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der Wormser Reichstag", Bonn, 1885, 67-72; Mau- renbrecher, *'Geschichte der katholisch. Reforma- tion'*, I, 398; Wrede, ** Deutsche Rcicbsakten unter Kaiser Karl V", II, Gotha, 1896, 555, note; Kalkofif, "Die Depeschen des N. Aleander," Halle, 1897, 174, note 2; Kostlin-Kawerau, op. cit., I, 419; Kolde, "Luther in Worms", Municn, 1897, 21; Hausrath, only tacit admissions).
 * ' Aleander und Luther ", 27 1 . The latter three make

He left Worms 26 April, for Wittenberg, in the custody of a party consistmg mainly, if not altogether, of personal friends. By a secret agreement, of which he was fully cognizant (De Wette, op. cit., I, 588-89), being apprised of it the night before his departure by the Elector Frederick, though he was unaware of his actual destination, he was ambushed by friendly hands in the night of 4 May, and spirited to the Castle of Wartburg, near Eisenach.

The year's sojourn in the Wartburg marks a new and decisive period in his life and career. Left to the seclusion of his own thoughts and reflections, undis- turbed by the excitement of political and polemical agitation, he became the victim of an interior struggle that made him writhe in the throes of racking anxiety, distressing doubts and agonizing reproaches of con- science. With a directness that knew no escape, he was now confronted by the poignant doubts aroused by his headlong course : was he justified in his bold and unprecedented action; were not his innovations dia- metrically opposed to the history and experience of spiritual and human order as it prevailed from Apos- tolic times; was he, "he alone", the chosen vessel sin- gled out in preference to all the saints of Christendom to inaugurate these radical changes; was he not re- sponsible for the social and pohtical upheaval, the rupture of Christian unity and charity, and the conse- quent ruin of immortal souls (De Wette, op. cit., II, 2, 10, 16, 17, 22, 23) ? To this was added an irrepressible outbreak of sensuality which assailed him with un- bridled fury (De Wette, op. cit., II, 22), a fury that was all the more fierce on account of the absence of the approved weapons of spiritual defence (* Deniflc, op. cit., I, 377), as well as the intensifying stimulus of his imprudent gratification of his appetite for eat- ing and drinking. And, in addition to this horror, his temptations, moral and spiritual, became vivicl realities; satanic manifestations were frequent and alarming; nor did they consist in mere verbal encoun- ter but in personal collision. His disputation with* Satan on the Mass (Walch, XIX, 1489-1490), has become historical. His life as Juncker George, his neglect of the old monastic dietetic restrictions, racked his body in paroxysms of pain, "which did not fail to give colour to the tone of his polemical writings" (Hausrath, op. cit., I, 476), nor sweeten the acerbity of his temper, nor soften the coarseness of his speech. However, many writers regard his satanic manifesta- tions as pure delusions (* Denifie- Weiss, " Luther u. Luthertum", II, 1909, 215 sq.).

It was while he was in these sinister moods that his friends usually were in expectant dread that the flood of his exhaiistiess abuse and unparalleled scurrility would dash itself against the papacy, Church, and monasticism. " I will curse ana scold the scoundrels until I go to my grave, and never shall they hear a civil word from me. I will toll them to their graves with thunder and lightning. For I am unable to pray without at the same time cursing. If I am prompted to say: ' hallowed be Thy name \ I must add: * cursed, damned, outraged be the name of papists'. If I am prompted to say: *Thy Kingdom come', I must per- force add: 'cureed, damned^ destroyed must be the papacy \ Indeed I pray thus orally every day and in my heart without intermission " (S&mmtl. W., XXV, 108). Need we be surprised that one- of his old ad- mirers, whose name figured with his on the original Bull of excommunication, concludee that Luther

"with his shameless, ungovoniable tongue, must liave lapsed into insanity or been inspirecl by the Evil Spirit" (Pirkheimer, ap. *D6llinger, ''Die Reforma- tion", Ratisbon, I, 1846-48, 533-34)?

While at the Wartburg, he published his tract " On Confession", which cut deeper into the mutilated sacramental system he retained by lopping off pen- ance. This he dedicated to Franz von bickingen. His replies to Latomus of Louvain and Emser, his old antagom'st, and to the theological faculty of the Uni- versity of Paris, are characterized by his proverbial spleen and discourtesy. Of the writings of nis antag- onists he invariably "makes an arbitrary caricature and he belabours them in blind rage ... he hurls at them the most passionate replies (Lange, "Martin liUther, ein religioses Characterbild ", Berlin, 1870, 109) . His reply to the papal Bull " In ccena Domini ", written in colloquial German, appeak to the grossest sense of humour and sacrilegious banter.

His chief distinction while at the Wartburg, and one that will always be inseparably connected with his name, was his translation of the New Testament into German. The invention of printing gave a vigourous impetus to the multiplication of copies of the Bible, so that fourteen editions and reprints of German trans- lations from 1466 to 1522 are known to have existed. But their antiquated language, their uncritical revi- sion, and their puerile glosses, hardly contributed to their circulation. To Luther the vernacular Bible became a necessary adjunct, an indispensable neces- sity. His subversion of the spiritual order, abolition of ecclesiastical science, rejection of the sacraments, suppression of ceremonies, degradation of Christian art, demanded a substitute, and a more available one than the "undefiled Word of God", in association with "evangelical preaching" could hardly be found. In less than three months the first copy of the trans- lated New Testament was ready for the press. As- sisted by Melanchthon, Spalatin, and otners whose services he found of use, with the Greek version of Erasmus as a basis, with notes and comments chained with polemical animus and woodcuts of an offensively vulgar character supplie<l by Cmnach, and sold for a trivial sum, it was issued at Wittenlxirg in September. Its spread Wiis so rapid that a second edition was called for as early as December. Its linguistic merits were indisputable; its influence on national literature most potent. Like all his writings in German, it was the speech of the people ; it struck the popular taste and charmed the national ear. It unfolded the afflu- ence, clarity, and vigour of the German tongue in a manner and with a result that stands almost without a parallel in the history of German literature (Pietsch, "M. Luther u. die hochdeutsche Sprache", JBreslau, 1883; Kluge, "Von Luther bis Lessing", Strasburg, 1888; Franks, **Grundzuge der Schriftsprache Luthers", G6rlitz, 1888). That he is the creator of the new High German literary language is hardly in harmony with the facts and researches ofmodem philo- logical science (*Janssen, II, 530-75). While from the standpoint of the philologist it is worthy of the highest commendation, theologically it failed in the es- sential elements of a faithful translation . By attribution and suppression, mistranslation and wanton garbling, he made it the medium of attacking the old Church, and vindicating his individual doctrines (*D6llinger, op. cit.. Ill, 139-73; "Cambridge Hist.", II, 164-65).

A book that helped to depopulate the sanctuary and monastery in Germany, one that Luther himself con- fessed to be his most unassailable pronouncement, one that Melanchthon hailed as a work of rare learning, and which many Reformation specialists pronounce, both as to contents and results, his most important work, had its origin in the Wartburg. It was his " Opinion on Monastic Orders ". Dashed off at white heat and expressed with that whirlwind impetuosity that made him so powerful a leader, it made thAVssAsJk