stem of
indulgences. And, in regard to any idea on Luther's part of the effects
of his theses extending widely in Germany, it may be noticed that not
only were they composed in Latin, but that they dealt largely with
scholastic expressions and ideas, which a layman would find it difficult
to understand.

Nevertheless the theses created a sensation which far surpassed Luther's
expectations. In fourteen days, as he tells us, they ran through the
whole of Germany, and were immediately translated and circulated in
German. They found, indeed, the soil already prepared for them, through
the indignation long since and generally aroused by the shameless doings
they attacked; though till then nobody, as Luther expresses it, had
liked to bell the cat, nobody had dared to expose himself to the
blasphemous clamor of the indulgence-mongers and the monks who were in
league with them, still less to the threatened charge of heresy. On the
other hand, the very impunity with which this traffic in indulgences had
been maintained throughout German Christendom had served to increase
from day to day the audacity of its promoters.

The task that Luther had now undertaken lay heavy upon his soul. He was
sincerely anxious, while fighting for the truth, to remain at peace with
his Church, and to serve her by the struggle. Pope Leo, on the contrary,
as was consistent with his whole character, treated the matter at first
very lightly, and, when it threatened to become dangerous, thought only
how, by means of his papal power, to make the restless German monk
harmless.

Two expressions of his in these early days of the contest are recorded.
"Brother Martin," he said, "is a man of a very fine genius, and this
outbreak the mere squabble of envious monks;" and again, "It is a
drunken German who has written the theses; he will think differently
about them when sober." Three months after the theses had appeared, he
ordered the vicar-general of the Augustinians to "quiet down the man,"
hoping still to extinguish easily the flame. The next step was to
institute a tribunal for heretics at Rome for Luther's trial; what its
judgment would be was patent from the fact that the single theologian of
learning among the judges was Sylvester Prierias. Before this tribunal
Luther was cited on August 7th; within sixty days he was to appear there
at Rome. Friend and foe could well feel certain that they would look in
vain for his return.

Papal influence, meanwhil