[280] Albert, Margrave of Brandenbourg, a bold and perfidious adventurer, entirely devoted to the cause of the Emperor. He is reported to have said: "If the Devil will but pay me well, I will serve him." He maintained in 1553 a long struggle with Maurice of Saxony, and was vanquished, the year following, at the battle of Sievershausen, where his adversary perished.
[281] Without doubt, George of Anhalt, the scholar of Luther, and who, notwithstanding his high birth, wished to be ordained minister and ecclesiastical inspector of the diocese of Mersebourg. He died in 1553.—Melch. Adam. Vitæ Theologorum Germanorum, p. 245.
[282] The Sultan Soliman had entered into Hungary, and had already taken possession of the town of Buda, under pretext that the young King John Sigismond was incapable of defending it against his enemies.
[283] That letter was an urgent and pressing appeal to the justice and to the clemency of Francis I., by the whole Church of Christ: "We have been very much grieved, because, when it could not be denied that many abuses of long standing clung to the Churches, nevertheless, so greatly has the heat of anger been inflamed everywhere, that not only private individuals, but also whole nations may be brought into jeopardy: which, when they become suppliants to your royal highness, you may consider that it is not we only, but the very Church of Christ that lies mourning at the feet of the greatest kings, and implores and entreats their help, that the light of the dawning Gospel may not be extinguished, and that quiet, modest men and members of Christ may be let alone." This earnest prayer remained unanswered in the corrupt court of Valois. Policy alone brought about the adoption of measures which humanity demanded, and the ruin of the Vaudois, and the retribution upon the persecutors, were adjourned to another time.
[284] Such is the address: To the excellent and very faithful Servants of Christ, William Farel and Peter Viret, my very dear Brethren.
[285] Otho Henri, brother of Frederic, Count Palatine.
[286] See note I, p. 270.
[287] The young preacher who is spoken of here, seems to have been Peter Du Brenil, who succeeded Calvin in the direction of the French Church of Strasbourg, and was a martyr at Tournay in 1545.—See Sleidan, lib. xii. et xvi., and Crespin, Histoire des Martyrs.
[288] Caroli effected his reconciliation with the Sorbonne, but it was in vain that he solicited a benefice in the Church of Rome.
[289] See note 2, p. 275.