o incline him to seek and love the truth, as a matter
of course sought the favor of the imperial pontiff, and was not at all
disposed to espouse the cause of the obscure monk.

Charles, therefore, received courteously the legates of the pontiff at
the diet, gave them a friendly hearing as they inveighed against the
heresy of Luther, and proposed that the diet should also condemn the
reformer. Fortunately for Luther he was a subject of the electorate of
Saxony, and neither pope nor emperor could touch him but through the
elector. Frederic, the Duke of Saxony, one of the electors of the
empire, governed a territory of nearly fifteen thousand square miles,
more than twice as large as the State of Massachusetts, and containing
nearly three millions of inhabitants. The duchy has since passed through
many changes and dismemberments, but in the early part of the sixteenth
century the Elector of Saxony was one of the most powerful princes of
the German empire. Frederic was not disposed to surrender his subject
untried and uncondemned to the discipline of the Roman pontiff. He
accordingly objected to this summary condemnation of Luther, and
declared that before judgment was pronounced, the accused should be
heard in his own defense. Charles, who was by no means aware how
extensively the opinions of Luther had been circulated and received, was
surprised to find many nobles, each emboldened by the rest, rise in the
diet and denounce, in terms of ever-increasing severity, the exactions
and the arrogance of the court of Rome.

Notwithstanding the remonstrances of the pope's legates, the emperor
found it necessary to yield to the demands of the diet, and to allow
Luther the privilege of being heard, though he avowed to the friends of
the pope that Luther should not be permitted to make any defense, but
should only have an opportunity to confess his heresy and implore
forgiveness. Worms, where the diet was in session, on the west banks of
the Rhine, was not within the territories of the Elector of Saxony, and
consequently the emperor, in sending a summons to Luther to present
himself before the diet, sent, also, a safe conduct. With alacrity the
bold reformer obeyed the summons. From Wittemberg, where Luther was both
professor in the university and also pastor of a church, to Worms, was a
distance of nearly three hundred miles. But the journey of the reformer,
through all of this long road was almost like a triumphal procession.
Crow