The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

as though he dreaded remotely that he had in him a dangerous competitor
for his own office. Next we have Luther burning the Papal bull, (1520,)
then his reception at Worms, (1521.) These are followed by a double
picture: above, Luther is preparing by prayer to appear before the Emperor
and the Diet; his lattice opens out upon the towers of the city, and the calm
stars are shining upon him. It reminds us of the garden at Wittenberg,
where, one evening at sunset, a little bird has perched for the night: "That
little bird," says Luther--"above it are the stars and deep heaven of worlds;
yet it has folded its little wings; gone trustfully to rest there as in its home."
His lute rests by his side, his brow is turned to heaven and his hands
clasped fervently; below, he approaches the entrance to the Diet; the knight
Frundsberg lays a friendly hand upon his shoulder, and speaks a cheering
word. In the angles of the ornamental border appear statues of those two
heroes who declared themselves ready with word and sword, if need were,
to defend at Worms their "holy friend, the unconquerable Theologian and
Evangelist;" Hutten rests upon the harp and lifts the sword in his right
hand; his brow is crowned with the poet's laurel; the brave Sickingen lifts
the shield upon his arm, and holds in his right hand the marshal's staff.
Luther has entered the hall--stands before the mighty--and is represented at
the moment when he throws his whole soul into that "good confession,"
surpassed in moral grandeur but by one, in the whole history of the race.
"The Diet of Worms, Luther's appearance there on the 17th of April, 1521,
may be considered as the greatest scene in modern European History; the
point, indeed, from which the whole subsequent history of civilization
takes its rise. The world's pomp and power sits there, on this hand: on
that,.stands up for God's truth, one man, the poor miner Hans Luther's son.
Our petition--the petition of the whole world to him was: 'Free us; it rests
with thee; desert us not.' Luther did not desert us. It is, as we say, the
greatest moment in the Modern History of Men--English Puritanism,
England and its Parliaments, America's vast work these two centuries;
French Revolution, Europe and its work everywhere at present: the germ
of it all lay