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

abortive; now at last, it will give the world a Pope
who shall be a true father to Christendom, together
with a pious, faithful, and learned hierarchy, and
holy and laborious priests–in short, the "golden
age," so long waited for. The princes will summon
a Diet–a national and lay Diet–to meet at Spires, in
November of this year. And, further, they will take
steps to evoke the real sentiments of Germany on
the religious question, and permit the wishes of its
several cities and States to be expressed in the Diet;
and, in this way, a Reformation will be
accomplished such as Germany wishes. The
princes believed that they were ending their long
and dangerous navigation, and were at last in sight
of the harbor.
So had they often thought before, but they had
awakened to find that they were still at sea, with
the tempest lowering overhead, and the white reefs
gleaming pale through the waters below. They
were destine to repeat this experience once more.
The very idea of such a Diet as was projected was
an insult to the Papacy. For a secular assembly to
meet and discuss religious questions, and settle
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