The church of Rome had long taught the people that the pope and clergy under him held the keys of heaven. At this time the pope was in need of means to complete that great cathedral called St. Peter's Church. He therefore issued indulgences or pardons for all kinds of sins. These pardons or indulgences entitled whoever bought them to a free passport to heaven. Nor was this all. A man of sufficient wealth could purchase the pardon of a sin he _intended_ to commit. Thus the civil law was shorn of its power and the nation of its wealth. This bold blasphemy provoked the indignation of a people already ripe for revolution. Luther, then thirty-four years of age, began to denounce the sale of these indulgences. In 1520, the pope issued a decree, or bull, as it was called, condemning Luther and his writings. Luther in turn defied the pope. When the news reached him he took the decree and all the Roman books he could find, and on December 10, 1520, burned them in a public place just outside the walls of the city of Wittenberg. Then Luther was summoned to appear before a grand council, or court, to be held in the city of Worms. His friends procured him a passport or pledge of security, lest the papal authorities should take his life. Accordingly, on the 17th of April, 1521, Luther appeared before the council, or diet, as it was called. The Emperor Charles V., of Germany, presided in person. When Luther was asked to recant his opinions and deny his own teachings, he not only refused to do so but also pleaded his own cause {96} with eloquence and power. So powerful were his arguments that many of the nobility were won over to his side. A poor monk, the son of a simple peasant, clad in the armor of truth, had defied and defeated the proudest potentates of earth! No wonder that Rome was in a rage! No wonder that the friends of Luther deemed it advisable to kidnap him and carry him away to the castle of Wartburg, in the solitudes of the Thuringian forest! No wonder that those valiant knights, Ulrich von Hutten and Franz von Sickingen, prepared to use their swords and eloquence in defense of right! We may not in all things admire the character of Luther or defend his acts; yet no grander figure appears on the pages of modern history than Luther, as, with one hand upon his breast and the other lifted towards heaven, he refused the emperor's demand to retract his writings or deny the truth, closing with these memorable words, "_Hier stehe ich, Gott helfe mir. Amen_." "Here I stand, God help me. Amen." The battle that Luther fought was not only for Germany and the sixteenth century, but for all countries, all peoples and all coming times. It was a battle not merely against the pope, but against all powers religious or secular, that seek to enchain the human mind or prevent the free exercise of religion. {97} CHAPTER X. RESULTS OF THE REFORMATION.