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

which charity enjoins ns to bestow even upon our
enemies. They, however, behaved in all respects
with an incredible degree of humility and
amiability."
Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, was unspeakably
mortified by the issue of the conference. He had
been at great pains to bring it about; he had built
the highest hopes upon it; now all these hopes had
to be relinquished. Wherever he looked, outside the
Protestant camp, he beheld union. All, from the
Pope downwards, were gathering in one vast
confederacy to crush both Wittenberg and Zurich,
and yet Luther and Zwingli were still standing–the
former haughtily and obstinately–apart! Every hour
the storm lowers more darkly over Protestantism,
yet its disciples do not unite! His disappointment
was great.
All the time this theological battle was going
on, a terrible visitant was approaching Marburg.
The plague, in the form of the sweating sickness,
had broken out in Germany, and was traversing
that country, leaving on its track the dead in
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