Since the summer Maximilian's health had gradually been declining. In July he presided for the last time at the Diet of Augsburg, and earnestly pressed for the fulfilment of his two dearest wishes--the fitting out of a crusade against the Turks, and the elector's promise to secure the succession to the imperial crown for his grandson, Charles. To this latter request there existed the obstacle, that as he himself had never been crowned by the Pope, he was only regarded by the Roman See as King of the Romans, and therefore Charles could not be invested with that dignity. Maximilian, however, spared no means to gain his ends, and bribed heavily wherever he thought it advisable. Charles appears to have objected to the exorbitant price that was put upon the imperial crown, knowing well that he would one day have to raise the promised sums from his resources in Spain, but his grandfather and Margaret, with their councillors, overruled his objections, and strongly advised him not to bargain for fear of the French king profiting by his stinginess. In an enigmatical letter Margaret thus expresses herself:--'The Lord King, my nephew, has written to us that the horse on which he wishes to come and see us is very dear. We know well that it is dear; but as matters stand, if he does not wish to have it, there is a buyer ready to take it, and, since he has broken it in, it seems a pity that he should give it up, whatever it costs him.'[60] Whilst Maximilian was engaged in taking measures to obtain his desires, the elector's attention was fully occupied by formidable religious troubles. The monk, Martin Luther, had arisen and vehemently declaimed against certain practices of the Church of Rome, and a spirit of revolt and restlessness was in the air. Maximilian does not appear to have been greatly interested in the commencement of the Reformation. Although in his letters to Margaret he often satirically complained of 'les beaux pratikes de la sainte mère de l'Église,' still he was far from upholding any schism in the Church, and urged on by the solicitations of the monks, he wrote to Leo X. asking him to determine the religious disputes by his decision, and summoned Luther to appear with a safe conduct before the Diet of Augsburg to answer for his attack on the system of Indulgences. Luther arrived too late for the Assembly, and the emperor never saw him, but at the subsequent interview that took place before the Cardinal Legate the monk was told he must either recant his heresies or depart. He refused to recant, and departed to Wittenberg, there to write and publish an account of his interview, which was read far and wide, and helped to further the spirit of schism and revolt. [60] Gachard, _Rapport sur les Archives de l'Ancienne Chambre des comptes de Flandre à Lille_.