ὃ 55. LUTHER’S TESTIMONY BEFORE THE DIET. 805
recant any thing, since it is unsafe and dangerous to do any thing against the conscience.” ἢ
So far the reports are clear and harmonious. What followed immediately after this testimony is somewhat uncertain and of less importance.
Dr. Eck exchanged a few more words with Luther, protesting against his assertion that councils may err and have erred. “You can not prove it,” he said. Luther repeated his assertion, and pledged himself to prove it. Thus pressed and threatened, amidst the excitement and confusion of the audience, he uttered in German, at least in substance, that concluding sentence which has impressed itself most on the memory of men: — |
“Here I stand. [I can not do otherwise.] God help me! Amen.” ?
The sentence, if not strictly historical, is true to the situa-
1 We give also the German and Latin texts. ‘* Weil denn Eure Kaiserliche Majestat und Eure Gnaden eine schlichte Antwort begehren, so will ich eine Antwort ohne Horner und Zihne geben diesermassen: ‘Es sei denn, dass ich durch Zeugnisse der Schrift oder durch helle Grinde tiberwunden werde — denn ich glaube weder dem Papst, noch den Konzilien allein, dieweil am Tag liegt, dass sie ofters geirrt und sich selbst widersprochen haben, — so bin ich tiberwunden durch die von mir angeftihrten heiligen Schriften, und mein Gewissen ist gefangen in Gottes Wort; widerrufen kann ich nichts und will ich nichts, dieweil wider das Gewissen zu handeln unsicher und gefahrlich ist.’”? See K6stlin, I. 452. The oldest reports vary a little in the language. Some have scheinbarliche und merkliche Ursachen for helle Griinde, and at the close: *‘ dieweil wider das Gewissen zu handeln beschwerlich und unheilsam, auch gefdhrlich δι.) Werke (Erl. Frkf. ed.), vol. LXIV. 382.
The Latin text as given in the Acta Lutheri Wormatic habita is as follows: ‘‘ Hic Lutherus: Quando ergo serenissima Majestas vestra Dominationesque vestre simplex responsum petunt, dabo illud, neque cornutum, neque dentatum, in hunc modum: ‘ Nisi convictus fuero testimoniis Scripturarum, aut ratione evidente (nam neque Pape, neque Conciliis solis credo, cum constet eos errasse sepius, et sibi ipsis contradixisse), victus sum Scripturis a me adductis captaque est conscientia in verbis Dei; revocare neque possum neque volo quidquam, cum contra conscientiam agere neque tutum, sit, neque integrum.’”’? Opera Lat. (Frankf. ed.), vol. VI. 13 sq.
2 “ Hier ste’ ich. [Ich kann nicht anders.] Gott helfe mir! Amen.’ The bracketed words cannot be traced to a primitive source. See the critical. noie at the close of this section.
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306 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 TO 1530.
tion, and expresses Luther’s mental condition at the time, —the strength of his conviction, and prayer for God’s help, which was abundantly answered. It furnishes a parallel to Galileo’s equally famous, but less authenticated, “It does move, for all that” (# pur st muove).
The Emperor would hear no more, and abruptly broke up the session of the Diet at eight o’clock, amid general commotion.
On reaching his lodgings, Luther threw up his arms, and joyfully exclaimed, “I am through, I am through Madlee « Spalatin, in the presence of others, he said, “If I had a thousand heads, I would rather have them all cut off one by one than make one recantation.”
The impression he made on the audience was different according to conviction and nationality. What some admired as the enthusiasm of faith and the strength of conviction, appeared to others as fanaticism and heretical obstinacy.
The Emperor, a stranger to German thought and speech,} declared after the first hearing: ‘This man will never make a heretic of me.” He doubted the authorship of the famous books ascribed to him. At the second hearing he was horrified at the disparagement of general councils, as if a German monk could be wiser than the whole Catholic Church. The Spaniards and Italians were no doubt of the same opinion; they may have been repelled also by his lowly appearance and want of refined manners. Some of the Spaniards pursued him with hisses as he left the room. The papal legates reported that he raised his hands after the manner of
1 The little German he knew was only the Platt-Deutsch of the Low Countries. He always communicated with his German subjects in Latin or French, or by the mouth of his brother Ferdinand.
2 Aleander (l.c. p. 170): ‘‘ Cesar palam dizit et sepissime postea repetiit, che mai credera che V habbii composto detti libri.”’ The mixing of Latin and Italian is characteristic of the Aleander dispatches. He was inclined to ascribe the authorship of the greater part of Luther’s books to Melanchthon,
of whom he says that he has “un belissimo, ma malignissimo ingegno” (p. 172). :