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

the pilot proves his skill," says Ranke. Perilous
times had come. The great winds had begun to
blow, and the nations were laboring, as the ocean
heaves before a tempest. Two powerful kings were
fighting in Italy; the Turk was brandishing his
scimitar on the Austrian frontier; but the quarter of
the sky that gave Clement VII. the greatest concern
was Wittenberg.
There a storm was brewing which would try his
seamanship to the utmost. Leo X. had trifled with
this affair. Adrian VI. had imagined that he had
only to utter the magic word "reform," and the
billows would subside and the winds sink to rest.
Clement would prove himself an abler pilot; he
would act as a statesman, as a Pope.
Early in the spring of 1524, the city of
Nuremberg was honored a second time with the
presence of the Imperial Diet within its walls. The
Pope's first care was to send a right man as legate
to this assembly. He selected Cardinal Campeggio,
a man of known ability, of great experience, and of
weight of character – the fittest, in short, his court
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