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."

CHAPTER XXIII.

Maurice succeeds Henry of Saxony-His Line of PolicyHenry of Brunswick expelled-Reformation of his Territories-Situation of the Protestants-Herman Archbishop of Cologne-The Bishop of Munster-The Princes of Henneberg.

We now proceed with the course of events which followed the diet of Ratisbon.

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.

Immediately upon the conclusion of the diet, he set out for Italy. As he passed through Lucca, he had a short but fruitless interview with the pope. They could neither agree between themselves on any proper method of composing the religious disputes in Germany, nor could the pope remove the causes of discord between Charles and the King of France, which soon gave occasion to a fierce war, commencing in 1542, but terminated again by the peace of Crespy, in September, 1544.

About the time that the diet of Ratisbon 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. As soon as he entered upon the administration, he struck out into such a new and singular path as showed that he aimed, from the beginning, at something great and uncommon. Though zealously attached to the Protestant opinions, both from education and principle, he refused to accede to the league of Smalkald, 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 Smalkald, 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."* On the other hand, he discovered a jealousy of his cousin the Elector of Saxony, which in the end proved very fatal to the latter, and had wellnigh occasioned an open rupture between them, soon after Maurice's accession, on the subject of a paltry town on the Moldau. 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."*

66

The admonitions of Luther to the contending princes on this occasion may well be styled "powerful and authoritative" they were even surprisingly free and vehement. He apologizes, as an ecclesiastic, for interfering in a political question: but "the credit and the interests of religion," he says, 66 were at stake, when so fierce a quarrel arose on so trivial an occasion, between princes nearly related, and both of them professed supporters of the Protestant faith. Peacemakers," he observes, "are pronounced blessed, and the children of God: whence it might be inferred that peacebreakers were the children of the devil. And this sentence of our Lord extended to men of all ranks and conditions alike. Should this feud actually break out into a war," he even tells them, "wise men would regard them, instead of

* Robertson.

great princes, as resembling drunken rustics fighting in a tavern about a broken wine-cup, or idiots contending for a morsel of bread. In the mean time, this little spark might kindle into a conflagration, over which the enemies of the gospel, and even the Turks themselves, might rejoice; while the devil and his agents would tauntingly observe, So these are the leaders who undertake to point out to others the way to heaven!" " He even threatens them with "eternal damnation" if they refused a pacific arrangement of their differences. He refers them to the example of the elector Frederic the Wise, who, having a dispute with the people of Erfurt, and being told by some lovers of war, that it would not cost him more than five men to take the city," replied, that "the loss of one would be too much." "Retire," he says, "each of you into his chamber, and pray seriously to God: sure I am that his Spirit will give you another mind." He adds, that "he for his part would take the side of him who was willing to submit his cause to an equitable and peaceable arbitration; and, whichever of them it might be, he would animate him to do valiantly in the name of the Lord, in case the other refused his acquiescence." If it should be thought that in this composition Luther assumes too much, and uses stronger expressions than became him, it may be observed, that his address was never completed, the quarrel being appeased.

Much apprehension might not unreasonably have been entertained for the cause of religion in ducal Saxony, from the habits to which the people had so long been accustomed under the government of George; from the influence which his counsellors still retained; from the youth and aspiring character of Maurice; and from the misunderstandings into which he fell with the elector. Happily, however, little obstruction occurred, and many of Maurice's plans contributed to extend and render permanent the reformation which had been established in his dominions. In the year 1543 he published a copious instrument for the regulation of ecclesiastical affairs, in which the instructions given to the clergy were excellent. He founded three noble schools, in which he provided for the free education and support of two hundred and thirty scholars; appointed exhibitions for a hundred students in the university of Leipzig; and, with the concurrence of the states of the province, appropriated VOL. II.-M

for ever the revenues of the vacated monasteries and colleges for these purposes, for the maintenance of the clergy, and for other pious and charitable uses. In order also to do away the apprehension of any capricious changes, he soon after, by a public instrument, constituted the doctors, licentiates, and professors of the university of Leipzig (among whom the name of Aless, Pfeffinger, and Joachim Camerarius occur) a consistory, to which all matters relating to religion should be referred. Such a measure he thought became him, and was called for by his circumstances, "he being but a youthful prince, and one for whom the civil affairs of his country would find sufficient employment." His provisions for the advancement of religion and learning were afterward still further extended and improved, both by himself and by his brother and successor Augustus.

Concerning Maurice, we may further remark, that his marriage with the daughter of the landgrave was a sudden measure, and not thought to be very agreeable to his parents: but it proved, in the admirable ordinations of Providence, an essential link in that remarkable series of events in which Maurice, having first been a principal instrument of the emperor in subverting, as it appeared, the Protestant cause in Germany, afterward became the means of giving it permanent and independent establishment, and of frustrating all the emperor's ambitious designs. Seckendorf piously remarks the superintending hand of Providence in overruling the novel course into which this young prince struck out, which appears to have been dictated by deep and artful ambition, and which occasioned so much anxiety and distress to his Protestant friends. Could he have been brought zealously to co-operate with them, they would have been ready to think themselves secure against the attempts of their enemies yet very probably he would have been overwhelmed along with them; and then, humanly speaking, no power would have remained to restore either the liberties of Germany, or the Protestant religion within the empire.

In the mean time the pope was so urgently pressed on the subject of a general council that he proceeded actually to convoke one to be held at Trent (a city in the Tyrol, subject to the king of the Romans), on the 1st of November, 1542; and named three cardinals to preside in it as his legates. The time however was altogether unseasonable, when a

fierce war was just kindled between the emperor and the King of France, and the place was such as could give no satisfaction to the Protestants. The legates repaired to Trent, and remained there several months; but no person met them, except a few prelates from the ecclesiastical state; and the pope, in order to avoid the ridicule and contempt which he incurred from the enemies of the church, recalled them and prorogued the council.

The circumstances of the emperor and the King of the Romans obliged them at this time even to court the favour of the Protestants by repeated acts of indulgence. All the emperor's concessions to them at Ratisbon were now renewed, with the addition of whatever they demanded for their further security. A decree of the imperial chamber against one of the cities which had entered into the league of Smalkald was suspended. Henry of Brunswick, however, a furious bigot, and no less obstinate than rash in all his undertakings, continuing to molest the peace, the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse assembled their forces, declared war in form against him, and in space of a few weeks stripped him entirely of his dominions. This summary and decisive chastisement inflicted upon him by the Protestant princes filled all Germany with a dread of their power. It excited however considerable jealousy, even among some of their own friends. Henry appealed to the emperor, who declared that he could not disapprove what had been done, as the offender had refused submission alike to the emperor's injunctions and the admonitions of the diet: he only wished the conquerors to use their victory with moderation. It was at length agreed that Henry's dominions should be held in sequestration by persons appointed by the emperor and he himself, soon after renewing his attempts, was made prisoner by the landgrave and Maurice, and retained in close confinement till a new change of affairs procured him his liberty.

What we however are principally concerned to notice is, the reformation of his country of Brunswick Wolfenbuttle, while it was in the hands of the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse. A regulation of its ecclesiastical affairs, drawn up by Bugenhagen, Corvinus, and Martin Gorlitz, and fully introducing Protestant doctrines and Protestant usages, was published by authority in 1543: and, though this was abrogated on Henry's restoration, five years