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

conference. Popish Christendom would say they
were afraid, and Reformed Christendom would lay
at their door the continuance of the breach which
so many deplored, should they persist in their
refusal. They had even suggested to the Elector of
Saxony that he should interpose his veto upon their
journey. The elector, however, disdained so
discreditable a manoeuver. They next proposed that
a Papist should be chosen as umpire, assigning as
the reason of this strange proposition that a Papist
only would be an impartial judge, forgetting that
the party of all others in Christendom pledged to
the doctrine of the real presence was the Church of
Rome. Every device faded; they must go to
Marburg; they must meet Zwingli.
The pastor of Zurich, with a single attendant,
stole away by night. The town council, having
regard to the perils of the journey, which had to be
gone in good part over the territories of the
emperor, in the midst of foes, into whose hands
should the Reformer fall, he would see Zurich no
more, refused to give him leave to depart.
Accordingly Zwingli took the matter into his own
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