Martin Chemnitz concludes his survey of false teachings about justification in the history of the Church in his Loci Theologici with this beautiful comment about the role and work of Martin Luther:

It is in recent memory, and ought to be noted for all posterity, by what events God in our own age brought the doctrine of justification out of densest darkness back into the brilliant light of His Word. For when Christ and His benefits had been quite buried, the impudent trafficking in Masses, indulgences, merits, and invocation of saints ruled in the church, together with sophistic and unending disputations regarding satisfactions. This memory won the minds of many good people over to Luther from the very beginning when, by presenting the torch of divine revelation, he uncovered these impostures and showed the true fountains of comfort.

Martin Chemnitz and Jacob A. O. Preus, Loci Theologici, electronic ed., 473 (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999).