Thus, the Reformation manifested by such striking works the truth that it had come to re-establish; namely, that faith is not, as Rome maintains, an historical, vain, dead knowledge,[120] but a lively faith, the work of the Holy Ghost, the channel by which Christ fills the heart with new desires and with new affections, the true worship of the living God. [120] Si quis dixerit fidem non esse veram fidem, licet non fit viva, aut eum qui fidem sine charitate habet, non esse christianum, anathema sit.--(Conc. Frid. Sess. 6, p. 28.) These martyrdoms filled Germany with horror, and gloomy forebodings descended from the thrones among the ranks of the people. Around the domestic hearth, in the long winter evenings, the conversation wholly turned on prisons, tortures, scaffolds, and martyrs; and the slightest noise alarmed the old men, women, and children. These narratives gained strength from mouth to mouth; the rumour of a universal conspiracy against the Gospel spread through all the Empire. Its adversaries, taking advantage of this terror, announced with a mysterious air that they must look during this year (1528) for some decisive measure against the Reform.[121] One scoundrel resolved to profit by this state of mind to satisfy his avarice. [121] Nescio quid mirari quod hoc anno contra reformationem expectandum sit.--(Seckend. ii. p. 101.) [Sidenote: PACK'S FORGERY.] No blows are more terrible to a cause than those which it inflicts upon itself. The Reformation, seized with a dizziness, was on the verge of self-destruction. There is a spirit of error that conspires against the cause of truth, beguiling by subtlety;[122] the Reformation was about to experience its attacks, and to stagger under the most formidable assault,--perturbation of thought, and estrangement from the ways of wisdom and of truth. [122] 2 Corinthians xi. 3. Otho of Pack, vice-chancellor to Duke George of Saxony, was a crafty and dissipated man,[123] who took advantage of his office, and had recourse to all sorts of practices to procure money. The Duke having on one occasion sent him to the Diet of Nuremberg as his representative, the Bishop of Merseburg confided to him his contribution towards the imperial government. The Bishop having been afterwards called upon for this money, Pack declared that he had paid it to a citizen of Nuremberg, whose seal and signature he produced. This paper was a forgery; Pack himself was the author of it.[124] This wretch, however, put an impudent face on the matter, and as he was not convicted, he preserved the confidence of his master. Erelong an opportunity presented itself of exercising his criminal talent on a larger scale. [123] Homo erat versutus, et præterea prodigus, quo vitio ad alia inductus est.--(Seckend. ii. p. 94.) [124] It is still to be seen in the records at Dresden.