Protestants refused it, therefore; flatly declined, though bidden
and again bidden. They attended in a body, old Johann of Saxony,
young Philip of Hessen, and the rest; Margraf George, as
spokesman, with eloquent simplicity stating their reasons,--to
somewhat this effect:--

Invinciblest all-gracious Kaiser, loyal are we to your high
Majesty, ready to do your bidding by night and by day.
But it is your bidding under God, not against God. Ask us not,
0 gracious Kaiser! I cannot, and we cannot; and we must not, and
dare not. And "before I would deny my God and his Evangel," these
are George's own words, "I would rather kneel down here before
your Majesty, and have my head struck off,"--hitting his
hind-head, or neck, with the edge of his hand, by way of
accompaniment; a strange radiance in the eyes of him, voice risen
into musical alt: "Ehe Ich wolte meinen Gott und sein
Evangelium verlaugnen, ehe wolte Ich hier vor Eurer Majestat
niderknien, und mir den Kopf abhauen lassen."--"Nit Kop ab, lover
Forst, nit Kop ab!" answered Charles in his Flemish-
German; "Not head off, dear Furst, not head off!" said the Kaiser,
a faint smile enlightening those weighty gray eyes of his, and
imperceptibly animating the thick Austrian under-lip. [Rentsch,
p. 637. Marheineke, Geschichte der Teutschen Reformation
(Berlin, 1831), ii. 487.]

Speaker and company attended again on the morrow; Margraf George
still more eloquent. Whose Speech flew over Germany, like fire
over dry flax; and still exists,--both Speeches now oftenest
rolled into one by inaccurate editors. [As by Rentsch, ubi supra.]
And the CORPUS-CHRISTI idolatries were forborne the Margraf and