sition which had appeared since the commencement of the reformation; and he thanks God that the popish party had not accepted it, for he thinks that, if they had done so, most of the protestant body would have been induced to acquiesce in it, and, being thus lulled to sleep by the imagination that a satisfactory reformation of doctrine had taken place, would gradually have fallen back into the old corruptions. A. D. 1541. All his letters from this period and forward Luther's breathe earnest desires after release, and dismis- state. sion to his eternal rest; and, though he lived five years longer, it was amidst increasing infirmities and sufferings; and he was very unequal to those severe labours in which he had engaged, and in which, as Seckendorf observes, he still never spared himself. "I am not fit," he says to the elector, "for more service; but Pomeranus, I think, detains me here by the urgency of his prayers both in public and private."-Yet we still see in him the heart of a Christian hero. Writing to Lauterback, pastor of Pirna, he expresses his joy at the reformation begun in Cologne-of which we shall have to speak hereafter. He says, "If the people of Bethsaida and Chorazin here in our own country will not receive the prophet, there will be found the Samaritans and the woman of Canaan to do it. Let us therefore only persevere in preaching, praying, suffering: a reward awaits our work; we labour not in vain."1 CHAPTER VII. Events fol- Diet of General view from Dr. Robertson. Emperor's interview with the Pope. 1541. FROM THE DIET OF RATISBON TO THE PEACE OF WE now proceed with the course of events which followed the diet of Ratisbon: and of these we cannot do better than again present, in the first place, the general view furnished by Dr. Robertson. Affairs in Hungary had taken an unfortunate turn for the house of Austria; and it was to provide against the consequences of what had occurred or was anticipated in that quarter, that Charles had made such liberal concessions to the protestants in his declaration appended to the recess of the diet. By this means he obtained a vote of such ample supplies of both men and money for carrying on the war against the Turks, as left him under little anxiety about the security of Germany during the next campaign.1 Immediately upon the conclusion of the diet, the emperor set out for Italy. As he passed through Lucca, he had a short interview with the pope; but nothing could be concluded concerning the proper method of composing the religious disputes in Germany, between two princes, whose views and interest with regard to that matter were at this juncture so opposite. 1 Sleid. 283. The pope's endeavours to remove the causes of discord between Charles and Francis, and to extinguish those mutual animosities which threatened to break out suddenly into open hostility, were not more successful. The emperor's thoughts were bent so entirely, at that time, on the great enterprise which he had concerted against Algiers, that he listened with little attention to the pope's schemes or overtures, and hastened to join his army and fleet." A. D. 1 1541. expedition. War. This second African expedition of Charles's His second proved as calamitous as the former had been African esteemed glorious. Its disastrous issue encouraged the king of France also to begin hostilities against him, on which he had been for some time resolved. A fierce war accordingly com- French menced in 1542, in which great exertions were made on both sides, but without any permanent result of importance on either. It was terminated by the peace of Crespy, September 18, 1544.2 But this is all the notice of these transactions which belongs to this history. We turn more directly to those of Germany. Saxony 1541. Sept. 19. "Much about the time that the diet of Ra- Maurice of tisbon broke up, Maurice succeeded his father Henry in the government of that part of Saxony which belonged to the Albertine branch of the Saxon family. This young prince, then only in his twentieth year, had, even at that early period, begun to discover the great talents which qualified him for acting such a distinguished part in the affairs of Germany. soon as he entered upon the administration, he struck out into such a new and singular path as shewed that he aimed, from the beginning, at something great and uncommon. Though 1 Robertson, iii. 222-231. As 2 Ib. 233-255, 265-283. VII. CHAP. zealously attached to the protestant opinions, both from education and principle, he refused to accede to the league of Smalkalde, being determined, as he said, to maintain the purity of religion, which was the original object of that confederacy, but not to entangle himself in the political interests or combinations to which it had given rise. At the same time, foreseeing a rupture between Charles and the confederates of Smalkalde, and perceiving which of them was most likely to prevail in the contest, instead of that jealousy and distrust which the other protestants expressed of all the emperor's designs, he affected to place in him an unbounded confidence; and courted his favour with the utmost assiduity. When the other protestants, in the year 1542, either declined assisting Ferdinand in Hungary, or afforded him reluctant and feeble aid, Maurice marched thither in person, and rendered himself conspicuous by his zeal and courage. From the same motive, he had led to the emperor's assistance, during the last campaign, a body of his own troops; and the gracefulness of his person, his dexterity in all military exercises, together with his intrepidity, which courted and delighted in danger, did not distinguish him more in the field, than his great abilities and insinuating address won upon the emperor's confidence and favour. 1 While by this conduct, which appeared extraordinary to those who held the same opinions with him concerning religion, Maurice endeavoured to pay court to the emperor, he began to discover some degree of jealousy of his cousin the elector of Saxony. This, which proved in the sequel so fatal to the elector, had almost 1 Sleid. 317. Seck. iii. 371, 386, 428. occasioned an open rupture between them; and soon after Maurice's accession to the government, they both took arms with equal rage, upon account of a dispute about the right of jurisdiction over a paltry town situated on the Moldaw. They were prevented, however, from proceeding to action by the mediation of the landgrave of Hesse, whose daughter Maurice had married, as well as by the powerful and authoritative admonitions of Luther.1 A. D. 1541. proposed: "Amidst these transactions, the pope, though Council extremely irritated at the emperor's concessions of Trent to the protestants at the diet of Ratisbon, was so warmly solicited on all hands, by such as were most devoutly attached to the see of Rome, no less than by those whose fidelity or designs he suspected, to summon a general council, that he found it impossible to avoid any longer calling that assembly. The impatience for its meeting and the expectation of great effects from its decisions, seemed to grow in proportion to the difficulty of obtaining it. He still adhered, however, to his original resolution of holding it in some town of Italy, where, by the number of ecclesiastics, retainers to his court, and depending on his favour, who could repair to it without difficulty or expence, he might influence and even direct all its proceedings. This proposition, though often rejected by the Germans, he instructed his nuncio to the diet held at Spires, in the year 1542, to Diet of renew once more; and, if he found it gave no greater satisfaction than formerly, he empowered him, as a last concession, to propose, for the place of meeting, Trent, a city in the Tyrol, subject to the king of the Romans, and 1 Sleid. 292. Seck. iii. 403. Spires. |