Dangers had gathered round Luther and the Reformation. The doctor of Wittemberg's appeal to a General Council was a new attack on papal authority. By a bull of Pius II, the greater excommunication had been denounced even against emperors who should dare to incur the guilt of such a revolt. Frederick of Saxony, as yet imperfectly confirmed in evangelical doctrine, was prepared to send Luther away from his states;[1] and hence a new message from Leo might have thrown the Reformer among strangers, who would be afraid to compromise themselves by receiving a monk whom Rome had anathematised. And even should the sword of some noble be drawn in his defence, mere knights, unable to cope with the powerful princes of Germany, must soon have succumbed in the perilous enterprise. [1] Letter of the Elector to his envoy at Rome, (L. Op. (L.) xvii, p. 298.) [Sidenote: GOD SAVES LUTHER. MILTITZ.] But at the moment when all the courtiers of Leo X were urging him to rigorous measures, and when one blow more might have placed his adversary in his hands, the pope suddenly changed his course to one of conciliation and apparent mildness.[2] It may be said, no doubt, that he was under a delusion as to the Elector's feelings, and deemed them more decided in Luther's favour than they really were. It may also be admitted that the public voice and the spirit of the age, powers which at this time were altogether new, seemed to throw an impregnable barrier around the Reformer. It may even be supposed, with one of Leo's biographers,[3] that he followed the promptings of his mind and heart which inclined to gentleness and moderation. Still this new mode of action on the part of Rome, at such a moment, is so extraordinary that it is impossible not to recognise in it a higher and mightier hand. [2] "Rationem agendi prorsus oppositam inire statuit," (Pallavicini, Hist. Conc. Trid. T. i, p. 51). [3] Roscoe's Life of Leo X. There was then at the Court of Rome a Saxon noble who was chamberlain to the pope and canon of Mentz, Trèves, and Meissen. He had turned his talents to advantage. As he boasted of being, in some degree, allied to the Saxon princes, the Roman courtiers sometimes designated him by the title of Duke of Saxony. In Italy he made an absurd display of his German nobility, while in Germany he aped the manners and polish of the Italians. He was given to wine[4]--a vice which his residence at the Court of Rome had increased. Still the Roman courtiers hoped great things from him. His German extraction--his insinuating address--and his ability in negotiation--all led them to expect that Charles de Miltitz (this was his name) would, by his prudence, succeed in arresting the mighty revolution which was threatening to shake the world. [4] Nec ab usu immoderato vini abstinuit, (Pallavicini Hist. Conc. Trid. i, p. 69).