Page 9 - 08 Luther Before the Diet

With all the power of learning and eloquence,

Aleander set himself to overthrow the truth.

Charge after charge he hurled against Luther

as an enemy of the church and the state, the

living and the dead, clergy and laity, councils

and private Christians. “In Luther's errors

there is enough,” he declared, to warrant the

burning of “a hundred thousand heretics.”

In conclusion he endeavored to cast

contempt upon the adherents of the

reformed faith: “What are all these

Lutherans? A crew of insolent pedagogues,

corrupt priests, dissolute monks, ignorant

lawyers, and degraded nobles, with the

common people whom they have misled and

perverted. How far superior to them is the

Catholic party in number, ability, and power!

A unanimous decree from this illustrious

assembly will enlighten the simple, warn the