The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 147

ecclesiastics, flushed with their conscious superiority in rank and power;
courtly knights and their armed retainers; and ambassadors from foreign
and distant lands,—all gathered at Worms. Yet in that vast assembly
the subject that excited the deepest interest was the cause of the Saxon
Reformer.
Charles had previously directed the elector to bring Luther with him
to the Diet, assuring him of protection, and promising a free discussion,
with competent persons, of the questions in dispute. Luther was anxious
to appear before the emperor. His health was at this time much impaired;
yet he wrote to the elector: “If I cannot go to Worms in good health, I
will be carried there, sick as I am. For if the emperor calls me, I cannot
doubt that it is the call of God Himself. If they desire to use violence
against me, and that is very probable (for it is not for their instruction
that they order me to appear), I place the matter in the Lord’s hands. He
still lives and reigns who preserved the three young men in the burning
fiery furnace. If He will not save me, my life is of little consequence.
Let us only prevent the gospel from being exposed to the scorn of the
wicked, and let us shed our blood for it, for fear they should triumph. It
is not for me to decide whether my life or my death will contribute most
to the salvation of all.... You may expect everything from me... except
flight and recantation. Fly I cannot, and still less retract.”—Ibid., b. 7,
ch. 1.
As the news was circulated at Worms that Luther was to appear
before the Diet, a general excitement was created. Aleander, the papal
legate to whom the case had been specially entrusted, was alarmed and
enraged. He saw that the result would be disastrous to the papal cause.
To institute inquiry into a case in which the pope had already pronounced
sentence of condemnation would be to cast contempt upon the authority
of the sovereign pontiff. Furthermore, he was apprehensive that the
eloquent and powerful arguments of this man might turn away many
of the princes from the cause of the pope. He therefore, in the most

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