Are there records of Lutheran doctrine of faith-alone taught by theologians prior to him him whether explicitly or implicitly?
I read in the Catholic Encyclopedia's article on Justification that Luther was influenced by certain theologians in deriving faith-alone doctrine. Who were they, and can you cite the recordssuch resources with online reference that any theologian taught faith-alone doctrine? Of course, those who believe the Sola-fide of Luther might say that it was taught by apostle Paul, but I am looking for explicit systematic explanationtheology like Luther did. I am not just looking for Victorinus asonly these particular people mentioned here but if you can cite more then even betteranyone.
Whether Victorinus, a neo-Platonist, already defended the doctrine of justification by faith alone, is immaterial to our discussion. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that in the Middle Ages there were a few Catholic theologians among the Nominalists (Occam, Durandus, Gabriel Biel), who went so far in exaggerating the value of good works in the matter of justification that the efficiency and dignity of Divine grace was unduly relegated to the background. Of late, Fathers Denifle and Weiss have shown that Martin Luther was acquainted almost exclusively with the theology of these Nominalists, which he naturally and justly found repugnant, and that the "Summa" of St. Thomas and the works of other great theologians were practically unknown to him.