took place in 1516. It made some noise. The Elector having sent Staupitz to the Low Countries, to collect relics for a new church, Luther took his place as Vicar-General, in visiting the monasteries. His six weeks' journey taught him something of the true state of the Church, and many of the cloisters became nurseries of his doctrines. He remained at Wittemberg through a severe plague. In 1517, he became acquainted with Duke George of Saxony, whose spirit was equally unfriendly to Rome and to the humbling doctrine which Luther taught. The monk was sent by Staupitz to preach at his court, and he created quite an excitement there. His next attack was upon the Pelagian Rationalism of the Scholastic Theology." His ninety-nine propositions seem all to converge to this single centre, "We do not become righteous by doing that which is righteous; but, having become righteous, we do that which is righteous." The will of God, not the will of man, is the author of all the good that man can do. Seeking another sphere than that of Wittemberg, where his influence was already acknowledged, he sent to Erfurth offering to maintain his Theses there; but the monks were contented with making known to him their displeasure. He then sent his Theses to John Meyer, called from his birthplace Dr. Eck, professor in the University of Ingolstadt, and equally famous with Luther. But the propositions being merely scholastic excited but little notice.

Book III., pp. 248-376, on "The Indulgences and the Theses," records the important history of the years 1517 and 1518.

In a gay carriage escorted by three horsemen in great state, the dealers in indulgences and pardons, rode through the country, seeming to carry a fair with them. The procession with solemn pomp was escorted into each town to the church. The leader in the traffic was John Tetzel, a Dominican monk, convicted of adultery and abominable profligacy at Inspruch, a scoundrel and a crafty man, who even cheated his employer, the Pope. He was an Inquisitor likewise, and he carried about with him two of his children. He said he had saved more souls by Indulgences than St. Peter had by his sermons; he could even absolve one who might ravish the Holy Virgin, Mother of God. Polygamy cost six ducats; murder, eight. It is needless to speak of the personal habits of the sellers themselves. Sin could have had few terrors for men who carried on so easy a traffic in it. A Saxon gentleman bought an indulgence of

rage.

Tetzel for a crime he intended to commit; for this he gave thirty crowns. He then with his servants waylaid Tetzel, beat him severely, and took away his rich money-chest. His judges acquitted him on the strength of his indulgence. The sellers paid their travelling charges with indulgence tickets, which thus were circulated like bank paper. The minds of the people were in suspense, waiting for a first blow. The Pope divided the spoils with Albert, Archbishop and Elector of Mentz, who "farmed" the Indulgences. When Luther first heard of Tetzel, he said, "God willing, I will make a hole in his drum." The incident, which first gave occasion to the Reformation, was this. Tetzel had been forbidden by the Saxon princes to enter their dominions. So he stopped at Juterboch, four miles from Wittemberg, and carried on his sale to the residents of Luther's town, who flocked to him in numbers. Shortly after, while Luther was at his confessional listening to the disclosure of monstrous crimes, he recommended severe penance, which the penitents boldly told him they had no idea of conforming with, producing at the same time their certificates from Tetzel Luther told them these were not worth a straw, which, when repeated by the disappointed citizens to Tetzel, drove him to Luther was still a faithful disciple of Rome; but he boldly advised the people from his own pulpit, not to buy Indulgences, and he published his sermon on the night of the 30th October, 1517. The Elector, who was at his castle eighteen miles from Wittemberg, had a dream, repeated thrice, which he told the next morning to his brother, and his chancellor. The manuscript account of it is preserved at Weimar. Its substance is as follows. A monk of his own country, attested by a crowd of Saints to be a true son of St. Paul, asked his permission to write something on the church door of the castle of Wittemberg; which was granted. The monk wrote in letters so large, that he could read them from his bed, and with a pen so long that it reached to Rome, wounded the ears of a lion, (Leo,) and shook the triple crown on the Pope's head. Cardinals and princes, himself and brother among them, ran to support the end of the pen, and to inquire into the tumult excited. The Pope called to him to restrain the monk, which he and others. attempted in vain to do. The monk said he had "drawn the pen from the wing of a goose of Bohemia, [John Huss, means John Goose,] a hundred years old." Many other pens sprang from it, and the Elector awoke. The day, on which

this dream was told, was the Feast of All Saints,-a great day at Wittemberg, for it offered plenary indulgence to all who should on that day visit the new church. At night, Luther, without consulting either friend or foe, posted on the door a string of propositions broadly aimed at the whole doctrine of Indulgences, and denying the power of the Pope to do any more than ratify the decrees of God, as to sin, and insisting upon the true doctrine of repentance and remission. On these points, he asked information, and in compliance with custom, disavowed all attacks upon the Scriptures, the Fathers, or the rights and decretals of Rome. As yet, he says, he was without thought, design, or settled purpose of his future work. He wrote at the same time a respectful, though remonstrating letter, on the same subject, to the Archbishop of Mentz, the patron of the obnoxious traffic; but he made no reply. The author follows these Theses over Germany, to Rome, and even to Jerusalem, to the study of the learned, the cell of the monk, and the palace of the prince. They were like a thunderbolt descending on the Vatican. All timorous men rejoiced, and the bold gave thanks for the loud voice of an honest man. Myconius, a monk of Annaberg, had, like Luther, passed through severe mental discipline; the Theses gave him joy. He was the first to declare openly against the Papacy, in Thuringia. According to their different tempers and spirits, princes and ecclesiastics, scholars and laymen, applauded or discouraged the work now begun. The Elector frequently made known to Luther his uneasiness; and Luther himself began to hesitate. Doubts came back to his mind. He found himself alone against Rome. He was now at the critical point of his mighty destiny. "I began this affair with great fear and trembling. What was I at that time? A poor, wretched, contemptible friar, more like a corpse than a man. Who was I, to oppose the Pope's majesty? No one can know what I suffered those two years, and in what dejection, I might say in what despair, I was often plunged." It was the timidity of his friends which enervated Luther; the boldness of his enemies reassured him. Tetzel replied to Luther's published sermon, and endeavored to confound the repentance required by God, with the penitence imposed by the Church. Luther rejoined. Spalatin befriended him. On January 20, 1518, Tetzel maintained a series of propositions against Luther, at Frankfort, on the Oder. He likewise burned Luther's Theses on a scaffold,

