remainder by the estates. The character
and the great powers of this council, extending even to ecclesiastical
matters during the ensuing years, undoubtedly did much to hasten on
the substitution of the civil law for the older customary or common
law, a matter which we shall consider more in detail later on. The
financial condition of the empire was also considered; and it here
first became evident that the dislocation of economic conditions,
which had begun with the century, would render an enormously increased
taxation necessary to maintain the Imperial authority, amounting to
five times as much as had previously been required.

It was only after these secular affairs of the empire had been
disposed of that the deliberations of the Reichstag on ecclesiastical
matters were opened by the indictment of Luther in a long speech by
Aleander, one of the papal nuncios, in introducing the Pope's letter.
In spite of the efforts of his friends, Luther was not permitted to be
present at the beginning of the proceedings; but subsequently he was
sent for by the Emperor, in order that he might state his case. His
journey to Worms was one long triumph, especially at Erfurt, where he
was received with enthusiasm by the Humanists as the enemy of the
Papacy. But his presence in the Reichstag was unavailing, and the
proceedings resulted in his being placed under the ban of the empire.
The safe-conduct of the Emperor was, however, in his case respected;
and in spite of the fears of his friends that a like fate might
befall him as had befallen Huss after the Council of Constance, he was
allowed to depart unmolested.

On his way to Wittenberg Luther was seized, by arrangement with his
supporter, the Kurfuerst of Saxony, and conveyed in safety to the
Castle of Wartburg, in Thueringen, a report in the meantime being
industriously circulated by certain of his adherents, with a view of
arousing popular feeling, that he had been arrested by order of the
Emperor and was being tortured. In this way he was secured from all
danger for the time being, and it was during his subsequent stay that
he laid the foundations of the literary language of Germany.

Says a contemporary writer,[8] an eye-witness of what went on at Worms
during the sitting of the Reichstag: "All is disorder and confusion.
Seldom a night doth pass but that three or four persons be slain. The
Emperor hath installed a provost, who hath drowned, hanged, and
murdered over a hundred