In Germany to the Leipsic Disputation - James Aitken Wylie

students bearing pikes and halberds. It was not
alone the interest they took in the discussion which
brought them hither; they knew that the disposition
of the Leipsickers was not over-friendly, and they
thought their presence might not be unneeded in
guarding their professors from insult and in-jury.
On the morning of the 27th, mass was sung in
the Church of St. Thomas. The princes, counts,
abbots, councilors, and professors walked to the
chapel in procession, marching to the sound of
martial music, with banners flying, and
accompanied by a guard of nearly 100 citizens,
who bore halberds and other weapons. After
service they returned in the same order to the ducal
castle of Pleisenberg, the great room of which had
been fitted up for the disputation. Duke George, the
hereditary Prince John of Saxony, the Duke of
Pomerania, and Prince John of Anhalt occupied
separate and conspicuous seats; the less
distinguished of the audience sat upon benches. At
each end of the hall rose a wooden pulpit for the
use of the disputants. Over that which Luther was
to occupy hung a painting of St. Martin, whose
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