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

Luther was honored to be the instrument of once
more setting in motion, alone could originate this
movement, and conduct it to such a goal as would
benefit the world. The love of letters, and the love
of liberty, were all too weak for this. They do not
go deep enough, nor do they present a sufficiently
high aim, nor supply motives strong enough to
sustain the toil, the self-denial, the sacrifice by
which alone the end aimed at in any true
reformation can be attained. Of this the history of
Protestantism furnishes us with two notable
examples. Duke George of Saxony was a prince of
truly national spirit, and favored the movement at
the first, because he saw that it embodied a
resistance to foreign tyranny. But his hatred to the
doctrine of grace made him, in no long time, one of
its bitterest enemies. He complained that Luther
was spoiling all by his "detestable doctrines," not
knowing that it was the doctrines that won hearts,
and that it was the hearts that furnished swords to
fight the battle of civil liberty.
The career of Erasmus was a nearly equally
melancholy one. He had many feelings and
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