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ter-informed.1 When a bull was issued from Rome, asserting the doctrine as to indulgences, which Luther had impugned, he published his appeal from the Pope to a general council. Still he looked for a recognition of the truth from the authorities of the Church. Miltitz, the second messenger from the papal court, a Saxon by birth, conciliatory in manner, and professing a sympathy with Luther in his hatred of the worst abuses of the vendors of indulgences, actually persuaded him to abstain from further combat on the subject, provided his opponents would also remain silent.2 But this truce was quickly broken by the challenge of Eck to a public disputation on free-will and grace, topics on which he had before debated with Carlstadt, one of the theological professors at Wittenberg; and by the programme which Eck put forth, much to the surprise of Luther, in which his opinions were directly assailed. In the open wagon which conveyed Luther to Leipsic to attend the disputation, there sat by his side Philip Melancthon, a young man of twenty-two, of precocious talents and ripe scholarship, whom his grand-uncle, Reuchlin, had recommended to the Elector as Professor of Greek, and sent to Wittenberg with a glowing prophecy of the eminence that awaited him.3 At the age of twenty his powers and his scholarship were alike mature. Unlike Luther in his temperament, they

1 Letter to Cajetan (Oct. 18, 1518), De Wette, i. 164.

2 Luther did not believe in the sincerity of Miltitz's warm demonstrations. He speaks of his "Italities and simulations" "Italitates et simulationes." Letter to Staupitz (Feb. 20, 1519), De Wette, i. 281. See also the Letter to Egranus (Feb. 2, 1519), De Wette, i. 216.

3 Reuchlin to Melancthon, Corpus Ref., i. 33. Reuchlin applies to him the promise to Abraham (Gen. xii.): "Ita mihi præsagit animus, ita spero futurum de te, mi Philippe, meum opus et meum solatium." Melancthon's original name was Schwarzerd, which, according to the prevailing custom, he rendered into Greek. To render proper names into Greek or Latin was usual with scholars. Thus Hausschein became Ecolampadius; Schneider-i. e., Kornschneider was transformed into Agricola. Johannes Krachemberger wrote to Reuchlin to furnish him with a Greek equivalent for his not very euphonious name. Von Raumer, Geschichte der Pædagogik, i. 129.

So

were the counterparts of each other. Melancthon found rest and support in the robust nature, the intrepid spirit of Luther; Luther admired, in turn, the fine but cautious intellect, and the exact and ample learning of Melancthon. Each lent to the other the most effective assistance. intimate is their friendship that Luther dares to get hold of the manuscript commentaries of his young associate, whose modesty kept them from the press, and to send them, without the author's knowledge, to the printer.1 "This little Greek," said Luther, "surpasses me in theology, too." By his commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, Melancthon laid the foundation of the Protestant exegesis; and his doctrinal treatise, the "Loci Communes," won for him a like distinction in this department of theology.

The disputation at Leipsic went on for a week between Carlstadt and Eck, on the intricate themes of free-will and grace, in which the former defended the Augustinian and the latter the semi-Pelagian side, and in which the fluency and adroitness of Eck shone to advantage in comparison with his less facile adversary. Then Luther ascended the platform. He was in the prime of life, in his thirty-sixth year, of middling height, at that time thin in person, and with a clear, melodious voice. It is a fact not without interest that he carried in his hand a nosegay of flowers.2 He took delight in nature—in the sky, the blossoms, and birds. In the midst of his great conflict he would turn for recreation to his garden, and correspond with his friends about the seeds and utensils that he wanted to procure for it. At home and with his friends he was full 1 Letter to Melancthon, De Wette, ii. 238. See also ii. 303.

2 For an interesting description of Luther, as he appeared in this Disputation, from the pen of Petrus Mosellanus, see Waddington, i. 130. See also Ranke, Deutsch. Gsch., 281. It lasted from June 27, to July 16, 1519.

8 "While Satan with his members is raging, I will laugh at him and will attend to my gardens, that is, the blessings of the Creator, and enjoy them, praising him. Letter to Wenc. Link. (Dec. 1525), De Wette, iii. 58. See, also,

iii. 172.

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of humor, was enthusiastically fond of music, and played with skill on the lute and the flute; in his natural constitution the very opposite of an ascetic.1 His powerful mind for he was, probably, the ablest man of his time. was connected with a child-like freshness of feeling, and a large, generous sympathy with human nature in all its innocent manifestations.

