Luther boldly declared that the "indulgences" were valueless, because no man, not even the Pope, had the power to forgive sins, and he nailed a declaration to this effect on the door of the great church at Wittenberg and sent another copy to his Archbishop. At first the Pope seems to have made light of the matter; but at length, as Luther's supporters increased in number, he issued a Bull of excommunication against Luther as a heretic, summoning him to Rome to give an account of his actions, and commanding the burning of books which he had written against Rome. We have seen before what such a Bull meant. It had meant so much in the way of setting a man outside the protection of the laws in this world, and in condemning him in the world to come, that even the great Emperor Frederic had to yield before it, cowed and vanquished. The act of the monk of Wittenberg, when he received it, was to throw it publicly on the fire kindled for the very purpose in an open space of the city! The fire created by the burning of the Papal document set all the smouldering embers into a more {44} furious flame than ever before. That burning of the Bull happened in 1520. Luther did not go to Rome; but he did go, when summoned by Charles, the Emperor, and appeared before him at the Diet, or meeting, of the German States, held at Worms. Charles, after listening to his passionate pleadings, pronounced that he should receive the treatment of a heretic, but he was allowed to leave Worms and start for his home. On the journey he was taken prisoner by the Elector of Saxony, who had always been a friend to him. It is supposed that this capture was effected for his better protection. In his imprisonment he made the translation into German of the New Testament. Later, he translated the whole Bible. It is not impossible that this capture was made with the cognisance of Charles himself. The course of events forced him to side with the Pope and oppose the reformers, but there are several incidents which show him much more anxious to make peace, if that were possible, between the two parties, than to take a leading part in the strife. He had much to attend to elsewhere. In 1526 the Protestant states of Germany had leagued themselves together for mutual support; and in the very same year the Turks had made themselves masters of the whole of Hungary, and reduced it to a Turkish province.