27. Chapter 24: The Church Is Convulsed, 1517-1521

CHAPTER 24 The Church Is Convulsed, 1517-1521

1. The Spotlight Turns on Luther

Up to the time that Luther pub­lished his ninety-five theses, the most famous man in western Eu­rope was Erasmus (ch. 22, sec. 11 and 12). In every country of Europe his books sold in the thou­sands. After Luther published his theses Erasmus complained that there was a demand only for books written by, for, or against Luther.

Now the spotlight was on Luther. Suddenly the man who up to this time had been a relatively obscure monk-professor, in a small university located in a little town off the highways of travel, had become the most famous man in Europe. Eras­mus was totally eclipsed. From this time on Luther lived in a glass house. Everything he did or said was watched with eagle eyes by friend and foe. Luther was a great talker. Much of his con­versation at meal times was writ­ten down by admiring students. and later published as Luther’s Table Talk.

2. Luther Is Summoned to Rome

Luther’s theses struck the pope some hard blows in two tender spots: his power and his purse. When therefore the pope learned that the General of the Augus­tinian Order had completely failed to silence Luther, he decided to take matters into his own hands. In July, 1518, he issued a summons to Luther to appear before him in Rome.

If Luther had gone to Rome it would have meant his certain death. Heresy was taken very se­riously in those times. It was held to be a crime. It was the greatest of all crimes. A heretic deserved death by fire. Luther would have been burned at the stake, as Huss was (ch. 22, sec. 7). But Luther had a faithful, wise, and powerful friend in his prince, Elector Frederick the Wise. For many years the German people had had many and great grievances against the curia, or papal govern­ment. They groaned under the heavy exactions of money by Rome. The elector Frederick had forbid­den Tetzel to peddle indulgences in Saxony. He did not wish money from his country to go into the coffers of the pope. Moreover, Lu­ther had posted his theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wit­tenberg, which served as a bulletin board for the university. That uni­versity was the elector’s very spe­cial pet, and Luther was its most famous and popular professor. The elector felt every attack on Luther as an attack on his pet, the uni­versity. For these reasons the elec­tor did not wish to see Luther in the power of the pope. So he brought all his influence to bear in Rome to have the papal summons cancelled.

Under ordinary circumstances the pope might not have listened to Frederick. But circumstances at the time were in Frederick’s favor. Emperor Maximilian was old and sickly. It was evident that a new emperor would have to be chosen soon. There were three candidates: Charles king of Spain; Francis, king of France; and Frederick, elector of Saxony. The pope wanted Frederick to become emperor, be­cause he thought that he would be able to manage Frederick much more easily than either of the other two. So the pope listened to Fred­erick, and cancelled the summons for Luther to come to Rome.

3. Cajetan Fails to Silence Luther At this time a legate, or delegate, of the pope, Cajetan, was in Ger­many to attend a diet in Augsburg. (A diet was a national meeting of all the princes, the prelates, and other leading men in Germany.) Cajetan saw what a large following Luther had acquired in a short time, and how his theses and other writings had stirred the entire German nation. Luther had also preached a sermon in which he had said that papal bans were flying around like bats, and that they should not be feared any more than those harmless little creatures. Caj­etan informed the pope of the seri­ous state of affairs in Germany, and said that the impudent monk should be taught what a terrible thing a ban is.

Then the pope sent Cajetan a letter empowering him to order Luther to appear before him in Augsburg. Cajetan was to hear him and demand that he recant. If Luther would not recant he should be sent bound to Rome. If Cajetan should fail to arrest Luther, he should put him and his followers under the ban. Up to this time the pope had said only that Luther was suspected of heresy. Now he de­clared him to be a notorious her­etic. To go to Augsburg would there­fore be very dangerous for Luther. But again his prince came to his aid. Although only with the great­est difficulty, he obtained from the aged emperor Maximilian a safe-conduct for Luther.

Luther had three interviews with Cajetan in Augsburg on October 12, 13, and 14. The discussion be­came hot and furious at times. The two men tried to outshout each other. Close friends of Luther tried to persuade him to settle things peaceably by giving in. But Luther proved himself to be made of sterner stuff. He was in great danger. Safe-conducts to heretics had been broken before (ch. 22, sec. 7) . However, Luther stood like a rock against both the threats of his enemies and the supplica­tions of his friends. He refused to recant. He left Augsburg secretly by night.

