ment.

a special point, but a question as to the general supremacy of the Pope. So far as the doctrine of indulgences was concerned, Luther's adversary gave in on almost every point; but he made a vigorous stand on general grounds in behalf of the absolute supremacy of the Pope, arguing among other reasons, from the basis of the well-known text, Matth. xvi. 18, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church." Luther maintained the customary Protestant version of the text, applying the rock to Christ, whom Peter had just confessed to be the Son of the living God. He claimed for Christ the sole absolute headship of the Church: although, at the same time, he did not deny the primary ecclesiastical position of the Pope, nor his right to that position as a mere constitutional arrangeEck tried to frighten him, and cast discredit on his doctrines, by raising the old cry of "Bohemian" against them; but Luther was not to be moved by such imputations, and did not hesitate to defend some of the articles of Huss. The controversy lasted for days, and at length terminated with the usual issue in such controversies: both sides claimed the victory. A drawn battle, however, at this crisis, was for Rome equivalent to a defeat. Luther was hailed more than ever as the champion of the national indignation, rising always more urgently against Rome. The question of indulgences was forgotten as the tide of national feeling swelled higher, and it became more manifest every day that the real question was Germany or Rome,national independence or hierarchical bondage; and still more deeply,-Scripture or Church,-conscience or authority. The popular sympathy showed itself

eagerly in numberless satires and caricatures of Eck and his party. Even Erasmus joined in the affray with his cold glancing mockery,* and Hutten, after his peculiar fashion, aimed a trenchant blow at the papal champion in the "Planed-off Corner" (der Abgehobeltè Eck). Copies of the disputation in thirty different versions were rapidly bought up. Luther was now fairly engaged in a lifelong struggle, and the fight went bravely on.

From this point onwards to the Diet of Worms the life of Luther rises to its grandest pitch of heroism. No one ever stood more fully in the light of a nation's hopes, or answered, upon the whole, more nobly to them. Recognising his great position, he stood to it like a true man; and as the battle was now joined, he spared not those "thunderbolts," which no one knew better how to use in a moment of need. Resting for a month or two to gather breath after his contest with Eck, in the course of the following June (1520) he published his famous address to the "Christian Nobles of Germany." It was only a few sheets, but never did. words tell more powerfully. The time for silence is past," he said, "the time to speak is come." He struck a clear and loud note of national independence, and summoned the Christian powers of Germany to his aid. "Talk of war against the Turk," he cried; "the Roman Turk is the fellest Turk in the world-Roman avarice the greatest thief that ever walked the earth:

* "Don't call him Eck; call him Jeck" (fool), was the pun of Erasmus. "A satire," says Ranke, "which for fantastic invention, striking and crushing truth, and Aristophanic wit, far exceeded the Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum, which it somewhat resembled."

"Fulmina erant linguæ singula verba tuæ."-MELANCTHON.

all goes into the Roman sack, which has no bottom, and all in the name of God too!" He reiterated in brief and emphatic language the great truth which had begun to dawn upon him at Leipzig, that all Christians are priests, and that consequently the clerical office is a mere function or order: he maintained the independence of all national churches, and the rights of national and social life, against ecclesiastical usurpation. He drew a strong picture of the miserable exactions and oppressions of the Papal See, and cast back with no measure its insolence in its very teeth. Hearest thou, O Pope, not all-holy, but all-sinful, who gave thee power to lift thyself above God, and break His laws? The wicked Satan lies through thy throat.

my Lord Christ, hasten thy last day, and destroy the devil's nest at Rome." The impression produced by such language may be more easily imagined than described. In the course of a fortnight 4000 copies of the address were sold, and before the end of the month a new edition was in print, and speedily bought up. This address was followed in October by a treatise "On the Babylonish Captivity of the Church," in which he attacked with vigour the abuses into which its sacramental system had grown. He now looked back, as it were, with pity on his former indulgence to the Papacy. In the course of two years, and during his disputes with Eck, Emser, and others, his eyes had become greatly opened. After hearing and reading the "artful subtleties of these champions," he was certain that the Papacy was "the kingdom of Babylon, and the power of Nimrod the mighty hunter." "I must

* "Subtilissimas subtilitates istorum Trossulorum."—Opera, ii. 259.

now deny that there are seven sacraments, and bind them to three-baptism, the Lord's Supper, and penance, ་ and even these are led by the Church of Rome into a wretched prison, and the Church is robbed of all her liberty." He defended, as he never ceased to do, the literal reality of Christ's presence in the Supper; but he warmly combated the Thomist definitions of that presence, resting on a supposed Aristotelic distinction of subject and accident; and he zealously maintained. the right of the laity to the cup as well as the bread. These two works, with his sermon "On the Liberty of a Christian Man," mark the very crisis of the movement. Appealing, on the one hand, to the excited. national interests of Germany, and, on the other hand, to its reviving spiritual life, they struck, with a happy success, the two most powerful chords then vibrating in the nation. "They contain," Ranke says, "the kernel of the whole Reformation." They concentrate its spirit while they signalise its triumph.

The publication of the papal bull just at this time consummated the crisis. It had been obtained by the reckless importunity of Eck nearly a year before; but great difficulty had been felt in making it public, owing to the enthusiasm now so widely spread on behalf of the reformer. At length Eck fixed upon Leipzig as the place where he supposed that he could promulgate it most safely under the protection of Duke George; but even here, where so recently he had been hailed by the university as the champion of the Papacy, the students now seized and insulted him, and he was glad to make his escape. He fled for his life to Erfurt; but here too the students attacked him, laid hold

of the bull, and threw it into the river, saying, “It is a bubble, let it swim." These demonstrations were crowned by Luther's own daring act on the 10th of December (1520). Assembling the doctors, students, and citizens at the Elster Gate of Wittenberg on this memorable day, a fire of wood was kindled, and Luther, clad in his cowl, and with the papal bull and decretals in his hand, approached it, and cast them into the fire, saying, "As thou hast vexed the saints of God, so mayest thou be consumed in eternal fire." This irrevocable act severed Luther for ever from the Papacy. There was no compromise-no truce even henceforth possible. The battle must be fought out.

With such high-hearted courage and clear trust in God on the part of the reformer, there was no doubt on whose side the victory would declare.

The moment of Luther's proudest triumph was now at hand.

Charles V. had recently succeeded to the Empire. He was only twenty years of age, inexperienced, and unconscious of all that was going on in Germany. "He understood neither its language nor its thoughts."* Naturally of a superstitious temper, his sacerdotal leanings were already manifest, and the papal party, with Aleander (the papal nuncio) at their head, failed in no efforts to influence him against the Reformation. They urged him to take some decided step to cause the books of Luther to be burned throughout the Empire, and so to declare his determination to uphold the cause of the Church. The inclinations of Charles admit of no doubt; but he was too ignorant of the real meaning and magnitude of the

* RANKE, vol. i. p. 519.