[365] Das Nest ist hie: die Vogel sind ausgeflogen. (Ibid. p. 570.) [Sidenote: STAUPITZ INTIMIDATED.] At Wittemberg, the students, taking advantage of the carnival, clothed one of their number in a dress resembling that of the pope, and paraded him through the streets "pompously, but rather too ludicrously," says Luther.[366] On arriving at the public square they went down to the banks of the river, and some of them, feigning a sudden attack, seemed to wish to throw the pope into the water; but the pope, having no liking for such a bath, took to his heels. His cardinals, bishops, and familiars, followed his example, dispersing over all the quarters of the town, while the students continued to pursue them. There was not a corner of Wittemberg where some Roman dignitary did not flee before the shouts and laughter of the inhabitants, who were all in motion.[367] "The enemy of Christ," says Luther, "who sports both with kings and with Christ himself, well deserves to be thus sported with." In this we think him in error. Truth is too beautiful, and ought never to be made to walk through the mire. She ought to fight without such auxiliaries as songs, caricatures, and carnival frolics. It may be that without these popular demonstrations, her success would be less apparent, but it would be more pure, and consequently more durable. Be this as it may, the imprudent and passionate conduct of the Court of Rome had excited universal antipathy, and the bull by which the Papacy thought to stifle every thing was itself the cause of general revolt. [366] Nimis ludicre Papam personatum circumvenerunt sublimem et pompaticum.... (Ibid. p. 561.) [367] ... Fugitivum cum Cardinalibus, Episcopia, famulisque suis, in diversas partes oppidi disperserunt et insecuti sunt. (Ibid. 17th Feb. 1521.)