John George loved peace dearly, and he had joined Sweden sorely against his will. But he was a man of his word, and he had promised Gustavus not to come to terms with the enemy without his consent. He forwarded Wallenstein's propositions to Gustavus.
§ 10. Demands of Gustavus.
No man was so ready as Gustavus to change his plans in all matters of secondary importance, as circumstances might require. In the face of Wallenstein's armament and of the hesitations of the Saxon court, he at once abandoned all thought of asking that the Rhine bishoprics should remain in his hands. He was ready to assent to the solution of religious questions which satisfied Wallenstein and John George. For himself, he expected the cession of at least part of Pomerania, in order to protect himself from a future naval attack proceeding from the Baltic ports. The Elector of Brandenburg had claims upon Pomerania; but he might be satisfied with some of the bishoprics which it had been agreed to leave in Protestant hands.
§ 11. Impossibility of reconciling Gustavus and Wallenstein.
Such terms would probably have met with opposition. But the real point of difference lay elsewhere. Wallenstein would have restored the old unity of the Empire, of which he hoped to be the inspiring genius. Gustavus pressed for the formation of a separate Protestant league, if not under his own guidance, at least in close alliance with Sweden. Wallenstein asked for confidence in himself and the Emperor. Gustavus had no confidence in either.
§ 12. Hesitation of John George.
John George wavered between the two. He, too, distrusted Wallenstein. But he did not see that he must either accept the Empire, or help on its dissolution, unless he wished to leave the future of Germany to chance. The imperial unity of Wallenstein was something. The Corpus Evangelicorum of Gustavus was something. The Protestant states, loosely combined, were doomed to defeat and ruin.
[Section V.]—The Struggle between Gustavus and Wallenstein.
§ 1. Gustavus proposes a league of cities.
Long before John George's answer could reach Gustavus the war had blazed out afresh. The Swedish king did not yet know how little reliance he could place on the Elector for the realization of his grand plan, when Wallenstein broke up from Bohemia, and directed his whole force upon Nüremberg. Gustavus threw himself into the town to defend it. Here, too, his head was busy with the Corpus Evangelicorum. Whilst he was offering to Saxony to abandon the ecclesiastical territories, he proposed to the citizens of Nüremberg to lay the foundations of a league in which the citizens alone should ally themselves with him, leaving the princes to come in afterwards if they would, whilst the ecclesiastical territories should remain in his own hands. There is nothing really discrepant in the two schemes. The one was a plan to be adopted only on condition of a final and permanent peace. The other was a plan for use as a weapon of war. The noticeable thing is the persistent way in which Gustavus returned again and again to the idea of founding a political union as the basis of military strength.