t"--appears in strange conflict with
his awakened thoughtfulness and the moral indignation at the abuses of
the papacy beginning to stir him.

[Illustration: Luther introduced to the home of Frau Cotta.]

On Luther's return from Rome he was made a doctor of the Holy
Scriptures, and his career as a reformer may be said to have commenced.
The system of indulgences had reached a scandalous height. The idea that
it was in the power of the Church to forgive sin had gradually grown
into the notion that the Pope could issue pardons of his own free will,
which, being dispensed to the faithful, exonerated them from the
consequences of their transgressions. The sale of these pardons had
become an organized part of the papal system. Money was largely needed
at Rome, and its numerous emissaries sought everywhere to raise funds by
the sale of "indulgences;" the principal of these was John Tetzel, a
Dominican friar, who had established himself at Jueterberg (1517).
Luther's indignation at the shameless traffic which this man carried on,
finally became irrepressible. "God willing," he exclaimed, "I will beat
a hole in his drum." He drew out ninety-five theses on the doctrine of
indulgences, which on October 31st he nailed up on the door of the
church at Wittenberg, and which he offered to maintain in the university
against all impugners. The general purport of these theses was to deny
to the Pope all right to forgive sins. This sudden and bold step of
Luther was all that was necessary to awaken a wide-spread excitement.
Tetzel was forced to retreat from the borders of Saxony to
Frankfort-on-the-Oder, where he drew out and published a set of
counter-theses and publicly committed those of Luther to the flames. The
students at Wittenberg retaliated by burning Tetzel's theses. The
elector refused to interfere, and the excitement increased as new
combatants--Hochstratten, Prierias, and Eck--entered the field. Eck was
an able man, and an old friend of Luther's, and the argument between him
and the reformer was especially vehement. In 1518 the latter was joined
by Melancthon, who became one of his dearest and most trusted friends.

At first the Pope, Leo X., took little heed of the disturbance; he is
reported even to have said, when he heard of it, that "Friar Martin was
a man of genius, and that he did not wish to have him molested." Some of
the cardinals, however, saw the real character of the movement, which
gradually assumed a seriousn