Several thousand spectators were collected in and around the building and in the streets, anxiously
waiting for the issue.
Dr. Johann von Eck,^356 as the official of the Archbishop of Treves, put to him, in the name
of the Emperor, simply two questions in Latin and German,—first, whether he acknowledged the
books laid before him on a bench (about twenty-five in number) to be his own; and, next, whether
he would retract them. Dr. Schurf, Luther’s colleague and advocate, who stood beside him, demanded
that the titles of those books be read.^357 This was done. Among them were some such inoffensive
and purely devotional books as an exposition of the Lord’s Prayer and of the Psalms.
Luther was apparently overawed by the August assembly, nervously excited, unprepared
for a summary condemnation without an examination, and spoke in a low, almost inaudible tone.
Many thought that he was about to collapse. He acknowledged in both languages the authorship
of the books; but as to the more momentous question of recantation he humbly requested further
time for consideration, since it involved the salvation of the soul, and the truth of the word of God,
which was higher than any thing else in heaven or on earth.
We must respect him all the more for this reasonable request, which proceeded not from
want of courage, but from a profound sense of responsibility.
The Emperor, after a brief consultation, granted him "out of his clemency" a respite of one
day.
Aleander reported on the same day to Rome, that the heretical "fool" entered laughing, and
left despondent; that even among his sympathizers some regarded him now as a fool, others as one
possessed by the Devil; while many looked upon him as a saint full of the Holy Spirit; but in any
case, he had lost much of his reputation.^358
The shrewd Italian judged too hastily. On the same evening Luther recollected himself, and
wrote to a friend: I shall not retract one iota, so Christ help me."^359
On Thursday, the 18th of April, Luther appeared a second and last time before the Diet.
It was the greatest day in his life. He never appeared more heroic and sublime. He never
represented a principle of more vital and general importance to Christendom.
On his way to the Diet, an old warrior, Georg von Frundsberg, is reported to have clapped
him on the shoulder, with these words of cheer: "My poor monk, my poor monk, thou art going to
make such a stand as neither I nor any of my companions in arms have ever done in our hottest
(^356) Not to be confounded with the more famous Dr. Eck of Ingolstadt. Aleander, who lodged with him on the same floor, calls him
"homo literatissimo" and "orthodoxo," who had already done good service in the execution of the papal demands at Treves. Brieger, I.
- In a dispatch of April 29, he solicits a present for him from the Roman See. ("Al official de Treveri un qualche presente sarebbe
util," etc., p. 174). Froude, in his Luther (pp. 32, 33, 35), confounds the Eck of Treves with the Eck of Ingolstadt, Aleander with Cajetan,
and makes several other blunders, which spoil his lively description of the scene at Worms.
(^357) "Legantur tituli librorum," he cried aloud.
(^358) Letter to Vice-Chancellor Medici, Worms, April 17, 1521 (in Brieger, l.c. p. 147): "El pazzo era entrato ridendo et coram Cesare
girava il capo continuamente quà et là, alto e basso; poi net partir non parea così allegro. Quì molti di quelli et [=etiam]che lo
favoreggiavano, poi che l’hanno visto, l’hanno existimado chi pazzo, chi demoniaco, molti altri santo et pieno di spiritu santo; tutta volta
ha perso in ogni modo molta reputatione della opinione prima."
(^359) April 17, to John Cuspinianus, an imperial counsellor. See De Wette, I. 587 sq.