When Bishop Scultetus thereupon declared himself against the publication of the Resolutions, Luther promised to obey; he even made this known to those about the Elector, through Spalatin the Court-preacher. On August 21, 1518, the work nevertheless appeared. Had Luther really been “released” from his promise, as has been assumed by one writer in default of any better explanation?[41] Let us consider more closely Luther’s letter to Pope Leo X, which has already been referred to cursorily (vol. i., p. 335). As is well known, it accompanied the copy of the Resolutions which, with singular daring, and regardless of the challenge involved in their errors, he had dedicated to the Supreme Teacher of Christendom.[42] Luther had lavished flattery on his Bishop, but here he surpasses himself in expressions of cringing humility. He prostrates himself at the feet of the Pope with all that he has and is; it is for His Holiness to make him alive, or kill him, to summon or dismiss, approve or reprove, according to his good pleasure; his voice he will acknowledge as the voice of Christ, and willingly die should he be deserving of death. He is “unlearned, stupid and ignorant in this our enlightened age,” nothing but dire necessity compels him, so he says, “to cackle like a goose among the swans.” “The most impious and heretical doctrines” of the indulgence preachers have called him forth as the defender of truth, indeed of the Papal dignity which is being undermined by avaricious money-makers; by means of the Disputation he had merely sought to learn from his brothers, and was never more surprised than at the way in which the Theses had become known, whereas this had not been the case with his other Disputations. Retract he cannot; he has, however, written the Resolutions in his justification, from which all may learn how honestly and openly he is devoted to the Power of the Keys. The publication of the Resolutions “under the shield of the Papal name and the shadow of the Pope’s protection [Luther is here alluding to the dedication] renders his safety assured.” As a matter of fact, the principal result of the dedication to the Pope was a wider dissemination of the work among the learned, Luther’s Bishop, the weak and uninformed Scultetus of Brandenburg, being likewise hindered from taking any action against his unruly subject. The move, if it really was intentional, had been well thought out. After a lengthy delay Luther, in accordance with his promise to Miltitz, drafted a second letter to Pope Leo X, on January 5 or 6, 1519.[43]