DIET OF WORMS, 1521 A.D.
The next scene of the Reformation was staged at Worms, at an important assembly, or Diet, of the Holy Roman Empire. The Diet summoned Luther to appear before it for examination, and the emperor, Charles V, gave him a safe conduct. Luther's friends, remembering the treatment of Huss, advised him not to accept the summons, but he declared that he would enter Worms "in the face of the gates of Hell and the powers of the air." In the great hall of the Diet Luther bravely faced the princes, nobles, and clergy of Germany. He refused to retract anything he had written, unless his statements could be shown to contradict the Bible. "It is neither right nor safe to act against conscience," Luther said. "God help me. Amen."
LUTHER AT THE WARTBURG, 1521-1522 A.D.
Only one thing remained to do with Luther. He was ordered to return to Wittenberg and there await the imperial edict declaring him a heretic and outlaw. But the elector of Saxony, who feared for Luther's safety, had him carried off secretly to the castle of Wartburg. Here Luther remained for nearly a year, engaged in translating the New Testament into German. There had been many earlier translations into German, but Luther's was the first from the Greek original. His version, simple, forcible, and easy to understand, enjoyed wide popularity and helped to fix for Germans the form of their literary language. Luther afterwards completed a translation of the entire Bible, which the printing press multiplied in thousands of copies throughout Germany.
LUTHER'S LEADERSHIP
Though still under the ban of the empire, Luther left the Wartburg in 1522 A.D. and returned to Wittenberg. He lived here, unmolested, until his death, twenty-four years later. During this time he flooded the country with pamphlets, wrote innumerable letters, composed many fine hymns, [15] and prepared a catechism, "a right Bible," said he, "for the laity." Thus Luther became the guide and patron of the reformatory movement which he had started.
231. CHARLES V AND THE SPREAD OF THE GERMAN REFORMATION, 1519-1556 A.D.
CHARLES V, EMPEROR, 1519-1556 A.D.
The young man who as Holy Roman Emperor presided at the Diet of Worms had assumed the imperial crown only two years previously. A namesake of Charlemagne, Charles V held sway over dominions even more extensive than those which had belonged to the Frankish king. Through his mother, a daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, [16] he inherited Spain, Naples, Sicily, and the Spanish possessions in the New World. Through his father, a son of the emperor Maximilian I, he became ruler of Burgundy and the Netherlands and also succeeded to the Austrian territories of the Hapsburgs. Charles was thus the most powerful monarch in Europe.