Charles Beard: "Martin Luther and the German Reformation," Ch. 3--Eck, 2...

The 1519 Leipzig debate unfolds. The roughly two-week debate was a stalemate with Eck scoring one huge point— “Luther, you’re a Hussite.” Luther will reminiscence on that later and aver that he’s been, unconsciously, a Hussite all along. And, instead of more conciliatory engagements, things become embittered afterwards with Eck trumpeting himself—as a self-aggrandizing provocateur—around Leipzig while Luther, Carlstadt, and Melanchthon retreated (not theologically) back to Wittenberg. Our question: what does Henry VIII, More, Warham, Fisher and Wolsey know of this game? Or, Master Cranmer? Also, Eck is not well-schooled in church history and repeats the Curial exegesis of Mt. 16.17 and Jn.21.25. Reports went to Paris, Erfurt and other academic centers. The toothpaste was out of the tube and was not going back in. Luther viewed Leipzig as a waste of time. Soon enough, Luther’s 1520 Babylonian Captivity of the Church will be gasoline on the fire. Another notable event will happen in 1519—Charles V will be elected as the Holy Roman Emperor. 

Soon enough, this will be a 5-alarm fire. And those fires, now lit, ain't goin' out. Europe was never the same nor was Western history.