CHAPTER XXXVI

. THE DARKER SIDE OF LUTHER’S INNER LIFE.

HIS AILMENTS _pages_ 99-186

1. EARLY SUFFERINGS, BODILY AND MENTAL.

Fits of fear, palpitations, swoons, nervousness; his temptations no mere morbid phenomena _pages_ 99-112

2. PSYCHIC PROBLEMS OF LUTHER’S RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT.

Temptations to despair. The shadow of pseudo-mysticism. Temptations of the flesh _pages_ 112-122

3. GHOSTS, DELUSIONS, APPARITIONS OF THE DEVIL.

The statements regarding Luther’s intercourse with the beyond and his visions of the devil. The misunderstood reference to his disputation with the devil on the Mass. His belief in possession and exorcism _pages_ 122-140

4. REVELATION AND ILLUSION. MORBID TRAINS OF THOUGHT.

His conviction that he was the recipient of a special revelation; his apparent withdrawals of this claim. His so-called “temptations” viewed by him as confirming his mission; his persuasion that the Pope is Antichrist, that his opponents are all egged on by the devil and that no man on earth can compare with him. His tendency to self-contradiction; his changeableness, his feverish polemics _pages_ 141-171

5. LUTHER’S PSYCHOLOGY ACCORDING TO PHYSICIANS AND HISTORIANS.

Whether Luther’s mind was abnormal, or whether all his symptoms are to be explained by uric acid, or by degeneracy _pages_ 172-186

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