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LUT business connected with the religious order he belonged to, and perhaps, as some say, in fulfilment also of some religious vow. His ardent mind longed to see the metropolis of Christendom, and to join in that august worship which his Holiness, his cardinals, and the highest prelates and dignitaries glorified by their presence or participation. But his visit left deep and solemn impressions upon him. The monasteries he visited on his journey revealed the luxury of the inmates, and even on Friday they practised no abstinence from animal food. Herrings and bread had been his usual repast, and he could in no way sympathize with the sumptuous fare of his Benedictine entertainers in Lombardy. As he approached the city his spirit bounded with emotion; and at his first glimpse of it he threw himself in transport on the ground, crying, "Holy Rome! I salute thee." The pilgrim devoutly made a circuit of the churches, drank in all the legends, and thought himself privileged beyond measure; nay, he almost wished that his parents had been dead, so that by masses and prayer he might then and there free them from purgatory. But the profanity of the priests annoyed and disgusted him. On one occasion seven masses were said around him before he had said one. "Get on," cried one of the priests, "and let our Lady have her son again." Prelates were as deficient in faith and gravity as common priests. Luther could hardly credit them when he found them boasting that, instead of the awful words of the sacramental formula, some of them had said, Panis es, et panis manebis; vinum es, et vinum manebis—Bread thou art, and bread thou shalt remain; wine thou art, and wine thou shalt remain. How shocked he was at finding hypocrisy and profanity, idleness and sensuality, where he had expected holiness and faith! The Scala santa, or holy stair of twenty-eight steps, is said to be that on which Jesus ascended when he appeared before Pilate, and to have been transported by angels from Jerusalem to Rome. Luther joined the bands ascending it, kissing each step as they mounted; but he soon felt the degradation, and his conscience awoke with a voice shouting in his ear, "The just shall live by faith." This visit to Rome had a decided formative power on Luther's mind. "Not for a hundred thousand florins would I have missed seeing Rome;" for his experience had been, "the nearer one gets to Rome, the more bad christians does he find." On his return to Wittemberg he was, much against his will, made a doctor of divinity, the vicar-general Staupitz insisting that "the Lord had need of young and vigorous doctors." The expense, fifty florins, was defrayed by the elector. He was made Doctor Biblicus, his oath being "Juro me veritatem evangelicam viriliter defensurum"—an oath which he kept at all hazards, and against all forms of scholastic and Pelagian errors. Luther now preached with renewed ardour, kindling into still greater eloquence, exhibiting still mightier energy, and basing his statements, appeals, and denunciations more and more closely on the holy scriptures. At this period, and in room of Staupitz, he made an inspection of forty monasteries in Misnia and Thuringia, his old abode at Erfurt being among the number. He found much during this six months' tour to appal and move him; the impression made on him at Rome was sadly confirmed; the corruption had spread from the heart to the extremities.

