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.
Crowds gathered everywhere to behold the man who had dared to bid
defiance to the terrors of that spiritual power before which the
haughtiest monarchs had trembled. The people had read the writings of
Luther, and justly regarded him as the advocate of civil and religious
liberty. The nobles, who had often been humiliated by the arrogance of
the pontiff, admired a man who was bringing a new power into the field
for their disenthrallment.
When Luther had arrived within three miles of Worms, accompanied by a
few friends and the imperial herald who had summoned him, he was met by
a procession of two thousand persons, who had come from the city to form
his escort.
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