in its earliest days Luther's revolt was handled very gently, and
it spread with speed. Then Charles, secure upon his throne and gravely
Catholic, resolved on firmer methods of stamping out the heresy. He
summoned Luther to that famous interview at Worms (1521), where the
reformer, threatened with outlawry and all the terror of the empire's
power, refused to unsay his preaching, crying out in agony: "Here I
stand! I can no other! God help me! Amen!"

Charles in his shrewd, silent way saw that the matter was not to be
settled so easily as he had hoped. Already half Germany was on
Luther's side. Several leading nobles accompanied him as he left the
Emperor's presence. Charles wanted their help against the Turks. So
there was more temporizing. Then came war with Francis no tune this for
quarrelling with obstinate Teutonic princes and their obstinate
_protege_.

The peasants of Germany did Luther's cause more harm than Charles had
done. These ignorant and bitterly oppressed unfortunates, constituting
everywhere, remember, the vast majority of the human race, heard
impassioned preachings of reform, revolt. To them Rome seemed not the
oppressor, but their immediate lords; and, thinking they were obeying
Luther's behest, they rose in arms. Some of the more violent reformers
joined them. Luther preached against the uprising, but it was not to be
checked. Terrible were the excesses of the mobs of brutal peasantry, and
all the upper classes of the land were forced in self-defence to turn
against them and crush them. Many a noble who had once thought well of
the reform, abandoned it in fear and horror at its consequences.[4]

Meanwhile the war with France became more serious. The claims of both
Charles and Francis to Italian lands made that unlucky country the
theatre of their battles. Francis, with his compact domain and readily
gathered resources, proved at first more than a match for the scattered
forces and insecure authority of the Emperor. Never had the French
monarch's fame stood higher than when in 1525, with an army made
confident by repeated victories, he besieged Pavia. The city was the
last important stronghold of Charles in Italy; it was reduced almost to
surrender.

Then came a fatal blunder. Francis confused the old ways with the new.
The German generals had been hopeless of raising the siege, the imperial
armies were on the point of disbanding, but as a last resort their
leaders advanced and defied the enemy t