times the Roman party tried to silence him—­through the official activity of Cajetan, through the persuasive arts of Miltitz, and the untimely persistence of the contentious Eck.  Three times he spoke to the Pope himself in letters which are among the most valuable documents of those years.  Then came the parting.  He was anathematized and outlawed.  According to the old university custom, he burned the enemy’s declaration of war, and with it the possibility of return.  With cheerful confidence he went to Worms in order that the princes of his nation might decide whether he should die or thenceforth live among them without pope or church, according to the Bible alone.

[Illustration:  Permission F Pruelmann A G Munich FREDERICK WILLIAM I INSPECTING A SCHOOL Adolph von Menzel.]

At first, when he had printed his theses against Tetzel, he was astonished at the enormous excitement which they caused in Germany, at the venomous hatred of his enemies, and at the signs of joyful recognition which he received from many sides.  Had he, then, done such an unheard-of thing?  What he had expressed was, he knew, the belief of all the best men of the Church.  When the Bishop of Brandenburg had sent the Abbot of Lehnin to him, with the request that Luther would suppress the printed edition of his German sermon on indulgences and grace, however near the truth he might be, the brother of the poor Augustinian monastery was deeply moved that such great men should speak to him in so friendly and cordial a manner, and he was ready to give up the printing rather than make himself a monster that disturbed the Church.  Eagerly he sought to refute the report that the Elector had instigated his quarrel with Tetzel—­“they wish to involve the innocent prince in the enmity that falls on me.”  He was ready to do anything to keep the peace before Cajetan and with Miltitz.  One thing he would not do—­recant what he had said against the unchristian extension of the system of indulgences; but recantation was the only thing the hierarchy wanted of him.  For a long time he still wished for peace, reconciliation, and return to the peaceful activity of his cell; and again and again a false assertion of his opponents set his blood on fire, and every opposition was followed by a new and sharper blow from his weapon.

Even in the first letter to Leo X, May 30, 1518, Luther’s heroic assurance is remarkable.  He is still entirely the faithful son of the Church.  He still concludes by falling at the Pope’s feet, offers him his whole life and being, and promises to honor his voice as the voice of Christ, whose representative the head of the Church is; but even from this devotion befitting the monk, the vigorous words flash out:  “If I have merited death, I refuse not to die.”  In the body of the letter, how strong are the expressions in which he sets forth the coarseness of the sellers of indulgences!  Here, too, his surprise is honest that his theses are making so much stir with their unintelligible sentences, involved, according to the old custom, to the point of riddles.  And good humor sounds in the manly words:  “What shall I do?  I cannot recant.  In our century full of intellect and beauty, which might put Cicero into a corner, I am only an unlearned, limited, poorly educated man!  But the goose must needs cackle among the swans.”