could bear. Formulism, Pagan Popeism, and
other Falsehood and corrupt Semblance had ruled long enough: and here
once more was a man found who durst tell all men that God's world
stood not on semblances but on realities; that Life was a truth, and
not a lie!

At bottom, as was said above, we are to consider Luther as a Prophet
Idol-breaker; a bringer-back of men to reality. It is the function of
great men and teachers. Mahomet said, These idols of yours are wood;
you put wax and oil on them, the flies stick on them: they are not
God, I tell you, they are black wood! Luther said to the Pope, This
thing of yours that you call a Pardon of Sins, it is a bit of
rag-paper with ink. It _is_ nothing else; it, and so much like it, is
nothing else. God alone can pardon sins. Popeship, spiritual
Fatherhood of God's Church, is that a vain semblance, of cloth and
parchment? It is an awful fact. God's Church is not a semblance,
Heaven and Hell are not semblances. I stand on this, since you drive
me to it. Standing on this, I a poor German monk am stronger than you
all. I stand solitary, friendless, but on God's Truth; you with your
tiaras, triple-hats, with your treasuries and armories, thunders
spiritual and temporal, stand on the Devil's Lie, and are not so
strong!--

The Diet of Worms, Luther's appearance there on the 17th of April
1521, may be considered as the greatest scene in Modern European
History; the point, indeed, from which the whole subsequent history of
civilisation takes its rise. After multiplied negotiations,
disputations, it had come to this. The young Emperor Charles Fifth,
with all the Princes of Germany, Papal nuncios, dignitaries spiritual
and temporal, are assembled there: Luther is to appear and answer for
himself, whether he will recant or not. The world's pomp and power
sits there on this hand: on that, stands-up for God's Truth, one man,
the poor miner Hans Luther's Son. Friends had reminded him of Huss,
advised him not to go; he would not be advised. A large company of
friends rode-out to meet him, with still more earnest warnings; he
answered, "Were there as many Devils in Worms as there are roof-tiles,
I would on." The people, on the morrow, as he went to the Hall of the
Diet, crowded the windows and housetops, some of them calling out to
him, in solemn words, not to recant: "Whosoever denieth me before
men!" they cried to him,--as in a kind of solemn petition and
adjuration. Was it not in reality ou