“Professor Grisar is hard on Luther. Perhaps no Roman Catholic can help it. But it is significant that he is hard on the anti-Lutherans also.... He shows us, indeed, though not deliberately, that some reformation of religion was both imperative and inevitable.... But he is far from being overwhelmed with prejudice. He really investigates, uses good authorities, and gives reasons for his judgments.”--_The Expository Times._ “This Life of Luther is bound to become standard ... a model of every literary, critical, and scholarly virtue.”--_The Month._ “The most important book on Luther that has appeared since Denifle’s epoch-making ‘Luther und Luthertum.’ ... It is an ordered biography, ... and is therefore very probably destined to a wider general usefulness as a Catholic authority.”--_The Irish Rosary._ CONTENTS CHAPTER XI. THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE GREAT APOSTASY _pages_ 3-44 1. ALLIES AMONG THE HUMANISTS AND THE NOBILITY TILL THE MIDDLE OF 1520. Friends among the Humanists: Crotus Rubeanus, Eobanus Hessus, etc. The nobility and the revolutionary knights. Piety of Hutten’s language when addressing Luther. Franz von Sickingen. Offer made by Silvester von Schauenberg. Report that Hutten had trapped the Papal Legates; Capito counsels greater moderation. Luther’s reason for only meeting the knights half-way. Luther’s work, “Von dem Bapstum tzu Rome,” 1520; its violence contrasted with Luther’s earlier demands of the “man of good will.” The manifesto against Alveld. Prierias the Dominican attacks Luther’s Indulgence-theses; the latter’s intense annoyance; summary of his second reply. Treatment of Hoogstraaten the Inquisitor. Luther’s description of himself as a “man of contentions.” Scolded by Emser for his lack of self-control _pages_ 3-15 2. THE VEILING OF THE GREAT APOSTASY. By holding out hopes of reconciliation, Luther delays the final decision. His missive to Bishop Scultetus, in whose diocese lay Wittenberg. Three letters to Pope Leo X; why the last was antedated; its purport. Letter to the Emperor Charles V; reason and setting of the letter; its contents. Luther’s later description of his “inaction” during this period. His correspondence with Spalatin; the real aim of many of the letters: to promote his cause at Court; his offer to resign his professorship. The diplomatist coupled with the enthusiast _pages_ 15-26 3. LUTHER’S GREAT REFORMATION-WORKS--RADICALISM AND RELIGION.