16 OUR HYMNS :
in order to explain his own position, and to deny the false reports that had been circulated to his injury. But, instead of receiving a favourable reply, he received a summons to Rome, which was at length exchanged for a command to appear before the Cardinal Legate, Cajetan, at Augsburg. This meeting, protracted through several interviews, led to no reconciliation, but only to the more thorough severance of Luther from Rome, though he still aimed to make what concessions he thought allowable. The legate begged the Elector to expel Luther from his dominions, or to send him to Rome ; but the Elector refused. In the following year, another legate, a Saxon, named Militz, succeeded so far with Luther as to induce him to write an apologetic letter to the Pope. But the violent controversies into which Luther was drawn with Eckius rendered his own views more decided, and led him to declare openly against the doctrines of Popery ; and his works on " Babylonian Captivity," and on " Christian Liberty" contained sentiments directly opposed to the teachings of the Romish Church. In consequence, the Pope issued a bull, threatening Luther with excommunication unless he retracted ; and on the 10th of December, 1520, Luther finally and completely separated from Rome, by publicly burning this bull outside the walls of Wittenberg.
Then Frederic, Elector of Saxony, used his influence with the Emperor to have Luther s cause tried by a diet of the empire at Worms. This assembly took place in April, 1521. Before it Luther cleaved to his writings because of their Scriptural foun dation, as he had done at Augsburg, and refused to retract. He was ordered to leave Worms, and a month after, an edict was issued putting him under the ban of the empire. But on his way from Worms, he was seized and carried to the castle of Wart- burg. This was probably the act of a friend. Luther s place of concealment was kept secret ; but in it he laboured most usefully, notwithstanding his bodily afflictions and spiritual trials. There he produced powerful- treatises to aid the Reformation, and especially furthered it by translating the New Testament into the
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