He hated the Pope as he
did the Devil, but he always preached a love of peace and Christian
tolerance of the Papists. He suspected many of being in secret league
with the Devil, but he never burned a witch. In all Catholic countries
the pyres flamed high for the adherents of the new creed; even Hutten
was under strong suspicion of having cut off the ears of a few monks.
So humane was Luther's disposition that he entertained cordial
sympathy with the humiliated Tetzel and wrote him a consolatory
letter. To obey the authorities whom God has established was his
highest political principle. Only when the service of his God demanded
it did his opposition flame up. When he left Worms he had been ordered
not to preach--he who was just on the point of being declared an
outlaw. He did not submit to the prohibition, but his honest
conscience was fearful that this might be interpreted as disobedience.
His conception of the position of the Emperor was still quite the
antiquated and popular one. As subjects obey the powers that be, so
the princes and electors had to obey the Emperor according to the law
of the land.
With the personality of Charles V. he had human sympathy all his
life--not only at that first period when he greeted him as "Dear
Youngster," but also later, when he well knew that the Spanish
Burgundian was granting nothing more than political tolerance to the
German Reformation. "He is pious and quiet," Luther said of him; "he
talks in a year less than I do in a day.
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