Protest Of The Princes
Audio:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/Xt43Xvs5kfw?list=PLA5C7629D1527F981
But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you,... Luke 21:12
The princes were to be induced, by peaceable means if possible, to side against the Reformation; but if these failed, Charles was prepared to resort to the sword.
The papists were exultant.
A bigoted papist declared: "The Turks are better than the Lutherans; for the Turks observe fast days, and the Lutherans violate them. If we must choose between the Holy Scriptures of God and the old errors of the church, we should reject the former."..... the great principle of authority was to rule; conscience was out of court; Rome was infallible judge, and must be obeyed.............the princes decided "We protest by these presents, before God, our only Creator, Preserver, Redeemer, and Savior, and who will one day be our Judge, as well as before all men and all creatures, that we, for us and for our people, neither consent nor adhere in any manner whatsoever to the proposed decree, in anything that is contrary to God, to His holy word, to our right conscience, to the salvation of our souls."
The declaration had been made. It was written in the memory of thousands and registered in the books of heaven, where no effort of man could erase it. All evangelical Germany adopted the Protest as the expression of its faith.