The day after Luther's appearance, he caused a message to be read to the Diet, which he had written in French, with his own hand.[538] "Sprung," said he, "from the Christian emperors of Germany, from the Catholic kings of Spain, the archdukes of Austria, and the dukes of Burgundy, who are all illustrious as defenders of the Roman faith, it is my firm purpose to follow the example of my ancestors. A single monk, led astray by his own folly, sets himself up in opposition to the faith of Christendom. I will sacrifice my dominions, my power, my friends, my treasure, my body, my blood, my mind, and my life, to stay this impiety.[539] I mean to send back the Augustin, Luther, forbidding him to cause the least tumult among the people; thereafter I will proceed against him and his adherents as against declared heretics, by excommunication. and interdict, and all means proper for their destruction.[540] I call upon the members of the states to conduct themselves like faithful Christians." [538] Autographum in linguæ Burgundica, ab ipsomet exaratum. (Cochlœus, 32.) [539] "Regna, thesauros, amicos, corpus, sanguinem, vitam, spiritumque profundere." (Pallavicini, i, p. 118.) [540] Und andern Wegen sie zu vertilgen. (L. Op. (L.) xvii, p. 581.) [Sidenote: PROPOSAL TO VIOLATE THE SAFE-CONDUCT.] This address did not please every body. Charles, young and impassioned, had not observed the ordinary forms; he ought previously to have asked the opinion of the Diet. Two extreme views were immediately declared. The creatures of the pope, the Elector of Brandenburg, and several ecclesiastical princes, demanded that no regard should be paid to the safe-conduct which had been given to Luther.[541] "The Rhine," said they, "must receive his ashes, as a century ago it received the ashes of John Huss." Charles, if we may believe a historian, afterwards bitterly repented that he had not followed this dastardly counsel. "I confess," said he, towards the close of his life, "that I committed a great fault in allowing Luther to live. That heretic having offended a greater master than I, even God himself, I was not obliged to keep my promise to him. I might, nay, I ought to have forgotten my word, and avenged the insult which he offered to God; because I did not put him to death, the heresy has not ceased to gain strength. His death would have strangled it in the cradle."[542] [541] Dass Luthero das sichere Geleit nicht möchte gehalten werden. (Seckend. p. 357.) [542] Sandoval Hist. de Carlos V, quoted in Llorente, History of the Inquisition, ii, p. 57. According to Llorente, the idea that Charles, toward the close of his life, inclined to evangelical opinions, is a mere invention of Protestants and the enemies of Philip II. This question forms a historical problem which the numerous quotations of Llorente appear unhappily to solve in conformity to his view.