still before him, but those in
which men opposed him did not seem to deserve this name. He had
defeated the devil himself again and again for years. He even
overcame the fear and torment of hell, which did its utmost to cloud
his reason. Such a man might perhaps be killed, but he could hardly be
conquered.

The period of the struggle which now follows, from the beginning of
the indulgences controversy until his departure from the Wartburg--the
time of his greatest victories and of his tremendous popularity--is
perhaps best known; but it seems to us that even here his nature has
never yet been correctly judged.

Nothing is more remarkable at this period than the manner in which
Luther became gradually estranged from the Church of Rome. His life
was modest and without ambition. He clung with the deepest reverence
to the lofty idea of the Church, for fifteen hundred years the
communion of saints; and yet in four short years he was destined to be
cut off from the faith of his fathers, torn from the soil in which he
had been so firmly rooted. And during all this time he was destined to
stand alone in the struggle, or at best with a few faithful
companions--after 1518 together with Melanchthon. He was to be exposed
to all the perils of the fiercest war, not only against innumerable
enemies, but also in defiance of the anxious warnings of sincere
friends and patrons. Three times the Roman party tried to silence
him--through the official activity of Cajetan, through the persuasive
arts of Miltitz, and the untimely persistence of the contentious Eck.
Three times he spoke to the Pope himself in letters which are among
the most valuable documents of those years. Then came the parting. He
was anathematized and outlawed. According to the old university
custom, he burned the enemy's declaration of war, and with it the
possibility of return. With cheerful confidence he went to Worms in
order that the princes of his nation might decide whether he should
die or thenceforth live among them without pope or church, according
to the Bible alone.

[Illustration: _Permission F Pruelmann A G Munich_
FREDERICK WILLIAM I INSPECTING A SCHOOL Adolph von Menzel.]

At first, when he had printed his theses against Tetzel, he was
astonished at the enormous excitement which they caused in Germany, at
the venomous hatred of his enemies, and at the signs of joyful
recognition which he received from many sides. Had he, then, done such
an unheard-of