§ 123.8. =The Wartburg Exile, A.D. 1521, 1522.=--Some days after Luther had dismissed the imperial herald, his carriage was stopped in a wood near Eisenach by two disguised knights with some retainers. He was himself carried off with show of violence, and brought to the Wartburg, where he was to remain in knight’s dress under the name of Junker Georg without himself knowing anything more of the matter. It was indeed a contrivance of the wise elector, though probably he took no active share in the matter, so that he could declare at Worms that he knew nothing of the Saxon monk. The most contradictory reports were spread. Sometimes the Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg (§ 122, 2) was thought of as the perpetrator of the act, sometimes Franz von Sickingen (§ 124, 2), sometimes a Franconian nobleman who was on intimate terms with Frederick. And as the news rapidly spread that Luther’s body, pierced with a sword, had been found in an old silver mine, the tumult in Worms became so great that Aleander had good cause to fear for his life.--From the Wartburg Luther maintained a lively correspondence with his friends, and even to the general public he proved, by edifying and stirring tracts, that he still lived, and was not inclined to be silenced or repressed. He completed the exposition of the _Magnificat_, wrought upon the Latin exposition of the Psalms, issued the first series of his “Church Postils,” wrote an “Instruction to Penitents,” a book “On Confession, whether the Pope have the Power to Enjoin it,” another “Against the Abuses of the Mass,” also “On Priestly and Monkish Vows,” etc. When Cardinal Albert, in September, A.D. 1521, proclaimed a pilgrimage with unlimited indulgence to the relic shrine at Halle (§ 115, 9), Luther wrote a scathing tract, “Against the New Idol at Halle.” And when Spalatin assured him that the elector would not suffer its being issued, he declined to withhold it, but sent him the little book, with imperative orders to give it over to Melanchthon for publication. While Spalatin still delayed its issue, Luther left his castle, pushed his way toward Wittenberg through the very heart of Duke George’s territories, and suddenly appeared among his friends in the dress of a knight, with long beard and hair. When he heard that the mere report of what he was proposing to do had led those in Halle to stop the traffic in indulgences, he decided not to proceed with the publication, but instead he addressed a letter to Albert, in which the archbishop had to read many a strong word about “the knavery of indulgences,” “the Pharaoh-like hardened condition of ecclesiastical tyrants,” etc. The prelate sent a most humble, apologetic, and gracious reply to the bold reformer. Luther then returned to his protective exile, as he had left it, unmolested. But the longer it continued the more insupportable did this electoral guardianship become.