Cajetan wrote to the elector to arrest Luther and send him to Rome. Frederick answered very diplomatically that he was not con­vinced that Luther was a heretic, and that he could not compromise his university by sending an uncon­demned man to Rome.

Cajetan, finding himself unable to handle the situation, now re­quested the pope to settle the points in dispute once for all by an official pronouncement. The pope did so by issuing a bull (ch. 21, sec. 1) in which he declared, without men­tioning names, that certain state­ments which certain monks had made about indulgences were he­retical. That meant that from then on Luther could no longer claim that those questions had not been decided officially by the Church.

4. Von Miltitz Is Seemingly More Successful The general of the Augustinian Order had failed. Cajetan had failed. The pope next decided to send a special representative into Germany for the purpose of arrest­ing Luther. By now Pope Leo had come to realize that this could not be done unless he had the co-opera­tion of Luther’s faithful friend, Frederick the Wise, elector of Sax­ony. With this in mind he was very careful in the selection of his mes­senger. He chose a man who he thought would be most acceptable to Frederick. His name was Charles von Miltitz. This man was himself a Saxon and a nobleman; that would please Frederick. He was a close acquaintance of Spalatin, the elector’s private secretary. He was a papal chamberlain; that would give him a degree of importance. Besides, von Miltitz was Freder­ick’s own agent at the papal court in Rome.

CITIES OF THE REFORMATION The pope equipped von Miltitz with very flattering letters to the elector, to Spalatin, to some of the councilors of Saxony, and to the magistrates of Wittenberg. In these letters Luther was painted as a child of the devil. Besides, in order to make it even more sure that Frederick would be favorably dis­posed, the pope sent him by the hand of von Miltitz an anointed golden rose. It was a very special honor to receive the golden rose from the pope. This honor was greatly coveted, and as you will re­member, Frederick was a very pious and devout Catholic (ch. 23, sec. 11) . But in case the elector should not respond to these flatter­ing attentions, the papal messenger von Miltitz was empowered to place Saxony under the interdict (ch. 20, sec. 4) . He was also fur­nished with the ban against Luther. The pope thought he had made sure that he would not fail this time. But when von Miltitz ar­rived in Germany he discovered a state of affairs of which the curia, the papal government in Rome, had not the slightest understanding. He himself was a German, and he un­derstood the Germans. As he vis­ited with friends and relatives in various parts of Germany, he found that three out of five people in that land were on the side of Luther. He realized that he had to deal not with a single monk, but with an entire nation. So he discarded the instructions of the pope. He de­cided to take matters into his own hands and try to settle the difficulty by peaceful means.

Before presenting his credentials to Frederick, he sought a private in­terview with Luther and Tetzel. He could not get to see Tetzel. That unfortunate man did not dare to show himself in public. If he should come out of his monastery he would be in danger of the vio­lence of the people. But von Miltitz did have a talk with Luther. The result of it all was that Lu­ther promised not to speak about indulgences any more, if his oppo­nents would agree not to do so. He also promised to write a submis­sive letter to the pope. The pope was so well pleased with the letter that on March 29, 1519, he sent Luther a very friendly letter in re­turn. He quite forgot that he had called Luther a child of the devil. He now called him his dear son, invited him to come to Rome to make his confession, and offered to pay the expenses of the journey.

5. The Pope Dawdles and Eck Challenges Luther to a Debate

If the pope had supported von Miltitz, and if both sides had re­mained still, there is no telling how far the reconciliation of Luther with the Roman Church might have gone. But at this time the pope’s atten­tion was distracted from his differ­ences with Luther. He had become deeply absorbed in another matter. In January, 1519, the emperor Maximilian died. A new emperor had to be elected and the pope was greatly concerned. He very much wanted the elector Frederick the Wise to be the next emperor. But as we have seen, there were two other strong candidates: Charles of Spain and Francis of France. The pope dreaded the prospect of either one of them acquiring the imperial power. He was very much afraid that Charles or Francis, if elected, might cause him a great deal of trouble. The pope knew the elector Frederick to be a very pious Catho­lic and devoted son of the Church. Besides, he considered him a man of mild character, whom he would be able to manage with ease. Both Charles and Francis were eager for the imperial crown, and they did all they could to win the votes of the seven German electors (ch. 23, sec. 11) . So the pope had to work hard for the election of Frederick. The election campaign occupied his mind entirely to the exclusion of everything else. For fourteen months he failed to push the charge of heresy against Luther. Mean­ while, the two opposing sides in Germany did not remain silent.

