Frederick's position was difficult. What course will he adopt? On the one side are the emperor, the princes of the empire, and the chief pontiff of Christendom, from whose authority the Elector has as yet no thought of withdrawing; on the other, a monk, a feeble monk; for his person is all that is asked. The reign of the emperor has just commenced, and will discord be thrown into the empire by Frederick, the oldest and the wisest of all the princes of Germany? Besides, can he renounce that piety which led him as far as the sepulchre of Christ?...
Other voices were then heard. John Frederick, son of Duke John, and nephew of Frederick, the pupil of Spalatin, a young prince, seventeen years of age, who afterwards wore the electoral crown, and whose reign was marked by great misfortunes, had been inspired with a heartfelt love of the truth, and was strongly attached to Luther.[330] When he saw him struck with the anathemas of Rome, he embraced his cause with the warmth of a young Christian and a young prince. He wrote to the doctor, he wrote also to his uncle, soliciting him to protect Luther against his enemies. At the same time, Spalatin, though indeed he was often very desponding, Pontanus, and the other counsellors who were with the Elector at Cologne, represented to him that he could not abandon the Reformer.[331]
THE ELECTOR PROTECTS LUTHER.
Amid the general agitation, only one man remained tranquil—that man was Luther. While others were trying to save him by the influence of the great, the monk, in his cloister at Wittemberg, thought that the great stood more in need of being saved by him. Writing to Spalatin, he says, "If the gospel was of a nature to be propagated or maintained by the power of the world, God would not have entrusted it to fishermen.[332] To defend the gospel appertains not to the princes and pontiffs of this world. They have enough to do to shelter themselves from the judgments of the Lord and his Anointed. If I speak, I do it in order that they may obtain the knowledge of the divine word, and be saved by it."
Luther's expectation was not to be deceived. The faith which a convent of Wittemberg contained exercised its influence in the palaces of Cologne. The heart of Frederick, shaken perhaps for an instant, became gradually stronger. He was indignant that the pope, notwithstanding of urgent entreaties to investigate the matter in Germany, had condemned it at Rome, on the demand of the Reformer's personal enemy; and that in his absence that enemy should have dared to publish in Saxony a bull which threatened the existence of the university and the peace of his people. Besides, the Elector was convinced that Luther had been wronged. He shuddered at the thought of delivering an innocent man into the cruel hands of his enemies. Justice, rather than the pope, such was the rule he adopted. He resolved not to yield to Rome. On the 4th November, when the Roman nuncios were in his presence with the Bishop of Trent, his counsellors announced to them, on the part of the Elector, that he was much grieved to see how Doctor Eck had taken the opportunity of his absence to involve in condemnation several persons not adverted to in the bull; that it might be that, since his departure, an immense number of the learned and the ignorant, the clergy and the laity, had united in adhering to the cause and the appeal of Luther;[333] that neither his Imperial Majesty, nor any person, had shown him that the writings of Luther had been refuted, and that the only thing now necessary was to throw them into the fire, that he moreover demanded a safe conduct for Doctor Luther, to enable him to appear before learned, pious, and important judges.
ERASMUS AT COLOGNE.
After this declaration, Aleander, Carracioli, and their suite, retired to deliberate.[334] It was the first time the Elector had publicly declared his intentions with regard to the Reformer. The nuncios had anticipated a very different result. "Now," thought they, "that the Elector, by persisting in playing his part of impartiality, would expose himself to dangers, the full extent of which cannot be foreseen, he will not hesitate to sacrifice the monk." So Rome had reasoned. But her schemes were destined to fail before a power to which she had not adverted—the love of justice and truth.
When again before the Elector's counsellors, "I would fain know," said the imperious Aleander, "what the Elector would think were one of his subjects to choose the King of France or some other foreign prince for judge?" Seeing at length that the Saxon counsellors were not to be shaken, he said, "We will execute the bull; we will prosecute and burn the writings of Luther. As to his person," added he, affecting a disdainful indifference, "the pope has no anxiety to dip his hand in the blood of the wretch."
News of the reply which the Elector had given to the nuncios having reached Wittemberg, Luther's friends were overjoyed. Melancthon and Amsdorff, in particular, cherished the most flattering hopes. "The German nobility," said Melancthon, "will shape their course by the example of a prince whom they follow in every thing as their Nestor. If Homer called his hero 'the wall of the Greeks,' why should not Frederick be called 'the wall of the Germans?'"[335]
ERASMUS WITH THE ELECTOR.