The crisis had now come. The court of Rome, to aid in building St. Peter's, had commissioned agents to sell indulgences in Germany. The traffic was carried on with the utmost effrontery, and under a regular tariff. In particular a trafficker, named John Tetzel, a Dominican friar, carried on this commerce with unblushing levity and volubility of tongue, affirming that "repentance was unnecessary to forgiveness;" "that as soon as the money chinked in the strong box the soul escaped from purgatory;" and that he had "saved more souls by his indulgences, than Peter had done by his preaching." Rumours of such scandals were spreading on all hands; and some citizens of Wittemberg, who had been in the habit of confessing to Luther, refused to abandon their sins and pleaded the power of the indulgences which they had bought at Tetzel's sales. The spirit of Luther was fired, and he thundered against indulgences. Tetzel replied; the reformer waxed in boldness, and on the 31st of October, 1517, the eve of All Saints, he nailed to the church door ninety-five theses against the doctrine of indulgences, and declared his eagerness to defend them against all impugners. In this challenge Luther did not question the authority of the pope, but believed sincerely he was doing loyal service to the church. The news spread everywhere. Discussions followed. Tetzel published counter-theses. Erasmus, Hutten, and others, were filled with joy at the commotion. Dr. Eck of Ingoldstadt next challenged Luther, and was not sparing in his denunciations. "Friar Martin," said Leo at first, "was a man of genius, the outcry against him being monkish jealousy." In the meantime Luther went down to Heidelberg, and, according to the fashion of the time, held a disputation there against five doctors, and in defence of several theses which he termed "paradoxes." Bucer, then a Dominican friar, listened to the dispute, and became a convert to Luther's opinions. But alarm at length prevailed in the papal court, and Luther was summoned to appear at Rome within sixty days; Sylvester Prierias, a virulent opponent, being put at the head of the tribunal appointed to try him. But it was claimed by the elector, who was well aware of what would be the fatal result if Luther should venture into Italy, that he should be tried in his own country; and accordingly he was ordered to appear at Augsburg before the papa legate, Cardinal Cajetan, who, while professing to conduct a fair inquiry, had secret orders to treat him as a heretic, without mercy, and to invoke for this purpose the secular arm. Luther attended; and his earnest convictions perplexed the courtly Italian. Unless the German would say, "I retract," the cardinal could show him no favour. "Revoca," cried the cardinal at length, or "return no more." The four days' dispute came to an end; no power could dislodge the intrepid German from his position. "I leave the place," writes Luther to his Eminence, "in the name of the Lord, and appeal from Leo misinformed to Leo to be better informed." The cardinal was confounded; "the beast," said he, "has deep eyes, and his head is full of speculation." The monk returned in safety to his cell and lecture-room. The sensation created by the occurrence was deep and overawing, and Luther thought of France as a place of refuge. "I am," said he, "in the hands of God and my friends." But the elector would not hear of his leaving Wittemberg, as his departure would be a sad blow to the rising university. Another attempt at conciliation was soon made; Militz, a Saxon, was appointed to preside at the conference, and a meeting took place at Altenberg. The legate at the end of a repast kissed the monk—"a Judas kiss," thought Luther; but he was so wrought on that he framed a humble and apologetic letter to the pope. He did not see his way as yet to break off finally; nay, he did not contemplate such an issue. But his letter was unheeded; he became more keenly alive to the errors of the church, and his dispute with Eck at Leipsic urged him onward to attack the primacy of the pope. Luther now took advantage of the press, and his works flew into wide circulation. The heart of the nation was roused; his voice was heard in huts and palaces, colleges and monasteries; and his address to the "Christian Nobles of Germany," 26th June, 1520, pealed like a thunderclap over the country. During October of the same year he published the "Babylonian Captivity of the Church," a book of trenchant assault, showing that the breach had become so wide as to admit of no compromise. Militz met Luther privately at Lichtemberg and strongly urged him to silence, which Luther agreed to in the meantime if his enemies would let him alone. But the bull anathematizing him was already in Germany. After being posted up in several of the towns, Eck, who had been intrusted with the publication of it, boasted at Leipsic that now he would bring that "strange fellow to his senses;" but the students mobbed him, and he was glad to escape with his life. Tumultuous excitement was felt everywhere. The bull was brought to Wittemberg, and in presence of a notary and five witnesses Luther protested and said, "I appeal from Leo as a rash and unjust judge who condemns me unheard, to a future universal christian council." The bold monk rose into sublime defiance, when on the 10th of December, and at nine in the morning, he led a band of professors, doctors, and students to the gate of the city, and threw into a bonfire, kindled for the purpose, the canon law, the decretals, the Clementines, and the Extravagantes of the popes, tossing after them into the flames the papal bull, with the declaration—"As thou hast grieved the saints of God, so mayest thou be consumed in everlasting fire." In an address he added—"Hitherto I have merely jested with the pope; the serious struggle now begins." Thus ended the second great epoch of Luther's life, in a defiant separation from the Church of Rome.

Charles V. had been recently crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle, and his first Germanic diet was summoned to assemble at Worms in 1521, one avowed object of the meeting being to "check the