One of Luther’s fellow professors of theology at Wittenberg Univer­sity, Andreas Rudolph Carlstadt, came out with a set of theses against Eck (ch. 23, sec. 8 and 12) . Eck answered with some counter theses in which he advanced an ex­treme view of papal supremacy. Carlstadt, since he was receiving financial support from a fund di­rectly under the pope’s control, did not dare answer Eck on that point. Luther then took up the cudgels, and published twelve theses. In the twelfth he declared that the claim of the Roman Church to supremacy over all other churches (ch. 6, sec. 9; ch. 12) rested only on weak papal decrees of the last four hun­dred years, but that in all the eleven hundred years before no such supremacy had existed. An attack like that on the author­ity of the pope had never before been heard. It caused a tremen­dous sensation. Eck could not pos­sibly ignore it. Nor did he wish to do so. He was a man who loved to debate, and he loved fame. Only recently he had won great fame as a debater, and he hoped to add to this fame by debating with Luther. He challenged Luther to debate with him on the question of the supremacy of the pope. The supremacy of the pope had been one of Luther’s earliest and most cherished beliefs. His mother had taught him as a little boy that the Church is the pope’s house, in which the pope is the house-father.

THE LEIPZIG DEBATE
Schoenfeld Collection from Three Lions
After a painting by Huebner The nine months between the Augs­burg interview with Cajetan in Oc­tober, 1518, and the debate with Eck in July, 1519, Luther spent in hard study. He had to find argu­ments against many things he had always held to be true, and which he had only recently found to be false. He plunged into the study of church history and canon law. Canon law consists of the decretals or decisions of popes and general councils. Luther was dismayed to find that many decretals are for­geries. Thus he saw another pillar of the Roman Catholic system cracking before his eyes.

6. Luther Denies the Infallibility of the Church The disputation of Luther with Eck was to be held in Leipzig. This city in Saxony was at that time still overwhelmingly Catholic. So Lu­ther was to enter enemy territory. It was quite a procession that moved along the road to Leipzig. Three of Luther’s colleagues at Wittenberg University, Philipp Melanchthon, Nikolaus von Ams­dorf, and Justus Jonas, accompa­nied him. Two hundred Wittenberg students went along as a body­guard. They were armed with hel­mets and halberds, and as they walked they surrounded the car­riage in which Luther sat. In Leipzig the atmosphere was tense. A company of armed burgh­ers stood guard at the duke’s pal­ace where the disputation was to be held. In the inns at meal time an armed guard was posted at every table to keep the Leipzig and Wittenberg students from fighting. On the fourth of July, 1519, Eck and Luther faced each other. It was the first time that Luther met an opponent of European fame.

What a contrast there was be­tween the two opponents! Eck had a huge square body and a strong voice, and he looked more like a butcher than like a theologian. He was a man of considerable learning and a very cunning debater. Lu­ther was of middle height. His body was so thin from study and cares that one could almost count his bones. But his voice was clear and distinct, and the audience ad­mired his fluency of speech and the aptness of his Latin diction. No matter how hard his opponent pressed him Luther always main­tained his calmness and good na­ture, although he sometimes used bitter words. He held a bunch of flowers in his hand, and when the discussion became heated he looked at it and smelled it. As far as the learning and speak­ing ability of the two opponents was concerned the debate was just about a tie. But Eck out-maneu­vered Luther. He drove him into a corner, and finally got him to say that some of the teachings of Huss had been unjustly condemned by the Council of Constance. As soon as Luther made this statement Eck had achieved his purpose. He had made Luther take his stand openly on the side of a man officially con­demned by the Church as a heretic.

Remember that only one hundred years before, Huss had been burned as a heretic (ch. 22, sec. 7) , and the memory of the event was still very vivid in the minds of the people of that time. Remember also that the land of Bohemia was not so far away, and that there was still strong opposition to Rome in the land of Huss (ch. 22, sec. 7). When Luther admitted that he did not think Huss wrong in all re­spects, a wave of excitement swept over the audience. Duke George of Saxony said so loud that everyone could hear it, "God help us; that is the pestilence !" Then he wagged his head and placed his arms akimbo.

