In Germany from the Leipsic Disputation to the Diet at Worms - James Aitken Wylie

these many piles of Eck and Aleander, Luther
replied by kindling one pile. He had written his bill
of divorcement, now he will give a sign that he has
separated irrevocably from Rome.
A placard on the walls of the University of
Wittemberg announced that it was Luther's
intention to burn the Pope's bull, and that this
would take place at nine o'clock in the morning of
December 10th, at the eastern gate of the town. On
the day and hour appointed, Luther was seen to
issue from the gate of the university, followed by a
train of doctors and students to the number of 600,
and a crowd of citizens who enthusiastically
sympathised. The procession held on its way
through the streets of Wittemberg, till, making its
exit at the gate, it bore out of the city–for all
unclean things were burned without the camp–the
bull of the Pontiff.
Arriving at the spot where this new and strange
immolation was to take place, the members of
procession found a scaffold already erected, and a
pile of logs laid in order upon it. One of the more
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