Luther at the same time redoubled his entreaties to withdraw his friends from Augsburg. "Return, return," cried he to them; "return, even if it must be so, cursed by the pope and the emperor.* You have confessed Jesus Christ, offered peace, obeyed Charles, supported insults, and endured blasphemies. I will canonize you, I, as faithful members of Jesus Christ. You have done enough, and more than enough now it is for the Lord to act, and he will act! They have our Confession, they have the Gospel; let them receive it, if they will; and if they will not, let them go- If a war should come, let it come! We have prayed enough; we have discussed enough. The Lord is preparing our adversaries as the victim for the sacrifice; he will destroy their magnificence, and deliver his people. Yes! he will preserve us even from Babylon, and from her burning walls."

CHAPTER XII.

The Elector's Preparations and Indignation-Recess of AugsburgIrritating Language-Apology of the Confession-IntimidationFinal Interview-Messages of Peace-Exasperation of the PapistsRestoration of Popery-Tumult in the Church-Union of the Churches -The Pope and the Emperor-Close of the Diet-Armaments Attack on Geneva-Joy of the Evangelicals-Establishment of Protestantism.

THUS Luther gave the signal of departure. They replied to the reformer's appeal, and all prepared to quit Augsburg on Saturday, 17th September. At ten at night, Duke Ernest of Luneburg assembled the deputies of Nuremberg and the ministers of the landgrave in his hotel, and announced to them that the elector was determined to leave the next morning, without informing any one, and that he would accompany him. "Keep the secret," said he to them, "and know that if peace cannot be preserved, it will be a trifling

• Vel maledicti a Papa et Cæsare. L. Epp. iv. 162-171.

THE ELECTOR'S PREPARATIONS AND INDIGNATION.

249

matter for me to lose, combating with you, all that God has given me."

The elector's preparations betrayed his intentions. In the middle of the night Duke Henry of Brunswick arrived hastily at his hotel, beseeching him to wait;† and towards morning Counts Truchses and Mansfeldt announced that, on the morrow between seven and eight, the emperor would give him his congé.

On Monday, 19th September, the elector purposing to leave Augsburg immediately after his audience with Charles, breakfasted at seven o'clock, then sent off his baggage and his cooks, and ordered his officers to be ready at ten o'clock. At the moment when John quitted the hotel to wait upon the emperor, all the members of his household were drawn up on each side booted and spurred;§ but, having been introduced to Charles, he was requested to wait two, four, or six days longer.

As soon as the elector was alone with his allies, his indignation burst forth, and he even became violent. "This new delay will end in nothing," he said; "I am resolved to set out, happen what may. It seems to me, from the manner in which things are arranged, that I have now completely the air of a prisoner." The Margrave of Brandenburg begged him to be calm. "I shall go," the elector still replied. At last he yielded, and having appeared again before Charles the Fifth, he said, "I will wait until Friday next; and, if nothing is done by that time, I shall leave forthwith."

Great was the anxiety of the Protestants during these four days of expectation. Most of them doubted not that, by acceding to Charles's prayers, they had delivered themselves into the hands of their enemies. "The emperor is deliberating whether he ought to hang us or let us live,”

Alles das, so Ihm Gott geben hätt, darob zu verlieren ein geringes wäre. Corp. Ref. ii. 379.

+In der selben Nacht. Ibid.

Præmissis fere omnibus impedimentis una cum cocis. Ibid. 385. § Gestiefelt und gespornt. Ibid. 380.

Etwas darob schwermütig und hitzig erzeight. Ibid.

250

THE RECESS OF AUGSBURG.

wrote Brentz.* Fresh negotiations of Truchses were without success.+

All that now remained for the emperor was to draw up, in common with the Romish states, the recess of the diet. This was done; and that the Protestants might not complain of its having been prepared without their knowledge, he assembled them in his palace on Thursday, 22d September, the day previous to that fixed for the elector's departure, and had his project read to them by the count-palatine. This project was insult and war. The emperor granted to the elector, the five princes, and the six cities, a delay of six months, until the 15th April next year, to come to an arrangement with the Church, the Pope, the Emperor, and all the princes and monarchs of Christendom. This was clearly announcing to them that the Romanists were very willing to delay until the usual period for bringing armies into the field.

Nor was this all: the delay was granted only on the express condition that the Protestants should immediately join the emperor in reducing the Anabaptists, and all those who opposed the holy sacrament, by which were meant the Zwinglian cities. He wished by this means to tie the hands of the Protestants, and prevent the two families of the Reformation from uniting during the winter.

