Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/259

 THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION 247 appropriate the immense wealth of the Church, and to stop the immense contributions to the treasury of the papacy, was also a very important factor. Luther, plunged into a fiery controversy with clerical antagonists, found himself compelled to affirm his own adherence to doctrines of Huss and Wycliffe, which had been condemned as heretical. His opponents appealed to Leo x., and Leo issued a bull excommunicating Luther. Luther publicly burnt the bull of excommunication. This was in December 1520; seven weeks later the diet of the empire met at Worms. Luther was summoned to Worms to answer for himself; he came under the protec- T heDiet tion of his own prince, the Elector Frederick of of Worms, Saxony. The populace was on his side, and some 1621, of the princes. The majority of the latter, with the emperor, who wanted the pope's alliance, were against him. Luther stood boldly by what he had said, and refused to retract anything. Lest he should be captured by his enemies, and treated after the manner of Huss, on his departure his own friends kidnapped him, and hid him in the Wartburg, where he spent his time in translating the Bible into German. Charles procured from the diet, and issued, the Edict of Worms, which placed Luther under the ban as a heretic. But the emperor was immediately occupied with his French war; the princes in general did not care to enforce the edict. The extravagances of some of Luther's followers enabled him to appear again publicly as a moderating influence ; it seemed that the princes would be won over to the cause of the Reformation. Two risings brought a change. The knights, who had no political power in the empire, rose to assert themselves, partly against the Church, and partly against the princes. The Knights* They were completely defeated, but the identifica- War. tion of their cause with the Reformation turned the princes against it. Immediately afterwards there was a great rising of peasants, whose demands at the present day The Peasants' scarcely seem unreasonable. To the princes they War. appeared unendurable. The insurrection developed into a widespread war, and the peasants were suppressed, but not till they themselves had been guilty of wild deeds of violence.