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

must exercise Christian submission, and wait the
gradual but certain rectification of their individual
wrongs, and those of society at large, by the
Divine, healing power of the Gospel. He sought to
enforce his admonition by his own example. He
had not taken the sword; he had relied on the sole
instrumentality of the Gospel, and they themselves
knew how much it had done in a very few years to
shake the power of an oppressive hierarchy, with
the political despotism that upheld it, and to
ameliorate the condition of Christendom. No army
could have accomplished half the work in double
the time. He implored them to permit this process
to go on. It is preachers, not soldiers–the Gospel,
not rebellion, that is to benefit the world. And he
warned them that if they should oppose the Gospel
in the name of the Gospel, they would only rivet
the yoke of their enemies upon their neck.
The courage of the Reformer is not less
conspicuous than his wisdom, in speaking thus
plainly to two such parties at such an hour. But
Luther had but small thanks for his fidelity. The
princes accused him of throwing his shield over
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