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

their foes, gathered in one mighty confederacy to
overwhelm them, begin to draw apart, and
ultimately form themselves into two opposing
camps, leaving a pathway between, by which the
little Protestant army, under their banner with its
sacred emblazonry–"The Word of the Lord
endureth for ever"– might march onwards to a
place of safety. The influence that parted the hearts
and councils of their enemies, and turned their
arms against each other, they no more could see
than the Israelites could see the Power that divided
the waters and made them stand upright, but that
the same Power was at work in the latter as in the
former case they could not doubt. The Divine Hand
has never been wanting to the Gospel and its
friends, but seldom has its interposition been more
manifest than at this crisis.
The emperor's ukase from Seville, breathing
death to Lutheranism, was nearly as much out of
date and almost as little to be regarded as if it had
been fulminated a century before. A single glance
revealed to the Lutheran princes the mighty change
which had taken place in affairs. Christendom was
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