Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/11

6 here to appreciate the importance of the Reformation; I have done it, partially, elsewhere, and hope to return to it in future. Suffice it to say that the revolution which goes by this name wrought an upheaval in the political, social and religious structure of Europe and prepared the ground for our modern civilization. Every element of the movement is reflected in these letters: the return to the Bible, the revolt from ecclesiastical abuse and from papal authority, the economic and social reform, the growing nationalism and awakening subjectivism. The launching of the Ninety-five Theses is described and their working on the minds of men portrayed; the summons of Luther before his ecclesiastical superiors first at Heidelberg and then at Augsburg, the great debate with Eck at Leipsic, the trumpet call to spiritual emancipation in the pamphlets of 1520, the preparation of the bull of excommunication and the burning of the same, and finally, as a fitting climax, the memorable appearance of Luther before the Emperor and Diet at Worms, are all set before our eyes.

In order to present faithfully all sides of the movement I have given not only the correspondence of Luther, but the most important letters relating to him by his contemporaries. Among the writers are the Popes Leo X. and Adrian VI., the Emperors Maximilian and Charles V., and many of the Princes, Spiritual and Temporal, of Germany. Humanists and artists are among the writers: Erasmus, Hutten and Dürer. The great reformers are represented by Capito 'and Bucer, Œcolampadius, Zwingli and Melanchthon. Nor are the least interesting letters those of the Catholic champions, Aleander and Eck.

But the dominating personality in this work, as in the age, is Martin Luther. To many the chief value of the book will be the revelation of his inward life. His early spiritual struggles, the things by which he profited and grew, his faith, his devotion to conscience and to truth as he saw it, and his indomitable will, stand out in his unconscious autobiography. No man in history has more thoroughly represented and more completely dominated his time. And these earliest years were the most beautiful in his life; a desperate battle and a momentous victory for progress and for the right. There have been more faultless men than Luther, but there have been none who have