eakness of God, which is stronger than man. God had
brought together these kings and these prelates publicly to confound
their wisdom. These bold words had had also a deep effect on the Knight
of Lindburg, and he kept meditating on them as he rode homeward towards
the north. Could it, then, be possible that the lowly monk--the
peasant's son--should be right, and all those great persons, who wished
to condemn him, wrong? Was that faith, in which he himself had been
brought up, not the true one? Was there a purer and a better? He must
consult Father Nicholas Keller, his confessor, and hear what he had to
say on the subject. The Knight carried out his intention. Father
Nicholas was puzzled; scarcely knew what answer to make. It was a
dreadful thing to differ with the Church--to rebel against the Pope.
Dr Martin was a learned man, but he opined that he was following too
closely in the steps of John Huss, and the Knight, his patron, knew that
they led to the stake. He had no wish that any one under his spiritual
charge should go there. As to the Scriptures, he had read but very
small portions of them, and he could not tell how far Dr Martin's
opinions were formed from them. The Knight was not satisfied. He asked
Father Nicholas to explain what was the Church, and if it was not
founded on the Scriptures, on what was it founded? Father Nicholas
replied that it was founded on Peter, and that the popes were Peter's
successors, and that therefore the Church was founded on the Pope. The
Knight remarked that from what he had heard of Peter he must have been a
very different sort of person to Leo the Tenth, and he asked what we
knew about Peter, and indeed the other apostles, except through the
Scriptures? Father Nicholas, shaking his head at so preposterous a
question, replied, "Through tradition." The Knight asked, "What is
tradition?" Father Nicholas hesitated--coughed--hemmed--and then said,
"My son, tradition--is tradition! And now let us change the subject, it
is becoming dangerous."

The Knight was not yet satisfied, and he determined to look more
particularly into the matter. When, therefore, his son Eric came home,
and expressed a strong desire to migrate to Wittemburg, that he might
pursue his studies under the learned professors of that University, Drs.
Martin Luther, Melancthon, Jerome Schurff, Jonas Armsdorff, Augustin
Schurff, and others, he made no objection. Dame Margaret, his wife,
however, and