pelled, on their part, to be more moderate henceforth in their sermons, or to be silent.
"As for the truth of mj doctrine, the authority of St. Thomas and other doctors cannot satisfy me.
I must hear, if I am worthy to do so, the voice of the bride, which is the church.
For it is certain that she hears the voice of the Bridegroom, which is Christ.
" In all humility and submission, I therefore entreat your paternal love to refer all this business— so unsettled up to this day—to our most holy lord
X., in order that the church may decide, pronounce, and ordain, and that I may retract with a good conscience, or believe with sincerity."*
Luther wrote and dispatched this conciliatory letter on Sunday, the 16th of October.
In the meantime it was currently reported on the streets, that the ominous silence which had suddenly settled ux)on the cardinal and his garrulous satellites, covered a treacherous plot for the audacious monk's speedy arrest and fatal imprisonment.
Luther's Augsburg friends hastened to him, advised him to draw up an appeal to the i)ope, and afterwards quit that dangerous vicinage.
Luther, whose presence in this cit}^ had been useless during the last four days, and who had sufficiently proved, by his remaining after the departure of the Saxon councillors sent by the Elector to watch over his safety, that he feared nothing, and that he was ready to answer any charg57 yielded at length to his friends' solicitations.
•L. 0pp. (L.) p. 198.
He therefore sat down and wrote this last letter to the legate " Most wokthy Father m God—Your paternal kindness has witnessed—I repeat it—witnessed and sufficiently acknowledged my obedience,
I have undertaken a long journey, through great dangers, in great weakness of body, and despite of my extreme poverty, at the command of our most holy father Leo X.;
I have appeared in person before your eminence ; lastly, I have thrown myself at the feet of his holiness, and I now wait his good pleasure, ready to submit to his judgment whether he should condemn or acquit me.
I therefore feel that I liaA^e omitted nothing tliat it becomes an obedient child of the church to do.
" I think, consequently, that I ought not uselessly to prolong my sojourn in this town.
Besides, it would be impossible.
My resources are failing me, and 3'our paternal goodness has loudly forbidden me to appear before you again unless I will retract.
"I therefore dejDart in the name of the Lord, desiring, if possible, to find some spot where I may dwell in peace.
Many persons of greater importance' than myself have requested me to appeal from your paternal kindness, and even from our most lioly lord Leo X. ill-informed, to the pope when hdfcr informed.
Although I know that such an appeal will be far more acceptable to our most serene highness the Elector than a retractation, nevertheless, if I had consulted my own feelings only, I sliould not have done so.
I have committed no fault; I ought therefore to fear nothing."
This letter written, and given to a friend to be handed to Cajetan after his departure, on Wednesday, October 19th, before daybreak a horse was) brought to the door of the Carmelite monastery, and Luther mounted, and, provided by councillor
Longemantel with an order to pass the city gates, hastily quitted Augsburg.
A strong presentiment of the dangers which environed him urged the Saxon doctor to press forward with the utmost speed, and he rode so hard that, on stojjping at night to rest, he fell, in leading his horse to the stable, prostrate to the ground.
Pausing from day to day only sufficiently long to gain for himself and his horse necessary res^^ite, Luther continued his headlong flight towards Wittemberg, whose welcome walls he finally reached in safety, but travel-worn and shattered in frame, on the 30th of October, eleven days after his departure from Augsburg.
He had been recognized all along the route, and had been the recipient of the warmest and most enthusiastic cheer from the sympathetic masses whose champion he was.
That Count Mansfeldt who had warned him of the trap to waylay him on the road to the conference, received him most cordially on his passage homeward through his country, on the edge of the Thuringian forests, and laughing at his strange equipment—for he rode without boots or spurs—
THE LIFE AND TIMES compelled him to tarry for a little at liis castle for needed repose, and dismissed him better mounted and accoutred."
Sucli was the result of Martin Luther's famous conference with the cardinal-legate ; such were the deadly perils which his genius and resolute daring enabled him for the momenf safely to surmount.
But Avhile Luther had thus escaped from the immediate toils of the Roman church, the enraged and outwitted cardinal, upon receiving the daring monk's last letter appealing to the pope and announcing his departure, showered his imprecations upon the patricians of Augsburg, upon the imperial council, upon his own remiss courtiers, and upon Nor was his rage placated when, on taking his daily ride, he saw staring him in the face from the cathedral gates, a formal protest to the pope, drawn up by Luther just before his departure, and posted by his friend the prior of Pomesau, in the presence of a notary and two witnesses, on the following day.*
Cajetan instantly rode home, and calling for pen and paper indited an indignant letter to the elector, whom he regarded as the open or secret protector of this German theologian, who had braved and thwarted his cherished plans for reaping renown and fortune at the papal court.
