without anxiety respecting the proceedings of the

morrow.

He presented himself at the appointed time, and on this occasion he was detained for two hours in the hall of attendance, in the midst of a large assemblage. During this interval he was addressed by one George Frondsberg, a soldier and nobleman of high consideration, in words of sympathy, yet perhaps as calculated to dishearten as to confirm: " My poor monk !* my poor monk! thou art marching to a position the like of which I and my brother officers have never taken in our severest conflicts. Nevertheless, if right be on thy side, and if thou be well assured that it is so, forwards in the name of God, and be of good courage-God will not forsake thee." When the previous business was transacted Luther was again called before the Diet, and again addressed by the imperial orator; who, after some sarcastic remarks upon his petition for delay, as unworthy of so great a doctor and so practised a disputant, proceeded to repeat his former interrogations.

Luther turned towards the Emperor, and with a serious countenance, wherein modesty was decorously blended with firmness, he spoke, in the German language, to the following effect: "In obedience to your command, most serene imperial majesty and most illustrious princes, I stand here, beseeching you, as God is merciful, so to deign mercifully to listen to this cause, which is, as I believe, the cause of justice and of truth. And if through inexperience I should fail to apply to

* "Münchlein, Münchlein, du gehest jetzt einen gang, einen solchen stand zu thun, dergleichen ich und mancher obeister, auch in unsrer aller-erntesten schlachtordnung nicht gethan haben. Bist tu auf rechter meinung, und deiner sachen gewiss, so fahre in Gotte's namen fort, und sey nur getrost, Gott wird dich nicht verlassen." Apud Seckendorf. lib. i. § 96.

any one his proper title, or offend in any way against the manners of courts, I entreat you to pardon me, as one not conversant with courts but with the cells of monks, and claiming no other merit than that of having lectured and written with that simplicity of mind, which regards nothing but the glory of God and the pure instruction of the people of Christ.

"Two articles have been proposed to me: Whether I acknowledge the books which are published in my name? and whether I am determined to defend or disposed to recal them? To the first of these I have given a direct answer, in which I shall ever persist, that those books are mine and published by me, except so far as they may have been altered or interpolated by the craft or officiousness of rivals. To the other I am now about to reply; and I must first entreat your majesty and your highnesses to deign to consider that my books are not all of the same description. For there are some in which I have treated the piety of faith and morals with simplicity so evangelical, that my very adversaries confess them to be profitable and harmless and deserving the perusal of a Christian. Even the Pope's bull, fierce and cruel as it is,* admits some of my books to be innocent, though even these, with a monstrous perversity of judgment, it includes in the same sentence. If then I should think of retracting these, should I not stand alone in my condemnation of that truth which is acknowledged by the unanimous confession of all, whether friends or foes?

"The second species of my publications is that in which I have inveighed against the papacy and the doctrine of the papists, as of men who by their iniquitous tenets and examples have desolated the Christian world

* "Sed bulla, quamquam sæva et crudelis, aliquot meos libros, &c. .."

both with spiritual and temporal calamities. No man can deny or dissemble this. The sufferings and complaints of all mankind are my witnesses, that through the laws of the Pope and the doctrines of men the consciences of the faithful have been ensnared, tortured and torn in pieces, while at the same time their property and substance have been devoured by an incredible tyranny, and are still devoured without end and by degrading means, and that too most of all in this noble nation of Germany. Yet it is with them a perpetual statute, that the laws and doctrines of the Pope be held erroneous and reprobate, when they are contrary to the gospel and the opinions of the fathers.*

"If then I shall retract these books, I shall do no other than add strength to tyranny and throw open doors to this great impiety, which will then stride forth more widely and licentiously than it has dared hitherto; so that the reign of iniquity will proceed with entire impunity, and, notwithstanding its intolerable oppression upon the suffering vulgar, be still further fortified and established; especially when it shall be proclaimed that I have been driven to this act by the authority of your serene majesty and the whole Roman empire. What a cloak, blessed Lord, should I then become for wickedness and despotism!

"In a third description of my writings are those which I have published against individuals, against the defenders of the Roman tyranny and the subverters of the

*“Nam neque negare id, neque dissimulare quidquam potest, cum experientia omnium et universorum querimonia testes sint, per leges papæ et doctrinas hominum conscientias fidelium miserrime esse illaqueatas, vexatas, et excarnificatas; tum res et substantias, præsertim in hac inclyta Germaniæ natione, incredibili tyrannide devoratas, devorarique adhuc sine fine, indignisque modis. Cum tamen suismet legibus ipsi caveant, ut papæ leges et doctrinæ, evangelico et patrum sententiis contrariæ, pro erroneis et reprobis habeantur."-Acta D. M. Lutheri, &c.

piety taught by me. Against these I do freely confess that I have written with more bitterness than was becoming either my religion or my profession; for indeed. I lay no claim to any especial sanctity, and argue not respecting my own life, but respecting the doctrine of Christ. Yet even these writings it is impossible for me to retract, seeing that through such retractation despotism and impiety would reign under my patronage, and rage with more than their former ferocity against the people of God.

"Yet since I am but man and not God, it would not become me to go farther in defence of my tracts than my Lord Jesus went in defence of his doctrine; who, when he was interrogated before Annas and received a blow from one of the officers, answered, 'If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why smitest thou me?' If then the Lord himself, who knew his own infallibility, did not disdain to require arguments against his doctrine even from a person of low condition, how much rather ought I, who am the dregs of earth and the very slave of error, to inquire and search if there be any to bear witness against my doctrine! Wherefore I intreat you, by the mercy of God, that if there be any one of any condition who has that ability, let him advance his testimony, let him confute my errors, let him overpower me by the sacred writings, prophetical and evangelical. And for my own part, as soon as I shall be better instructed, I will retract my errors and be the first to cast my books into the flames.

"It must now, I think, be manifest that I have sufficiently examined and weighed not only the dangers but the parties and dissensions excited in the world by means of my doctrine, of which I was yesterday so gravely admonished. But I must avow that to me it is of all others the most delightful spectacle to see parties and dissen

sions growing up on account of the word of God, for such is the progress of God's word, such its end and object. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-inlaw against her mother-in-law; and a man's foes shall be they of his own household.'*

"Moreover we should reflect that our God is wonderful and terrible in his counsels; so that this work, which is now the object of so much solicitude, if we should found it in the condemnation of the word of God, may be turned by his providence into a deluge of intolerable calamity; and the reign of this young and excellent prince (in whom is our hope after God) may have an unhappy and inauspicious beginning.

"I could show more abundantly by reference to scriptural examples-to those of Pharaoh, the king of Babylon, the kings of Israel-that they have brought about their own destruction by those very counsels of worldly wisdom which seemed to promise them peace and stability. For it is He who taketh the wise in their craftiness and removeth the mountains and they know not, and overturneth them in his anger. So that it is the work of God to fear God. Yet I say not these things as if the great personages here present stood at all in need of my admonitions, but only because it was a service which I owed to my native Germany, and it was my duty to discharge it. And thus I commend myself to your serene majesty and all the princes, humbly beseeching you not to allow the malice of my enemies to render me odious to you without a cause. I have done."

* Matt. x. 34, &c. Milner, professing to give Luther's speech entire, appears to have overlooked this scriptural reference.