Luther did not appeal to his conscience alone, but first and last to the Scripture as he
understood it after the most earnest study. His conscience, as he said, was bound in the word of
God, who cannot err. There, and there alone, he recognized infallibility. By recanting, he would
have committed a grievous sin.
One man with the truth on his side is stronger than a majority in error, and will conquer in
the end. Christ was right against the whole Jewish hierarchy, against Herod and Pilate, who conspired
in condemning him to the cross. St. Paul was right against Judaism and heathenism combined,
"unus versus mundum;" St. Athanasius, "the father of orthodoxy," was right against dominant
Arianism; Galileo Galilei was right against the Inquisition and the common opinion of his age on
the motion of the earth; Döllinger was right against the Vatican Council when, "as a Christian, as
a theologian, as an historian, and as a citizen," he protested against the new dogma of the infallibility
of the Pope.^378
That Luther was right in refusing to recant, and that he uttered the will of Providence in
hearing testimony to the supremacy of the word of God and the freedom of conscience, has been
made manifest by the verdict of history.
§ 57. Private Conferences with Luther. The Emperors Conduct.
On the morning after Luther’s testimony, the Emperor sent a message—a sort of personal
confession of faith—written by his own hand in French, to the Estates, informing them, that in
consistency with his duty as the successor of the most Christian emperors of Germany and the
Catholic kings of Spain, who had always been true to the Roman Church, he would now treat
Luther, after sending him home with his safe-conduct, as an obstinate and convicted heretic, and
defend with all his might the faith of his forefathers and of the Councils, especially that of
Constance.^379
Some of the deputies grew pale at this decision; the Romanists rejoiced. But in view of the
state of public sentiment the Diet deemed it expedient to attempt private negotiations for a peaceful
settlement, in the hope that Luther might be induced to withdraw or at least to moderate his dissent
from the general Councils. The Emperor yielded in spite of Aleander’s protest.
The negotiations were conducted chiefly by Richard von Greiffenklau, Elector and
Archbishop of Treves, and at his residence. He was a benevolent and moderate churchman, to
whom the Elector Frederick and Baron Miltitz had once desired to submit the controversy. The
Elector of Brandenburg, Duke George of Saxony, Dr. Vehus (chancellor of the Margrave of Baden),
Dr. Eck of Treves, Dean Cochlaeus of Frankfort,^380 and the deputies of Strasburg and Augsburg,
likewise took part in the conferences.
(^378) Döllinger’s declaration of March 28, 1871, for which he was excommunicated, April 17, 1871, notwithstanding his eminent services
to the Roman Catholic Church as her most learned historian, bears some resemblance to Luther’s declaration at Worms. See Schaff,
Creeds of Christendom, I. 195 sqq.
(^379) Walch, XV. 2235-2237.
(^380) John Cochlaeus (his original name was Dobeneck; b. 1479, at Wendelstein in Franconia, d. at Bresau, 1552) was at first as a humanist
an admirer of Luther, but turned against him shortly before the Diet of Worms, and became one of his bitterest literary opponents. He
went to Worms unasked, and wished to provoke him to a public disputation. He was employed by the Archbishop of Treves as theological
counsel, and by Aleander as a spy. Aleander paid him ten guilders "per sue spese" (see his dispatch of April 29 in Brieger, I. 175).
Cochlaeus wrote about 190 books, mostly polemical against the Reformers, and mostly forgotten. Luther treated him with great contempt,