Charlemagne was in great
part restored, for his dominions included Germany, Spain, and the
Netherlands. This young monarch left Spain for Germany in 1521, and was
no sooner there than he called a great diet, to meet at Worms, that the
affairs of the empire might be regulated, and that in particular this
religious controversy, which was troubling the public mind, should be
settled.

Thither came the princes and potentates of the realm, thither great
dignitaries of the church, among them the pope's legate, Cardinal
Alexander, who was commissioned to demand that the emperor and the
princes should call Luther to a strict account, and employ against him
the temporal power. But to the cardinal's astonishment he found that the
people of Germany had largely seceded from the papal authority.
Everywhere he met with writings, songs, and pictures in which the holy
father was treated with contempt and mockery. Even himself, as the
pope's representative, was greeted with derision, and his life at times
was endangered, despite the fact that he came in the suite of the
emperor.

[Illustration: STATUE OF LUTHER AT WORMS.]

The diet assembled, the cardinal, as instructed, demanded that severe
measures should be taken against the arch-heretic: the Elector of
Saxony, on the contrary, insisted that Luther should be heard in his own
defence; the emperor and the princes agreed with him, silencing the
cardinal's declaration that the diet had no right or power to question
the decision of the pope, and inviting Luther to appear before the
imperial assembly at Worms, the emperor granting him a safe-conduct.

Possibly Charles thought that the insignificant monk would fear to come
before that august body, and the matter thus die out. Luther's friends
strongly advised him not to go. They had the experience of John Huss to
offer as argument. But Luther was not the man to be stopped by dread of
dignitaries or fear of penalties. He immediately set out from Wittenberg
for Worms, saying to his protesting friends, "Though there were as many
devils in the city as there are tiles on the roofs, still I would go."

His journey was an ovation. The people flocked by thousands to greet and
applaud him. On his arrival at Worms two thousand people gathered and
accompanied him to his lodgings. When, on the next day, April 18, 1521,
the grand-marshal of the empire conducted him to the diet, he was
obliged to lead him across gardens and through by-ways to avoid