Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/442

 A^a GERMANY. 426 financial reasons, but there was nothing to tate the place of the Inquisition, and a latitude of speech had become customary which was tolerated so long as the revenues of St. Peter were no mte. fered with. This perhaps explains why the sigmficance of Luther s "voit was better appreciated at Eome than on the spot. After he had been form^ly declared a heretic by the Auditor-general of the Apostolic Chamber at the instance of the promotor fiscal, the legate, Cardinal Caietano, wrote that he could terminate the matter Mmself, and that it was rather a trifling affair to be brought Tfore the pop! He did not fulfil his instructions to arrest Luther af; 11 him that if he would appear before the Holy See, to excuse himself he would be treated with undeserved clemency. After The sca;dal had been growing for a twelvemonth, Leo again wroe to Caietano to summon Doctor Martm before him, and after dili- gent examination, to condemn or absolve him a« -gl^t Prove Luisite. It was now too late. Insubordination had spread and re!e Ln was organizing itself. Before these last instructions reached Caietano, Luther came in answer to a previous summons iut though he pUssed himself iu aU things an obedient son of tte Churfh he practicaUy manifested an ominous independence, and was co'nveyed away unharmed. The legate trusted to his ToweL as a disputant rather than to force ; and had he attempted the Tatter he had no machinery at hand to frustrate the instructions Svenbrtbe Augsburg magistrates for Luther's protection Iu lepX- of persecution the inevitable revolution went for- ward.* . RipoU IV. 378.-Lntheri 0pp., Jen^. 1564, I. 185 sqq.-Henke, Neuere Kirchengescliiclite, I. 42-6. i