[123] Mit Schweinen und Schellen......in Koth geworfen. Weimar. Ann. Seck. p. 482. After this George departed to take his seat in the imperial government at Nuremberg. He had scarcely arrived when he made every exertion to urge it to adopt measures of severity. In effect, on the 21st of January, this body passed an edict, in which it complained bitterly that the priests said mass without being robed in their sacerdotal garments, consecrated the sacrament in German, administered it without having received the requisite confession from the communicants, placed it in the hands of laymen,[124] and were not even careful to ascertain that those who stood forward to receive it were fasting. [124] In ihre laïsche Hände reiche. L. Opp. xviii. 285. Accordingly the imperial government desired the bishops to seek out and punish severely all the innovators within their respective dioceses. The latter hastened to comply with these orders. [Sidenote: DEPARTURE FROM THE WARTBURG.] Such was the moment selected by Luther for his reappearance on the stage. He saw the danger; he foreboded incalculable disasters. "Erelong," said he, "there will be a disturbance in the empire, carrying princes, magistrates, and bishops before it. The people have eyes: they will not, they cannot be led by force. All Germany will run blood.[125] Let us stand up as a wall to preserve our nation in this dreadful day of God's anger." [125] Germaniam in sanguine natare. L. Epp. ii. 157. CHAPTER VIII. Departure from the Wartburg--New Position--Luther and Primitive Catholicism--Meeting at the Black Bear--Luther's Letter to the Elector--Return to Wittemberg--Sermon at Wittemberg--Charity--The Word--How the Reformation was brought about--Faith in Christ--Its Effects--Didymus--Carlstadt--The Prophets--Interview with Luther--End of the Struggle. Such were Luther's thoughts; but he beheld a still more imminent danger. At Wittemberg, the conflagration, far from dying away, became fiercer every day. From the heights of the Wartburg, Luther could perceive in the horizon the frightful gleams, the signal of devastation, shooting at intervals through the air. Is not he the only one who can give aid in this extremity? Shall he not throw himself into the midst of the flames to quench their fury? In vain his enemies prepare to strike the decisive blow; in vain the elector entreats him not to leave the Wartburg, and to prepare his justification against the next diet. He has a more important task to perform--to justify the Gospel itself. "More serious intelligence reaches me every day," wrote he. "I shall set out: circumstances positively require me to do so."[126] [126] Ita enim res postulat ipsa. Ibid. 135. [Sidenote: NEW POSITION--LUTHER AND PRIMITIVE CATHOLICITY.]