From the Diet of Worms to the Augsburg Confession - James Aitken Wylie

doors; neither pyx, nor cloud of incense, nor
consecrated wafer was to be seen; the altar had
been changed into a table; bread and wine were
brought forth and placed upon it: prayer was
offered, a psalm sung, and the elements were
dispensed, while some 4,000 communicants came
forward to partake. The spectacle caused infinite
disgust to Campeggio, but how to prevent it he
knew not. Hunnaart thought, doubtless, that had his
master been present, these haughty citizens would
not have dared to flaunt their heresy in the face of
the emperor. But Charles detained by his quarrels
with Francis I. and the troubles in Spain, heresy
flourished unchecked by the imperial frown.
From the hour the Diet broke up, both sides
began busily to prepare for the meeting at Spires in
November. The princes, on their return to their
States, began to collect the suffrages of their people
on the question of Church Reform; and the legate,
on his part, without a day's delay, began his
intrigues to prevent the meeting of an assembly
which threatened to deliver the heaviest blow his
master's authority had yet received.
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