Luther was not at Schweinfurth, but he kept on the look-out for news. He spoke about the meeting to his friends; he attacked the schemes of the politicians; all these negotiations, stipulations, conventions, signatures, ratifications, and treaties in behalf of the Gospel annoyed him. When he learnt what they were going to do at Schweinfurth, he was dismayed. To presume to save the faith with protocols was almost blasphemous in his eyes! One of his powerful letters fell like a bomb-shell into the midst of the conference. 'When we were without any support,' he said, 'and entirely new in the empire, with struggles and combats all around us, the Gospel triumphed and truth was upheld, despite the enemies who wished to stifle them both. Why should not the Gospel triumph now with its own strength? Why should it be necessary to help it with our diplomacy and our treaties? Is not God as mighty now as then? Does the Almighty want us to vote the aid that we mean to give him in future by our human stipulations?'... These words of Luther caused general consternation. People said to one another that 'the Doctor had been ill, and that he had consoled his friends by saying: "Do not be afraid; if I were to sink now, the papists would be too happy; therefore I shall not die." They added that his advice against treaties was no doubt a remnant of his fever; the great man is not quite right in his mind; the prince-electoral and the excellent chancellor Bruck wrote to the elector, who was in Saxony, that everybody was against Luther, who appeared to have no understanding of business.' But the reformer did not suffer himself to be checked; on the contrary, he begged the elector to write a sharp letter to his representatives. 'The princes and burgesses have embraced the Gospel at their own risk and peril,' he said, 'and in like manner every one must in future receive and profess it at his own expense.' At the same time he began to agitate Wittemberg, and drew up an opinion which Pomeranus signed with him. In it he said: 'I will never take upon my conscience to provoke the shedding of blood, even to maintain our articles of faith. It would be the best means of destroying the true doctrine, in the midst of the confusions of war.'[250] The reformer thought that if the Lutherans and the Zwinglians, the Germans and the Swiss united, they would feel so strong, that they would assume the initiative and draw the sword—which he wished to avert by all means in his power. [Sidenote: DU BELLAY'S OVERTURES.]