Basic HTML Version
118
From Here to Forever
their protest before the national council without delay. A solemn
declaration was drawn up and presented to the diet:
“We protest by these presents ... that we, for us and for our
people, neither consent nor adhere in any manner whatsoever to the
proposed decree, in anything that is contrary to God, to His holy
word, to our right conscience, to the salvation of our souls. ... For
this reason we reject the yoke that is imposed on us. ... At the same
time we are in expectation that his imperial majesty will behave
toward us like a Christian prince who loves God above all things;
and we declare ourselves ready to pay unto him, as well as unto you,
gracious lords, all the affection and obedience that are our just and
legitimate duty.
The majority were filled with amazement and alarm at the bold-
ness of the protesters. Dissension, strife, and bloodshed seemed
inevitable. But the Reformers, relying upon the arm of Omnipo-
tence, were “full of courage and firmness.”
“The principles contained in this celebrated protest ... constitute
the very essence of Protestantism. ... Protestantism sets the power
of conscience above the magistrate, and the authority of the word of
God above the visible church. ... It ... says with the prophets and
[129]
apostles, ‘we must obey God rather than man.’ In presence of the
crown of Charles the Fifth, it uplifts the crown of Jesus Christ.
The
Protest of Spires was a solemn witness against religious intolerance
and an assertion of the right of all men to worship God according to
their own consciences.
The experience of these noble Reformers contains a lesson for
all succeeding ages. Satan is still opposed to the Scriptures being
made the guide of life. In our time there is need of a return to the
great Protestant principle—the Bible, and the Bible only, as the rule
of faith and duty. Satan is still working to destroy religious liberty.
The antichristian power which the protesters of Spires rejected is
now seeking to reestablish its lost supremacy.
6
D’Aubigne, bk. 13, ch. 6.
7
Idem.