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Champion of Truth
89
Knowing the prejudice and enmity against him, the friends of
Luther feared that his safe-conduct would not be respected. He
replied: “Christ will give me His Spirit to overcome these ministers
of error. I despise them during my life; I shall triumph over them by
my death. They are busy at Worms about compelling me to retract;
and this shall be my retraction: I said formerly that the pope was
Christ’s vicar; now I assert that he is the Lord’s adversary, and the
devil’s apostle.
Besides the imperial messenger, three friends determined to
accompany Luther. Melanchthon’s heart was knit to Luther’s, and
he yearned to follow him. But his entreaties were denied. Said the
Reformer: “If I do not return, and my enemies put me to death,
continue to teach, and stand fast in the truth. Labor in my stead. ...
If you survive, my death will be of little consequence.
The minds of the people were oppressed by gloomy forebodings.
They learned that Luther’s writings had been condemned at Worms.
The herald, fearing for Luther’s safety at the council, asked if he still
wished to go forward. He answered, “Although interdicted in every
city, I shall go on.
At Erfurt, Luther passed through the streets he had often tra-
versed, visited his convent cell, and thought upon the struggles
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through which the light now flooding Germany had been shed upon
his soul. He was urged to preach. This he had been forbidden to do,
but the herald granted him permission, and the friar who had once
been made the drudge of the convent, now entered the pulpit.
The people listened as if spellbound. The bread of life was
broken to those starving souls. Christ was lifted up before them as
above popes, legates, emperors, and kings. Luther made no reference
to his own perilous position. In Christ he had lost sight of self. He
hid behind the Man of Calvary, seeking only to present Jesus as the
sinner’s Redeemer.
7
Ibid., bk. 7, ch. 6.
8
Ibid., bk. 7, ch. 7.
9
Ibid., bk. 7, ch. 7.