Chapter 8—Luther Before the Diet
A new emperor, Charles V, had ascended the throne of Germany,
and the emissaries of Rome hastened to present their congratulations
and induce the monarch to employ his power against the Reformation.
On the other hand, the elector of Saxony, to whom Charles was in great
degree indebted for his crown, entreated him to take no step against
Luther until he should have granted him a hearing. The emperor was
thus placed in a position of great perplexity and embarrassment. The
papists would be satisfied with nothing short of an imperial edict sen-
tencing Luther to death. The elector had declared firmly that “neither
his imperial majesty nor any other person had shown that Luther’s
writings had been refuted;” therefore he requested “that Dr. Luther
should be furnished with a safe-conduct, so that he might appear before
a tribunal of learned, pious, and impartial judges.”—D’Aubigne, b. 6,
ch. 11.
The attention of all parties was now directed to the assembly of
the German states which convened at Worms soon after the accession
of Charles to the empire. There were important political questions
and interests to be considered by this national council; for the first
time the princes of Germany were to meet their youthful monarch in
deliberative assembly. From all parts of the fatherland had come the
dignitaries of church and state. Secular lords, highborn, powerful, and
jealous of their hereditary rights; princely ecclesiastics, flushed with
[146]
their conscious superiority in rank and power; courtly knights and their
armed retainers; and ambassadors from foreign and distant lands,—all
gathered at Worms. Yet in that vast assembly the subject that excited
the deepest interest was the cause of the Saxon Reformer.
Charles had previously directed the elector to bring Luther with
him to the Diet, assuring him of protection, and promising a free
discussion, with competent persons, of the questions in dispute. Luther
was anxious to appear before the emperor. His health was at this time
much impaired; yet he wrote to the elector: “If I cannot go to Worms
in good health, I will be carried there, sick as I am. For if the emperor
121