XVI. SECT. I.'

cution of such a purpose. The high spirit of CENT. Luther was not to be tamed by the arrogant dictates of mere authority; such, however, were the only methods of persuasion employed by the haughty cardinal. He, in an overbearing tone, desired Luther to renounce his opinions, without even attempting to prove them erroneous, and insisted, with importunity, on his confessing humbly his fault, and submitting respectfully to the judgment of the Roman pontiff [r]. The Saxon reformer could not think of yielding to terms so unreasonable in themselves, and so despotically proposed; so that the conferences were absolutely without effect. For Luther, finding his adversary and judge inaccessible to reason and argument, left Augsburg all of a sudden, after having appealed from the present decisions of the pontiff to those which he should pronounce, when better informed; and, in this step, he seemed yet to respect the dignity and authority of the bishop of Rome [s]. But Leo X. on the other hand, let loose the reins to ambition and despotism, and car. ried things to the utmost extremity; for, in the month of November, this same year, he published a special edict, commanding his spiritual subjects

[r] The imperious and imprudent manner in which Cajetan behaved towards Luther was highly disapproved of, even at the court of Rome, as appears, among other testimonies, from Paulo Sarpi's History of the Council of Trent, book I. p. 22. The conduct of Cajetan is defended by Echard, in his Scriptor. Ord Prædicator. tom. ii, p. 15. but with little prudence, and less argument. The truth of the matter is, that the court of Rome and its unthinking sovereign, were not less culpable than Cajetan in the whole of this transaction, Since they might easily foresee, that a Dominican legate was of all others the most unlikely to treat Luther with moderation and impartiality, and Consequently the most improper to reconcile matters.

[s] See B. Christ. Frid. Borneri Diss. de Colloquio Lutheri cum Cajetano. Leips. 1722, in 4to.-Val. Ern. Loscheri Acta et Documenta Reformat, tom. ii, cap. xi. p. 435. opr Lutheri, tom. xxiv. p. 409.

CENT. to acknowledge his power of delivering from all the XVI. punishments due to sin and transgression of every

SECT. I.

The transactions of Miltitz.

kind. As soon as Luther received information of this inconsiderate and violent measure, he perceived, plainly, that it would be impossible for him to bring the court of Rome to any reasonable terms; he therefore repaired to Wittemburg, and, on the 28th of November, appealed from the pontiff to a general council.

VIII. In the meantime the Roman pontiff be came sensible of the imprudence he had been guilty of in entrusting Cajetan with such a commission, and endeavouring to mend the matter by employing a man of more candour and impartiaprojects of lity, and better acquainted with business, in order tion discon- to suppress the rebellion of Luther, and to encerted in gage that reformer to submission and obedience.

All the

reconcilia

1519.

This new legate was Charles Miltitz, a Saxon knight, who belonged to the court of Leo X. and whose lay character exposed him less to the prejudices that arise from a spirit of party, than if he had been clothed with the splendid purple, or the monastic frock. He was also a person of great prudence, penetration, and dexterity, and every way qualified for the execution of such a nice and critical commission as this was. Leo, therefore sent him into Saxony to present to Frederick the golden consecrated rose (which the pontiffs are used to bestow, as a peculiar mark of distinction, on those princes, for whom they have, or think proper to profess, an uncommon friendship and esteem), and to treat with Luther, not only about finishing his controversy with Tetzel, but also concerning the methods of bringing about a reconciliation between him and the court of Rome. Nor, indeed, were the negociations of this prudent ministry entirely unsuccessful; for, in his first conference with Luther, at Altenburg, in the year 1519, he carried matters so far as to per

suade

XVI. SECT. I.

suade him to write a submissive letter to Leo X. CENT. promising to observe a profound silence upon the matters in debate, provided that the same obligation should be imposed upon his adversaries. This same year, in the month of October, Miltitz hád a second conference with Luther in the castle of Leibenwerd, and a third the year following, at Lichtenberg [t]. These meetings, which were reciprocally conducted with moderation and decency, gave great hopes of an approaching re conciliation; nor were these hopes ill-founded [u]. But the violent proceedings of the enemies of Luther, and the arrogant spirit, as well as unaccountable imprudence, of the court of Rome, blasted these fair expectations, and kindled anew 'the flames of discord.

