he was roused to greater opposition by the exhortations of the Bohemians, and the able support of Melancthon, Carolostadius, and other learned men. In 1519, he was engaged in a personal controversy at Leipsic with Eccius, divinity professor at Ingolstadt; but it tended only to sow greater enmity and deeper variance between the disputants. The same year, his book against indulgences was censured by the divines of Louvaine and Cologne; but Luther disregarded their opinions, and appealed for protection to the new emperor, Charles V. Though he had written, at the suggestion of Miltitius, a letter to the pope, not indeed of submission, but rather of exculpation, in language bold and energetic, he was in 1520 formally condemned by a bull from Rome, which, after enumerating forty-one of his heretical opinions, denounces against him the vengeance of the church, and excommunication, if within sixty days he did not make a due submission. This violent conduct Luther answered by “The Captivity of Babylon,” a book in which he inveighed bitterly against the abuses of Rome; and then, calling the students of Wittemberg together, he flung into the fire the offensive decree, which he called the _execrable bull of Antichrist_. In 1521, he was summoned to appear before the emperor at the diet of Worms, with a promise of protection; and, though his friends dissuaded him, and told him that, as his opponents had burned his writings, so they would treat him after the manner of Huss, he declared, with fearless voice, “If I knew there were as many devils at Worms as tiles on the houses, I would go.” At Worms he was required by Eccius to retract his opinions; but he declared that, except what he advanced could be proved contrary to Scripture, he neither could nor would recant. His obstinacy proved offensive to the emperor; but, as he had promised him his protection, he permitted him to depart. Charles, nevertheless, published his edict against him and his adherents, and placed him under the ban of the empire. Luther, however, remained secure under the protection of the elector, who had thus effected his deliverance, and in the castle of Wittemberg, which he denominated his _hermitage_ and his _Palmos_, he held a secret correspondence with his friends, or composed books in defence of his opinions. At the end of ten months, when the emperor was departed for Flanders, he again appeared publicly at Wittemberg, and had the satisfaction to find that, instead of being checked, his doctrines had gained ground, and were universally embraced through Germany. In 1522, he published, in conjunction with Melancthon, a Latin translation of the New Testament; and the work was read with avidity by the German nation. In 1524, he had to contend with Erasmus, a man who had apparently adopted his sentiments, though he had not the manliness to acknowledge them; and he now found in him an able antagonist enlisted in defence of the pope. In