[Sidenote: 1511] During his first ten years in the cloister he underwent a profound experience.

He started with the horrible and torturing idea that he was doomed to hell.

{65} "What can I do," he kept asking, "to win a gracious God ?" The answer given him by his teachers was that a man must work out his own salvation, not entirely, but largely, by his own efforts.

The sacraments of the church dispensed grace and life to the recipient, and beyond this he could merit forgiveness by the asceticism and privation of the monastic life.

Luther took this all in and strove frantically by fasting, prayer, and scourging to fit himself for redemption.