§ 54, LUTHER’S JOURNEY TO WORMS. 299
his feelings at that critical period: “I was fearless, I was afraid of nothing; God can make one so desperately bold. I know not whether I could be so cheerful now.”! Mathesius says, with reference to this courage: “If the cause is good, the heart expands, giving courage and energy to evangelists and soldiers.”
Sickingen invited Luther, through Martin Bucer, in person, to his castle Ebernburg, where he would be perfectly safe under the protection of friends. Glapio favored the plan, and wished to have a personal conference with Luther about a possible compromise and co-operation in a moderate scheme of reform. But Luther would not be diverted from his aim, and sent word, that, if the Emperor’s confessor wished, he could see him in Worms.
Luther arrived in Worms on Tuesday morning, April 16, 1521, at ten o’clock, shortly before early dinner, in an open carriage with his Wittenberg companions, preceded by the imperial herald, and followed by a number of gentlemen on horseback. He was dressed in his monastic gown.? The watchman on the tower of the cathedral announced the arrival of the procession by blowing the horn, and thousands of people gathered to see the heretic.®
As he stepped from the carriage, he said, “God will be with me.”
The papal legate reports this fact to Rome, and adds that Luther looked around with the eyes of a demon.* Cardinal
1 Ibid: ‘‘ Denn ich war wherschrocken, fiirchtete mich nichts; Gott kann einen wohl so toll machen. Ich weiss nicht, οὐ ich jetzt auch so freudig Bim βὼ Luther’s picture of that year, by Cranach, in the small biography of Ko6stlin, p. 237 (Scribner’s ed.). It is very different from those to which we are accustomed.
3 “ Nun fuhr ich,’ says Luther (LXIV. 368), ‘‘ auf einem offenen Waglein in meiner Kappen zu Worms ein. Da kamen alle Leute auf die Gassen und wollten den Monch D. Martinum sehen.”’
* Aleander to Vice-Chancellor Medici, from Worms, April 16: ‘* Esso Lu-
ther in descensu currus versis huc et illuc demoniacis oculis disse: “ Deus erit pro me.’’’ Brieger, I, 143.
800 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 To 1580.
Cajetan was similarly struck at Augsburg with the mysteri. ous fire of the “ profound eyes,” and the *“ wonderful speculations,” of the German monk.
Luther was lodged in the house of the Knights of St. John with two counselors of the Elector. He received visitors till late at night.
The city was in a fever-heat of excitement and expectation.
§ 55. Luther’s Testimony before the Diet. April 17 and 18, 1521.
See Lit. in § 53.
On the day after his arrival, in the afternoon at four o'clock, Luther was led by the imperial marshal, Ulrich von | Pappenheim, and the herald, Caspar Sturm, through circuitous side-streets, avoiding the impassable crowds, to the hall of the Diet in the bishop’s palace where the Emperor and his brother Ferdinand resided. He was admitted at about six o’clock. There he stood, a poor monk of rustic manners, yet a genuine hero and confessor, with the fire of genius and enthusiasm flashing from his eyes and the expression of intense earnestness and thoughtfulness on his face, before a brilliant assembly such as he had never seen: the young Emperor, six Electors (including his own sovereign), the Pope’s legates, archbishops, bishops, dukes, margraves, princes, counts, deputies of the imperial cities, ambassadors of foreign courts, and a numerous array of dignitaries of every rank; in one word, a fair representation of the highest powers in Church and State.2 Several thousand spectators were collected in and around the building and in the streets, anxiously waiting for the issue. }
1“ Tutto il mondo,’’ writes Aleander in the same letter, ‘‘went to see Luther after dinner.”’
2 Walch, XV. 2225-2231, gives a list of over two hundred members of the Diet that were present.