ich Reuchlin and Erasmus heaped upon the stupid
monks. It raised no laugh, but penetrated, like a rifle-shot, into the
very heart of things.

Those who listened were deeply affected by the serious boldness of the
preacher. The audience was with him in conviction, but many trembled
for the result. "Dear doctor, you have been very rash; what trouble
may come of this!" said a venerable father as he pulled the sleeve of
Luther's gown and shook his head with misgivings. "If this is not
rightly done in God's name," said Luther, "it will come to nothing; if
it is, let come what will."

It was honest duty to God, truth, and the salvation of men that moved
him. Cowardly policy or timid expediency in such a matter was totally
foreign to his soul.

In a few days, the substance of the sermon was in print. Tetzel raved
over it. Melanchthon says he burnt it in the market-place of
Jueterbock. In the name of God and the pope he bade defiance to its
author, and challenged him by fire and water. Luther laughed at him
for braying so loud at a distance, yet declining to come to Wittenberg
to argue out the matter in close lists.

APPEAL TO THE BISHOPS.

Anxious to vindicate the Church from what he believed to be an
unwarranted liberty in the use of her name, Luther wrote to the bishop
of Brandenburg and the archbishop of Mayence. He made his points, and
appealed to these his superiors to put down the scandalous falsities
advanced by Tetzel. They failed to answer in any decisive way. The one
timidly advised silence, and the other had too much pecuniary interest
in the business to notice the letter.

Thus, as a pastor, Luther had taken his ground before his parishioners
in the confessional. As a preacher he had uttered himself in earnest
admonition from the pulpit. As a loyal son he had made his
presentation and appeal to those in authority over him. Was he right?
or was he wrong? No commanding answer came, and there remained one
other way of testing the question. As a doctor of divinity he could
lawfully, as custom had been, demand an open and fair discussion of
the matter with teachers and theologians. And upon this he now
resolved.

THE NINETY-FIVE THESES.

He framed a list of propositions on the points in question. They were
in Latin, for his appeal was to theologians, and not yet to the common
heart and mind of Germany. To make them public, he took advantage of a
great festival at Wittenberg, when the town was full of visi