 So apparently not everyone viewed God as Luther did. In fact, Luther's own confessor, Johann von Staupitz, who was the vicar general of the Augustinian order at the time, and Luther's good friend, Luther's teacher, he appears to have done everything he could to convince Martin of God's love for him, but to no avail. Later in life, Luther said this, I was more than once driven to the very abyss of despair,