XXVIII.

That the pope's injunctions are of equal force and weight with the scriptures.

XXIX.

That the pope hath power to explain the scripture, at his own will and pleasure; and that no man can dare to explain it in a contrary sense.

XXX.

That the pope doth not receive his authority from the scripture, but the scripture from the pope.

In short, the sum of the whole canon law is this: • The pope is God on earth, supreme in all heavenly, earthly, spiritual, and secular matters. All things are the pope's; and there is none who can say unto him, What dost thou ?” Melch. Adam. in vit. Luth.

This publication gave (as it may be supposed) the highest offence to the Romanists; and the pope resolved to crush him at once by his bulls, which commanded all secular princes to destroy him.

Eckius carried the bull against Luther into Germany, and was entrusted by the pope to carry it into execution; which was a smart blow given him by his mortal enemy, who was his adversary, accuser, and executioner.

Charles V. was crowned emperor, at Aix-la-Chapelle, the twenty-first of October 1520, and appointed a diet to be held at Worms, on the sixth of January, 1521. The nuncios, Martinus Coracciolus and Jerom Alexander, presented the elector of Saxony the brief which the pope had sent him, to inform him of the decree which he had made against Luther, who was then more than ever protected by the elector, and the university of Wittenberg. Luther renewed his appeal to a future council; and called the pope a tyrant, and heretic. Erasmus, and several other divines, foresaw that the fire, which was to burn the books of Luther, would put all Germany into a fiame, and were for referring the whole cause to a general council: But the nuncios prevailed, and Luther's books were burnt at Mentz and Cologne. Ulricus Hultenus, a satirical poet, ridiculed the papal bull; which Luther called the execrable bull of antichrist, and caused it (as we have just observed) to be burnt at Wittenberg. Catharinus wrote five books in defence of the papal supremacy; which Luther refuted; and Alexander obtained a new bull from Rome, wherein Luther was declared contumacious, and to have incurred the penalty denounced by the pope.

The diet of Worms assembled on the day appointed, when Alexander exerted all his interest and eloquence, to persuade the emperor, and the princes of the empire, to put the bull against Luther into execution; without suffering him to appear, or hear his vindication. The diet resolved, that Luther should be summoned, and have a safe conduct; which was granted by the emperor, who sent with it a private letter, directed To the honourable, beloved, devout, doctor Martin Luther, of the order of St Augustine.' This letter was dated the sixth of March, and Luther was thereby ordered to appear at Worms, within twenty-one days. The tragical end that John Huss had met with at Constance, in 1415, was remembered by the friends of Luther on this occasion: But he answered those who dissuaded him from appearing, that he would go, though there should be as many "devils at Worms as there were tiles upon the houses." He was accompanied from Wittenberg by some divinės, and one hundred horse: But he took only eight horsemen into Worms, where he arrived on the sixteenth of April: And, when he stept out of the coach, he said, "God shall be on my side," in the presence of a great multitude of people, whom curiosity had brought toge ther to see the man, who had made such a noise in the world.

Luther had his apartments in the house belonging to the knights of the Teutonic order, near those of the elector of Saxony. He was visited by many princes, noblemen, and divines; and the next day appeared before the diet. Eckius acted as prolocutor, and told Luther, that the emperor had sent for him, to know whether he owned those books that bore his name; and if he intended to retract, or maintain what was contained in them?" Luther is said to have had as much courage, as Alexander and Julius Cæsar put together. He answered, he owned the books: But desired time to consider the other question: "So that he might make a satisfactory answer "without prejudice of the word of God, and prejudice "of his own soul." The emperor granted him a day to consider the matter: And some of his principal friends encouraged him with this sentence; When thou art before kings, think not what thou shalt speak, for it shall be given to thee in that hour.

Luther appeared again before the diet the following day, when Eckius repeated the same question, to which Luther replied with modesty and constancy. He protested,

that

that all he had wrote was for the glory of God, and the instruction of the faithful: But desired the assembly to observe, that his books were of three kinds: That in some, he treated only of piety and morality, in such a plain and evangelical manner, that his adversaries acknowledged, they were innocent, profitable, and worthy to be read by all Christians: That in others, • he had wrote against popery: And in a third sort, against those private persons who opposed the truths which he taught.' He asserted, that the bull itself had condemned nothing in particular which was taken out of these books, though all his books in general were condemned. And declared, "that as a man he might err;

and if any one could convince him, by holy scripture, "of any error, he was ready to revoke it, and burn his "writings." Eckius passionately said, he had not answered the question; therefore he insisted that Luther would give a plain and direct answer, whether he would • retract, or not?' Luther replied, " that he was not "obliged to believe the pope, or his councils, because "they erred in many things, and contradicted them"selves: That his belief was so far settled by the texts "of scripture, and his conscience engaged by the word "of God, that he neither could, nor would, retract any

thing; because it was neither safe, nor innocent, for "a man to act against his conscience." Eckius then said, that Luther had revived the errors contained in the council of Constance: And the emperor declared he would proceed against him as a heretic; which was a prejudging the cause, and contrary to the established rules of the diet.

