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GREAT MEN'S BODIES
sailed his little cockle-shells steadily west until he found a continent; and crowned a noble life's work with imperishable fame. "Every ship that goes to America got its chart from Columbus," says Emerson.
Sailors have good bodies anyway; they have to have; and Columbus was no exception.
Adam's Columbus, page 248, says: "Trevison, after meeting him in 1501, says of him, 'He was a robust man; with a tall figure, ruddy complexion, and a long visage.' Oviedo, who knew him with some intimacy, says: 'Of good figure and a stature above the medium; Columbus had strong limbs and a well-proportioned body; very red hair, and complexion that was a little ruddy and marked with freckles.'"
LUTHER (1483–1546 A.D.)
"A mighty fortress is our God,
A bulwark never failing."
A bulwark never failing."
—Luther.
Four hundred years ago a German farmer and miner, in a lit of anger, killed a man, and had to leave his farm; his son knew only a hard, cheerless youth, his father's fierce ways making him timid; but they did not take away his violent nature. So poor that he had to sing from door to door, to pay for his tuition at a Latin school. Leading his class at his University; a priest at twenty-four; a lecturer at twenty-six; his sermons soon brought him fame. Sent upon a mission to Rome, he found such a shameless traffic in indulgences, that, nailing ninety-five theses upon Wittenberg church door, he denied the Pope's right to forgive sins; and stood ready to maintain his position against all comers. Public feeling soon ran so high that he was summoned to Rome; but his University interfered, and a Legate went instead; in 1520 his famous address "To the Christian Nobles of Germany" was followed by his "Babylonish Captivity of the Church," in which he attacked the abuses of the Papacy; its claims to be supreme, and its doctrinal system, with such power that a Papal bull was issued against him. But he burned the bull before a vast crowd
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