in his opinions, and how far wrong.-It could no longer ferve any good purpose to spend his time there, and be a burden to his friends. He was really in want of money. Befides, the cardinal had told him, vivâ você, to come no more into his fight, unless he would recant;"-and faid Luther," In my former letter I have diftinctly pointed out all the recantation I can poffibly make." He then fignified his pofitive determination to leave the place; but not before he had formally appealed from the pope's legate, nay from the pope himfelf "ill informed to the fame moft holy Leo X. that he might be better informed." In profecuting this appeal he confeffed that he acted rather froin the judgment of fome perfons of diftinction than from his own. If he had been left entirely to himself, he fhould have thought an appeal unneceffary in this cafe. He wished to refer every thing to the determination of the church. What could he do more? He was not a contentious adversary, but a tractable fcholar. Even the elector Frederic, he knew, would be better pleased with his appeal than his recantation. He therefore befought the cardinal to confider both his departure and his appeal as the effect of neceffity and of the authority of his friends. They faid, WHAT will you retract? Is YOUR retractation to be the rule of OUR FAITH? If any thing, which you have advanced, is to be condemned, let the church decide and do you obey. This reafoning, in his mind was irrefiftible. Luther waited four whole days, reckoning from the day of his difmiffion by the cardinal;-and ftill received no further orders. extremely afflicting; and both friends began to fufpect that this portended violence to his perfon. The fufpenfe was ing feized and imprifoned, he quitted Augfburg very early in the morning of the nineteenth of October 1518. A friendly fenator ordered the gates of the city to be opened, and he mounted a horfe, which Staupitius had procured for him. He had neither boots nor fpurs, nor fword; and he was fo fatigued with that day's journey, that when he defcended from his horfe, he was not able to ftand, but fell down inftantly among the ftraw in the ftable. He had, however, taken care before his departure, that every thing relative to his appeal, should be done in a proper manner and in the prefence of a notary public. Such was the conclufion of the conferences at Augsburg, in which the firmnefs and plain dealing of Luther was no lefs confpicuous than the unreasonable and imperious behaviour of the cardinal. Whatever might be the caufe of that SILENCE for feveral days, on the part of Cajetan, which our reformer and his friends beheld with fo much just fufpicion and jealoufy; whether the legate ftill hoped to bring the affair to a happy termination by the milder methods of influence and perfuafion; or whether his ambiguous conduct is beft explained on the fuppofition that he was intending to feize the perfon of Luther, but did not dare to proceed to extremities, in defiance of the imperial grant of fafe conduct, without further orders from the Roman Some hiftorians say, this happened on the 20th of October, others on the 18th, but I think Luther's own account of the proceedings at Augfburg fhow that he must have left that city on the 19th. It is unneceffary to trouble the reader further refpecting a matter of fo little confequence. + Tom. I. Altemb. p. 150. Paul Sarpi fays, what is not at all improbable,-that Luther had John Hufs's cafe in his head. Roman See;-on almost every imaginable view of his motives, it feems natural to conclude that he must have been much mortified at the fudden departure of Luther. He had neither punished the heretic nor reduced him to fubmiffion. The court of Rome would probably be highly displeased when they heard of his escape; and, in their disappointment, would be apt to forget the difficult circumftances under which the cardinal acted, and to attribute both the present and the confequent mifchiefs to his bad management. In fact, as foon as the events at Augsburg were known at Rome, the pope's legate was blamed exceedingly for his fevere and illiberal treatment of Luther at the very moment, it was said, when he ought to have promised him great riches, a bishopric, or even a cardinal's hat*. Cajetan, no doubt, understood the difpofition of the court of Rome fufficiently to foresee how harsh a conftruction would be put upon his conduct in a bufinefs, which had terminated fo unfavorably to their wishes and expectations. In the bitterness of his heart he complained to the elector of Saxony of Luther's infolent and infincere behaviour; and even reproached his Highness for fupporting fuch a character. He faid, that he had converfed for many hours privately with Staupitius, and one or two more learned friends refpecting this business; that his object had been to preserve the dignity of the Apoftolic See without difgracing BROTHER MARTIN, and that when he had put matters into fuch a train, as to have reasonable hopes of the fuccefs of his plan, he had found himself completely deluded. Martin, his feveral affociates, and his vicar-general, had fuddenly disappeared. Martin indeed had written letters, in which he pretended Father Paul. pretended to beg pardon, but he had retracted not one word of the fcandalous language he had ufed. Laftly, Cajetan warned the prince to confider, how much he was bound in honor and confcience, either to fend Brother Martin to Rome or to banish him from his dominions. As to himself, he said, he had washed his hands of fo peftilential a business, but his Highnefs might be affured the caufe would go on at Rome. It was too important to be paffed over in filence*; and he intreated him not to fully the glory of himself and his illuftrious house for the fake of a paltry mendicant monk, Every pious reader will lament the effect which thefe turbulent and contentious fcenes produced upon the mind of the venerable Staupitius. It fhould feem, that partly an apprehenfion of danger, and partly his private converfation with cardinal Cajetan, influenced this good man to leave his friend, withdraw all further oppofition to the popedom, and retire to Saltzburg. Our more determined and adventurous reformer did not hesitate to tell him, that "he ftuck faft between Chrift and the pope." Let us hope, however, that this judgment of Luther was of the harfher fort; and that, in paffing it, fufficient allowances were not made for the different tempers and ages of men and for inveterate habits. Two reafons induce me to conclude with certainty that Staupitius acted towards Luther with perfect faithfulness at Augsburg. First, it is beyond all difpute, that he affronted Cajetan by leaving that place fuddenly and without taking leave; which he would never have done, if he had Luth. Op. Vol. I. The letter is dated Oct. 25, 1518. + Lib. I. ep. had betrayed his friend by difhonorably entering into any plans for feizing his perfon. Secondly, way of encouraging the perfecuted monk in his difficult circumftances he ufed this language to him, "Remember, my brother, you undertook this business in the name of our Lord Jefus Chrift." Luther himself, three years afterwards, owned these precious words "funk deep into his mind." The truth is, this reverend vicar-general was a man of a timid temper, and well advanced in years; alfo his views of the gofpel were far from being bright or diftinct; and lastly the profpect of peace with the hierarchy, at leaft at Wittemburg, tremely gloomy. was ex Moreover, we cannot doubt but the pope's legate, in his private converfation with Staupitius, would ufe both conciliatory and threatening language. Each would tend to fhake the refolution of fuch a man. And befides the direct and immediate effect of that conversation on the mind of the timorous vicar-general, we may fairly trace fome other important confequences to the fame origin. While he was agitated with the difcuffion, and perhaps yielding to the legate's menaces and advice, he exhorted his lefs pliable monk to exhibit to his fuperiors fome plainer marks of obedience and humility. The firm temper of Luther, which had refifted the imperious dictates of a haughty cardinal, inftantly relented under the intreaties of a mild and affectionate friend. Hence that fubmif five letter, which our reformer wrote to Cajetan* on Monday the feventeenth of October; and hence thofe apologies and conceffions which are contained in it, to the very limit of what his confcience would permit. Probably no part of his own conduct, on a review of the proceedings at Augsburg, * Page 349. would |