After reciting his own biassed account of the conference, he closed with these words " Since brother Martin cannot be induced by paternal measures to acknowledge his errors, and THE LirE AND TIMES remain faithful to the Roman church, I beg your highness either to send him to Home or else to expel him from your states.
Be assured that this difficult, mischievous, and envenomed business cannot be protracted much longer I have informed our most holy lord of all this artifice and wickedness, it will be brought to an end."
In a postscript Cajetan specially and earnestly conjured Frederick not to embroil all Germany, alienate the Koman see, and tarnish his own honor and the fair fame of his illustrious house by covering with the mantle of his protection the shivering form of this miserable mendicant friar.
Frederick read this insolent anil dictatorial epistle with ill-dissembled anger,* but still his prudent and pacific temper led him to avoid, if possible, all vexatious entanglements
; he therefore determined to adopt the Fabian policy, to withhold for a little his decision, and to let affairs drift.
But he sent the haughty cardinal's missive to Luther at Wittemberg by a special courier.f Luther's fiery soul heaved w ith indignation as he perused the crafty and malicious sentences of his late adversary and judge.
Jiis part also to address the elector.
With Luther to determine was to act.
Therefore on that very da}' he wrote the elector in person one of the grandest letters ever penned, brimful of sublime sentiment, glowing logic, and heartfelt piety.
After recounting at length the incidents of the Augsburg conference, and after summoning the envoys of the elector and the members of the imperial
[council to "witness the perfect truth of his narration, the vehement and eloquent monk wrote thus *' I should like to answer the legate in place of the elector
} ou speak of what you understand,' I would say to him; 'let the whole matter be committed to writing : then I will send brother Martin to Rome, or else I will myself seize him and put him to death.
I will take care of my conscience and of my honor, and I will permit no stain to tarnish my glory.
But so long as your positive knowledge shows the light, and is made known by its clamors only, I can put no faith in darkness.'
I would reply, most worthy prince.
"Let the reverend legate, or the pope himself, specify my errors in writing ; let them give their reasons ; let them instruct me, for I am a man who desires instruction, who begs and longs for it, so that not even a Turk would refuse to grant it.
I do not retract and condemn myself when they have proved that the passages which I have cited ought to be understood in a different sense from mine, then, most excellent elector, let your highness be the first to prosecute and expel me
; let the university reject me, and overwhelm me with its anger.
Nay, more, and I call heaven and earth to witness, may the Lord Jesus Christ cast me out and condemn me.
" The words tliat I utter are not dictated by vain presumption, but bj an unsliaken conviction.
I am willing that tlie Lord God should withdraw his grace from me, and that every one of God's creatures should refuse me his countenance, if, when a better doctrine has been shown me, I do not embrace it.
" If they despise me on account of my lov/ estate, me a poor little mendicant friar, and if they refuse to instruct me in the way of truth, then let your highness entreat the legate to inform you in writing wherein I have erred
; and if they refuse even your highness this favor, let them Avrite their views to his imperial majesty, or to some archbishop of German3\
What can I, what ought I to say more ?
" Let your highness listen to the voice of your conscience and of your honor, and not send me to No man can require you to do so, for it is impossible that I could be safe in that abandoned cit3\
The pope himself is not safe there.* It would be commanding They have paper, pens, and ink ; the}- have also notaries without number.
It is easy for them to write v.herein and wherefore I have erred.
It will cost them less to instruct me when absent by writing, than to put me to death by stratagem when among them.
" I resign myself to banishment.
* In allusion probably to a tumult wliicli had recently occuiTeil at Rome, iu which the hixzaroni, hungiy and despci'ato, had stoned their niagnilicent poutiff as he walked through the streets iu solemn procession. saries are lajing tlieir snares on every side, so tliat
I can nowhere live in security.
In order tliat no evil may happen to you on my account, I leave your territories in God's name.
I will go wherever the eternal and merciful God will have me.
Let him do with me according to his pleasure.
" Thus then, most serene elector, I reverently bid you farewell.
I commend you to the everlasting God, and give you eternal thanks for all your kindness towards me.