and declared that such ought to be the fate of their author. The compliment was returned upon Tetzel's Theses at Wittemberg, by the young students, without Luther's knowledge. But an adversary of more weight than Tetzel now arose in the person of Prierias, prior general of the Dominicans, and master of the palace at Rome. He wrote a reply to Luther, in which he even made the Pope the basis of the authority of Scripture. This, too, the Reformer answered with resolution and boldness. Hochstraten, the inquisitor of Cologne next attacked Luther, with menacings of a burning. To him was added an unexpected opponent, in the person of Dr. Eck of Ingolstadt, who wrote a treatise called "The Obelisks," which Luther answered in one called "The Asterisks." A breach was thus made in their friendship, which Luther strove in vain to heal. Urged by a solemn sense of duty he labored to disseminate sound and spiritual views among the people, who received them as the thirsty earth the water from heaven. Seeking a wider sphere of influence, he attended a chapter general of the Augustines at Heidelberg, in April, 1518. Here he was kindly received and entertained. Here too he maintained a disputation, which excited much attention. He had among his hearers Martin Bucer, a Dominican monk, afterwards a famous reformer. Brentz, Snepf, and many others, afterwards famous in the Reformation, here received light and were faithful to it. Luther returned, happier, wiser, and stronger.

Book IV. "Luther before the Legate," May to December, 1518. pp. 377-493.- Luther now determines to set his cause before the Supreme Bishop of the Church. May 30, 1518, he wrote to Leo a detail of the transactions in which he had been engaged, acknowledging his authority, and asking him to commence the work of reformation. This letter, with the "Solutions" of his Theses, he sent through Staupitz. In the same month the Cardinal Raphael had written to the Elector warning him not to protect Luther. When the Reformer heard of it, thinking it foreboded excommunication, he preached boldly on that penalty. Leo was now aroused to a sense of danger. Luther was ordered to appear in person, within sixty days, at an ecclesiastical court at Rome. His friends endeavored to

save him, by expressing his willingness to appear at any German University, except those which had already declared themselves inimical to him. His University wrote an intercessory letter to the Pope, who yielded so far as to commission his LeVOL. XXVIII. -3D S. VOL. X. NO. I.

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gate to cite Luther before him in Germany. If he came and retracted his errors, he was to be forgiven. If he refused, he, as well as all who should befriend him, were to be put under the ban, and if he was taken, he was to be brought in custody to Rome. Even before the summons reached him he had been declared a heretic. At the same time the Pope wrote a honeyed letter to Frederick. Luther now needed a comforting friend. He came in the person of Melancthon, a gentle, timid, and learned scholar, henceforth Luther's bosom friend through life, and his most important aid in the translation of the Scriptures. Luther's friends, and among them Staupitz, urged him to disregard the summons of Cajetan, the Legate, and even sought to conceal him. But he was faithful. Poor and on foot, he set out for Augsburg, without any safe conduct. After he arrived in Augsburg, however, his friends would not allow him to appear before the Legate, until they had obtained for him safe conduct from the imperial counsellors. Luther presented himself with reverence before the majesty of Rome, Oct. 11, acknowledged himself the author of the propositions and theses, and professed his willingness to retract any error. Confession, retraction, and a promise of discretion for the future were demanded of him. Luther boldly desired to see the Pope's brief; the Italian courtiers around were amazed at his assurance. The request was refused. The Legate demanded an immediate retraction of the two points. 1st. That the treasure of indulgences did not consist of the merits and sufferings of Jesus. 2d. Faith is necessary in the recipient of the sacrament. Luther refused, and for a while debated. After the conference, which was adjourned for a time, Staupitz came to see Luther in his temporary abode, at a Carmelite convent. His superior fearing the result of succeeding interviews with the Legate, determined upon releasing Luther from the obligation of obedience to his order, thus warding off from the order the disgrace of Luther's condemnation, and offering an excuse for non-compliance, if the Cardinal should order Luther to be silenced by his superior. This friendly expedient was the best that could be thought of. Luther was deeply affected by the formal breaking of his ties, and now he stood alone with God. Many friends accompanied Luther to the second conference, and their presence prevented the Cardinal Legate from resorting to force. Luther delivered a statement of his cause and a protest, and obtained permission to deliver his defence in writing. The Cardinal was deter