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

on the 25th of June, 1530, the crowning honor is
placed on its brow, in presence of the assembled
puissances, spiritual and temporal, of the Empire,
with the emperor at their head, who, here to assist
at its obsequies, becomes the unintentional witness
of its triumph.
The characteristic of the Reformation as
distinguished from primitive Christianity was its
power of originating social action. It put forth on
nations an influence of a kind so powerful that
nothing like it is to be found in any previous age of
the world. As the Gospel, in early times, held on its
way among the nations, it called one individual
here and another there to be its disciple. Those
whom it thus gathered out of the mass it knit into a
holy brotherhood, an evangelical Church. Still,
though a great multitude, comprehending men of
every kindred and tongue, these disciples remained
blended with their several nationalities: they did
not stand out before the world as a distinct social
and Political community. They were a spiritual
kingdom only. When the magistrate permitted them
the open profession of their faith, they thankfully
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