Dr. Luther cast himself upon the bench and sat for long in silence. He was terribly pale. His forehead was bathed with sweat. At times he would tremble all over. But his eyes shone with a light almost supernatural. He was very happy. * * * * * Years have passed over me since that afternoon in Worms. What I thought then, is my thought even to this day,--that since the hour when Jesus Christ cried, “It is finished,” on the Cross, and by His sacrifice redeemed this world, mankind have seen few or no hours greater, more potent for the far hereafter, than that scene in the hall before princes and Emperor. _He_ had done it. He, the peasant’s son, the begging friar. Against him had been Roman Law and Canon Law, the authority of Councils, the mandate of Popes, the tradition of the Church, the frowns of prince prelates and Kaiser, the manifest warnings of a fiery death. He had carried to the ordeal only the good wishes of those who trusted him, and his own clear conscience. He had braved everything, Church, and State, and physical terrors, and threatenings of hell. Where others, the wisest and noblest, would have recanted, he had refused. Where the bravest might have quailed, he had stood steadfast. He had been true to himself, despite the scorn and thunder and fury of nigh all the great ones of the world. And I think it of little account whether in days to come men shall say Martin Luther did well or ill in his exact doctrines, of “Grace,” or “Faith,” or “Redemption.” Doctrines change, the shifting prism of truth can find new colors, but the right of a man to stand before his God and to avow, “This I hold to be Truth, for with the powers Thou hast given, I see it so,” such a right, I say, is what Luther defended at Worms. And till mornings and evenings cease, and summer be confounded with winter, shall the fruits of this victory abide; priest, and dogma, and human tradition and human law shall no more stand betwixt the vision of Truth and him who shall seek it reverently. FOOTNOTES: [13] He was no connection of the Eck who had confronted Luther at Leipzig. CHAPTER XXX THE HAND OF FORLI