*

noble qualities he had previously eulogised in the strongest expressions, entertained both Eck and himself at table with great condescension and courtesy; and in the freedom of private intercourse he remarked, “Whether it be by divine or human right, the Roman Pontiff is and still remains the highest Pontiff." "And truly," Luther adds, "said he this; and it was no slight sarcasm that he thus cast, with such signal moderation, upon our useless disputation."

This was addressed to Spalatin on the 15th of the August following; and it might then suit the purpose of Luther to express, in that quarter, his conviction of the inutility of the debate, especially as it had not terminated with any ostensible triumph to himself or his cause; and as the means of immediate advantage to either party it might indeed be fruitless, since the universities of Erfurth and Paris, to which the decision was referred, were not likely to pronounce a hasty judgment. But the use of this disputation, as Luther well knew, lay in the public broaching of a question held in some measure sacred-in the removal of the fears, the scruples, the prejudices, the reverential awe, which surrounded it—in laying bare its approaches, and inviting all men to examine and handle it: thus, and thus only, could there be any hope of placing it upon its right understanding; for, though the progress of reason and virtue does sometimes seem, by its slow and timid movements and the

+ "Omnium maximè laudandus est illustrissimus Princeps Dux Georgius, qui vere principali clementia et munificentia nihil omisit, quod ad felicissimum hujus disputationis fructum facere posset, &c. . . . Indolui optimum et piissimum Principem alienis ita patere et parere affectibus, quem videbam et expertus eram satis principaliter loqui, quando sua loquebatur."-Luther to Spalatin, July 20, 1519. (No. 147.) I cite these expressions for the same reason with those above.

violence of its occasional interruptions, to defy the calculations of human providence, and to throw despair on the aspirations of the wise and good, yet the surest method of promoting it is the free and unrestrained and persevering appeal to that last and greatest, though somewhat capricious tribunal, public opinion.

As might be expected in a contest so vigorously conducted, on a subject capable of such extensive and evasive reasoning, among hearers previously prejudiced on the one side or the other, and in the absence of any authorised judges, the victory was claimed by both parties. An intense interest had been excited during the progress of the disputation, not only among the spectators, who frequently and clamorously expressed their feelings, but among the students and citizens, in the hotels and all other places of public resort. The theologians of Leipzig did not conceal their bitterness against the strangers, occasioned no doubt by the suspicious tendency of their doctrines, and heightened by academical jealousy; for the schools of Wittemberg were now overflowing with students, who thronged thither, at the expense of the older institutions, from every part of Germany. Accordingly they extolled the talents of Eck and applauded his success. "It is Eck," as Luther himself wrote to Spalatin, "it is he who is in favour; it is he who triumphs and holds dominion, but only until we shall make our appeal to the public." "I have just been disputing at Leipzig" (so Eck, in a letter to Hoogstraten on July 24, 1519) "before a numerous audience of very learned men from every quarter, and have succeeded in lessening the influence of their doctrine even on the vulgar-among the learned it is almost entirely extinct. ... Luther argued that some among the Bohemian tenets condemned at Constance were strictly Christian and evangelical, whereby he terrified and alienated many who previously

favoured him. . . . . On St. Peter's day, in the absence of the prince, he preached in the hall of disputation a Hussite sermon, full of manifest errors. I addressed a large congregation in reply, and roused the people against his false doctrine." The inhabitants of the city were indeed as warm partisans as the divines of the university, and they showed their spirit by some acts of neglect and incivility felt and mentioned by Luther.

Yet he, on his part, seems to have lost nothing in general reputation either for learning or intellectual power by this dispute; and even his antagonist, who affected to despise and deride the laborious exertions of Carlstadt, dared not to refuse to Luther a qualified commendation. A more valuable testimony, and deserving greater notice, as entering more particularly into the personal qualities of the Reformer, is that of Petrus Mosellanus, who wrote, with much impartiality, two accounts of this disputation. In one of them (addressed to Julius Pflug) we find the following curious description:-" Martin is of a middle stature, thin and worn with anxiety and study, so that one may count almost all his bones, but of manly and fresh age and with a clear and loud voice. His knowledge of Scripture is so great that he has all at his fingers' end. He is so conversant with Greek and Hebrew that he can judge of the fidelity of interpretations. He possesses, too, a great abundance and command of words and facts; but is, perhaps, somewhat deficient in judgment and discretion in the use of them.* In his manners he is courteous and friendly, and has nothing stoical or supercilious about him, he can

"Judicium fortasse et utendi rationem in eo desideres." These words are omitted by Loescher, Act. Reform, t. iii. p. 247, and by Marheinecke (cap. v. p. 132), who probably followed Loescher. So is the word "nugator," a few lines below,—“ Festivus et jucundus nugator.” Errors of this description on the part of Protestant writers are some

accommodate himself to all occasions. In society he is a gay and pleasant trifler, lively and careless, and always of bright and joyous aspect, let his opponent threaten him never so fiercely; so that one can scarcely imagine this man to have undertaken such weighty matters without the aid of God. But the fault which almost all find with him is, that he is somewhat imprudent in reprehension, and more biting than is safe in an innovator in religious matters, or decorous in a theologian."

It was the immediate consequence of the disputation at Leipzig to multiply the enemies no less than the friends of Luther. So decided a proclamation of opposite opinions, so warmly and elaborately supported, excited many indifferent minds, and fixed many that were irresolute; so that several, who had been hitherto mere spectators of the strife, now enlisted as zealous partisans. Those Romanists who, through contempt of the obscure monk, had hitherto kept aloof, now perceived that there was much, both in the man and in his principles, to move their apprehensions. Those Reformers, who had been deterred by the boldness of the enterprise from lending it their support, now observed that the ground was daily growing firmer and more secure, and less accessible to the ministers of the Inquisition. The arguments which had been broached in public were repeated in the intercourse of private life. The dispute grew warmer, as it extended more widely and exercised the feelings no less than the understandings of men; and thus it became more and more certain, that the difference could not now be set at rest without some serious struggle, and that the result of that struggle must be some sort of reformation in the system of the church.

what unfortunate, as they expose them to plausible charges of partiality from their adversaries.

Immediately after the conclusion of the disputation Eck addressed (on the 23rd of July) a letter to the Elector of Saxony, exhorting him to discourage the pernicious doctrines of his professor and to cause his books to be burnt. Frederick replied, after some delay and with great moderation. In the mean time he sent the letter to Luther and Carlstadt, who treated it with controversial severity in an answer of the 18th of August. In the beginning of the November following* Eck published a powerful and elaborate reply, in which he comprehended not only such imputations against the tenets and person of Luther as were calculated for the effect of the moment, but also many of the arguments which, in the subsequent disputes, were urged with the greatest show of reason against the confessions of the Protestants.

It had been agreed, as has been mentioned, that the Acts of the Conference should not be made public; but Luther, who knew that his cause could only stand through general discussion, soon found means of evading this compact. He presently published, not indeed the Acts in question, but his own "Solutions" of the thesis,† with a concise account of the disputation. In this work he examined the authority of the fathers and of general councils; he pressed with great earnestness the doctrine of justification by faith; he boldly condemned the principle of indulgences as set forth in the Extravagant of Clement VI. and in the recent bull of Leo; and, while he professed his continued reverence for the See of Rome, he justified his argument respecting the foundation of its power. At the same time two new and powerful supporters declared their adhesion to his cause, and engaged their talents in its defence-Ecolampadius and

* Seckend., lib. i. sect. 26, § 61.

+ "Resolutiones super Propositionibus Lipsiæ Disputatis."