of the con

Luther,

[w] IX. It was sufficient barely to mention The nature the measures taken by Cajetan to draw Luther ferences be. anew under the papal yoke; because these mea- tween Mil sures were, indeed, nothing more than the wild titz and suggestions of superstition and tyranny, maintained and avowed with the most frontless impudence. A man, who began by commanding the reformer to renounce his errors, to believe, and that upon the dictates of mere authority, that "one drop of Christ's blood, being sufficient to redeem

[t] See B. Christ. Frid. B. The records relating to the embassy of Miltitz, were first published by Ern. Salomon Cyprianus, in Addit. ad Wilh. Ern. Tenzelii Histor. Reformat. tom. i. ii. As also by Val. Ern. Loscherus, in his Acta Reformat. tom. ii. c. xvi. and tom. iii. cap. ii.

[u] In the year 1519, Leo X. wrote to Luther in the softest and most pacific terms. From this remarkable letter, (which was published in 1742, by Loscherus, in a German work entitled Unschuld Nachrict) it appears that at the court of Rome they looked upon a reconciliation between Luther and the pontiff as certain and near at hand.

[w] This whole ninth section is added to Dr. Mosheim's work by the translator, who thought that this part of Luther's history deserved to be related in a more circumstantial manner, than it is in the original,

CENT. the whole human race, the remaining quantity, XVI. that was shed in the garden and on the cross, was SECT. I. left as a legacy to the church, to be a treasure from

whence indulgences were to be drawn and administered by the Roman pontiffs [a] :" such a man was not to be reasoned with. But Miltitz proceeded in quite another manner, and his conferences with the Saxon reformer are worthy of attention. He was ordered, indeed, to demand of the elector, that he would either oblige Luther to renounce the doctrines he had hitherto maintained, or, that he would withdraw from him his protection and favour, But, perceiving that he was received by the elector with a degree of coldness that bordered upon contempt, and that Luther's credit and cause were too far advanced to be destroyed by the efforts of mere authority, he had recourse to gentler methods. He loaded Tetzel with the bitterest reproaches, on account of the irregular and superstitious means he had employed for promoting the sale of indulgences, and attributed to this miserable wretch all the abuses that Luther had complained of. Tetzel, on the other hand, burthened with the iniquities of Rome, tormented with a consciousness of his own injustice and extortions, stung with the opprobrious censures of the new legate, and seeing himself equally despised and abhorred by both parties, died of grief and despair [y]. This incendiary being sacrificed as a victim to cover the Roman pontiff from reproach,

[a] Such, among others still more absurd, were the expressions of Cajetan, which he borrowed from one of the Decretals of Clement VI. called (and that justly for more than one reason) Extravagants.

[y] Luther was so affected by the agonies of despair under which Tetzel laboured, that he wrote him a pathetic letter of consolation, which, however, produced no effect. His infamy was perpetuated by a picture placed in the church of Pinna, in which he is represented sitting on an ass and selling indulgences.

SECT, I.

proach, Miltitz entered into a particular conver- CENT. sation with Luther at Altenburg, and, without XVI. pretending to justify the scandalous traffic in question, required only, that he would acknowledge the four following things: 1st, That the 66 people had been seduced by false notions of "indulgences: 2dly, That he (Luther) had "been the cause of that seduction, by represent

ing indulgences as much more heinous than "they really were; 3dly, That the odious con"duct of Tetzel alone had given occasion to "these representations: and, 4thly, That, though "the avarice of Albert, archbishop of Mentz, "had set on Tetzel, yet that this rapacious tax"gatherer had exceeded by far the bounds of his "commission," These proposals were accom. panied with many soothing words, with pompous encomiums on Luther's character, capacity, and talents, and with the softest and most pathetic expostulations in favour of union and concord in an afflicted and divided church; all which Miltitz joined together with the greatest dexterity and address, in order to touch and disarm the Saxon reformer. Nor were his mind and insinuating methods of negotiating without effect; and it was upon this occasion that Luther made submissions which shewed that his views were not, as yet, very extensive, his former prejudices entirely expelled, or his reforming principles steadily fixed. For he not only offered to observe a profound silence for the future with respect to indulgences, provided the same condition were imposed on his adversaries; he went much farther; he proposed writing an humble and submissive letter to the pope, acknowledging that he had carried his zeal and animosity too far; and such a letter he wrote some time after the conference at Altenburg []. He even consented to publish a

circular

[] This letter was dated the 13th of March, 1519, about two months after the conference of Altenburg.