The Leipzig disputation opened al] eyes to the gravity of the crisis. At Route it was felt that Luther must now be crushed. Luther also saw the hopelessness of his ease, and the necessity of an appeal front pope to prince-. And so in June, 1520, he published his classic address, To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation. in which he outlined his thought of a general reform of national culture and life. In this address Lu ther declared against the superiority claimed by ecclesiastical over civil government. rumors came from Rome. where the Papal anathe ma had been already issued: friends counseled silence. "The die is east." he replied : "the time to speak has come:" and forthwith issued a trea tise on The Babylonian Capticity of the Church, published in October. The country was flooded with prinA and caricatures on both sides; there was extreme excitement : Luther thought the end of the world drew near. Yet he wrought close ly as ever at his ordinary work in the pulpit and in the university, where the number of students had trebled since the publication of his theses. In the same year of stress and strain he published his treatise on The Freedom of a Christian Man, setting forth his view of the social as we]] as spiritual character of vital religion, and laying "the foundation of a new ethics." The bull delivering Luther to death was pub lished by Eck at Leipzig, in Oetober,I520. Luther answered by a deed that fixed the eyes of Europe upon him. On December 10th he uttered his per sonal defiance by committing the bull to the flames. Into the same fire also were east a num ber of Roman law-bc,oks, his defiance of tyranny. A week later he put forth in legal form his appeal to a general Church council. Luther was fortunate in the friendship of the Elector. Freder ick the \Vise. On the death of the Emperor :Maxi milian in 1519, this Prince declined the crown, and procured the election of Charles of Spain (Charles V.) to the Imperial throne. His influ ence in behalf of temporizing measures when the Pope demanded summary procedure was seeonded by other princes, who had a list of a hundred grievances against Rome. It would be iniquitous, they said, to condemn Luther unheard. A hear ing before the dignitaries of the Empire was what Luther most desired. And so, under the imperial safe-conduct. lie appeared at the Diet of Worms in 1521. Surprised at his first hearing by a more peremptory demand for recantation than lie had expected. he asked for a day to consider it. The day following, April ltith, he made answer that his writings were of three kinds—such as even his opponents would agree to: such as con demned the errors of the Church and could not be retracted, except on proof from Scrip ture that he had erred : sonic other: in %Odell he had attacked certain persons perhaps too vio lently. Pressed again by the question whether he would recant, he refused in memorable words: "]Mere I stand; I cannot do otherwise; tiod help toe; Amen." Further negotiations the next day failed to move him. :ind lie was permitted to depart. A month later, after the expiration of his safe-•ondu•t, the ban of the Empire was pro nounced against him.
His friend the Elector now judiciously inter vened. Having prearranged with Luther that he should suffer himself to be kidnapped on the road home, Frederick secreted him in the Wart burg castle at Eisenach so effectively that for months his friends knew not where he was. Residing here under an assumed name for the rest of the year, he turned his confinement to good account. lie began his go-at translation if the Bible, finishing the New Testament from Erasmus's Oreek text in four mond s. Here also he began his first series of sermons, de signed for the new preachers of the (1ospel as well as for the laity. lint his confinement told upon 16: health, and out of low spirits the spell of the current demonology bred of demons besetting him. Much more serious trouble came from Ids dear Wittenberg. Not content with Luther's opposition to monaehism, a evil bate priesthood, relic-worship. and the mass, such men as Carlstadt had rushed into an icono clastic puritanism. Fanatical prophets came forward proclaiming that all priests were to lie slain, all sinners destroyed, and the saints to assume the kingdom. A flying visit in secret having failed to cheek the disorder, Luther re appeared openly at Wittenberg in January (or. according to some authorities, March), 1322. at his personal risk. as he was legally an out law. replying, to the Elector's dissamsiim that Owl would protect him. Eight days in succession lie was in his pulpit ; his voice quelled the popular disorders. He not only resumed his full round of work in church and university, but boldly made a preaching tour through neighboring town-. and
at Zwiekau, the seat of the prophets, is said to have had an audience of twenty-five thou-and. :Meanwhile, with Alelanclithon's help. he brought out a revised edition of his New Testament. and continued his work on the Old. Another impor tant work at this time was neee,..btat 01 by the antagonism to civil authority in whieh lie and followers had been placed by the Edict of worms. And so of se,niar Corers.
