The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 150

continually shining upon the Scriptures, and new truths have been
constantly unfolding.
The legate’s address made a deep impression upon the Diet. There
was no Luther present, with the clear and convincing truths of God’s
word, to vanquish the papal champion. No attempt was made to defend
the Reformer. There was manifest a general disposition not only to
condemn him and the doctrines which he taught, but if possible to uproot
the heresy. Rome had enjoyed the most favorable opportunity to defend
her cause. All that she could say in her own vindication had been said.
But the apparent victory was the signal of defeat. Henceforth the contrast
between truth and error would be more clearly seen, as they should take
the field in open warfare. Never from that day would Rome stand as
secure as she had stood.
While most of the members of the Diet would not have hesitated
to yield up Luther to the vengeance of Rome, many of them saw and
deplored the existing depravity in the church, and desired a suppression
of the abuses suffered by the German people in consequence of the
corruption and greed of the hierarchy. The legate had presented the
papal rule in the most favorable light. Now the Lord moved upon a
member of the Diet to give a true delineation of the effects of papal
tyranny. With noble firmness, Duke George of Saxony stood up in that
princely assembly and specified with terrible exactness the deceptions
and abominations of popery, and their dire results. In closing he said:
“These are some of the abuses that cry out against Rome. All shame
has been put aside, and their only object is ... money, money, money,
... so that the preachers who should teach the truth, utter nothing but
falsehoods, and are not only tolerated, but rewarded, because the greater
their lies, the greater their gain. It is from this foul spring that such
tainted waters flow. Debauchery stretches out the hand to avarice....
Alas, it is the scandal caused by the clergy that hurls so many poor souls
into eternal condemnation. A general reform must be effected.”—Ibid.,
b. 7, ch. 4.

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