Standing before Duke George, who proved to be a decided enemy of the Reformation, and before the auditory who sat with him, Luther discussed with his opponent the primacy of the Pope. In the course of the colloquy he declared that the headship of the Pope is not indispensable; that the Oriental Church is a true Church, without the Pope; that the primacy is of human and not of divine appointment. Startling as these propositions were, they were less so than was his avowal, in response to an inquiry, that among the articles for which John Huss had been condemned at the Council of Constance, there were some that were thoroughly Christian and evangelical. A feeling of amazement ran through the assembly, and an audible expression of surprise and anger broke from the lips of the Duke.2

The Disputation at Leipsic, by stimulating Luther to further studies into the origin of the Papacy and into the character of Huss and of his opinions, brought his mind to a more decided renunciation of human authority, and to a growing suspicion that the papal rule was a usurpation in the Church and a hateful tyranny.3 Up to this time his attempt had been to influence the ecclesiastical rulers; now he turned to the people. His "Address to

1 But he was abstemious in food and drink; "valde modici cibi et potus," says Melancthon. Often for many consecutive days he would take only a little bread and fish. Vita Lutheri, v.

2 Ranke, i. 279 seq.

3 Before the Disputation at Leipsic, he wrote to Spalatin (March 13, 1519): "Verso et decreta Pontificium, pro mea disputatione, et (in aurem tibi loquor) nescio an Papa sit Antichristus ipse vel apostolus ejus: adeo misere corrumpitur et crucifigitur Christus (id est veritas) ab eo in decretis." De Wette, i. 238.

the Christian Nobles of the German Nation" was a ringing appeal to the German laity to take the work of reformation into their own hands, to protect the German people against the avarice and tyrannical intermeddling of the Roman ecclesiastics, to deprive the Pope of his rule in secular affairs, to abolish compulsory celibacy, to reform the convents and restrain the mendicant orders, to come to a reconciliation with the Bohemians, to foster education. In this harangue Luther strikes a blow at the distinction between layman and priest, on which the hierarchical system rested. "We have one baptism and one faith," "and it is that which constitutes a spiritual per

he says, son."

He compares the Church to ten sons of a king who, having equal rights, choose one of their number to be the "minister of their common power." A company of pious laymen in a desert, having no ordained priest among them, would have the right to confer that office on one of themselves, whether he were married or not; and "the man so chosen would be as truly a priest as if all the bishops in the world had consecrated him." The priestly character of a layman and the importance of education are the leading topics in this stirring appeal. His treatise on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church followed, in which he handled the subject of the sacraments, attacked transubstantiation, and the statutes that violated Christian liberty, such as those which prescribed pilgrimages, fastings, and monasticism. He had discovered the close connection between the doctrinal and practical abuses of the Church.1 This discourse he sent to Leo X., with a letter containing expressions of personal respect, but comparing him to a lamb in the midst of wolves and to Daniel among the lions, and invoking him to set about a work of reformation in his corrupt court and in the Church.2

Waddington, i. 267.

2 Luther seems to have entertained, up to this time, a personal regard and

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In a sermon on "The Freedom of a Christian Man," Luther set forth in a noble and elevated strain the inwardness of true religion, the marriage of the soul to Christ through faith in the Word, and the vital connection of faith and works. In this treatise he rises above the atmosphere of controversy, and unfolds his idea of Christianity in the genial tone of devout feeling.

His course during the period between the posting of the theses and the final breach with Rome, can be judged. correctly only when it is remembered that his mind was in a transition state. He was working his way by degrees to the light. This explains the seeming inconsis tencies in his expressions relative to the Pope and the Church, which occasionally appear in his letters and publications during this interval. "I am one of those," he said, "among whom Augustine has classed himself — of those who have gradually advanced by writing and teaching; not of those who at a single bound spring to perfection out of nothing." 1

The Bull which condemned forty-one propositions of Luther, and excommunicated him if he should not recant within sixty days, after which every Christian magistrate was to be required to arrest him and deliver him at Rome, was issued on the 16th of June, 1520. Luther put forth a pamphlet in response to this execrable bull of Antichrist, as he called it; and on the 10th of December, in the public place at Wittenberg, in the presence of an assembly of doctors of the university, students, and people, he threw it, together with the book of canon law, and a few other equally obnoxious writings, into the flames. By this act he completed his rupture with the

respect for Leo, but the intermingling of personal compliments with denunciations of his court and of the Roman Church (which is styled "a licentious den of robbers") was ill-adapted to conciliate the Pope's favor.

1 Præf. Operum: "Qui de nihilo repente fiunt summi, cum nihil sint, neque operati, neque tentati, neque experti."