the emperor with a plausible motive for withdrawing the safe conduct which, to the great discontent of the papal legates, he had granted me. Bundschuch is the watchword which was soon to resound among the peasants."

There were in the emperor's council some princes who wished to arrest the doctor and put him on his trial; Duke George nobly defended the cause of the monk. "What we have promised we must perform," he said; "it would be an ineffaceable stain on us nobles to depart from our word; our ancestors would be ashamed of us." 66 Right!" said the emperor, pressing his hand," right, noble duke! if ever good faith were banished from the earth, it is at the court of princes that it must find refuge."

* * * * On the 26th of April, after a repast given him by his friends, the doctor set out for Wittenberg.

Thus ended the drama of Worms, one of the most remarkable scenes in the life of the reformer, and which we have reproduced after Luther's own notes, without making any change on this charming simplicity of wording. Even the Catholic, if he forgets for a moment the sectarian to consider only the man, loves to look on this black frock, standing before barons and

lords, all helmeted, spurred, and cuirassed; and he cannot but be moved at the voice of " this little monk" who has come to defy all the powers of the earth. This emperor with whom lie the interests of Germany, and whom a monk arrests in his path; these two lawyers, Amsdorf and Jonas, who press with so much zeal round their master, ready to defend him with their arms and their voices; this populace, for whom the monk is the greatest novelty of the age; this old Freundsberg, who speaks to the pilgrim as to a soldier; this archbishop, with head grown white in the service of God, surrounded by all these weapons of steel glittering in the sun; this Vehus, eloquent in logic; these hot tempers of the south, face to face with the cool undemonstrative Teutons-all this forms a magnificent scene. At each word of the monk we hold our breath and tremble, thinking that the emperor hears him, the emperor who can crush the rebellious ecclesiastic almost without a word. Honour be to the young sovereign, whose age might have excused his anger, and who would have found such ready instruments to work his wrath! He did not seek them; generous and kept his

he was word.

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to whose service he had entirely given his heart, of whom he says: "she was not a countess, not a duchess, but one of still nobler rank;" in what tender and impassioned tones he would address her; how he would prove his devotion; what feats of arms he would do in her honour. Such were the dreams which alternately filled his mind.

But the longer he remained in this state and began to despair of recovery, the more did the religious visions get the mastery of the worldly ones. Is it unjust to him to suppose that this happened as he became slowly convinced that he should never regain his strength, never be fit for military service and knightly deeds?

The change was not so abrupt or complete as might be thought. In his spiritual exercises, the beginning of which may be dated from the first excited reflections of his awakened conscience, he imagines to himself two camps arrayed for battle, one at Jerusalem, one at Babylon, one that of Christ, the other of Satan; the one stainlessly pure, the other steeped in wickedness. Christ he represents as a sovereign who has summoned all nations to conquer the infidels. Whoever would follow him to war, must taste of His food and be clad in His raiment; he must endure like toils and vigils, if he would share the victory and the crown. It was probably through such wild visions that he passed from worldly to spiritual knighthood. For all his thoughts were now bent upon such an ideal institution, modelled

upon the acts and admonitions of the saints. He tore himself away from his father's house and family, and took up his abode on Mount Montserrat, not driven to this by remorse for his sins nor overpowering feelings of a really religious nature, but, he himself has told us, by the sole desire to achieve as great deeds as those for which the saints had been celebrated; to undergo mortifications of the flesh as severe as theirs, or even severer, and to serve God by a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Before an image of the Blessed Virgin he hung up his spear and shield, and there, with his pilgrim's staff in his hand, knelt or stood in prayer -a vigil which was not that of knighthood, but was clearly suggested by Amadis, which presents such a close picture of the rules and customs of chivalry. He gave away the knightly dress and arms which he had worn on his journey, and put on the coarse dress of the hermits whose solitary cells are hewn in these bare rocks. He made a confession of all his sins; then, fearing that if he went direct to Barcelona on his road to Jerusalem he would be recognised in the streets, he first repaired to Manresa, intending to reach the sea from thence, after renewing his penances.

But here fresh trials awaited him. The frame of mind which he had encouraged as a sport of the imagination, had come to exercise entire dominion over him, and began to exhibit its tremendous power.

In a cell of a Do

SOON after Luther's appearance, the rashness or ignorance of some of his disciples led them to publish tenets no less absurd than pernicious, which being proposed to men extremely illiterate, but fond of novelty, and at a time when their minds were occupied chiefly with religious speculations, gained too easy credit and authority among them. To these causes must be imputed the extravagances of Muncer, in the year 1525, as well as the rapid progress which his opinions made among the peasants; but though the insurrection excited by that fanatic was soon suppressed, several of his followers lurked in different places, and endeavoured privately to propagate his opinions.

In those provinces of Upper Germany which had already been so cruelly wasted by their enthusiastic rage, the magistrates watched their motions with such severe attention, that many of them found it necessary to retire into other countries; some were punished, others driven into exile, and their

errors were entirely rooted out. But in the Netherlands and Westphalia, where the pernicious tendency of their opinions was more unknown, and guarded against with less care, they got admittance into several towns, and spread the infection of their principles. The most remarkable of their religious tenets related to the sacrament of baptism, which, as they contended, ought to be administered only to persons grown up to years of understanding, and should be performed not by sprinkling them with water, but by dipping them in it for this reason they condemned the baptism of infants; and rebaptizing all whom they admitted into their society, the sect came to be distinguished by the name of Anabaptists. To this peculiar notion concerning baptism, which has the appearance of being founded on the practice of the Church in the apostolic age, and contains nothing inconsistent with the peace and order of human society, they added other principles of a most enthusiastic as well as

tions in the dominions of the Western Church, he was not slow to see that this was the only career he could enter upon with a prospect of success.

He therefore had himself ordained priest, along with all his companions. After passing forty days in retirement and prayer, he and three others began to preach in Vicenza. Simultaneously they presented themselves in different streets, standing upon stones, waving their hats, and loudly calling to repentance. Their look was strange; squalid in their attire, pale and haggard from fastings and penance; their language was a scarcely intelligible jumble of Spanish and Italian. In this neighbourhood, as they had determined, they remained for one year; then they proceeded to Rome.

Before separating by the different roads they had fixed to take, they drew up rules by which, even when far apart, they might observe some uniformity of life. It was a question with them how they should reply to any inquiries as to their profession. They were pleased with the fancy of making war on Satan like soldiers, and, falling in with the old martial

Their position at Rome was at first neither favourable nor pleasant; Ignatius seemed to find every door shut against him, and again they were obliged to be absolved from the imputation of heresy. But here, also, a number of disciples were attracted by the austerity of their lives, their diligence in preaching and teaching, and their care of the sick. So many were inclined to join them, that they were justified in meditating the formation of an organised body. Already they had bound themselves by two vows. They now took a third, that of obedience, and strove to excel all the other monastic bodies in that which Ignatius had always held to be the chief of virtues. It was no small matter that they resolved to elect a general for life; but that was not enough. They added the remarkable obligation to do whatever the reigning Pope should bid them, to go at once, without objection, stipulation, or reward, into any land where he chose to send them, among Turks, heathen, or heretics.