[129] Eastern Prussia was reformed and secularized, in 1525, by the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Albert of Brandenbourg. It formed since that epoch the Duchy of Prussia.
[130] Ulrich, Count of Montbeliard, and Duke of Wurtemberg.
[131] Louis, the Elector Palatine, and Joachim, the Elector of Brandenbourg, although favourable to the Reformation, remained attached to the cause of the Emperor, and tried to bring about a reconciliation between the two parties.
[132] John Vesal, Archbishop of Lunden, was the Emperor's ambassador at the Diet. (Sleidan, lib. xii. p. 339.) He became afterwards Bishop of Constance, and was present at the Council of Trent.
[133] Albert of Brandenbourg, the brother of Joachim, the Elector of Brandenbourg. This prelate sternly opposed all compromise in religious matters. He made continual complaints of the indulgence shewn by the Emperor towards Protestants.
[134] On the death of Charles Van Egmont, Duke of Gueldres, his relation, William, Duke of Cleves and Juliers, took possession of that town, of which he was dispossessed by the Emperor in 1543.
[135] The King of England, Henry VIII.
[136] The details of these negotiations will be found in Burnet, and in Seckendorf, Commentarii, lib. iii. sect. 19, par. 73. The Protestant princes of Germany, desirous to bind so powerful a monarch as the King of England as closely as possible to the cause of the Reformation, had sent deputies to request his assent to the Augsburg Confession, and the revocation of the cruel statutes still in force against those of his subjects who professed the pure Gospel. Two of the King's counsellors, Cromwell and Archbishop Cranmer, seconded timidly the entreaties of the Protestant princes; but this imperious and violent monarch, satisfied with having transferred to himself the papal authority in matters of religion, shewed indisposedness to promote the interests of an actual reformation. He protracted the negotiations, and added daily by new laws to the rigour of the most hateful despotism—that which is exercised by a prince over the consciences of his subjects.
[137] John Lambert, schoolmaster.—See Burnet, Hist. Ref. vol. i. pp. 252-254.
[138] He was living in exile on the Continent from the time of the rupture of England with the See of Rome. He returned under the reign of Mary, became Archbishop of Canterbury, President of the Royal Council, and died in 1558, after having been the instrument of a short but bloody restoration of Popery in his native country.