Whatever be the people among whom I shall dwell in future, I shall ever remember you, and pray continually and gratefully for the happiness of youi'self and of your family.
" I am still, thanks be to God, full of joy, and praise him because Christ the Son of God esteems me worthy to suffer in his cause.
. tect j'our illustrious highness.
This noble and touching letter completely gained the heart of the elector.^^ He instantly directed his councillor Maximilian's court, to inform the emperor of the real state of the cause, and to persuade him to write to Rome and arrange that Luther should be tried by impartial judges in Germany.f
Frederick next replied to Cajetan.
" Since Doctor Martin has appeared before jou at Augsburg, you should be satisfied.
AVe did not expect that you would endeavor to make him retract without having convinced him of his errorsr None of the learned men in our principality have o Maimbourg.
THE LIFE AND TIMES informed us that Martin's doctrine is impious, anticliristian, or heretical.
We must refuse therefore, either to send Luther to Eome, or to expel him from our states.""
The elector then instructed Spalatin to mform Luther of what he had done, and to instruct him to remain in "Wittemberg, and to continue his connection
"with the university until he was directed to discontinue it.
Luther's joy and gratitude on the reception of this most reassuring note cannot be adequately described.
In the exuberance of his feelings he wrote Spalatin Avitli what inexpressible delight have I read your letter, read, and reread it.
I know what confidence may be put in these words of our gracious prince, at once so forcible and so.
I fear that the Romans may not understand their full bearing ; but they will at least understand that what they think already finished is as jet hardly begun.
Pray return my thanks to the prince.
It is strange that De Vio, who, a short time back, was, like myself, a mendicant monk, should not fear to address the mightiest j^rinces disrespectful^
; to call them to account, to threaten, to command them, and to treat them with such inconceivable haughtiness.
Let him learn that the temporal power is of God, and that its glory may not be trampled under foot."t Having thus, through the kind firmness of the elector, gained a moment's respite from the fierce ecclesiastical warfare which God destined to be his lot throughout the varied phases of his stormy career, Luther employed the interval in teaching his "beloved youth" at the university
; in the translation of his New Testament into German, which, with Melancthon's assistance, now made brave progress ; and in correcting and publishing his sermons and popular •^^amphlets, which had already achieved a marvellously wide circulation.
John Frobenius, the celebrated printer of Basle, wrote the Wittemberg doctor on the 14th of Februar}-, 1519, that his books were read and apj^roved at Paris, nay, even in the inquisitorial halls of the ; and that, of an edition which he had recently printed at Basle, not one copy was left
; that these writings were scattered throughout Italy, Spain, and elsewhere, and everywhere admired by the learned/^ Luther now pubhshed his Report of the Conference at Frederick, anxious that the existing difficulty should not be further complicated, sent him word through Spalatin to withhold this manuscript from the printer for a time
; but the letter arrived too late—it had been abeady printed, both at Wittemberg and by the press of Frobenius at Basle.f
Upon being informed of these circumstances, the good-natured elector at once sanctioned the pubHcation.
Luther sent Wenceslas Link of Nuremberg an • Seckendcrf, ii. G81. t Van Brunt's Hist. Eef.
THE LIFE AND TIMES early co-pj of "It is keener, no doubt, tliau the legate expects ; but my pen is ready to produce mucli greater tilings,
I do not know myself whence these thoughts arise.
In my opinion the work is not yet begun ; so far are the great ones at Rome mistaken in looking for the end.
I send you what I have written, in order that you may judge whether I have guessed rightly that the antichrist of whom St. Paul speaks now reigns in the court of Rome.
I think that I shall be able to show that he is worse nowadays than the Turks themselves."
Early in 1519 Luther was summoned to meet Frederick at Lichtembcrg.
There a lengthy cousultatiou was held.
Luther declared that if Leo sent his threatened bull of excommunication he should quit Saxony, and repair to Spalatin opposed, bidding him beware of precipitation in going to France.
The elector again had resort to his Fabian politics.
He told Luther to await quietly the action of events, and meantime to remain in Wittemberg.* At Rome the utmost displeasure was felt.
Leo vented his irritation on poor Cajetan.
That haughty churchman fell into sad disgrace ; and, indeed, his bungling management did not deserve the plaudits of the apostolic see.
The honor of the Roman court v^^as now engaged.
Leo, for the first time, began to appreciate the magnitude of the disaffection