should exclude me.
I am resolved to do what is right, without troubling myself about my
crown. I desire to confess the Lord. My electoral hat and my ermine are
not so precious to me as the cross of Jesus Christ." Having thus spoken,
he wrote down his name. Said another of the princes as he took the pen,
"If the honor of my Lord Jesus Christ requires it, I am ready ... to leave
my goods and life behind." "I would rather renounce my subjects and my
states, rather quit the country of my fathers staff in hand," he
continued, "than receive any other doctrine than that which is contained
in this Confession."(301) Such was the faith and daring of those men of
God.

The appointed time came to appear before the emperor. Charles V., seated
upon his throne, surrounded by the electors and the princes, gave audience
to the Protestant Reformers. The confession of their faith was read. In
that august assembly the truths of the gospel were clearly set forth, and
the errors of the papal church were pointed out. Well has that day been
pronounced "the greatest day of the Reformation, and one of the most
glorious in the history of Christianity and of mankind."(302)

But a few years had passed since the monk of Wittenberg stood alone at
Worms before the national council. Now in his stead were the noblest and
most powerful princes of the empire. Luther had been forbidden to appear
at Augsburg, but he had been present by his words and prayers. "I am
overjoyed," he wrote, "that I have lived until this hour, in which Christ
has been publicly exalted by such illustrious confessors, and in so
glorious an assembly."(303) Thus was fulfilled what the Scripture says, "I
will speak of Thy testimonies before kings."(304)

In the days of Paul, the gospel for which he was imprisoned was thus
brought before the princes and nobles of the imperial city. So on this
occasion, that which the emperor had forbidden to be preached from the
pulpit, was proclaimed in the palace; what many had regarded as unfit even
for servants to listen to, was heard with wonder by the masters and lords
of the empire. Kings and great men were the auditory, crowned princes were
the preachers, and the sermon was the royal truth of God. "Since the
apostolic age," says a writer, "there has never been a greater work or a
more magnificent confession."(305)

"All that the Lutherans have said is true; we cannot deny it," declared a
papist bishop. "Can you refute by sound reasons the Co