the ecclesiastical abuses of the time, and to win to his side all who
had any reason to be discontented with the existing order. He was
strengthened very much by the inactivity of the German bishops, who
seemed unwilling to take any severe measures against him, by the help
and encouragement of Frederick of Saxony, who, during the interregnum
and for some time after the election of Charles V. was the real
administrator of Germany, by his union with the leading Humanist
scholars and professors, especially Erasmus, all of whom regarded
Luther merely as the champion of liberty against the obscurantism of
the Scholastics, and by his secret alliances with discontented nobles,
such as Ulrich von Hutten and Franz von Sickingen, whose sole hope of
improving their fortunes lay in the creation of public disorder.

Johann Eck, Luther's chief opponent, realising that there was no hope
of stirring up the German authorities to take action, hastened to Rome
to impress upon the Pope and his advisers the extreme gravity of the
situation, and to urge them to proceed against the revolt with all
possible energy and despatch. Luther himself recognised clearly enough
that the crisis he had long foreseen was at hand, and he began to
prepare men's minds for complete rupture with the Church by his sermon
on excommunication in which he bade defiance to the ecclesiastical
authorities. He threw himself with renewed energy into the fray,
turning out volume after volume with feverish rapidity, each more
violent and abusive than its predecessor, and nearly all couched in
language that was as intelligible to the peasant as it was to the
professor. In his /Address to the Nobles of Germany/, in his works /On
the Mass/, /On the Improvement of Christian Morality/, and /On the
Babylonian Captivity/, he proclaimed himself a political as well as a
religious revolutionary. There was no longer any concealment or
equivocation. The veil was lifted at last, and Luther stood forth to