Armed with this, the Wittenberg professor appeared before Cajetan at Augsburg, was asked to recant two of his statements on indulgences, and refused.

[Sidenote: October 12-14, 1518] A few days later Luther drew up an appeal "from the pope badly informed to the pope to be better informed," and in the following month appealed again from the pope to a future oecumenical council.

In the meantime Leo X, in the bull _Cum postquam_, authoritatively defined the doctrine of indulgences in a sense contrary to the position of Luther.
The next move of the Vicar of Christ was to send to Germany a special agent, the Saxon Charles von Miltitz, with instructions either to cajole the heretic into retraction or the Elector into surrendering him.

In neither of these attempts was he successful.

[Sidenote: January 1519] At an interview with Luther the utmost he could do was to secure a general statement that the accused man would abide by the decision of the Holy See, and a promise to keep quiet as long as his opponents did the same.
Such a compromise was sure to be fruitless, for the champions of the church could not let the heretic rest for a moment.