Here I take my stand.

I can do no otherwise, so help me God, Amen." In this sublime moral conflict Luther came off the undisputed conqueror.
The legates of the pope, exasperated at his triumph, intreated the emperor to arrest him, in defiance of his word of honor pledged for his safety.

Charles rejected the infamous proposal with disdain.

Still he was greatly annoyed at so serious a schism in the Church, which threatened to alienate from him the patronage of the pope.

It was evident that Luther was too strongly intrenched in the hearts of the Germans, for the youthful emperor, whose crown was not yet warm upon his brow, and who was almost a stranger in Germany, to undertake to crush him.