brother.

Thus, when he had affixed the Theses against Tetzel to the church door,
he writes confidingly to the Archbishop Albrecht of Maintz, the
protector of the trader in indulgences. Full of the popular faith in
the good sense and the good will of the governing powers, Luther
thought--he often said so later--nothing was necessary but to represent
straightforwardly to the princes of the Church the injurious effects
and immorality of these malpractices.[27] But how childish did this
zeal of the monk appear to the smooth and worldly prince of the Church!
That which had roused such deep indignation in the upright man, had
from the archbishop's point of view long been a settled question. The
sale of indulgences was a much lamented evil in the Church, but
unavoidable, as are to politicians many regulations not good in
themselves, but necessary to preserve some great interests. The
greatest interest of the archbishops and the guardians of the Romish
Church was their dominion, which was to be won and maintained by such
means of acquiring money. The greatest interest of Luther and the
people was truth; here, therefore, their paths separated.

Thus Luther entered into the struggle, full of faith, still a true son
of the Church, and with all the German devotedness to authority; but
yet his firm connection with his God worked in him strongly against
this authority. He was then thirty-four years of age, in the full
vigour of his strength, of middle size, thin, but strongly made, so
that he appeared tall by the side of the small delicate boyish figure
of Melancthon. Fiery eyes, whose intense brilliancy was almost
overpowering, glowed in a face in which one could perceive the effects
of night watches and inward struggles. Though a man of great repute,
not only in his order, but in the university, he was no great scholar;
he first began to learn Greek with Melancthon, and soon afterwards
Hebrew; he possessed no great compass of book learning, and never had
any ambition to shine as a Latin poet. But he was astonishingly well
read in the Holy Scriptures and some of the Fathers, and whatever he
took up he worked out profoundly. He was unwearied in his care for the
souls of his congregation, a zealous preacher, and a warm friend; he
had a certain frank gaiety, together with a self-possessed demeanour,
and much courteous tact; the certainty of his convictions appeared in
his social intercourse, and gave a cheerful radiance to his
coun