224 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
It is one of those solemn points in history where the seen touches
the unseen, where earth and heaven meet.
Luther rises from his knees, and in the calm reigning in his soul
feels that he has received an answer to his prayer.
At four of the clock the grand marshal and the herald presented
themselves. Through crowded streets was the Reformer conducted
to the town hall. When Luther should be admitted no one could say.
One hour passed, and then another ; the Reformer was still standing
amid the hum and clamour of the multitude. But his tranquillity did
not forsake him. He was in a sanctuary apart.
The night began to fail; torches were kindled in the hall. At last
the door opened and Luther entered. He stood before the Emperor
with an air of dignity, and looked on the assembly of princes with a
calm, steadfast eye.
The Chancellor rose and demanded his answer. The fate of ages
hangs upon it. The Emperor leans forward, the princes sit motion-
less, the guards are still, all eager to catch the first words of the monk.
He salutes the Emperor, the princes, and the lords. Of the
volumes on the table, the authorship of which he acknowledged,
there were three sorts, he said. There was one class in which he
expounded with simplicity and plainness the first principles of faith
and morals. In the second class he had waged war against the Papacy,
the errors in doctrine, the scandals in life, and the tyrannies in govern-
ment, by which it had fettered and entangled the conscience, blinded
the reason, and depraved the morals of men. There was a third
class of his writings in which he had attacked those who defended the
errors which corrupted the faith, the scandals which disgraced the
priesthood, and the exactions which robbed the people and ground
them into dust.
He could not retract it, but if he had spoken evil let them bear
witness of it. He was but dust and ashes, liable to err, and therefore
it well became him to invite all men to examine what he had written.
Let him but be convinced that he was in error and he would throw his
books into the flames.
He warned this assembly of monarchs of a judgment to come, a
judgment not from the grave only but on this side of it. They were
on their trial. They, their kingdoms, their crowns, their dynasties
stood at a great bar. It was to them the day of visitation ; it was
now to be determined whether they were to be planted in the earth,
whether their thrones should be stable, or whether they should be
swept away in a deluge of wrath and eternal desolation.
Luther sat down and rested, and he then rose once more and
repeated in Latin what he had said in German. The princes found