Chapter IV: “I AM OF OCCAM’S PARTY” pages 130-165

1. A CLOSER EXAMINATION OF LUTHER’S THEOLOGICAL
TRAINING.

Not trained in the best school of
Scholasticism. His Occamist education. Positive
and negative influence of Occamism on Luther _pages_ 130-133

2. NEGATIVE INFLUENCE OF THE OCCAMIST SCHOOL ON
LUTHER.

Luther’s criticism of Occam; he abandons
certain views of the Occamists and flies
to the opposite extreme; offended by their
neglect of Scripture and by the subtlety of
their philosophy; hence he comes to oppose
Aristotelianism and the Scholastics generally.
Occamistic exaggeration of man’s powers leads
him _ex opposito_ to underrate the same.
Negative influence of Occamism on Luther’s
teaching regarding original sin. Gabriel
Biel on original sin; the keeping of the
commandments; the love of God; whether man can
merit grace; Gregory of Rimini; the principle:
“_Facienti quod est in se Deus non denegat
gratiam_”; the deficiencies of the Occamists
laid at the door of Scholasticism. Three
answers to the question how Luther failed to
perceive that he was forsaking the Church’s
doctrine. His denial of natural righteousness,
and his ignorance of the true scholastic
teaching on the point; misunderstands his own
masters. His interpretation of the words,
“Without me ye can do nothing.” His rejection
of actual grace _pages_ 133-154

3. POSITIVE INFLUENCE OF OCCAMISM.

Occamist “acceptation” and Lutheran
“imputation.” Luther assails the habit of
supernatural grace and replaces the doctrine
of an essential order of things by the
arbitrary _pactum Dei_. Divorce of faith and
reason. Feeling and religious experience.
Predestination; transubstantiation. Luther’s
anti-Thomism, his combativeness and loquacity.
Other alleged influences, viz. Gallicanism,
ultra-realism, Wiclifism, and Neo-Platonism _pages_ 155-165

CHAPTER V. THE ROCKS OF FALSE MYSTICISM _pages_ 166-183

1. TAULER AND LUTHER.

Tauler’s orthodox doctrine distorted by Luther
to serve his purpose. Passivity in the hands
of God explained as the absence of all effort.
Luther’s application of Tauler’s teaching to
his own states of anxiety. His knowledge of
Tauler; annotations to Tauler’s sermons; the
German mystics; a “return to nothingness” the
supreme aim of the Christian _pages_ 166-174

2. EFFECT OF MYSTICISM ON LUTHER.

Advantages of its study outweighed by
disadvantage. Why Luther failed to become
a true mystic. Specimens of his mystic
utterances. His edition of the “Theologia
Deutsch”; attitude to pseudo-Dionysius the
Areopagite, St. Bernard and Gerson; an excerpt
from his “_Operationes in psalmos_” _pages_ 175-183