use liis utmost exertions to purify tlie theological atmosphere of Germany from the audacious heresy which now tainted it.
Leo caused De Vio to publish at Austria, a papal bull confirming the doctrine of indulgences in those very points which had been assailed
; but the new decree made no mention of Luther, or the new theolog3\ The pontiff hoped by this move to reap a double gain.
Luther had declared that he would submit to the decision of the church.
Here then was that invoked decision formally promulgated.
Saxon monk ventured to dissent, he must eat his own words, and appear in the unpopular character of a renew^ed disturber of the peace of Christendom.
It was a cunning scheme, well worthy of the craft of Eome.
Nevertheless it was a blunder.
It reaffirmed the exploded folly of the indulgence doctrine.
By legalizing crying abuses, it drove all wise and Christian men into the dissenting ranks.
"It was thought," says Maimbourg, the famous Jesuit historian, "that this bull had been issued solely for the benefit of the pope and the begging friars, who began to find that no one would purchase their indulgences."'"^'
It did not even place Luther in the imagined dilemma ; for the kfeen monk had abeady, on the 28th of November, 1518, in the chapel of Corpus
ChrisH, at Wittemberg, appealed from the pope to" a general council of the church.t t Hoscoe's Life of Leo X.
Doubly irritated by being thus for a second time outwitted by bis despised antagonist, Leo nevertlieless managed to swallow his anger for a time, and he had recourse once more to mediation.
He was persuaded to adopt this temporizing course through fear of offending the elector.
Frederick's power in the empire.
Maximilian's end was rapidly approaching.
Leo desired the elector's aid in securing the imperial crown for some one of those competitors whose interests were allied to his own.
The present emperor desired that his successor might be Charles of SjDain and Frederick had ah'eady, at the recent diet at Augsburg, opposed this policy, and sided with the Roman see.
Nothing therefore must be done to alienate this prince, who seemed to hold the decisive vote in his hand.
But if this dangerous period could be tided over until Maximilian's death and the election of his successor, then Leo meant that Christendom should see brave things.
So tangled was the skein of Roman policy at this momentous juncture. And this was why Leo resorted to congenial finesse, rather than to open war.
He looked about him then for some new ambassador whom he might dispatch into Germany with better prospects of success.
Charles of Miltitz, a Saxon' nobleman, to whom Luther's friends had appealed early in the controversy, who Avas the pope's chamberlain, and in whom Leo reposed all confidence, was finally selected for this important mission.
Leo's clioice was another proof of his lack of discernment, nay, of his judicial blindness.
Cajetan was at least a man of decent morals ; Miltitz was a conceited, gluttonous, and drunken fop.* The departure of such an envoy on an ecclesiastical mission, in which he was to represent the Roman church, and combat the austere tenets of the Eeformation, could not fail to provoke a general jeer.
The cause he had at heart was wrecked before it was launched.
Miltitz set out for Germany in the latter part of December, 1518. He was everywhere received with distrust and aversion.
On his own part, he knew the temper of Germany so little that he was surprised to find that the adherents of the Wittemberg theology outnumbered the friends of the pontiff in the proportion of three to one.f
When Luther was mentioned, it was not slightingly, or even pityingly ; but proudly, and with enthusiasm.
He was already the acknowledged chief of the German empire in religious matters.
The Roman envoy constantly felt the public pulse as he proceeded ; and he was chagrined to find that it beat faster and stronger for Luther as he approached the duchy of the elector-duke.
Meantime rumors of the speedy arrival of the new legate flew through Saxony, and all minds became a prey to suspicion and apprehension.
* Roscoe's Life of Leo X.
Pallavicini, Hist. Concil.
" Nee ab usii immoclerato vini abstinuit."
Lutlisr was besiecred bv bis friends, and conjured to be upon bis guard against Roman subtlety and stratagem."
Lutber responded firmly, "I await God's will." t Miltitz was armed witb seventy papal briefs. To tliese, liowever, lie was only to bave recourse as a dernier resort, after exbausting every otber artifice.
Tbese briefs tbundered tlie pontifical excommunication against all wbo sbould venture to oppose any obstacle to tbe action of tbe legate.