Luther’s arguments had been historical. He called to mind that the Eastern Greek Church is a part of the Church of Christ, and that it had never acknowledged the su­premacy of the bishop of Rome. The great councils of the early Christian centuries (ch. 3, sec. 9; ch. 6, sec. 2, 3, 4, and 8) knew nothing of papal supremacy. But no reasoning on Luther’s part could save him after he had taken his stand on the side of the condemned heretic, Huss.

7. The Leipzig Debate Has Several Important Results

One result of the Leipzig debate was that Luther greatly strength­ened his cause among his followers. He made them feel certain that their position was right. Luther also won many new followers, one of whom was Martin Bucer, who became an important leader of the Reformation, and who helped to shape the views of John Calvin (ch. 27, sec. 7). As is usually the case, neither debater was able to change his op­ponent’s views. However, the de­bate did much to clarify Luther’s ideas for himself. This was un­doubtedly the most important re­sult. At the time that Luther published his ninety-five theses he thought that he was merely attack­ing certain abuses connected with the sale of indulgences (ch. 23, sec. 13). The Leipzig debate made him see that his theses had aimed a deadly blow at the very heart of the Catholic system. He had pushed the priest aside, and he had thereby opened the way for every believer to enter immediately into the very presence of God. The great Leipzig debate of July, 1519, was an ex­ceedingly important stage in Lu­ther’s development. This debate was also an enor­mously important stage in the Ref­ormation movement. It made it clear to everybody that reconcilia­tion between Luther and the Ro­man Catholic Church would be impossible.

8. The Storm Gathers

Luther had rejected the suprem­acy of the pope and the infallibility of councils. His break with the Ro­man hierarchical system was now complete. Luther was in the thick of the battle. From now on it was to be a life and death struggle be­tween him and the Roman Church.

Soon after the Leipzig debate Eck went to Rome to ask Pope Leo to issue a bull excommunicating Luther. The pope was more than willing. He appointed Eck to serve on a committee of three to draw up the bull. From the bull itself it is quite evident that Eck did most of the work and relished it to the last degree. Luther went back to his bare and comfortless cell in the Black Cloister at Wittenberg to prepare himself for the storm which would soon be howling around his devoted head. The first thing Luther did was to publish an account of the Leipzig debate. Soon pamphlets and letters followed in great abundance. Everything that came from Lu­er’s pen was eagerly bought and read. In May, 1520, he published a pam­phlet with the title, On Good Works. This was only a little book, but it had a far-reaching effect. In it he applied to practical, everyday life his newly won conviction that man is saved by faith alone. "The noblest of all good works," he said, "is to believe in Jesus Christ." To flee from the world into a convent and do nothing but pray and fast and meditate and contemplate and chastise one’s self and give alms is not doing good works. We must serve God in the midst of the world by faithfully performing the tasks of our daily occupations. Shoemak­ers, carpenters, housekeepers, cooks, farmers, and businessmen, if they do their work to the glory of God, are more pleasing to Him than monks and nuns. This was one of Luther’s most important and fundamental teach­ings. It was also the widest pos­sible departure from ancient and medieval asceticism (ch. 14, sec. 2), and it became one of the most distinctive traits of Protestant Christianity.

9. Two Books Influence Luther The period between the Leipzig debate in July, 1519, and the Diet of Worms in April, 1521, was a hectic time for Luther. Every in­cident that took place, every friend he made, every book he read car­ried him forward from one position to another.

Two books especially which he read at this time influenced him powerfully. During his early stay in the cloister he had read a book by Huss. He had then wondered how a heretic could write in so Christian a fashion. In preparing for the debate with Eck, he had come to the conclusion that many of the ideas of Huss which the Council of Constance had con­demned as heretical (ch. 22, sec 7) were evangelical and orthodox. In the course of the debate he had boldly said so. Several Hussites had been present at the debate. Two of them, after that memorable meet­ing, had written to him and sent him one of the works of Huss. He had not time to read it just then, but when early in 1520 he read it, he learned that Huss had taught the same things that he, Luther, had come to believe, and he avowed himself to be a disciple of the Bo­hemian. He regarded it a judgment of God that these books, in which the plain gospel truth was taught, had been publicly burned and for a hundred years, now, been consid­ered damnable. The other book which influenced Luther profoundly at this time was a work by the brilliant Italian hu­manist Lorenzo Valla, who proved beyond the possibility of contradic­tion that the "Donation of Constan­tine" (ch. 12, sec. 3) was a forgery. This discovery roused Luther to such a passion that he scarcely doubted any longer that the pope is the Antichrist. He marveled that such crass and impudent lies had prevailed for so many centuries, and that they had been incorpo­rated into the canon law and had become as articles of faith.

