the guest, and wondered who he could be. The landlord
declared it was Luther, and the merchants were soon convinced of it,
and regretted that they had spoken so unbecomingly before him, and
said, 'They would rise at an early hour in the morning, that they might
see him before he started; and would beg of him not to be angry with
them, as they had not known who he was.' This they did, and found him
in the morning in the stable; but Martinus answered them, 'You said
last night at supper that you would give ten gulden to confess yourself
to Luther; when you do so, you will see and learn if I am Martinus
Luther.' He did not make himself further known, but mounted his horse
and rode off to Wittenberg.

"On the following Saturday, the day before the first Sunday in Lent, we
presented ourselves at Dr. Jerome Schurf's house to deliver our
letters. When we entered the room, behold we found there the knight
Martinus just as we had seen him at Jena, and with him were Philippus
Melancthon, Justus Jodocus Jonas, Nicholas Amsdorf, and Dr. Augustin
Schurf, who were telling him what had happened during his absence from
Wittenberg: he greeted us, and laughing, pointed with his finger, and
said, 'This is the Philip Melancthon of whom I told you.'"

There is nothing more remarkable in the truthlike narrative of Kessler,
than the cheerful tranquillity of the great man whilst riding through
Thuringia under ban and interdict, his heart filled with anxious care,
on account of the great danger with which his doctrines were threatened
by the fanaticism of his own partisans.

CHAPTER VI.

DR. LUTHER.
(1517-1546.)

Even the most enlightened Roman Catholics look with horror upon Luther
and Zwinglius as originators of the schism in their old Church. It is
to be hoped that such views may disappear in Germany. All sects have
reason to thank Luther for whatever depth and spirituality now remains
in their faith: The heretic of Wittenberg was as much the reformer of
German Roman Catholics as of Protestants; not only, because in the
struggle with him the teachers of the Roman Catholic Church were
obliged to erect at Trent a firmer building on the ruins of the Church
of the middle ages, but because he left the impress of his mind on the
character of the people, in which we all equally partake. Some things
for which the obstinate and pugnacious Luther co