It was believed at Rome tliat if tbe legate posted one of tliese briefs in eacb city on bis return, provided be saw fit to arrest and bring witb bim to tbe Eternal
Citv tbe formidable lieresiarcb, universal awe would dampen tbe ardor of tbose wbo otberwise miglit resist bis passage, and tliat tbe mailed bands of tbe adberents of tbe Reformation would drop paralyzed to tlieir sides before tbe avrful maledictions of tbe
Tliis was doubtless one reason wby Miltitz was so assiduous in sounding tbe sentiments of tbe German populace on bis outward route.*
If so, be liardly gained mucli consolation, Tbe deep and vv-ide-spread popularit}^ of Lutber migbt well give b.im pause, if be contemplated any violence, and teacli bim tbe vastuess of tbe task be bad assumed.
Tbe puny strength of tbe Saxon cbamberlain was scarcely adequate to tbe Titanic task of uprooting tbe deep-planted tenets of tbe Reformation, o L. Epp. L, 101.
CHAPTEE XXVMiLTiTZ arrived at the electoral court earl}' iu He was an old acquaintance of ; accordinglv lie tarried at Weimar only sufficiently long to arrange his lodgings, before he repaired to the residence of the elector's chaplain at Altenburg.
Spalatin received him courteously ; but when the legate ventured to complain of Luther's conduct, and to chide the court chaplain gently ou account of the countenance awarded the new heresy by Frederick and his retainers, Spalatin carried the war into xifrica by vigorously assaulting the course of the Koman see iu making the agitation necessary by endorsing the blasphemies and insolence of the great indulgence-havrker Tetzel.
The good chaplain then recited some of those impious propositions with which the mountebank Dominican had been accustomed to regale his gaping auditors.
Miltitz heard this with real or pretended surprise and horror.
Clothed with full power to investigate the whole subject, he wrote Tetzel—who, alarmed at the clamor raised against his iniquitous traffic, had aneaked for safety into the college of Leipsic—a summons to appear before him aT Altenburg to answer the popular iudictment.
But the braggart monk dared not appear.
THE LIFE AND TIMES the letter whicli lie wrote excusing liis non-compliance with the nuncio's order, he complained that the Wittemberg Augustinian had raised a hue and cry against him not only in Germany, but in Poland and Hungary
; that there w^as no spot where he could be safe ; that even when he ventured to preach in Leipsic, he was met with menaces and reproaches ; and that as for journeying to Altenburg, his life would not be worth a groat,*
So wrote this incarnation of fraud, this pompous Dominican, who feared to face the nuncio of that verv see for whose benefit he had made himself a swindler.
When we recall Luther's perilous march into the very jaws of the Boman lion at Augsburg, and contrast his frank courage with the ignominious cowardice of his recently swollen antagonist, the picture is significant.
Avitli contempt for Tetzel, determined to take no steps at present towards his punishment, but to let the matter rest until he himself repaired to Leipsic.
Meantime he sfa'ained every nerve to effect his object at the elector's court.
Frederick had some years before earnestly solicited from the pope the honor of the golden rose.
This rose was consecrated ever}^ year by the Roman pontifils, and transmitted to some one of the European princes as a mark of the pope's peculiar favor and esteem. t
• Stebbing's Hist. Rof.
; Seckendorf ; Van Brunt Leo, recalling Frederick's petition, determineri to confer that honor now upon the Saxon prince, hoping thus to cajole him into relinquishing his hold on Martin Luther.
But the penetrating elector saw through this notable scheme, and refused to be caught by the pontifical chaff.
When Miltitz conferred it upon him, Frederick received it with frigid and almost contemptuous politeness, and in nowise could he be induced to deviate from his course concerning the "Wittemberg professor.*
The baffled nuncio again had recourse to Spalatin.
He persuaded the chaplain to invite Luther to meet him at Spalatin's own house at Altenburg, for the purpose of holding a friendly and informal intervicAV.
Luther was averse to this meeting, from a fear that it might produce some bad effect on his appeal from the pope to a general council ;t but Spalatin's representations finally prevailed upon him to meet
He quitted home for this purpose on the 3d of On reaching Altenburg, he repaired at once to Spalatin's residence.
The new legate met him with that profound dissimulation of which his long residence at the Boman court had rendered him the complete master.
But the shrewd German doctor was not to be imposed on.
" This new Saul," he wrote, " came into Ger^ many armed with seventy apostolic briefs, to drag • Milner, Ch. Hist., Vol.
THE LIFE AND TI3IES me alive aucl in chains to that murdei'ous Rome ; but the Lord has thrown him to tlie ground b}^ the way."*
Miltitz indeed overacted his part; if Cajetan had been too imperious, he was by far too soft ; his smiles and caresses were ominous.
The legate feigned surprise on meeting Luther.
