The ninety-five theses, which were written in Latin, were immediately translated, printed, and circulated throughout Germany. They were followed by replies, in which the action of the Pope was defended; Luther was styled a heretic, and threatened with the fate of Huss. He defended himself in pamphlets, which were eagerly read by the people; and his followers increased so rapidly that Leo X., who had summoned him to Rome for trial, finally agreed that he should present himself before the Papal Legate, Cardinal Cajetanus, at Augsburg. The latter simply demanded that Luther should retract what he had preached and written, as being contrary to the Papal bulls; whereupon Luther, for the first time, was compelled to declare that "the command of the Pope can only be respected as the voice of God, when it is not in conflict with the Holy Scriptures." The Cardinal afterwards said: "I will have nothing more to do with that German beast, with the deep eyes and the whimsical speculations in his head!" and Luther said of him: "He knew no more about the Word than a donkey knows of harp-playing."
The Vicar-General of the Augustines was still Luther's friend, and, fearing that he was not safe in Augsburg, he had him let out of the city at daybreak, through a small door in the wall, and then supplied with a horse. Having reached Wittenberg, where he was surrounded with devoted followers, Frederick the Wise was next ordered to give him up. About the same time Leo X. declared that the practices assailed by Luther were doctrines of the Church, and must be accepted as such. Frederick began to waver; but the young Philip Melanchthon, Justus Jonas, and other distinguished men connected with the University exerted their influence, and the Elector finally refused the demand. The Emperor Maximilian, now near his end, sent a letter to the Pope, begging him to arrange the difficulty, and Leo X. commissioned his Nuncio, a Saxon nobleman named Karl von Miltitz, to meet Luther. The meeting took place at Altenburg in 1519: the Nuncio, who afterwards reported that he "would not undertake to remove Luther from Germany with the help of 10,000 soldiers, for he had found ten men for him where one was for the Pope"—was a mild and conciliatory man. He prayed Luther to pause, for he was destroying the peace of the Church, and succeeded, by his persuasions, in inducing him to promise to keep silence, provided his antagonists remained silent also.
1520. BURNING THE POPE'S BULL.
This was merely a truce, and it was soon broken. Dr. Eck, one of the partisans of the Church, challenged Luther's friend and follower, Carlstadt, to a public discussion in Leipzig, and it was not long before Luther himself was compelled to take part in it. He declared his views with more clearness than ever, disregarding the outcry raised against him that he was in fellowship with the Bohemian heretics. The struggle, by this time, had affected all Germany, the middle class and smaller nobles being mostly on Luther's side, while the priests and reigning princes, with a few exceptions, were against him. In order to defend himself from misrepresentation and justify his course, he published two pamphlets, one called "An Appeal to the Emperor and Christian Nobles of Germany," and the other, "Concerning the Babylonian Captivity of the Church." These were read by tens of thousands, all over the country.
Pope Leo X. immediately issued a bull, ordering all Luther's writings to be burned, excommunicating those who should believe in them, and summoning Luther to Rome. This only increased the popular excitement in Luther's favor, and on the 10th of December, 1520, he took the step which made impossible any reconciliation between himself and the Papal power. Accompanied by the Professors and students of the University, he had a fire kindled outside of one of the gates of Wittenberg, placed therein the books of canonical law and various writings in defence of the Pope, and then cast the Papal bull into the flames, with the words: "As thou hast tormented the Lord and His Saints, so may eternal flame torment and consume thee!" This was the boldest declaration of war ever hurled at such an overwhelming authority; but the courage of this one man soon communicated itself to the people. The knight, Ulric von Hutten, a distinguished scholar, who had been crowned as poet by the Emperor Maximilian, openly declared for Luther: the rebellious baron, Franz von Sickingen, offered him his castle as a safe place of refuge. Frederick the Wise was now his steadfast friend, and, although the dangers which beset him increased every day, his own faith in the righteousness of his cause only became firmer and purer.
1519.
By this time the question of electing a successor to Maximilian had been settled. When the Diet came together at Frankfort, in June, 1519, two prominent candidates presented themselves,—king Francis I. of France, and king Charles of Spain, Naples, Sicily and the Spanish possessions in the newly-discovered America. The former of these had no other right to the crown than could be purchased by the wagon-loads of money which he sent to Germany; the latter was the grandson of Maximilian, and also represented, in his own person, Austria, Burgundy and the Netherlands. Again the old jealousy of so much power arose among the Electors, and they gave their votes to Frederick the Wise, of Saxony. He, however, shrank from the burden of the imperial rule, at such a time, and declined to accept. Then Charles of Spain, who had ruined the prospects of Francis I. by distributing 850,000 gold florins among the members of the Diet, was elected without any further difficulty. The following year he was crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle, and became Karl V. in the list of German Emperors. Although he reigned thirty-six years, he always remained a foreigner: he never even learned to speak the German language fluently: his tastes and habits were Spanish, and his election, at such a crisis in the history of Germany, was a crime from the effects of which the country did not recover for three hundred years afterwards.
Luther wrote to the new Emperor, immediately after the election, begging that he might not be condemned unheard, and was so earnestly supported by Frederick the Wise, who had voted for Charles at the Diet, that the latter sent Luther a formal invitation to appear before him at Worms, where a new Diet had been called, specially to arrange the Imperial Court in the ten districts of the Empire, and to raise a military force to drive the French out of Lombardy, which Francis I. had seized. Luther considered this opportunity "a call from God:" he set out from Wittenberg, and wherever he passed the people flocked together in great numbers to see him and hear him speak. On approaching Worms, one of his friends tried to persuade him to turn back, but he answered: "Though there were as many devils in the city as tiles on the roofs, yet would I go!" He entered Worms in an open wagon, in his monk's dress, stared at by an immense concourse of people. The same evening he received visits from a number of princes and noblemen.
1521. LUTHER AT THE DIET OF WORMS.
On the 17th of April, 1521, Luther was conducted by the Marshal of the Empire to the City Hall, where the Diet was in session. As he was passing through the outer hall, the famous knight and general, George von Frundsberg, clapped him upon the shoulder, with the words: "Monk, monk! thou art in a strait, the like of which myself and many leaders, in the most desperate battles, have never known. But if thy thoughts are just, and thou art sure of thy cause, go on in God's name, and be of good cheer, He will not forsake thee!" Charles V. is reported to have said, when Luther entered the great hall: "That monk will never make a heretic of me!" After having acknowledged all his writings, Luther was called upon to retract them. He appeared to be somewhat embarrassed and undecided, either confused by the splendor of the Imperial Court, or shaken by the overwhelming responsibility resting upon him. He therefore asked a little time for further consideration, and was allowed twenty-four hours.