In Germany from the Leipsic Disputation to the Diet at Worms - James Aitken Wylie

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a meeting of the Diet which was held, not in the hall of assembly, but in the emperor's own chamber. The Elector Frederick, the Elector Palatine, and many others, had ere this left Worms. The edict was dated the 8th of May, but in point of fact the imperial signature was appended to it on the 26th of May, as Pallavicino tells us, in the cathedral church of Worms, after the celebration of high mass; the design of the ante-dating being, the same writer says, to give to the edict the appearance of carrying with it the authority of a full Diet. This edict was more discursive than such documents usually are. Its style, instead of being formal and stately, was figurative and rhetorical. It opened with a profusion of epithets meant to be descriptive of the great heretic of Wittemberg; it ran on, in equally fertile vein, in an enumeration of the heresies, blasphemies, and vices into which he had fallen, and the crimes to which he was inciting the People– "schism, war, murder, robbery, incendiarism"–and it foretold in alarming terms the perdition into which he was dragging society, and the ruin that impended unless his "furious rage" should be checked. The edict reached its climax in 152
the startling affirmation that "this man was not a man, but Satan himself under the form of a man, and dressed in a monk's frock." So spake Charles the Fifth to the electors, princes, prelates, and people of his Empire. Luther had entered Worms with one sword hanging over his head–the anathema of the Pope; he quits it with two unsheathed against him, for now to the Pope's excommunication is added the emperor's ban. Meanwhile the Reformer was going on his way. It was now the ninth day (May 4th) since he set out from Worms. He had traversed the mountains of the Black Forest. How grateful, after the stirs and grandeurs of Worms, their silent glades, their fir-embowered hamlets, their herds quietly pasturing, the morning shooting its silvery shafts through the tall trees, and the evening with its shadows descending from the golden west! The pines were getting fewer, the hills were sinking into the plain; our traveler was nearing Eisenach; he was now on ground familiar to him 153
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IN GERMANY FROM THE LEIPSIC DISPUTA
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from a throne, the greatest then in
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who had not forgiven his discomfitu
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outcry which had been raised agains
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discoursed together at his table. H
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It would complete his glory, and re
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ecome emperor? Most historians have
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Frederick of Saxony had declined wh
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it will operate spiritual effects o
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most; masterly picture of the Roman
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These, to use Luther's metaphor, we
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The instant remedies which he urged
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doctrine of man's inability and God
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who held them in bondage. They have
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nor all the great ones of earth cou
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ages. Rebel kings, proud heresiarch
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Meanwhile rumors reached Luther of
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assembly of all the saints, holy Ch
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eyes. The Pope advanced with excomm
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his career by going into permanent
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in the faith of the recipient. Fait
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cannot help looking to you, O Leo,
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even before you could try any remed
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two poles of that liberty he descri
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position in the eyes of the world,
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these many piles of Eck and Aleande
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of the monk. A more peaceful exit a
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life of the Christian, that it will
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Hills, and flung it back at her fro
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man; there we see it bringing with
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Luther was honored to be the instru
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Charles was crowned on the 23rd of
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hitherto been in vain, or rather ha
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Pharisee, however, for certainly he
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It was clear that before making pro
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his master the Pope, who had excomm
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would speed all the better if Leo o
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themselves, was to bring Luther to
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Muller, "the art of dissimulating,
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actually inflicted by a new bull, f
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From the general eulogium pronounce
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and armies at his back. The spiritu
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Chapter 4 Luther Summoned to the Di
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charges against the Reformer were s
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himself to the assembly. His words
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specified abuses. The Diet did not
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patiently wait and obediently liste
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Scriptures, and required the Pope t
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Scripture, emancipated him complete
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Chapter 5 Luther's Journey and Arri
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Page 109 and 110: It was ten o'clock in the morning o
Page 111 and 112: though doubtless a wholly undesigne
Page 113 and 114: taken possession of his lodgings wh
Page 115 and 116: Chapter 6 Luther Before the Diet at
Page 117 and 118: courtiers and their friends, to the
Page 119 and 120: Archduke Ferdinand; six electors of
Page 121 and 122: is not to be confounded with the Dr
Page 123 and 124: The Chancellor Eck advanced to the
Page 125 and 126: all the time he stood in his presen
Page 127 and 128: only by his feeling that-to use Mel
Page 129 and 130: "Lord, where stayest thou?... O my
Page 131 and 132: the Diet in deep deliberation. When
Page 133 and 134: admit-truths which are essential to
Page 135 and 136: ecclesiastical profession; but alth
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Page 139 and 140: Unless, therefore, I am convinced b
Page 141 and 142: assembly read the stern, indomitabl
Page 143 and 144: Chapter 7 Luther Put Under the Ban
Page 145 and 146: instantly dispersed, and the city w
Page 147 and 148: they submitted one insidious propos
Page 149 and 150: indignation. The extreme men of the
Page 151: checking the Pope, which he found h
Page 155 and 156: they came under the walls of a cast
Page 157: have seen, to revolve its lessons,
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In Germany from the Leipsic Disputation to the Diet at Worms - James Aitken Wylie

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