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

court of the elector was troubled, and Frederick
appointed a deputation consisting of Justus Jonas,
Philip Melanchthon, and Nicholas Amsdorf, to
visit the Augustine convent and restore peace. The
issue was the conversion of the members of the
deputation to the opinions of Friar Gabriel. It was
no longer obscure monks only who were calling for
the abolition of the mass; the same cry was raised
by the University, the great school of Saxony.
Many who had listened calmly to Luther so long as
his teaching remained simply a doctrine, stood
aghast when they saw the practical shape it was
about to take. They saw that it would change the
world of a thousand years past, that it would sweep
away all the ancient usages, and establish an order
of things which neither they nor their fathers had
known. They feared as they entered into this new
world.
The friar, emboldened by the success that
attended his first efforts, attacked next the monastic
order itself. He denounced the "vow" as without
warrant in the Bible, and the "cloak" as covering
only idleness and lewdness. "No one," said he, "can
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