle how Luther could maintain that he had found such a monstrous doctrine in the Bible.” Ibid., pp. 377-378.