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The Great Controversy 1888
flow out on every side. Profligacy and avarice go hand in hand.” “Alas!
it is the scandal caused by the clergy that plunges so many poor souls
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into everlasting perdition. A thorough reform must be effected.”
A more able and forcible denunciation of the papal abuses could
not have been presented by Luther himself; and the fact that the speaker
was a determined enemy of the reformer, gave greater influence to his
words.
Had the eyes of the assembly been opened, they would have beheld
angels of God in the midst of them, shedding beams of light athwart
the darkness of error, and opening minds and hearts to the reception of
truth. It was the power of the God of truth and wisdom that controlled
even the adversaries of the Reformation, and thus prepared the way
for the great work about to be accomplished. Martin Luther was not
present; but the voice of One greater than Luther had been heard in
that assembly.
A committee was at once appointed by the Diet to prepare an
enumeration of the papal oppressions that weighed so heavily on the
German people. This list, containing a hundred and one specifications,
was presented to the emperor, with a request that he would take im-
mediate measures for the correction of these abuses. “What a loss of
Christian souls,” said the petitioners, “what injustice, what extortion,
are the daily fruits of those scandalous practices to which the spiritual
head of Christendom affords his countenance. The ruin and dishonor
of our nation must be averted. We therefore very humbly, but very
urgently, beseech you to sanction a general Reformation, to undertake
the work, and to carry it through.”
The council now demanded the reformer’s appearance before them.
Notwithstanding the entreaties, protests, and threats of Aleander, the
emperor at last consented, and Luther was summoned to appear before
the Diet. With the summons was issued a safe-conduct, insuring his
return to a place of security. These were borne to Wittenberg by a
herald, who was commissioned to conduct him to Worms.
The friends of Luther were terrified and distressed. Knowing the
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prejudice and enmity against him, they feared that even his safe-
conduct would not be respected, and they entreated him not to imperil
his life. He replied: “The papists have little desire to see me at Worms,
but they long for my condemnation and death. It matters not. Pray
not for me, but for the Word of God.... Christ will give me his Spirit