10. The Storm Breaks On June 15, 1520, Pope Leo rati­fied and signed the bull excommuni­cating Luther. The bull began with the words: "Arise, 0 Lord, plead thine own cause; remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily; the foxes are wasting thy vineyard, which thou hast given to thy vicar Peter; the boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it."

These opening words are quota­tions from the Psalms and the Song of Solomon. The bull went on to say that the errors of the Greeks and of the Bohemians were now being revived in Germany, hitherto so faithful to the Holy See. Then it mentioned forty-one propositions, which it said were Luther’s, and which it condemned as "heretical or scan­dalous, or false or offensive topious ears, or seducing to simple minds, and standing in the way of the Catholic faith." The bull called upon all faithful people to burn Luther’s books. It forbade Luther to preach. He and all that followed him were ordered to recant publicly within sixty days. If they did not, they were to be treated as heretics. The bull ordered the government to seize and imprison Luther and everyone who followed him. All towns or districts that sheltered them would be placed under the interdict. The publication of the bull in Germany was entrusted to Eck. He soon found out that it was easier to prepare the bull than to get it published. He could get permission to do so in only a comparatively few places. At Erfurt the students seized all the copies they could and threw them into the river.

Luther came out with a tract: Against the Execrable Bull of Antichrist 11. Luther Issues Three Great Ref­ormation Treatises

All Germany hung breathless on Luther’s every word. His books circulated far and wide and were eagerly bought and read. The eyes of all Christendom were upon him. This one man was a whole army, terrible with banners.

If Luther were living today he would be one of the greatest of journalists. But in his day there were no newspapers. So he poured out small books or pamphlets, which were like editorials or magazine articles. Luther was the first man in the world to hit upon the idea of using the press as a means of appealing to public opinion, and of molding it in that way. It was chiefly by means of the press, that Luther gained the support of vast numbers of followers, not only in his own country of Germany but also far beyond its borders. To cushion the shock of the papal bull, and to rally the German na­tion around the standard of revolt against the Roman hierarchy, Lu­ther published three works in the latter half of the year 1520. They are known as "The Three Great Reformation Treatises." The first, To the Christian Nobil­ity of Germany, was a trumpet call to do away with the abuses fos­tered by Rome. In the second, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, Luther exposed the falsity of the Church’s claim that men could be saved only through the priest and the Roman system of sacraments (ch. 23, sec. 13). The third, The Liberty of a Christian Man, is a very small work of only thirty pages, but it contains the whole sum of the Christian life. The effect of these three treatises, especially of the first, was instan­taneous and overwhelming. It sent an electric shock through the people of Germany.

12. Luther Burns the Pope’s Bull

Writing against Rome, however, did not satisfy Luther. He decided to do something more. If the pope ordered his writings to be burned, he would burn the pope’s writings. Early in the morning of December 10, 1520, he posted a notice where only three years before he had posted his ninety-five theses. The notice read: "Let whosoever adheres to the truth of the Gospel be present at nine o’clock at the Church of the Holy Cross outside the walls, where the impious books of papal decrees and of scholastic theology will be burned according to ancient and apostolic usage, in­asmuch as the boldness of the ene­mies of the Gospel has waxed so great that they daily burn the evangelic books of Luther. Come, pious and zealous youth, to this pious and religious spectacle, for perchance now is the time when the Antichrist must be revealed." A large crowd of students, pro­fessors, and citizens assembled out­side the Elster Gate between the walls of the city of Wittenberg and the Elbe River. One of the profes­sors kindled the pile. Luther placed the books of canon law (church law) on the burning wood. The flames began to scorch them. Then amid solemn silence Luther placed a copy of the bull on the fire, and said: "As thou hast wasted the Holy One of God, so may the eter­nal flames waste thee." He waited until the books and the bull were consumed. Then with his friends and colleagues he returned to the town.

