Excerpt from The Life of Martin Luther, Vol. 1 of 2 But Augustine Bishop of Hippo, a convert from Manichaeism through the excellent example of his mother Monica and the preaching of ambrose, is the greatest name of this period. He taught salvation by grace alone, as none had taught it since St. Paul and he may with justice be esteemed the spi ritual father of Luther and the Reformation. He was raised up in God's providence to be a witness to the truth before the grossest doctrinal corruptions had taken firm root, as Luther was raised up when the papal church was overshadowed with their fullest growth. In the intervening thousand years, what ever true Christianity subsisted within the Roman pale is due to the Scriptures or to Augustine their best expositor. And it would be as impossible for Rome to reconcile the decrees of the Council of Trent with the writings of Augustine, whose authority she professes to recognize, as with those of Luther himself. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.