iddle ages, more
completely than the brethren of his ancestors had done in the olden
time. Luther returned from Rome still a faithful son of the great
Mother, holding all heretical proceedings, as for example those of the
Bohemians, in detestation. He sympathized warmly in Reuchlin's dispute
with the Cologne inquisitor, and about 1512 had sided with the
Humanitarians. But even then he began to find something in their
teaching which separated him from them. When some years later he was at
Gotha, he did not visit the worthy Mutianus Rufus, though he wrote him
a very civil letter of excuse. Soon after, he was much wounded by the
coldness and worldly tone of Erasmus's dialogues, in which theological
sinners are turned into ridicule. The profane worldliness of the
Humanitarians did not suit the earnest faith of Luther; it aroused that
pride which had already taken root in his soul, and caused him
afterwards to wound the sensitive Erasmus in a letter intended to be
conciliatory. Even the form of literary moderation adopted by Luther at
this time, gives us the impression of being wrung by the pressure of
Christian humility from a stubborn spirit.

He felt himself already strong and secure in his faith: in 1506 he
wrote to Spalatinus, who was the connecting link between him and the
Elector, Frederic the Wise, that the Elector was of all men most
knowing in secular wisdom, but in things pertaining to God and the
salvation of souls, he was struck with sevenfold blindness.

Luther had reason for the opinion here expressed, for the domestic
disposition of this sober-minded prince showed itself in his anxiety to
provide for his home the means of grace bestowed by the old Church.
Amongst other things he had a particular fancy for relics, and
Staupitz, vicar-general of the Augustine monks in Germany, was at that
time engaged in collecting these treasures for the Elector. This
absence of his superior was very important to Luther, for he had to
fill his place. He was already a man of high repute in his order; but
though a professor at Wittenberg, he continued to reside in his
monastery, and generally wore his monk's dress. He visited the thirty
monasteries of his congregation, deposed priors, delivered strong
rebukes on account of lax discipline, severely admonished criminal
monks, and had become in 1517 a man of fully developed character and
commanding powers; yet he still preserved somewhat of the trusting
simplicity of the monastic