mercy of God in Christ. When he became a doctor of the Sacred Scriptures, he was deeply impressed with the duty imposed upon him by the oath he had to take on the occasion of teaching and making known to the world the truths of Christianity. Both as an earnest Christian, who sincerely believed in the Christianity of the Script- ures, and as a conscientious teacher of theology, Luther felt himself impelled to enter an energetic protest against the doings of Tetzel. In accordance with the principles of the Church of Rome, he wrote to several neighboring bishops to stop the sale of indulgences, and only when this appeal remained unheeded he determined to act himself. On the eve of All-Saints' Day, Oct. 31, 1517, he affixed to the castle church of Wittenberg the cel- ebrated ninety-five propositions, which are generally looked upon as the beginning of Luther's reformation. Both Protestant and Roman Catholic writers are agreed that these theses involved by no means on Luther's part a conscious renunciation of the Roman Catholic faith. Luther himself showed this clearly by his subsequent appeal to the pope; but Dr. Hase justly remarks that Luther certainly must have been aware that he had thrown out a challenge to the most powerful prelates and monks. On the other hand, the opposition to Rome was so widespread that Luther's words worked upon public opinion as the kindling spark in a powder- magazine. Even the pope, who had at first looked upon the matter as another monkish quarrel, became startled at the electric shock which it produced throughout the Christian world. Serious measures for arresting the progress of the movement were resolved upon. At first the pope cited Luther to Rome, but at the request of the University of Wittenberg and the elector of Saxony the concession was made that the papal legate, Thomas deVio,ofGaeta (better known in history under the name Cajetanus), should examine Luther in a paternal man- ner. The characteristic feature in Luther's line of de- fence was the rejection of the arguments taken from the fathers and the scholastics, and the demand to be re- futed by arguments taken from the Bible. It was also remarkable that soon after appealing from the cardinal's treatment to the pope when better informed, he was urged on, by a fresh papal bull in behalf of indulgences, to change his appeal and to direct it to an oecumenical council. Soon after, the Roman court found it expedient to change its policy with Luther, and to endeavor to bring him back by means of compromise and kindliness. The papal chamberlain, Karl von Miltiz, a native of Saxony, was so far successful that Luther promised to write letters in which he would admonish all persons to be obedient and respectful to the Roman Church, and to write to the pope to assure him that he had never thought of infringing upon the privileges of the Roman Church. The promised letter was actually indited; its language is full of expressions of humility, and exalts the Roman Church above everything but Christ him- self. He also promised to discontinue the controversy if his opponents would do the same. But soon he was drawn into the Disputation of Leipsic (June 27 to July 15, 1519), which the vainglorious Dr. Eck (even Roman Catholic writers thus characterize him) had originally arranged with Carlstadt. History awards to Dr. Eck the glory of having been the more clever disputant, but Luther's cause was nevertheless greatly benefited by it. The arguments of his opponents drove Luther onward to a more explicit rejection of Romish innovations. He was led to assert that the pope was not by divine right. the universal bishop of the Church, to admit a doubt of the infallibility of councils, and to be convinced that not all Hussite doctrines were heretical. At the same time, the reformatory movement was greatly strengthened by the universal sympathy that began to be expressed with Luther, by the alliance with the liberal humanists and knights of Germany, and especially by the open acces- sion to his cause of one of the greatest scholars of the age, Dr. Melancthon. The conflict between Rome and Luther now became one fur life and death. Dr. Eck re-
REFORMATION
9S4
I !K FORMATION
turned from a journey to Home with a bull which de- clared Lutbei a heretic and ordered the burning of his writings. Luther, on the other hand, systematized Ids dews in three works, all of which appeared in 1520: To his Imperial Majesty mid tht <'liri<iinn Nobility <;/' the German Nation; On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church; and Sermon on tht Freedom of a Christian Man. Finally he broke away the last, bridge of retreat by publicly burning I Dec. 10, 1520) the papal bull with tin- papal canon law. The pope succeeded in prevailing upon the German emperor and the German Diet of Wormsi L521 I to proceed againsl Luther; and when the latter firmly refused to recant, and avowed thai he could yield nothing bul to the Holy Scriptures and reasonable argument, he was placed under the ban of the empire; bul so greal was the discontent in Germany with Rome that the same assembly that condemned Luther fur opposing the faith of their ancestors presented 101 ar- ticles of complaint againsl the Roman see. The ban of the empire involved serious dangers for Luther, for it gave permission to any one to assault his person and seize upon his property; but he was saved from these dangers by his secluded life at the Castle of Wartburg, to which disguised horsemen, according to a previous understanding with the elector, but againsl his own desire, had conducted him. Far from the turmoil of political agitation, he found time nol only to issue sev- eral powerful polemical essays (againsl auricular con- fession, against monastic vows, against masses for the dead, and against the new idol of the archbishop of Mentz), which refuted the rumor thai he was dead, bul to conceive and partially execute the plan of translating the Bible into the native tongue. During the absence of Luther from Wittenberg, the Reformation under the leadership of men who were more impetuous and prac- tical, but less circumspect and theological, assumed a more aggressive turn against Home. Several priests re- n teed celibacy and were married; Carls tad t adminis- tered the Lord's supper in both kinds, and in the German language. To these changes Luther made no objection; hut when Carlstad! began to commil open acts of vio- lence in disturbing the public worship of the Roman Church — when enthusiastic prophets appeared from Zwickau, who boasted of immediate divine revelations, rejected infant baptism, and denounced Church, State,