Luther made the advance. He wrote out explanations (or
"_Resolutions_") of his Theses, and sent them, with a letter, to the
pope. With great confidence, point, and elegance, but with equal
submissiveness and humility, he spoke of the completeness of Christ
for the salvation of every true believer, without room or need for
penances and other satisfactions; of the evilness of the times, and
the pressing necessity for a general reform; of the damaging
complaints everywhere resounding against the traffic in indulgences;
of his unsuccessful appeals to the ecclesiastical princes; and of the
unjust censures being heaped upon him for what he had done, entreating
His Holiness to instruct his humble petitioner, and condemn or
approve, kill or preserve, as the voice of Christ through him might
be. He then believed that God's sanction had to come through the high
clergy and heads of the Church. Many good Christians had approved his
Theses, but he did not recognize in that the divine answer to his
testimony. He said afterward: "I looked only to the pope, the
cardinals, the bishops, the theologians, the jurisconsults, the monks,
the priests, from whom I expected the breathing of the Spirit." He had
not yet learned what a bloody dragon claimed to impersonate the Lamb
of God.