As Luther undauntedly refused to recant at Worms, as he had done three years before at Augsburg; the clergy insinuated to the emperor, that faith was not to be kept ⚫ with heretics.' They wanted him to revoke the safeconduct he had granted to Luther: But Charles made this generous answer, that if no faith was to be found in

the rest of the world, it ought at least to be seen in a Roman emperor.' The elector Palatine also opposed the violation of the safe-conduct, as had been done at the council of Constance. The electors of Brandenburg and Triers, with Eckius, Cochlæus, and others, had a private conference with Luther, to persuade him to desist from his enterprise: But he declared he was resolved to die, rather than recede from the word of God. The elector of Triers desired Luther to propose some means of

ending this matter himself; to which Luther answered, he had no other way than the council of Gamaliel, "If this work be of men, it will come to nought, and fall of itself; but if it be of God, ye cannot hinder the execution of it."

The emperor, on the twenty-sixth of April, ordered Luther to depart immediately from Worms, under a safeconduct for twenty-one days; and the elector of Saxony imagined, that Charles would issue a severe edict against Luther; but the elector was resolved to protect him from the prosecution of the emperor and pope. Luther was purposely seized on the road by a troop of masked horsemen, and carried, as if by violence, to the castle of Wartburg, near Eisenach, where the elector concealed him ten months. Luther called this retreat his Patmos, and wrote several useful treatises there: While his enemies employed reputed wizards to find out the place of his concealment. Here he held a constant correspondence with his friends at Wittenberg, and employed himself in composing several of his works. He frequently made excursions into the neighbourhood, though always in disguise. Weary, however, of this confinement, he appeared at the end of ten months at Wittenberg, on the sixth of March.

The emperor published an edict against Luther, on the twenty-sixth of May, when the electors of Saxony and Palatine were absent from the diet. He declared,

it

was his duty to extinguish heresies; that Luther was a schismatic and heretic; that the sentence of the pope should be put in execution against him; and that no person should revive, defend, maintain, or protect him, under the penalty of high treason, and being put to the ban of the empire.' This edict was drawn up with all possible rancour and malice by Aleander. However, whilst Luther attended at Worms, and pleaded his cause, he was treated with much affability and civility by that illustrious assembly. He shewed a sufficient presence of mind, and a noble intrepidity, in the opinion of every one but himself; for he afterwards lamented, that he had not been still bolder in the cause of God.

Some are of opinion, that the emperor connived at the spreading of Luther's doctrine in Germany, that he might make himself absolute there by such divisions: Else, say they, he might easily have suppressed it, by putting Luther to death, when he had him in his power at Worms. However, it is far from being clear, that if he had been murdered,

murdered, contrary to the sanction of the safe-conduct, his opinions would have died with him: And it would have been very imprudent in Charles to have thereby disobliged the elector of Saxony, who had placed him on the imperial throne, and whose authority in Germany was great, while he had a war upon his hands against Turkey and France.

The tenets of Luther came now to be received, not only in Upper and Lower Saxony, but also in other parts of Germany, and in the North. Erasmus, and the learned Agrippa of Cologne, looked upon this reformer as a hero, who would put a stop to the tyranny which the mendicant friars, and the rest of the clergy, exercised over the minds and consciences of men. Being ignorant and voluptuous, they encouraged a thousand paltry superstitions, and would neither emerge from their barbarity, nor suffer others to do it: Insomuch, that to be witty and polite, was sufficient to expose a man to their hate and indignation. Agrippa, Erasmus, and some other great geniuses, were pleased that Luther had broke the ice: They expected the critical hour for the deliverance of honest men. from oppression: But when they saw that things did not take the turn they expected, they were the first to cast a stone at Luther. Agrippa wrote to Melancthon in these words: Pay my compliments to the invincible heretic, Martin Luther, who, as St Paul says in the Acts, worships God after the way which they call heresy.' But the divines of Louvain censured Agrippa for writing the vanity of sciences,' though that book convinced Erasmus, its author was of a fiery genius, extensive reading, and great memory. But Jovius and Thevet, ridiculously charge Agrippa with being a magician: Though this did not hinder the famous John Colet from lodging Agrippa in his house at London; nor the emperor Maximilian from employing him in Italy.

Jerom Savonarola, a Dominican at Florence, had distinguished himself by the austerity of his life, and by the fervent eloquence with which he preached against immorality, without sparing the disorders of the clergy, nor even the court of Rome. Philip de Comines, the celebrated historian of France, saw Savonarola at Florence, and says, that no preacher ever had a greater influence

over a city. Some authors maintain, that his conduct was the effect of a great zeal for truth, and for the Reformation of the church: Others pretend that he was an impostor, and a hypocrite. It is certain, that this divine

had