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

ecollect, in the Castle of Coburg. Alone in his
solitary chamber, he is, rightly looked at, a grander
sight than the magnificent assemblage we have
been contemplating. He is the embodiment of that
great power which Charles has assembled his
princes and is about to muster his armies to
combat, but before which he is destined to fall, and
with him that mighty Empire over which he so
proudly sways the scepter, and which, nine years
before, at the Diet of Worms, he had publicly
staked on the issue.
Luther is again shut up with his thoughts and
his books. From the scene of labor and excitement
which Wittenberg had become, how refreshing and
fascinating the solitude of the Coburg! The day
was his own, with scarce an interruption, from
dawn till dusk. The Reformer needed rest, and all
things around him seemed to invite him to it–the
far-extending plains, the quiet woods, the cawing
of the rooks, and the song of the birds; but Luther
was incapable of resting. Scarcely had the tramp of
the elector's horsemen, continuing their journey to
Augsburg, died away in the distance, than he sat
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