Some hundreds of students re­mained behind. Under the spell of the solemnity of the occasion they sang, as they stood around the dy­ing fire, the Te Deum (We Praise Thee, O God). Then youthful mis­chievousness got the upper hand, and they sang funeral dirges in honor of the burnt papal decretals and bull.

CHARLES V

13. Luther Is Summoned by the Emperor

Pope Leo was almost at the end of his rope. He had exhausted all ecclesiastical means to bring Luther to his knees. There was only one thing left that he could do. He turned for help to the highest secular authority, the em­peror. The pope had been unsuccessful in his efforts to have Frederick the Wise elected emperor (sec. 5). Frederick himself, feeling that he could not afford the expenses inci­dental to the imperial office, had thrown his weight in favor of Charles, king of Spain. During the days of the Leipzig Debate Charles was elected emperor. This Charles, known to history as Charles V, had inherited the Austrian domains and Spain. As king of Spain he also ruled over the Netherlands, a large part of Italy, and the parts of America dis­covered only twenty-nine years be­fore by Columbus. Now that he had been elected also emperor of Ger­many, he ruled over a larger terri­tory than any man since Charle­magne (ch. 11, sec. 7). To this powerful monarch Pope Leo appealed for help in an at­tempt to bring Luther either to obedience or to the stake. Charles V was a devout Catholic, and Leo prevailed upon him to summon Luther before the diet — the coun­cil of German rulers — which was to be held the next year in the city of Worms.

14. Luther Journeys to Worms

Protected by the safe-conduct of the emperor, Luther started for Worms on April 2, 1521. The city of Wittenberg bore the expense and supplied a peasant’s cart, horses, and a driver. Luther sat in the straw which half filled the cart.

Luther believed that he was going to his death. To Melanch­thon, one of his colleagues at the university, he said at parting, "My dear brother, if I do not come back, if my enemies put me to death, you will go on teaching and standing fast in the truth; if you live, my death will matter little." When his friends did their utmost to per­suade him not to go he answered, "I am going even if there should be as many devils in Worms as there are tiles on the roofs." His journey was like a victory parade. Everywhere he went crowds lined the roads and streets to see the man who had dared to stand up for Germany against the pope, and who, so they thought, was going to his death for his faith. They pressed into the inns where he stopped, and often found him soothing himself by playing his lute. When he entered Worms, crowds so dense that it was almost impossible for the cart to proceed, filled the streets. Out of every win­dow people hung to catch a glimpse of the monk under the papal ban for heresy.

15. Luther Appears before the Diet of Worms At four o’clock in the afternoon of Wednesday, April 17, Luther ap­peared before the Diet. The large, magnificently deco­rated hall of the Bishop’s Palace was filled. All the important men of Germany were there: the nobles of various ranks; the lords of the realm, both secular and spiritual; wealthy burghers from the great cities; and foremost of all the em­peror, Charles V. In the midst of this scene of pomp and splendor, before the throne of an emperor who was the most powerful to appear in many centuries, stood a poor and power­less priest, offspring of peasant parents. Charles V and Martin Luther saw each other for the first time.

Charles was at this time a youth of twenty-one. His face was with­out expression. Luther, now thirty-seven years old, was a man in the prime of life. He had a strong face. His look was piercing. He wore the black robe of an Augustinian monk. The crown of his head was newly shaven, according to the custom of priests, and was fringed with short thick hair. The eyes of all those present were on Luther rather than on the emperor. Near the place where Luther stood, a small table held a number of books. At Luther’s side stood his legal coun­sel, Jerome Schurf. The task of conducting the meet­ing had been assigned to the offi­cial of Trier. Pointing to the books on the little table, the official asked Luther: "Are those your writings; and do you wish to retract them, or do you adhere to them and con­tinue to assert them?"

Luther’s counsel called out: "Let the titles be read !" The notary Siebenberger stepped forward, picked up the books one by one, read the titles, and briefly described the contents of each book.

Then Luther spoke. With pre­cision he first repeated the two questions. Thereupon he answered the first question in the affirmative. The second question he answered by begging the emperor graciously to allow him time to think it over, in order that he might answer the question without injury to the Word of God and without peril to his soul. The members of the Diet went into conference. After a short con­sultation it was announced that the emperor had decided to grant Luther’s request. He was to give his answer in twenty-four hours. Then the meeting was adjourned. The proceedings of the first day were over. They had taken about an hour. The herald conducted Luther back to his lodgings.