Finally, the Protestants were forbidden to make any innovations, to print or sell anything on the objects of faith, or to draw any one whatever to their sect, "since the Confession had been soundly refuted by the Holy Scriptures." Thus the Reformation was officially proclaimed a sect, and a sect contrary to the Word of God.

Nothing was more calculated to displease the friends of the Gospel, who remained in Charles's presence astonished, alarmed, and indignant.§ This had been foreseen; and, at Adhuc deliberat Cæsar pendendum ne nobis sit, an diutius vivendum. Corp. Ref. ii. + Urkund. ii. 455-472.

Nuremberg and Reutlingen, to which were added the cities of Kempten, Heilbronn, Windsheim, and Weissemburg. Ibid. 474-478.

§ Protestantes vehementer hoc decreto minime expectato territi. Seck. ii. 200.

As they were called by their opponents.

APOLOGY OF THE CONCESSION.

251

the moment when the Protestants were about to enter the emperor's chamber, Truchses and Wehe, making signs to them, mysteriously slipped a paper into their hands, containing a promise that if, on the 15th April, the Protestants required a prolongation of the delay, their request would certainly be granted.* But Bruck, to whom the paper was given, was not deceived. "A subtle ambuscade," said he; a masterpiece of knavery! God will save his own, and will not permit them to fall into the snare."+ This trick, in fact, served only still more to increase the courage of the Protestants.

Bruck, without discussing the recess in a political point of view, confined himself to what was principally at stake, the Word of God. "We maintain," said he, "that our Confession is so based on the holy Word of God, that it is impossible to refute it. We consider it as the very truth of God, and we hope by it to stand one day before the judgment-seat of the Lord." He then announced that the Protestants had refuted the Refutation of the Romish theologians, and holding in his hand the famous Apology of the Confession of Augsburg written by Melancthon, he stepped forward, and offered it to Charles the Fifth. The count-palatine took it, and the emperor was already stretching out his hand, when Ferdinand having whispered a few words, he beckoned to the count, who immediately returned the Apology to Doctor Bruck. This paper, and the "Commonplaces," are the reformer's masterpieces. The embarrassed emperor told the Protestants to come again at eight the next morning.

Charles the Fifth, resolving to employ every means to get his decree accepted, began by entreaties; and scarcely was the Margrave of Brandenburg seated to take his evening repast, when Truchses and Wehe appeared before him, using every kind of discourse and argument, but without success.§ The next day (Friday, 23d September). the evangelical

* Brück, Apologie, p. 182.

+ Betrüge, meisterstuck, aber Gott errettet die seinen. Ibid.

Auf König Ferdinandus wincke wieder geben. Apologie, p. 184. § Nach essen allerley Rede Disputation und Persuasion furgewendt. Urk. ii. 601.

princes and the deputies of the cities assembled at five in the morning at the margrave's hotel, where the recess was again read in the presence of Truchses and Wehe, Chancellor Bruck assigning seven reasons for its rejection. "I undertake," said Wehe, "to translate the recess into German in such a manner that you can accept it. As for the word sect, in particular, it is the clerk who placed it there by mistake."* The mediators retired in haste to communicate to Charles the complaints of the Protestants.

Charles and his ministers gave up every idea of reconciliation, and hoped for nothing except through fear. The Protestants having reached the imperial palace at eight o'clock, they were made to wait an hour; the Elector of Brandenburg then said to them in Charles's name: "His majesty is astonished beyond measure that you still maintain your doctrine to be based on the Holy Scriptures. If you say the truth, his majesty's ancestors, so many kings and emperors, and even the ancestors of the Elector of Saxony, were heretics! There is no Gospel, there is no Scripture, that imposes on us the obligation of seizing by violence the goods of another, and of then saying that we cannot conscientiously restore them. It is for this reason," added Joachim, after these words, which he accompanied with a sardonic smile, "I am commissioned to inform you, that if you refuse the recess, all the Germanic states will place their lives and their property at the emperor's disposal, and his majesty himself will employ the resources of all his kingdoms to complete this affair before leaving the empire."

"We do not accept it," replied the Protestants firmly."His majesty also has a conscience," then resumed the Elector of Brandenburg, in a harsh tone; "and if you do not submit, he will concert with the pope and the other potentates on the best means of extirpating this sect and its new errors." But in vain did they add threat to threat: the Protestants remained calm, respectful, and unshaken. แ Our enemies, destitute of all confidence in God," said they, 66 would shake like a reed in presence of the emperor's anger,

* Sondern vom Schreiber gesetzt, der dis nicht geacht. Urk. ii. 606.