" My dear Martin," he said, " I imagined you to be some crusty old theologian who, seated quietly at his hearthstone, liad become the victim of an heretical theological crotchet ; but it seems that you are a young man, not yet in the prime of life."t
" jon are old enough to have drawn everybod}^ away from the pope and attached them to yourself.
If I had an army of twenty-five thousand men, I do not think that I should be able to convey 3'on to Eome against your will."
"No," returned the imperturbable monk; "God stays the waves of the sea upon the shore, and he staj^s them with—sand.";!:
With a cunning diplomacy worthy of Machiavelli, the nuncio then proceeded to descant in glowing words upon the terrible wound which the writings of the Saxon monk had unwittingly inflicted upon the sensitive body of the Christian church; and he concluded a long, kind, and moving harangue by personally appealing to Luther to medicine this hurt, and by informing him that no other leech could effect a cure. t L. 0pp. Latin Prist t L. Opp. (W.) XXII.
Luther listened to him cahaly ami attentively; nay, he even acknowledged that if the archbishop of Mentz had so spoken in the outset, the affair would never have caused so great disturbance.*
He then on his part pointed out the abuses into Avhich the church had lapsed, affirmed the necessity of some reformation, complained of his treatment by the Roman see, he lio enemy, but a simple seeker after truth, and ended by saying
" I am so desirous to settle this matter amicably, that I will go to the very verge of my conscience.
I offer to be silent in the future on this doctrine of indulgences, provided my opponents on their part also are silent ; but if they continue to assault me, a serious struggle v>'ill soon arise out of a trifling dispute.
Not only will I do this, but I vrill go still further : I will \vTite to his holiness, acknowledging that I have been a little too violent, and I will declare that it is as a faithful son of the church that I opposed discourses that drew upon it the mockeries and insults of thepeople.
Yes, I am willing to do and to bear every thing ; but as for a retractation, never expect to wring one from me."t This was far from being so much as the papal envoy had hoped to gain ; but he thought that half a loaf was better than no bread.
He accordingly began to rail against Tetzel, on whose head he declared that he would pour the papal maledictions ; and he brought the first conference to a close by asserting that he accepted Luther's offer, and would
* L. 0pp. Lat. in Trffif.
THE LIFE AND TIMES speedily communicate it to the pope Avitli his own earnest endorsement.
" On the follomng day the agreement was formally drawn np.
There were two articles " Both parties are forbidden to preach, write, or do any thing further in the discussion that has been raised.
" Miltitz will immediately inform the holy father of the state of affairs.
His holiness will empower an enlightened bishop to investigate the matter, and to point out the erroneous articles which I should retract.
If they prove mc to be in error, I shall willingly retract ; and I Avill do nothing derogatory to the honor or authority of the holy Roman church.""
With this arrangement Luther hastened to acquaint the elector ; while Miltitz on his part was in ecstacies.
I, thought he, am the David who has slain the Goliath of this heresy.
With what honor shall I now return to Rome.
To Luther he exclaimed, " These hundred years past, no question has occasioned more anxiety to the cardinals and Roman courtiers than this.
They would rather have given ten thousand ducats than consent to its being prolonged."!
In the evening Miltitz gave the reformer a grand supper.
At this feast " all went merry as a marriage bell."
As Luther was about to depart, the nuncio, in the exuberance of his joy, actually kissed his guest.
This was the last kiss wliicli Rome ever gave the Eeformatiou.
Luther was not deceived by these caresses.
" I pretend not to understand their Italian artifices," he wrote to Staupitz.* " Miltitz being of opinion that he would by this means reclaim the erring Lutherans, behaved most graciously to all of them, accepted their invitations, and sat down to table with the heretics; but soon becoming inebriated—it is a pope who relates this— the pontifical nuncio was no longer master of his tongue. The Saxons led him to speak of the pope and the court of Eome
; and Miltitz, confirming the old proverb, In vino est Veritas, gave an account, in the openness of his heart, of all the practices and disorders of the papacy.
His companions smiled, urged him on, until every thing was exposed : they took notes of what he said; and these scandals were afterwards made matter of pubHc reproach against the Romans at the diet of Worms, in the j)resence of all Germany."!'
Meantime Luther had returned to Wittemburg, and had been discharging the office of city pastor for some months, as the substitute of Simon Heinsius, the ordinary minister, who then labored under bodily infirmities.
Thus this industrious and versatile man supported at once the roles of theological teacher, of polemical disputant, of popular preaclier, and parochial clergyman. | t Kanke's Hist, of the Popea.