pride. You have too much humility as I have too much pride. The affair indeed is serious. We see Christ suffering. If hitherto we were obliged to be silent and humble, now when our most excellent Saviour, who has given himself for us, is mocked in all the world, I beseech you shall we not fight for him? Shall we not expose our lives? My father, the danger is greater than many suppose. Here the gospel word applies, Whosoever confesseth me before men, him will I also confess before my Father.

Upon Luther's own state of mind in the weeks succeeding the arrival of the bull the following passage from a letter to Spalatin throws sufficient light: "You would scarcely believe how pleased I am that enemies rise up against me more than ever. For I am never prouder or bolder than when I dare to displease them. Let them be doctors, bishops, or princes, what difference does it make? If the word of

God were not attacked by them it would

not be God's word."

At first he pretended to think the bull a forgery of Eck's and poured out the vials of his wrath upon it in a tract entitled "The New Eckian Bulls and Lies.' A little later, accepting it as genuine, he replied briefly in a pamphlet, "Against the Bull of Antichrist," and at the elector's request, at greater length, in his important "Ground and Reason of all the Articles unjustly condemned in the Roman Bull." In the latter work he said:

Even if it were true, as they assert, that I have put myself forward on my own responsibility, they would not be excused thereby. Who knows whether God has called and awakened me for this? Let them fear Him and beware lest they despise God in me. I do not say I am a prophet, but I do say that they have all the greater reason to fear I am one, the more they despise me and esteem themselves. If I am not prophet I am at any rate sure the word of God is with me and not with them, for I always have the Bible on my side, they only their own doctrine. It is on this account I have the courage to fear them so little, much as they despise and persecute me.

a

Both of these tracts appeared in Latin as well as German, and in referring to the longer one, in a letter to Spalatin,

Luther defended the greater severity of the Latin version with the remark that it seemed necessary "to introduce a little salt for Latin stomachs."

On November 17 he renewed his appeal from the pope to a general council declaring, in his usual violent fashion, that the former was an unrighteous judge, a heretic and apostate, an enemy of the Holy Scriptures, and a slanderer of church and council. He also called upon emperors, princes, and all civil officials to support his appeal and oppose what he styled the unchristian conduct of the pope.

Finally, on December 10, he broke permanently with the papal see by publicly burning the bull and the canon law in the presence of a large concourse of professors and students. Melanchthon announced the event in the following placard, posted upon the door of the City Church, "Whoever is devoted to gospel truth, let him be on hand at nine o'clock by the Church of the Holy Cross, outside the walls, where according to ancient and apostolic custom the impious books of papal law and scholastic theology will be given to the flames. For the audacity of the enemies of the gospel has gone so far as to burn the devout and evangelical books of Luther. Come, reverent and studious youth, to this pious and religious spectacle, for perhaps now is the time when Antichrist shall be revealed."

In a defense published soon afterward Luther justified the burning of the canon law on the ground that it taught among other things the supremacy of the pope and his absolute authority over Bible, church, and Christian conscience. Again, as so often, there was revealed the kinship in principle between his revolt and the many other revolts against unlimited and unconstitutional monarchy through which freedom has been won for the modern world.

Luther's bold act was not the result of a sudden and hasty impulse. He had announced his intention months before, and though the project was known to the elector and many friends, no objection seems to have been made by any of them. Writing about it to Staupitz he said he had done the deed in trembling and prayer but after it was over felt more pleased than at any other act of his life.

Speaking of the matter to the students

the next day, he told them, according to the report of one of his hearers, that salvation was impossible for those submitting to the rule of the pope; and in March he wrote a friend: "I am persuaded of this, that unless a man fight with all his might, and if need be unto death, against the statutes and laws of the pope and bishops, he cannot be saved." This soon became a common feeling among his adherents. From the assurance that salvation is possible apart from the pope both he and they went on to the still more radical belief that it was impossible with the pope. The latter was not a logical deduction from the former. It was only the instinctive repayment of condemnation by condemnation. But it found its justification in the conviction, long growing and now full blown, that the pope was Antichrist. The basis was thus given, not for the possibility merely, but for the necessity of a new church. Catholic exclusiveness was matched by Lutheran, and the new movement was prepared to meet the old on its own ground. Protestants have happily long outgrown the bitterness and narrowness of the early days, but it may well be doubted whether anything less would have sufficed then to stand the strain.

On January 3, 1521, the pope took final action against Luther and his followers in the bull Decet Romanum Pontificem, pronouncing them excommunicate,

declaring them guilty of the crime of lesemajesty, and condemning them to all the spiritual and temporal penalties imposed upon heretics by the canons of the church.

