y hands,
and could not be withdrawn.[29] In intercourse also with his opponents
Luther acquired the confidence of an experienced combatant. He was very
indignant when in the spring of 1518, Jerome Emser had inveigled him at
Dresden to a supper, at which he was obliged to contend with angry
enemies; and still more when he heard that a begging Dominican had
listened at the door, and had the following day reported all over the
town that Luther had been put down by the number of his opponents, and
that the listener had with difficulty restrained himself from springing
into the room and spitting in his face. At the first interview with
Cajetan, he placed himself humbly at the feet of the Prince of the
Church; but after the second, he permitted himself to say that the
Cardinal was as well suited to his business as an ass to play on the
harp. He treated the polite Miltitz with corresponding civility; the
Romanist had hoped to tame the German Bear, but the courtier himself
was soon put in his proper position, and was made use of by Luther; in
the disputation at Leipsic with Eckius, the favourable impression
produced by Luther's unembarrassed, honest, and self-composed
demeanour, was the best counterbalance to the self-sufficient
confidence of his dexterous opponent.

But Luther's inward life demands a higher sympathy. It was a fearful
period for him; he experienced together with a sense of elevation and
victory, mortal anguish, tormenting doubts, and terrible temptations.
He, with a few others, stood against the whole of Christendom, always
opposed by the most powerful and implacable enemies; and these
comprised all that he had from his youth considered most holy. What if
he should be in error? He was answerable for every soul that he carried
away with him. And whither was he taking them? What was there beyond
the pale of the Church?--Destruction, temporal and eternal ruin.
Opponents and timid friends cut his heart with reproaches and warnings,
but incomparably greater was one pain, that secret gnawing and
uncertainty which he dared not confess to any one. In prayer, indeed,
he found peace; when his glowing soul soared up to God, he received
abundance of strength, rest, and cheerfulness; but in his hours of
relaxation, when his irritable spirit writhed under any obnoxious
impressions, he felt himself embarrassed, torn asunder, and under the
interdict of another power which was inimical to his God. From his
childhood he had kno