16. The Political Question Is Set­tled but the Religious Question Remains

Luther’s first appearance before the Diet had been brief and simple. But its historical significance was stupendous. The papacy during the last two hundred years had suffered many severe defeats in its struggle with the secular powers (ch. 21). Pope Leo X now wished the Diet of Worms to handle Luther’s case in such a way that the old papal claim — that the spiritual (papal) au­thority is superior to the secular (royal and imperial) authority — would be recognized. In other words, Pope Leo X tried to bring down two birds with one stone. He tried to manipulate the handling of Luther’s case by the Diet of Worms in such a way that suppression of heresy by the Diet would at the same time elevate papal authority above imperial authority.

LUTHER BEFORE THE DIET OF WORMS The pope had excommunicated Luther. He wanted the Diet, that is to say really the emperor, to con­demn and to punish Luther as a heretic without any further ado. He wanted the emperor, the secular ruler, to be merely a tool of the spiritual ruler, the pope. He wanted the emperor merely to exe­cute the pope’s orders without ask­ing any questions. On the other hand, if the Diet first heard Luther, even if it then did condemn him ­and it was a foregone conclusion that it would — it would then do so not because the pope said so, but because the Diet itself decreed his condemnation. That is why the papal party did not want the em­peror to give Luther a hearing.

Luther’s request for time to think it over seemed reasonable and also entirely innocent. But it was far from innocent. His request for time involved the request to be heard the next day by the Diet. And that request was momentous. It conjured up the ghost of the old struggle between pope and em­peror, and caused it to haunt the Bishop’s Palace in Worms. The Diet had been in session a long time before Luther’s appearance. The Papal Party, under the leadership of the very skillful and crafty papal nuncio Aleander, had been working day and night, and had left no stone unturned to prevent Luther from being heard by the Diet. When the Diet decided to grant Luther’s request the pope lost his game. On the political question, the question whether the pope or the emperor should be supreme, the Catholic emperor and all the Ger­man princes, also the Catholic princes, sided with Luther against the pope. Thus for one brief moment Martin Luther, a poor man, risen from total obscurity, and a heretic excommunicated by the pope, stood forth as the champion of the emperor and of a united German Empire against the for­eign Italian pope. On the day of Luther’s first ap­pearance before the Diet the politi­cal question had been settled. The religious question remained.

Luther had answered the ques­tions put to him in a voice so low that many had not been able to understand him. From that lowness of voice many were drawing the conclusion that Luther had begun to weaken. The talk went around that he would give in and recant. The Catholics fervently hoped that he would, for they were more frightened than he. But they were going to be disappointed. That same evening, from the midst of the "tumult," as Luther called it, he wrote a letter to a friend, in which he declared: "With Christ’s aid I shall never recant one jot or tittle."

17. Luther Makes a Second Ap­pearance before the Diet The following day, Thursday, April 18, Luther had little time to consider what he would say before the Diet. In the morning friends came to see him. Nobles called on him at noon. They shook hands with him heartily and said: "Herr Doktor, how are you? People say you are going to be burned, but that will never do. It would ruin everything." Others came over in the afternoon and had much edi­fying conversation with him. Everyone was impressed with his calmness and serenity. A little after four o’clock in the afternoon the herald came to con­duct Luther for a second time to the assembly hall. It was six o’clock before the emperor, accompanied by the electors and the other princes, entered the hall. For an hour and a half Luther had been kept waiting in the palace court, where he was pushed around and bruised by the milling crowd. The hall was crammed. The princes had difficulty in getting to their seats, and when they did they found themselves uncomfortably crowded. Luther finally reached the door, but again he had to wait. The princes were still struggling to get to their places. It would have been a breach of etiquette for Luther to enter before all the members of the Diet were seated. At last Luther appeared before the Diet for the second time. Dusk was gathering. Torches were lit. Their flames cast weird shadows in the now gloomy hall. As Luther once more stood face to face with the emperor, the members of the Diet were struck with his wonder­fully cheerful expression.

