Abstract
Summary In 1546, the year of Luther's death, Philip Melanchthon wrote a Vita Lutheri. Here we find a remarkable story about Luther's new understanding of the Gospel. According to this tale the young Augustinian friar Luther would have been comforted often in the friary of Erfurt by an old man. This man had told him, that the remission of sins should not only be believed generally, but personally. This was confirmed by the Creed and a statement of Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) in his first Sermon In annuntiatione. Melanchthon claims to have heard this story of the early monastic years (1508) from Luther himself, but it cannot be found in any of Luther's writings or Table Talks. The famous quotation from Bernard's In annuntiatione turns up for the first time during Luther's Lectures on Romans in 1516. Bernard's exposition of Rom. 8,16 surely made a big impression on Luther, as he referred to it, time and again. The abbot of Clairvaux directed him to the remission of sins in relation to Rom. 3,28, one of ...
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