“That Martin Luther has been denounced and anathematized here I know full well. He has not sought this quarrel. I know the beginning. The mad blasphemies of Tetzel which he denounced have been since denounced by many an honest Papalist. But because he dared to tie up the Pope’s and the Archbishop of Mainz’s dear money bags countless slanders were cast against his name. He is honest. He has sought diligently to justify himself. In that search he was perforce driven by his opponents to question many things beside the Indulgences. For this he was branded as ‘heretic.’ If it be heresy to seek earnestly for truth, then heretic he is, and so am I.” “_Pax!_” commanded the Cardinal, coloring slightly. “We are indeed in a noble argument. You forget your Luther had an ample opportunity to recant before Caïetanus, and scoffed at all the legate’s benignity.” “A chance to recant if wrong, yes! But not to justify himself if in the right.” “How could he be in the right?” quoth His Eminence, with dignity; “the Church has spoken against him.” I had learned somewhat from my master of the value of boldness. “But if the Church be wrong, so much the worse for the Church.” Frascati crossed himself in horror. “That is blasphemous, even from you, Gualtiero. Are you turned so mad up there in the North that you expect to convince His Holiness and the whole Curia by arguments like this?” “Not in the least.” “Then explain, for heaven’s sake.” “I expect to tell His Holiness what no one yet has evidently dared to tell him. I would tell him that it is not with Martin Luther he deals, but with all Germany,--yes, and I dare swear with other lands, too; or, as God rules above us, I see such a bloody cleaving and sorrow to the Church as will make the old ‘Babylonish Captivity’ and the ‘Great Schism,’ and all the other sore troubles, but as a tale that is told.” The Cardinal rose with a kind of benignity, and laid his hand upon my shoulder. “Impossible, Gualtiero; impossible. How can His Holiness be misinformed? I dare swear that you are crazed. You have read too much Seneca and Epictetus. Try Euripides and Propertius. If it will make you happier, you shall see the Pope to-morrow, but it will do as much good as a bucket can to fill the sea. This hot weather has distracted you. Let us sit and talk of pleasanter matters,--the negotiations as to the new Spanish bishoprics, for instance. Try a little of this wine from my own estate, it is very good for afflictions of the head. What a mistake ever to let you go North!” I spent an hour with him. I went away realizing clearly the probable futility of my mission. My temptation was to turn back without pressing for the Papal interview. But I was of the Regenstein ritters. It was better to fail, to perish, than to flee away. CHAPTER XX THE HOLY FATHER ORDAINS