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

not serve our turn; let us resort to force." But,
though all considerations of humanity had been put
aside, the question of the practicability of bringing
all the Protestants to the scaffold was a serious one.
Was the emperor able to do this? He stood at the
head of Europe, but it was prudent not too severely
to test his superiority. The Lutheran princes were
by no means despicable, either in spirit or
resources. The Kings of France and England,
though they disrelished the Protestant doctrines,
had come to know that the Protestant party was an
important political element; and it was just possible
their majesties might prefer that Christendom
should remain divided, rather than that its unity
should be restored by a holocaust like that
advocated by Campeggio. And then there was the
Turk, who, although he had now retreated into his
own domain, might yet, should a void so vast occur
as would be created by the slaughter of the
Protestants, transfer his standards from the shores
of the Bosphorus to the banks of the Danube. It
was clear that the burning of 100,000 Protestants or
so would be only the beginning of the drama. The
Pope would most probably approve of so kindly a
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