The next day587 Luther waited for the articles which the legate was to send him, but no message arriving, he begged his friend, Dr. Winceslaus Link, to go to the cardinal. De Vio received Link with the greatest affability, and assured him that he would act only as a friend. "I no longer," says he, "regard Doctor Martin Luther as a heretic. I will not excommunicate him at this time, at least if I do not receive other orders from Rome. I have sent his reply to the pope by an express." Then, to give a proof of his good intentions, he added, "Would Doctor Martin Luther only retract what relates to the indulgences, the affair would soon be ended; for, with regard to faith in the sacrament, it is an article which every one may interpret and understand in his own way." Spalatin, who relates these words, adds the sarcastic but just remark: "It clearly follows, that Rome has more regard for money than for the purity of the faith and the salvation of souls."588
Link returned to Luther. He found Staupitz with him, and gave an account of his visit. When he mentioned the legate's unlooked for concession, "It had been worth while," said Staupitz, "for Dr. Winceslaus to have had a notary and witnesses with him to take down the words, for if such a proposal was known it would greatly prejudice the cause of the Romans."
Meanwhile, the smoother the prelate's words became, the less the honest Germans trusted him. Several of the worthy men to whom Luther had been recommended consulted together. "The legate," said they, "is plotting some mischief by the courier of whom he speaks; there is good ground to fear that you will all be seized and cast into prison."
Staupitz and Winceslaus, therefore, determined to quit the town. Embracing Luther, who persisted in remaining at Augsburg, they set out in all haste by different roads for Nuremberg, not without a feeling of great uneasiness as to the fate of the intrepid witness whom they left behind.
Sunday passed quietly enough. Luther waited in vain for a message from the legate. But as he did not send him a word, Luther at last resolved to write him. Staupitz and Link, before their departure, had begged him to make all possible submission to the cardinal. Luther was yet without experience in Rome and its envoys; but if submission did not succeed, he would be able to regard it as a warning. Now, he must at least make the attempt. In so far as concerns himself, not a day passes in which he does not condemn himself, does not mourn over the facility with which he allows himself to be hurried into expressions which exceed the bounds of propriety. Why should he not confess to the cardinal that which he daily confesses to God? Luther, moreover, had a heart which was easily touched, and which suspected no evil. He therefore took up the pen, and, under a feeling of respect and good will, wrote to the cardinal as follows:589—
Most worthy Father in God,—I come once more, not with my voice, but by writing, to supplicate your paternal goodness to give me a favourable hearing. The reverend Doctor Staupitz, my very dear Father in Christ, has asked me to humble myself, to renounce my own opinion, and submit it to the judgment of pious and impartial men. He also has lauded your paternal goodness, and convinced me of the favourable sentiments with which you are animated towards me. The tidings filled me with joy.
"Now, then, most worthy father, I confess, as I have already done, that I have not shown enough of modesty, enough of meekness, enough of respect for the name of the sovereign pontiff; and although I have been greatly provoked, I perceive it would have been far better for me to have treated the affair with more humility, good nature, and reverence, 'not answering a fool according to his folly, for fear of being like unto him.' (Prov., xxvi, 4.)
"This grieves me very much; I ask pardon for it; and I am willing to announce it to the people from the pulpit, as indeed I have already often done. I will endeavour, by the grace of God, to speak differently. Moreover, I am ready to promise, that, unless I am asked, I will not say a single word on the subject of indulgences after this affair is arranged. But, in like manner, let those who led me to begin it be obliged hereafter to be moderate in their discourses, or to be silent.
"As regards the truth of my doctrine, the authority of St. Thomas and other doctors cannot satisfy me. If I am worthy of it, I must hear the voice of the spouse, who is the Church. For it is certain that she hears the voice of the Bridegroom who is Christ.
"With all humility and submission, therefore, I pray your paternal love to refer the whole of this matter, which to this hour is so uncertain, to our most holy lord, Leo X, in order that the Church may decide, pronounce, and ordain, thereby enabling men to retract with a good conscience, or to believe in sincerity."590
The reading of this letter suggests a reflection. It shows us that Luther was not acting on a premeditated system, but only in virtue of convictions which were successively impressed on his mind and his heart.
So far from having adopted a fixed system, or calculated opposition, he was sometimes, without suspecting it, at variance with himself. Old convictions still prevailed in his mind, even after contrary convictions had taken root. And yet, in these evidences of sincerity and truth, men have searched for weapons to assail the Reformation; because it followed the obligatory law of progress invariably imposed on the human mind, they have written the history of its variations; in the very traits which attest its sincerity, and consequently do it honour, one of the greatest geniuses of Christendom has found his strongest objections to it.591 Inconceivable is the waywardness of the human mind!
Luther received no answer to his letter. Cajetan and his courtiers, from being violently agitated, became all at once motionless. What could the reason be? Might it not be the calm which precedes the storm? Some are of the opinion of Pallavicini, who observes, that "the cardinal expected that the proud monk would, like inflated bellows, gradually lose the wind with which he was filled, and become quite humble."592 Others, who thought themselves better acquainted with the ways of Rome, felt assured that the legate was preparing to seize Luther; but not daring, of his own accord, to proceed to such extremities in defiance of the imperial safe-conduct, was waiting for an answer from Rome. Others, again, could not admit that the cardinal would consent to wait so long. The Emperor, Maximilian, they said, (and this may indeed have been true,) would have no more scruple in delivering up Luther to the judgment of the Church, in spite of the safe-conduct, than Sigismund had in delivering up John Huss to the Council of Constance. Their conjecture, therefore, was, that the legate was negotiating with the emperor. The sanction of Maximilian might arrive at any hour. The greater the opposition he had formerly showed to the pope, the more disposed he now seemed to flatter him, until he should succeed in encircling the head of his grandson with the imperial crown. There was not an instant to be lost, "and, therefore," said the generous men around Luther, "prepare an appeal to the pope, and quit Augsburg without delay."
Luther, whose presence in the town had for four days been quite useless, and who, by remaining these four days after the departure of the Saxon counsellors whom the Elector had sent to watch over his safety, had sufficiently demonstrated that he feared nothing, and was ready to answer every charge, at length yielded to the urgent entreaties of his friends. Wishing to leave a notification to De Vio, he wrote him on Tuesday, the evening before his departure. This second letter is firmer in its tone than the former. It would seem that Luther, in perceiving that all his advances were vain, began to hold up his head, and show that he had a due sense both of his own rights, and of the injustice of his enemies.
"Most worthy Father in God," wrote he to De Vio, "your paternal goodness has seen, yes, I say, seen, and distinctly recognised my obedience. I have undertaken a distant journey, in the midst of great dangers, in much bodily weakness, and notwithstanding of my extreme poverty, on the order of our most holy lord, Leo X. I have appeared personally before your Eminence; in fine, I have thrown myself at the feet of his Holiness, and am now waiting his pleasure, prepared to acquiesce in his judgment, whether he condemn or acquit me. I thus feel that I have omitted nothing which becomes