Back he came soon to Germany, bearing a bull from the pope, in which
were extracts from Luther's writings stated to be heretical, and which
must be publicly retracted within sixty days under threat of
excommunication. This the ardent agent tried to distribute through
Germany, but to his surprise he found that Germany was in no humor to
receive it. Most of the magistrates forbade it to be made public. Where
it was posted upon the walls of any town, the people immediately tore it
down. In truth, Luther's heresy had with extraordinary rapidity become
the heresy of Germany, and he found himself with a nation at his back, a
nation that admired his courage and supported his opinions.
His most decisive step was taken on the 10th of December, 1520. On that
day the faculty and students of the University of Wittenberg, convoked
by him, met at the Elster gate of the town. Here a funeral pile was
built up by the students, one of the magistrates set fire to it, and
Luther, amid approving shouts from the multitude, flung into the flames
the pope's bull, and with it the canonical law and the writings of Dr.
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