Luther arrived at this university in the year 1501. Jadocus, surnamed the Doctor of the Isenach, was then teaching the scholastic philosophy with much success. Melancthon regrets that the only thing then taught at Erfurt should have been a dialectics bristling with difficulties. He thinks that if Luther had found other professors there, if he had been trained in the milder and calmer discipline of true philosophy, it might have moderated and softened the vehemence of his nature.[135] The new scholar began to study the philosophy of the middle ages in the writings of Occam, Scotus, Bonaventura, and Thomas Aquinas. At a later period he had a thorough disgust for all this scholasticism. The very name of Aristotle, pronounced in his hearing, filled him with indignation; and he even went the length of saying, that if Aristotle was not a man, he would have no hesitation in taking him for the devil. But his mind, in its eagerness for learning, stood in need of better nourishment, and he began to study the splendid monuments of antiquity, the writings of Cicero and Virgil, and the other classics. He was not contented, like the common run of students, with committing the productions of these writers to memory. He endeavoured, above all, to enter into their thoughts; to imbue himself with the spirit which animated them; to appropriate their wisdom; to comprehend the end of their writings; and enrich his understanding with their weighty sentiments and brilliant images. He often put questions to his professors, and soon outstripped his fellow students.[136] Possessed of a retentive memory and a fertile imagination, whatever he read or heard remained ever after present to his mind, as if he had actually seen it. "So shone Luther in his youth. The whole university," says Melancthon, "admired his genius."[137] [135] "Et fortassis ad leniendam vehementiam naturæ mitiora studia veræ philosophiæ." (Ibid.) Perhaps the milder studies of true philosophy might have served to soften the vehemence of his natural temper. [136] "Et quidem inter primos, ut ingenio studioque multos coæqualium antecellebat." (Cochlœus, Acta Lutheri, p. 1.) And he was indeed among the first, excelling many of his fellow-students, both in genius and study. [137] "Sic igitur in juventute eminebat, ut toti academiæ Lutheri ingenium admirationi esset." (Vita Luth.) So brilliant was he in youth, that the whole university were in admiration at his talents.