John Trapp on John 20:19

Verſe 19. When the doors, &c. for fear of the Jews] The ſheep had been ſcattered, but now were by the great ſhepherd recollected (according to the promiſe, Lech. 13.7. I will turn my hand upon the little ones) yet ſenſible of their late fright, they ſhew ſome trepidation. Afterwards, when the Spirit came down upon them, they not only ſet open the doors, but preached Chriſt boldly in the Temple, without dread of danger. So did Baſil; when the Emperour threatned him with bonds, baniſhment, Pueris illa terriculamenta proponeuda. &c. he wiſht him to affright babies with ſuch bugbears: his life might be taken away, but not this faith: his head, but not his crown. So Luther, at firſt ſo fearfull and faint-hearted, that in the year 1518. he wrote thus to Pope Leo the tenth: I lay my ſelf proſtrate at your Holineſſe feet, Viviſica, occide, voca, revoca, approba, reproba, vocem tuā, vocem Chriſti in te praeſidentis & loquentis agnoſcam. together with all that I am, and have: quicken me, kill me, call me, recall me, approve me, reprove me, I ſhall acknowledge your voice to be the very voice of Chriſt, ruling and ſpeaking in you, &c. Yet afterwards he took more courage, witneſſe among many other things, that brave anſwer of his to one that told him, that both the Pope and the Emperour had threatned his ruine, Contemptus eſt à me Romanus & favor & furor. And when Spalatinus had ſent unto him, to enquire whether he would go to Worms, and appear in the Goſpels cauſe, if Caeſar ſummoned him? Go, ſaid he, I am reſolved to go, though I were ſure to encounter ſo many devils there, as are tiles upon the houſes. Omnia de me praeſumas, Luth. Epiſt. praeter fugam & palinodiam. Fugere nolo, multò minus recantare.