ate in the Middle Ages," he
wrote, "were child's play to this." Therefore, although Luther had
been condemned and excommunicated for forty heresies, although he had
publicly thrown the Pope's Bull into the fire, and was worthy of death
by ecclesiastical and municipal law, the Emperor gave him a free pass
to the Diet and back, and sent a herald to arrange the journey.

At Erfurt, on his way, he learnt for the first time how the country
was with him. When within sight of the towers and spires of Worms, he
was warned by the Saxon minister Spalatin that his life would not be
safe; and he returned the famous answer that he would go on if every
tile in the city was a devil. At Oppenheim, almost the last stage,
Bucer was waiting his arrival with a strange and unexpected message.
A French Franciscan, Glapion, was the Emperor's confessor, and he was
staying at Sickingen's castle, a few miles off, in company with
Sickingen himself, the dreaded free-lance, with Ulrich von Hutten and
with the unfrocked Dominican Bucer, who was to prove the ablest of the
German reformers next to Luther. He sent Bucer, with an escort of
Sickingen's troopers, to invite Luther to visit him there before he
proceeded to Worms. It was clear that the Diet would end with a
repulse for authority. The very presence there of a man who had
written with such violence, and had been so solemnly condemned, was a
defiance. Glapion was a reforming Catholic, and desired the
assistance of Luther. He was clever enough to find ground in common
with Erasmus, Ulrich von Hutten, and Bucer, and he was ready with
far-reaching concessions to secure Luther. Then, he thought, his
Emperor would be enabled to purify the Church. Bucer was of opinion
that there was nothing to prevent agreement if Luther would interpret
his contested writings as Bucer had explained them to Glapion.
Gattinara was urgent for a reforming Council; the union of so many
forces would be enough to invigorate the Italian cardinals, and they
could carry Rome with them. It was the party of Reform attempting to
conciliate the party of Reformation, that they might co-operate in
saving the work of the Renaissance and renewing the Church from
within. By renouncing "The Babylonish Captivity" alone of his
numerous writings, Luther, who had already revoked so many utterances,
might obtain acceptance for his main dogma, and bind the united
Humanists and the Imperial government to his cause. Those were the