Luther's Six-Hour Confession

Johann von Staupitz dreaded seeing the young monk approach. Martin Luther would kneel in the confessional at Erfurt's Augustinian monastery and stay for six hours, cataloguing every sinful thought, every impure motive, every failure he could dredge from memory. He would leave, walk across the courtyard, then return minutes later, terrified he had forgotten something. Staupitz finally snapped, "Martin, if you expect Christ to forgive you, come in with something to forgive — patricide, blasphemy, adultery — not these scraps!"…