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The Great Controversy
At last he beheld in the distance the seven-hilled city. With deep
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emotion he prostrated himself upon the earth, exclaiming: “Holy
Rome, I salute thee!”—Ibid., b. 2, ch. 6. He entered the city, visited
the churches, listened to the marvelous tales repeated by priests and
monks, and performed all the ceremonies required. Everywhere he
looked upon scenes that filled him with astonishment and horror. He
saw that iniquity existed among all classes of the clergy. He heard
indecent jokes from prelates, and was filled with horror at their awful
profanity, even during mass. As he mingled with the monks and
citizens he met dissipation, debauchery. Turn where he would, in the
place of sanctity he found profanation. “No one can imagine,” he
wrote, “what sins and infamous actions are committed in Rome; they
must be seen and heard to be believed. Thus they are in the habit of
saying, ‘If there is a hell, Rome is built over it: it is an abyss whence
issues every kind of sin.’”—Ibid., b. 2, ch. 6.
By a recent decretal an indulgence had been promised by the pope
to all who should ascend upon their knees “Pilate’s staircase,” said to
have been descended by our Saviour on leaving the Roman judgment
hall and to have been miraculously conveyed from Jerusalem to Rome.
Luther was one day devoutly climbing these steps, when suddenly a
voice like thunder seemed to say to him: “The just shall live by faith.”
Romans 1:17
. He sprang to his feet and hastened from the place in
shame and horror. That text never lost its power upon his soul. From
that time he saw more clearly than ever before the fallacy of trusting
to human works for salvation, and the necessity of constant faith in
the merits of Christ. His eyes had been opened, and were never again
to be closed, to the delusions of the papacy. When he turned his face
from Rome he had turned away also in heart, and from that time the
separation grew wider, until he severed all connection with the papal
church.
After his return from Rome, Luther received at the University of
Wittenberg the degree of doctor of divinity. Now he was at liberty to
devote himself, as never before, to the Scriptures that he loved. He
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had taken a solemn vow to study carefully and to preach with fidelity
the word of God, not the sayings and doctrines of the popes, all the
days of his life. He was no longer the mere monk or professor, but the
authorized herald of the Bible. He had been called as a shepherd to feed
the flock of God, that were hungering and thirsting for the truth. He