the sentence of the Pope to the judgment of a future General Council.
Finally, on the 10th December, 1520, in the presence of an immense
concourse of the citizens and students of Wittenberg, he burned
publicly the papal Bull and the writings of his political opponents.
On this occasion he proclaimed his intention of overthrowing the
ecclesiastical organisation, and of introducing a new theological
system. For the future it was to be war to the knife against the Pope
and the Church, and he called upon German patriots and all true
friends of personal liberty to take their stand by his side in the
conflict that had been begun.

Charles V. was apparently in a very strong position. Not since the
days of Charlemagne had any ruler claimed jurisdiction over so wide a
territory as his, comprising, as it did, Germany and Austria, the
kingdom of the two Sicilies, Spain, and the Netherlands. But in
reality the very extent of his dominions made him much less powerful
than he might have been as the sovereign of a smaller but more compact
region. It served to awaken the suspicions of his subjects, who feared
that he might abolish their distinctive national constitutions and
weld his scattered territories into one great empire, and to excite
the jealousy of the other rulers of Europe, who imagined that he might
declare himself dictator of the western world. The German princes,
having resisted successfully all the efforts made by his grandfather,
Maximilian I., to convert the loose confederation of the German States
into a united and centralised nation, were on their guard lest his
successor should attempt a similar policy with the aid of Spanish
troops and Spanish gold; the Spaniards resented the absence of the
king from Spain, where many of the lower classes were in a state
bordering on rebellion; Francis I. of France, trembling for the very
existence of his country, was willing to do all things, even to agree