pric, if
he did well.

To silence men, excommunicate them, degrade them, has never been done
except when it was deemed that the safety of the Church demanded it.

The Church, like governments--all governments--is founded upon the
consent of the governed. So every religion, and every government,
changes with the people--rulers study closely the will of the people and
endeavor to conform to their desire. Priests and preachers give people
the religion they wish for--it is a question of supply and demand.

The Church has constantly changed as the intelligence of the people has
changed. And this change is always easy and natural. Dogmas and creeds
may remain the same, but progress consists in giving a spiritual or
poetic interpretation to that which once was taken literally. The scheme
of the Esoteric and the Exoteric is a sliding, self-lubricating,
self-adjusting, non-copyrighted invention--perfect in its workings--that
all wise theologians fall back upon in time of stress.

Had Luther obeyed the mandate and gone to Rome, that would have been the
last of Luther.

Private interpretation is all right, of course: the Church has always
taught it--the mistake is to teach it to everybody. Those who should
know, do know. Spiritual adolescence comes in due time, and then all
things are made plain--be wise!

But Luther was not to be bought off. His followers were growing in
numbers, the howls of his enemies increased.

Strong men grow through opposition--the plummet of feeling goes deeper,
thought soars higher--vivid and stern personalities make enemies because
they need them, otherwise they drowse. Then they need friends, too, to
encourage: opposition and encouragement--thus do we get the alternating
current.

That Luther had not been publicly answered, except by Tetzel's weak
rejoinders, was a constant boast in the liberal camp; and that Tetzel
was only fit to address an audience of ignorant peasantry was very sure:
some one else must be put forward worthy of Martin Luther's steel.

Then comes John Eck, a priest and lawyer, a man in intimate touch with
Rome, and the foremost public disputant and orator of his time. He
proposed to meet Luther in public debate. In social station Eck stood
much higher than Luther. Luther was a poor college professor in a poor
little University--a mere pedagog, a nobody. That Eck should meet him
was a condescension on the part of Eck--as Eck explained.

They met at the University of Leipzi