"
Luther's courageous defence before the Diet is on record, and
forms one of the most glorious pages in history. When finally
urged by the Emperor to retract, he said firmly: "Sire, unless I
am convinced of my error by the testimony of Scripture, or by
manifest evidence, I cannot and will not retract, for we must
never act contrary to our conscience. Such is my profession of
faith, and you must expect none other from me. HIER STEHE ICH:
ICH KANN NICHT ANDERS: GOTT HELFE MIR!" (Here stand I: I cannot do
otherwise: God help me!). He had to do his duty--to obey the
orders of a Power higher than that of kings; and he did it
at all hazards.
Afterwards, when hard pressed by his enemies at Augsburg, Luther
said that "if he had five hundred heads, he would lose them all
rather than recant his article concerning faith." Like all
courageous men, his strength only seemed to grow in proportion to
the difficulties he had to encounter and overcome. "There is no
man in Germany," said Hutten, "who more utterly despises death
than does Luther." And to his moral courage, perhaps more than
to that of any other single man, do we owe the liberation of
modern thought, and the vindication of the great rights of
the human understanding.
The honourable and brave man does not fear death compared with
ignominy. It is said of the Royalist Earl of Strafford that, as
he walked to the scaffold on Tower Hill, his step and manner were
those of a general marching at the head of an army to secure
victory, rather than of a condemned man to undergo sentence of
death.
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