pension of some smaller amount (I have not been able to find the exact figures) from the Emperor Charles V. after 1523. Froude estimates his income from pensions in 1529 at four hundred florins.[118] He also received from time to time various presents of money from his wealthy English friends, such as Colet, More, Warham, and the Lady of Vere, and from Popes Leo X., Adrian VI., and Clement VII. According to Froude, he had no capacity for taking care of money, and however much he received, he was always in need. In his earlier years he found occasion, in fact, to write not a few applications for money, in a style of appeal which strikes the reader of to-day as entirely unbefitting for a man of his character, education, and intellectual distinction. It was, indeed, not until his association with Froben had made clear to him that his writings possessed commercial value, that he was able to shake off the feeling of dependence upon the purses of patrons. With his earlier books, his first thought appears to have been to utilise the appreciation of them by his friends as a means of securing gifts. After Froben had shown him that by proper management the books could be made to secure from the appreciation of the public at large good returns for the author, the letters of Erasmus became free from the repeated suggestions concerning gifts and financial aid which formed a disagreeable feature of much of the earlier correspondence. It was not the least of the important services rendered by Froben that he was able to further the development of a spirit of independence on the part of the greatest author of his time, and to rescue him from the demoralising influences of literary patronage. [Illustration] CHAPTER X. LUTHER AS AN AUTHOR--1483-1546. IN the long list of the noteworthy men of the sixteenth century, the men who helped to shape the history not only of their own generation, but of long series of generations to come, a leading place, possibly the leading place, must be assigned to Martin Luther. The story of the bold-hearted Augustinian monk, who, strong in his convictions of the justice of his cause, and strong in his faith that the Lord would protect his own, ventured to assail the abuses and, finally, even to question the authority of the Church of Rome, the only Church then known to Europe, and who dared, standing almost alone, to withstand the mandates of pope and of emperor--this story, forming one of the great dramas of history, has been often told. For the purposes of the present narrative, however, I am not concerned with Luther as a Reformer, as a fighter, or as a Christian hero, but simply with his work and his relations as an author.