How Far It MEW Be Obry. II, a statement of the general Protestant doctrine since current While adhering to 16: cautious policy of slow' ehange in the farms of worship. his introduction of choral hymns was a forward step of far reaching effect. Luther's hymns. said a Jesuit slew more souls than all books and sermons. A tiny collection of eight hymns. half of them by Luther, appeared early in 1521. Twenty others he added that year. Ili- fninciu lrir"A mighty fortress in our Owl." well called the battle-hymn of the Reform anion, appe trod in 15')T. In 15:2-1 he addressed a letter to file coun cilors of all cities on the school and gaged personally in a school at his native Ei sleben.
in -1 in (;ern tic a ferment aecompanied the religions revolution. and had risen to a pitch beyond his emit rol. The futile and fatal insurreet ion of the peasants was a grievous blow to 'Luther as well as to his cause.
his much blamed exhortation to the princes to crush the bloody revolt was intended to clear his religious policy from alleged complicity with anarchy. This year also his breach with Erasmus culminated in bitter quarrel and invective, dis creditable to both. In this stormy year (1525) he married ICatharina von Bo•a, a lady of noble family, fifteen years younger than lie, a former nun, who had for some years been an adlierent of the reformed religion.
The history of Luther's career here merges in the fortunes of the Reformation. The year 1529 is memorable for the unsu•eessful effort made by the Marburg conference between Luther and Zwingli to draw into closer union the German and the Swiss reformers. The Augsburg Con fession, presented at the Diet of 1530. the earliest symbol of Lutheran Protestantism, though draft ed by Melanclithon, was drawn up from articles prepared by Luther. The Schnialkald League, formed in 1531 by the Protestants for self-de fense, was not to Luther's liking; he counseled faith in God, and reliance on spiritual forces only. In 1534 lie completed his great work, the Bible translation. In 1537 he drew up the Schmalkald Articles for Protestant use at the then hoped for general council. Meanwhile his polemic writings against Rome and his efforts for harmony among German Protestants continued; hut repeated ill nesses, often painful, and depression at the untoward state of the Reformation, frcqnently darkened his mind. In 1544 he wrote that he was old, worn out, and of no further use. In 1545 he quitted Wittenberg, but was prevailed upon by the Elector John Frederick and the university to return. That year be concluded his last work, a commentary on Genesis, begun ten years before, ending with the words, "I am weak and can do no more. Pray God Ile may grant me a happy and peaceful death." A journey in January. 1540, to end a quarrel °I the counts of Mansfeld. brought on a severe cold, despite \Odell lie preached and worked as usual, and accomplished his peace-making mis sion, his illness grew, and he passed away at Eisleben, February 18th.
Roman Catholic and Protestant estimates of Luther are antipodal. To the latter a religious hero, to the former he is a rash and reprehen sible schismatic, a rebel against divinely consti tuted authority. By not waiting and working for that reform to come within the Church, which they regard as having come through the Council of Trent (1545) , they hold that he disastrously divided Christendom and re tarded the religions progress of mankind. Among his fellow Protestants lie remained nea• est to the Roman Catholic conception of the Church and its Eucharist. As a theologian he was often inconsistent. being surpassed by lanchtlion, and still more by Calvin. If lax Wittenberg be compared with strict Geneva, ire was singularly deficient as a moral disciplina rian. His political ideal of German unity and independence has been realized only in our own time. By his Bible work, an unparalleled achieve ment of almost single-handed effort, "Ile created for the German people," says Pfleido•er. "the unified language which for centuries has been the single bond of the politically rent and divided tribes."