Luther Before the Diet
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On the following day Luther was summoned to attend the Diet. An
imperial officer was appointed to conduct him to the hall of audience;
yet it was with difficulty that he reached the place. Every avenue was
crowded with spectators eager to look upon the monk who had dared
resist the authority of the pope.
As he was about to enter the presence of his judges, an old general,
the hero of many battles, said to him kindly: “Poor monk, poor monk,
thou art now going to make a nobler stand than I or any other captains
have ever made in the bloodiest of our battles. But if thy cause is just,
and thou art sure of it, go forward in God’s name, and fear nothing.
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God will not forsake thee.”—D’Aubigne, b. 7, ch. 8.
At length Luther stood before the council. The emperor occupied
the throne. He was surrounded by the most illustrious personages
in the empire. Never had any man appeared in the presence of a
more imposing assembly than that before which Martin Luther was to
answer for his faith. “This appearance was of itself a signal victory
over the papacy. The pope had condemned the man, and he was now
standing before a tribunal which, by this very act, set itself above
the pope. The pope had laid him under an interdict, and cut him
off from all human society; and yet he was summoned in respectful
language, and received before the most august assembly in the world.
The pope had condemned him to perpetual silence, and he was now
about to speak before thousands of attentive hearers drawn together
from the farthest parts of Christendom. An immense revolution had
thus been effected by Luther’s instrumentality. Rome was already
descending from her throne, and it was the voice of a monk that caused
this humiliation.”—Ibid., b. 7, ch. 8.
In the presence of that powerful and titled assembly the lowly
born Reformer seemed awed and embarrassed. Several of the princes,
observing his emotion, approached him, and one of them whispered:
“Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul.”
Another said: “When ye shall be brought before governors and kings
for My sake, it shall be given you, by the Spirit of your Father, what
ye shall say.” Thus the words of Christ were brought by the world’s
great men to strengthen His servant in the hour of trial.
Luther was conducted to a position directly in front of the em-
peror’s throne. A deep silence fell upon the crowded assembly. Then
an imperial officer arose and, pointing to a collection of Luther’s writ-