CHAPTER XXVI.
WAR.
"Evil times are at hand," Luther often said, and the great man had scarcely closed his eyes, when the storm burst.
It had long been evident to discerning eyes, that the Emperor Charles V was only seeking a convenient pretext, for destroying with the sword the fruits of Luther's labors. Realizing their danger, the protestant princes and Cities had formed the Union of Smalcald, and their defensive measures stirred the Emperor's wrath to a still fiercer glow. He was playing a double game; false alike toward the Protestants and the Pope, he sought merely to strengthen his own power in an Empire, to whose very language he was a stranger.
Having, by means of specious promises, gained the Pope for his purposes, he sought aid in Germany itself for the war of extermination. The Duke of Bavaria was speedily won by the promise of the Elector's hat. Other, smaller potentates, were lured with smaller bribes. Even in the camp of the Protestant princes, to their shame be it said, the Emperor found allies; Hans, Margrave of Küstrin, and Eric, Duke of Brunswick-Calenburg, were not ashamed to wear the Imperial colors. Not content with these acquisitions, the Emperor coveted the alliance of the young and ambitious Duke Moritz of Saxony, to gain whose good will, he encouraged the quarrel between the young Duke and his cousin, the Elector John Frederick of Saxony. For the Judas-reward of the Saxon electorate, Duke Moritz betrayed the Protestant faith.
Having secured these confederates, the Emperor openly continued his preparations. To the questions of the allies as to his intentions, he scornfully replied: That his purpose was to chastise certain unruly German princes, who, under the guise of religion, cast contempt upon the imperial majesty.
It became necessary therefore, to devise a plan, by which the chastisement designed for themselves, might rather fall upon the Emperor's back.
The affairs of the Protestants wore a promising aspect. In Upper Germany an army of 47,000 men was speedily organized under the valiant general Schärtlin, and it would have been an easy matter to capture the Emperor, who with 9,000 men lay before Ratisbon. Schärtlin urged immediate action; but an ill-timed sentiment of delicacy, which forbade the allies to enter the territory of the neutral Duke of Bavaria, caused them to hesitate. Their indecision gave the Emperor time to reinforce his army, and courage, to put the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse under the ban of the Empire.
Uniting their forces with those under Schärtlin, the two outlawed princes advanced upon the imperial army. Much had been lost, but the Emperor might still have succumbed to the superior strength of the Protestants. Again their hesitation and indecision came to his aid. Winter set in. Moritz had gained time to occupy the Saxon territory and to instal himself as the new sovereign. There was nothing left for the ex-elector, but to return in haste and re-conquer his electorate. Schärtlin's army ran short of provisions. The free cities, losing courage, submitted, one by one, to the Emperor, who in the beginning of 1547 found himself master of the whole of Southern Germany. Shortly after, the Rhenish provinces were lost to Protestantism.
Then the tide turned.