If ever there was a time when threats and dogmatism Were improper to be used, it was the time of the con troversy between Luther and the agents of the Pope. The era of ignorance was now hastening towards its close. The human mind was quickened and stimulated, the in tellectual eye began to open, learning had revived, books were printed and circulated, inquiries were made, and investigations pursued. The reverence for antiquity was already much abated ; and mankind now looked for argument in the decision of theological as well as philo sophical questions; or if authority was referred to, they proceeded to examine the grounds on which the autho rity was built. Reformations were talked of; abuses specified; the names of Wickliffe and Huss were men tioned with respect ; whispers were abroad unfavourable to the honour of Rome, and the security of the papal power.
At this most inauspicious time, Leo X. and his agents proceeded against Luther, wholly in the way of despotic authority and simple recantation. The reformer was summoned to appear at Augsburg, before Cardinal Cajetan, a Dominican monk, at once the friend of Tet zel, and the undisguised enemy of the new opinions. The cardinal, who had the reputation of learning, and was at the same time the pope's legate in Germany, was imprudently nominated sole arbiter in the cause. Lu tiler, though he perceived from the beginning, that little was to be expected from the impartiality of the judge. repaired to the place appointed, ready to defend the sen timents which he had published, and animated with a courage which nothing could resist. The event corre sponded exactly with the anticipations of the reformer. The cardinal stood high upon his dignity, refused to en ter into a dispute with an Augustine monk, would listen to none of the reasons with which Luther endeavoured to support his opinions, and required him, " by virtue of the apostolic powers with which he was clothed, to retract his errors in regard to indulgences and the nature of faith, and to abstain, for the future, front the publica tion of new and dangerous doctrines." Nor was this all. The reformer was not only commanded to retract and to abstain,—he was also commanded to believe. And for the accommodation of his understanding, and as the sub ject of his belief, the cardinal propounded to him, in con sequence of the apostolic powers which we have just alluded to, the following authoritative dogma : " That one drop of Christ's blood being sufficient to redeem the whole human race, the remaining quantity, which was shed in the garden and 10072 the cross, was left as a legacy to the church, to be a treasure, from whence indulgences can be drawn and administered by the Roman pont0'." The answer of Luther was temperate, yet firm. He declared, in direct asseveration, that he could not re nounce those opinions which he held to be entirely con sonant Nvith the sacred scriptures ; and that nothing should ever induce him to do what he conceived to be so unworthy in itself, and so dishonourable and offensive to God. He expressed his willingness, at the same time, either to reason the matter to an end with the car dinal himself, or to refer it to the decision of certain universities which he named. He even went so far as to engage that he would abstain, in all time to come, from preaching or writing against indulgences, provi ded his enemies were enjoined to observe a similar silence with respect to them. This equitable and mo derate conduct, however, and these concessions, had no effect upon the cardinal. He still insisted upon a sim ple and unqualified recantation. He branded Luther with the name of a schismatic, and stigmatized him, as indeed the pope himself had already done, in several of his briefs and letters, under the characters of a child of iniquity, and a man given up to a reprobate sense. And such was the tyrannical violence of this lofty prelate, that the reformer, after solemnly appealing from his judgment, to the more mature deliberation and decision of the holy see, complied with the earnest intreaties of his friends, and withdrew himself privately from Augs burg.
From what we have stated, however, our readers will easily percave, that at appeal to the pope was both un wise and unnecessary. The dispute respecting indul gences affected not only the authority of the papal chair, but the revenues of the pontiff. The cultivated magni ficence and the splendid liberality of Leo, required ex tensive funds. By diminishing the value of indulgen ces, the profits of the sale were lessened. One country of Christendom would imitate another ; the resources of the church would be impaired ; and who does not know that the power of the pope has always been intimately connected with the resources of the church ? But the appeal in question was unnecessary, as well as unwise. The court of Rome had already decided against Luther and his followers. The sovereign pontiff had declared the new doctrines heretical ; and a bull was in agitation, to cut off the seditious monk, and to cast him out front the bosom of the church. The document, if it may be called so, was very solemnly prepared. The whole col lege of cardinals were consulted upon the occasion, and were repeatedly assembled, in order to select the most objectionable passages from the writings of the reform er; and the schools were ransacked to procure some able canonists, that the sentence might be expressed with unexceptionable formality. At length, on the 15th day of June, A. D. 1520, the bull, so fatal to the papal interests, was issued. " Forty-five propositions, extracted from Luther's works, are condemned in it as heretical, scandalous, and offensive to pious ears ; all persons are forbidden to read his writings, upon pain of excommunication; such as had any of them in tlaeir custody, are commanded to commit them to the flames ; he himself, if he did not, within sixty days, publicly re cant his errors, and burn his own books, is pronounced an obstinate heretic, is excommunicated, and delivered over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh ; and all secular princes are required, under pain of incurring the same censure, to seize his person, that he might be punished as his crimes deserved." This famous bull had no other effect upon the mind of Luther, than that of exciting him to keener opposi tion, and more systematic hostility. He had persever ed with habitual diligence, and with humble prayer to God, in the study of the sacred scriptures. He had read of the " man of sin," the antichrist who was to come in the latter days of the church ; that power which was to oppose itself to the interests of true reli gion, and the dominion of the everlasting God. He marked the resemblance between the descriptions of this power given to us in the sacred books, and the un justifiable pretensions and blasphemous arrogance of the holy see. He noted the distinguishing circumstances alluded to in the particulars, " of sitting in the temple of God, (referring to the man of sin,) and showing him self that he is God," of " lying wonders," and the " de ceivableness of unrighteousness," of "forbidding to marry," and" commanding to abstain from meats;" and revolving the whole matter in his mind, he at length boldly pronounced the POPE to be the man of sin, and the power of the Romish church to be the deadly power, which should raise itself, in the latter days, against the sovereignty of Christ. Amidst a vast assemblage of people in the town of Wittenburg, he threw the papal bull, and the volumes of the canon law, into the Plaines; appealing to a general council, which he declared to be the only tribunal where his cause could be judged, and to which, in the opinion of Christendom, the pope him self was subject. Ile warmly exhorted the princes of Europe to shake off the yoke which they had too long and too ignominiously borne ; and offered thanks givings to Almighty God, that he had been selected as the advocate of true religion, and, according to the mea sure of his abilities, as a friend to the liberties of man kind.