This was indeed an appalling measure.  Recantation or war was the only alternative.  Charles, being still much occupied by the affairs of his vast kingdom of Spain, with all its ambitions and wars, needed a coadjutor in the government of Germany, as serious trouble was evidently near at hand.  He therefore proposed the election of his brother Ferdinand as coadjutor with him in administering the affairs of Germany.  Ferdinand, who had recently united to the Austrian territories the crowns of Hungary and Bohemia, was consequently chosen, on the 5th of January, 1531, King of the Romans.  Charles was determined to enforce his decrees, and both parties now prepared for war.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHARLES V. AND THE REFORMATION.

From 1531 to 1552.

Determination to crush Protestantism.—­Incursion of the Turks.—­Valor of the Protestants.—­Preparations for renewed Hostilities.—­Augmentation of the Protestant Forces.—­The Council of Trent.—­Mutual Consternation.—­ Defeat of the Protestant Army.—­Unlooked for Succor.—­Revolt in the Emperor’s Army.—­The Fluctuations of Fortune.—­Ignoble Revenge.—­Capture of Wittemberg.—­Protestantism Apparently Crushed.—­Plot against Charles.—­Maurice of Saxony.—­A Change of Scene.—­The Biter Bit.—­The Emperor humbled.—­His Flight.—­His determined Will.

The intolerant decrees of the diet of Augsburg, and the evident determination of the emperor unrelentingly to enforce them, spread the greatest alarm among the Protestants.  They immediately assembled at Smalkalde in December, 1530, and entered into a league for mutual protection.  The emperor was resolved to crush the Protestants.  The Protestants were resolved not to be crushed.  The sword of the Catholics was drawn for the assault—­the sword of the reformers for defense.  Civil war was just bursting forth in all its horrors, when the Turks, with an army three hundred thousand strong, like ravening wolves rushed into Hungary.  This danger was appalling.  The Turks in their bloody march had, as yet, encountered no effectual resistance; though they had experienced temporary checks, their progress had been on the whole resistless, and wherever they had planted their feet they had established themselves firmly.  Originating as a small tribe on the shores of the Caspian, they had spread over all Asia Minor, had crossed the Bosphorus, captured Constantinople, and had brought all Greece under their sway.  They were still pressing on, flushed with victory.  Christian Europe was trembling before them.  And now an army of three hundred thousand had crossed the Danube, sweeping all opposition before them, and were spreading terror and destruction through Hungary.  The capture of that immense kingdom seemed to leave all Europe defenseless.