Still the victory was only apparent. It was the will of God that Borne should have an opportunity of displaying her reasons and her strength. The greatest of her orators had addressed the assembled princes, and said all that Rome had to say. But the last effort of the papacy was the very thing which was destined to become, in regard to several of those who witnessed it, the signal of her defeat. If, in order to secure the triumph of truth, it is necessary to proclaim it aloud, so in order to secure the destruction of error, it is sufficient to publish it without reserve. Neither the one nor the other, in order to accomplish its course, should be concealed. The light judges all things. CHAP. IV. Sentiments of the Princes--Speech of Duke George--Character of the Reformation--A hundred and one grievances--Charles yields--Tactics of Aleander--The Grandees of Spain--Luther's peace--Death and not Retractation. A few days sufficed to wear off these first impressions, as always happens when an orator shrouds the emptiness of his arguments in high sounding phrases. [Sidenote: SPEECH OF DUKE GEORGE.] The majority of the princes were ready to sacrifice Luther, but none were disposed to sacrifice the rights of the empire and the redress of German grievances. There was no objection to give up the insolent monk who had dared to speak so loud, but it was wished to make the pope so much the more sensible of the justice of a reform which was demanded by the heads of the kingdom. Accordingly, it was the greatest personal enemy of Luther, Duke George of Saxony, who spoke most energetically against the encroachments of Rome. The grandson of Podiebrad, King of Bohemia, repulsed by the doctrines of grace which the Reformer proclaimed, had not yet abandoned the hope of seeing a moral and ecclesiastical reform, and what irritated him so much against the monk of Wittemberg, was that he had spoiled the whole affair by his despised doctrines. But now, seeing the nuncio sought to confound Luther and reform in one common condemnation, George suddenly stood up among the assembled princes, and, to the great astonishment of those who knew his hatred to the Reformer, said, "The Diet must not forget the grievances of which it complains against the Court of Rome. What abuses have crept into our states! The annats which the emperor granted freely for the good of Christendom now demanded as a debt--the Roman courtiers every day inventing new ordinances, in order to absorb, sell, and farm out ecclesiastical benefices--a multitude of transgressions winked at; rich offenders unworthily tolerated, while those who have no means of ransom are punished without pity--the popes incessantly bestowing expectancies and reversions on the inmates of their palace, to the detriment of those to whom the benefices belong--the commendams of abbeys and convents of Rome conferred on cardinals, bishops, and prelates, who appropriate their revenues, so