The pope had done his worst. It remained to be seen whether his decision would be given effect by the civil power. In ordinary circumstances there would have been no doubt. To be condemned as a heretic meant certain death at the hands either of the ecclesiastical or civil government. But the present case was unusual. Luther had the backing of the most important prince in Germany, the support of a large body of nobles, the confidence of many of the lower clergy, and the devotion of great masses of the population. Quite apart from sympathy with him and his views it was widely felt that his appeal from the pope to a council should have been heeded, and there were those who doubted whether the pope after all had the right to condemn any one for heresy without conciliar support. The situation was very complicated. The outcome was by no means certain, all the less so in view of the diverse political interests represented in the empire. It was just the kind of a case, beset sufficiently with doubt, to offer the best possible excuse for political bargaining, and the Emperor and princes made good use of the opportunity.

In January, 1521, the first imperial diet of Charles's reign met in the free city of

The despatches also contain some interesting pen portraits of the leading actors in the great events of those weeks. Luther, the Antichrist, as Aleander calls him, is of course spoken of with uniform hatred and contempt. A hard drinker, and too much of an ignoramus to be the author of the books ascribed to him, he is represented as merely a tool of Hutten and his associates, like them interested to overthrow all authority, civil as well as ecclesiastical. Hutten himself would like to be the chief leader of the whole movement if he could only count on the support of the people as Luther can. The real motive underlying all his efforts and those of his followers is the desire to seize for themselves the property of the clergy. Sickingen, a man of unusual ability, is greatly feared by everybody and is really king in Germany. Albert of Mayence is a good Catholic and at heart loyal to the pope, but sadly lacking in firmness and courage. The Elector Frederick, at first spoken of as an excellent prince, pious and devout, but with councilors more Lutheran than Luther himself, is later called "the infamous Saxon," and inelegantly compared to a fat hog, with the eyes of a dog, which rarely look any one straight in the face. He is also dubbed a basilisk and a fox who supports Luther only because of the fame and prosperity he brings the university and town of Wittenberg. The frankness of the despatches makes them interesting reading, and the bitter prejudice of the legate, preventing him from seeing any good in Luther and his friends, need not be wondered at. Indeed his attitude was in no way different from Luther's own. The latter too was seldom able to see any good in his opponents.

Late in November, in response to the wide-spread demand that Luther be accorded a hearing in Germany, the Emperor requested the Elector Frederick to bring his professor to the Diet and let him answer for himself before the assembled estates. Luther was eager to appear and defend his cause. When the elector, leaving the decision wholly to him, inquired through Spalatin if he were willing to go, he answered:

If I am summoned I will do what in me lies to be carried there sick, if I cannot go

well. For it is not to be doubted, if the Emperor summons me I am summoned by the Lord. If they use force, as is probable, for they do not wish me to come that I may be instructed, my cause shall be commended to the Lord, for He lives and reigns who preserved the three children in the furnace of the Babylonian king. If He is unwilling to preserve me my life is a small thing compared with Christ's, who was wickedly slain to the disgrace of all and the harm of many. Expect anything of me except flight or recantation. I will not flee, much less recant. So may the Lord Jesus strengthen me.

In the meantime, fearing the effect of Luther's presence in Worms, and incensed at the proposal to give a condemned heretic the opportunity to defend himself before the Diet, Aleander induced the Emperor to withdraw his request and deny Luther a hearing. For a long time it was uncertain what would be done. But when the members of the Diet persistently refused to give their assent to various measures the Emperor had at heart until Luther was permitted to appear, the case was finally compromised in spite of Aleander's protests. The excommunicated professor was to be summoned and required to recant his doctrinal heresies. If he refused he was to be condemned without further ado. If he consented his criticisms of ecclesiastical abuses were to be considered by the Diet and such action taken as might seem advisable.

An imperial summons was issued on March 6 requiring him to appear within six weeks and guaranteeing him safe conduct both in going and returning. To Aleander's disgust the summons was phrased in respectful terms, and an imperial herald, of known Lutheran sympathies, was despatched to Wittenberg to escort the heretic to Worms in state. The honorable treatment accorded him was an acknowledgment of the important position he occupied in the eyes of Germany.

The herald found him ready and eager to go. After winding up his affairs in anticipation of a long absence, in spite of the dangers attending his journey, and the serious issues hinging upon it, Luther left Wittenberg for Worms on April 2, 1521, in good spirits and with a light heart.