This is the first step by which the Church detached herself from the papacy.
Luther and De Vio never saw each other again; but the Reformer had made a powerful impression on the legate, an impression which was never entirely effaced. What Luther had said on faith, and what De Vio read in the subsequent writings of the doctor of Wittemberg, greatly modified the cardinal's views. The theologians of Rome were surprised and displeased at his statements on justification in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans. The Reformer did not recoil, did not retract; but his judge, he who never ceased exclaiming, Retract! changed his views, and indirectly retracted his errors. In this way was the Reformer's unshaken fidelity rewarded.
Luther returned to the convent where he had met with hospitality. He had stood firm, had borne testimony to the truth and done his part. God will do the rest. His heart was filled with peace and joy.
CHAP. IX.
De Vio and Staupitz—Staupitz and Luther—Luther and Spalatin—Luther to Carlstadt—Communion—Link and De Vio—Departure of Staupitz and Link—Luther to Cajetan—The Cardinal's Silence—Luther's Farewell—Departure—Appeal to the Pope.
Still the news brought to him were not at all satisfactory. The rumour in the town was, that if he would not retract, he was to be seized and immured in a dungeon. The vicar-general of the order, Staupitz himself, it was confidently said, had been obliged to consent to it.[579] Luther cannot believe what is told him of his friend. No! Staupitz will not betray him. As to the designs of the cardinal, judging by his own words, it is difficult to doubt. Still he is unwilling to flee before the danger; his life, like truth herself, is in mighty hands; and, notwithstanding of the danger which threatens him, he resolves not to quit Augsburg.
The legate soon repented of his violence. He felt that he had gone out of his course, and he was desirous to return to it. Scarcely had Staupitz finished dinner, (it was the morning when the interview had taken place, and the dinner-hour was mid-day,) when he received a message from the cardinal to wait upon him. Staupitz was accompanied by Winceslaus Link.[580] The vicar-general found the legate alone with Serra-Longa. De Vio immediately went up to Staupitz, and, in the mildest accents said to him:—"Try, then, to persuade your monk, and induce him to make a retraction. Of a truth I am otherwise satisfied with him, and he has not a better friend than I."[581]
Staupitz.—"I have done so already, and will still counsel him to submit to the Church in all humility."
De Vio.—"You must answer the arguments which he draws from holy Scripture."