Many of those present took notes on what Luther said that day. But we have not a single complete ac­count of Luther’s address. All the accounts we have are only sum­maries.

First Luther spoke in Latin. Then he was asked to repeat in German. The hall was packed. The flam­ing torches gave out their heat. The ventilation was poor. The air was getting to be almost unbear­ably close.

Perspiration was running down Luther’s face. He looked wan and exhausted. Friends feared that further effort would be too much for him. Somebody in the audience disregarding all rules of etiquette said loudly, "If you cannot do it, you have done enough, Herr Dok­tor." But Luther went on, and re­peated his address in German. It was a great oration.

18. Luther Stands Firm When Luther had finished, the official told him that he had not spoken to the point. The question was whether he would recant or not. The emperor demanded a plain answer.

Then Luther said, "If the em­peror desires a plain answer, I will give it to him. It is impossible for me to recant unless I am proved to be wrong by the testimony of Scripture. My conscience is bound to the Word of God. It is neither safe nor honest to act against one’s conscience. Here I stand. God help me. I cannot do otherwise." The torches had burned down. They smoked. The hall was getting dark. The emperor gave a sign that the meeting was over. He left his throne and went to his private apartments. The other members of the Diet also went to their lodgings.

Luther turned and left the tri­bunal. A number of Spaniards broke out into hootings. They fol­lowed Luther with prolonged howlings. Then many of the Ger­man nobles and delegates from the towns formed a circle around Luther, and escorted him back to his lodgings. Having arrived there he shouted gleefully, "I am through; I am through."

Several conferences were held with Luther during the next few days, but it was found impossible to come to an agreement.

19. Luther Is Carried Off to Wart­burg Castle

Luther was ordered to leave Worms and to return to Witten­berg. He was forbidden to preach. It was planned that after the safe-conduct expired he would be seized and put to death as a pestilent heretic.

There is a very small gate in the walls of Worms. By that gate Luther left the city on the night of April 26. It is pointed out to tour­ists today as Luther’s gate.

After a few days rumors spread that Luther had suddenly disap­peared. Nobody seemed to know what had become of him. Luther’s enemies rejoiced, but among his friends there was consternation. On the fourteenth of May a letter reached Worms saying that Luther’s body had been found in a silver mine, pierced with a dagger. The great painter Albrecht Durer of Nuremberg wrote in his diary: "Luther, the God-inspired man, has been slain by the pope and his priests as our Lord was put to death by the priests in Jerusalem. 0 God, if Luther is dead, who can expound the Holy Gospel to us?" Friends wrote to Wittenberg im­ploring Luther to let them know if he was alive, and, if possible, whether he had been imprisoned. In Worms excitement ran high. The imperial court was in an up­roar. Aleander, the papal nuncio, was told he would be murdered even if he were clinging to the emperor’s bosom. This is the true story of Luther’s disappearance: On April 28 Luther reached Frankfort on the Main. From there he wrote his friend, the painter Lucas Cranach in Wit­tenberg, that he was going into hiding, but that he did not yet know where. "We must suffer and keep silence a little time. A little while and ye shall not see me, and again a little while and ye shall see me. At least I hope so, but God’s will be done. Please thank the town council for providing the carriage. God keep you against the Roman wolves and serpents." On May 1 he reached Hersfeld, where he preached. On May 2 he entered his dear old Eisenach, the birth­place of his mother, where twenty years before he had attended Gym­nasium, or high school. The next day he preached there. On May 3 he rode through the beautiful forests of Mehra, the district his father came from, and visited his uncle, Heinz Luther. On the morn­ing of May 4 he preached in the open air. After dinner he continued his journey. And then, in the heart of the forest, five masked riders suddenly swept down upon him, lifted him out of the cart, and rode off with him back in the di­rection of Eisenach. This was done by order of Luther’s prince, the elector Frederick the Wise. Frederick had ordered the riders to take Luther to the safe hiding place of his castle, the Wartburg, which from its wooded rocky heights over­looked the pretty little town of Eisenach. Here Luther stayed for ten months while the storm quieted.

THE WARTBURG
Here the elector Frederick the Wise kept Luther in safe hiding when his life was being sought, immediately after his appearance before the Diet of Worms.

Luther was a volcano whose eruptions from 1517 to 1521 caused the quakes which convulsed the Church, first in Germany but soon also in many other countries of western Europe.