"When the bull of condemnation arrived in Germany, it found a whole nation in a state of ebullition. At Erfurt, the students took it from the booksellers' shops, tore it in pieces, and threw it into the water, saying, with more vehemence than point, 'It is a Bull; let us see if it can swim.' Luther at once sent forth a pamphlet against the execrable bull of AntiChrist. On the 10th of December, 1520, he publicly burnt the Pope's anathema at the gates of the town, amid the exulting shouts of the people; and on the same day wrote to Spalatin, his ordinary medium of communication with the elector. 'This day, the tenth of December, in the year of our Lord 1520, at nine o'clock in the morning, were burnt at Wittemberg, at the east gate, opposite the Church of the Holy Cross, all the Pope's books, the rescripts, the decretals of Clement VI, the extravagants, the new bull of Leo X, the Somma Angelica, the Chrysopasus of Eck, and some other productions of his, and of Esmer's. This is something new, I wot.' He adds in the report he drew upon the subject, 'If any one asks me why I act thus, I will answer him that it is an old custom to burn bad books. The Apostles burned books to the value of five thousand deniers.'"--(Michelet's Life of Martin Luther.) [P. 14.]
International Art-Union Journal. November. Goupil, Vibert & Co. Proprietors. No. IX & X.
