Theses-controversy, and threw a great part of the blame on poor Tetzel; he used all his powers of
persuasion, and entreated him with tears not to divide the unity of the holy Catholic Church.
They agreed that the matter should be settled by a German bishop instead of going to Rome,
and that in the mean time both parties were to keep silence. Luther promised to ask the pardon of
the Pope, and to warn the people against the sin of separating from the holy mother-church. After
this agreement they partook of a social supper, and parted with a kiss. Miltitz must have felt very
proud of his masterpiece of ecclesiastical diplomacy.
Luther complied with his promises in a way which seems irreconcilable with his honest
convictions and subse-quent conduct. But we must remember the deep conflicts of his mind, the
awful responsibility of his undertaking, the critical character of the situation. Well might he pause
for a while, and shrink back from the idea of a separation from the church of his fathers, so intimately
connected with his religious life as well as with the whole history of Christianity for fifteen hundred
years. He had to break a new path which became so easy for others. We must all the more admire
his conscientiousness.
In his letter to the Pope, dated March 3, 1519, he expressed the deepest personal humility,
and denied that he ever intended to injure the Roman Church, which was over every other power
in heaven and on earth, save only Jesus Christ the Lord over all. Yet he repudiated the idea of
retracting his conscientious convictions.
In his address to the people, he allowed the value of indulgences, but only as a recompense
for the "satisfaction" given by, the sinner, and urged the duty of adhering, notwithstanding her
faults and sins, to the holy Roman Church, where St. Peter and St. Paul, and many Popes and
thousands of martyrs, had shed their blood.
At the same time, Luther continued the careful study of history, and could find no trace of
popery and its extraordinary claims in the first centuries before the Council of Nicaea. He discovered
that the Papal Decretals, and the Donation of Constantine, were a forgery. He wrote to Spalatin,
March 13, 1519, "I know not whether tho Pope is anti-christ himself, or his apostle; so wretchedly
is Christ, that is the truth, corrupted and crucified by him in the Decretals."^210
§ 37. The Leipzig Disputation. June 27-July 15, 1519.
I. Löscher, III. 203–819. Luther’s Works, Walch, XV. 954 sqq.; Weim. ed. II. 153–435 (see the
literary notices of Knaake, p. 156). Luther’s letters to Spalatin and the Elector, in De Wette:,
I. 284–324.
II. Joh. K. Seidemann: Die Leipziger Disputation im Jahre 1519. Dresden and Leipzig, 1843 (pp.
161). With important documents (pp. 93 sqq.) The best book on the subject. Monographs on
Carlstadt by Jäger (Stuttgart, 1856), on Eck by Wiedemann (Regensburg, 1865), and the relevant
sections in Marheineke, Kahnis (I. 251–285), Köstlin, Kolde, and the general histories of the
Reformation. The account by Ranke (I. 277–285) is very good. On the Roman side, see Janssen,
II. 83–88 (incomplete).
The agreement between Miltitz and Luther was only a short truce. The Reformation was too
deeply rooted in the wants of the age to be suppressed by the diplomacy of ecclesiastical politicians.
(^210) De Wette, I. 239.