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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
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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 hast a march and a struggle to go through, such as neither I nor
many other captains have ever known in our most bloody battles. But
if thy cause be just, and thou art sure of it, go forward in God’s name,
and fear nothing! He will not forsake thee.”
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 furthest
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.”
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.
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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
writings, demanded that the reformer answer two questions,—whether
he acknowledged them as his, and whether he proposed to retract the
opinions which he had therein advanced. The titles of the books having