needed. Humble in mind, peaceable in disposition, reverent toward
authority, loving privacy, and fully occupied with his daily studies
and duties, it was not in him to think of making war with powers whose
claims he had not yet learned to question.

But it was not possible that so brave, honest, and self-sacrificing a
man should long pursue his convictions without coming into collision
with the Roman high priesthood. Though far off at Wittenberg, and
trying to do his own duty well in his own legitimate sphere, it soon
came athwart his path in a form so foul and offensive that it forced
him to assault it. Either he had to let go his sincerest convictions
and dearest hopes or protest had to come. His personal salvation and
that of his flock were at stake, and he could in no way remain a true
man and not remonstrate. Driven to this extremity, and struck at for
his honest faithfulness, he struck again; and so came the battle which
shook and revolutionized the world.


THE SELLING OF INDULGENCES.

Luther's first encounter with the hierarchy was on the traffic in
indulgences. It was a good fortune that it there began. That traffic
was so obnoxious to every sense of propriety that any vigorous attack
upon it would command the approval of many honest and pious people.
The central heresy of hierarchical religion was likewise embodied in
it, so that a stab there, if logically followed up, would necessarily
reach the very heart of the oppressive monster. And Providence
arranged that there the conflict should begin.

Leo X. had but recently ascended the papal throne. Reared amid lavish