The next day being Sunday, of course I went to church with my host.  The congregation, including their pastor, wore the costume of the middle ages; it was a most curious and interesting sight.  I am never a good hand at describing the details of dress, but I know my impression was that the pastor—­wearing a ruff, I think, or something like it—­might just have walked out of a picture, such as one knows so well of the old Puritans in Cromwell’s time.  The dress of the peasants, though unlike the English fashion of any period, had an old-world look.  The married women wore white kerchiefs twisted round the head, sleeveless jackets, with a mystery of lace adornments.  The marriageable girls sat together in one part of the church, which I thought very funny; they wore drum-shaped hats poised on the head in a droll sort of way.  Some of them had a kind of white leather pelisse beautifully wrought with embroidery.  Each girl carried a large bouquet of flowers.  These blue-eyed German maidens were many of them very pretty, and all were fresh looking and exquisitely neat.  It was an impressive moment when the whole congregation joined in singing—­

    "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott;"

“the Marseillaise of the Reformation,” as Heine calls Luther’s hymn, “that defiant strain that up to our time has preserved its inspiring power.”

The Reformation spread with wonderful rapidity throughout the length and breadth of Hungary, more especially in Transylvania.  It appears that the merchants of Herrmannstadt, who were in the habit of attending the great fair at Leipsic, brought back Luther’s writings, which had the effect of setting fire to men’s minds.  At one time more than half Hungary had declared for the new doctrines, but terrible persecutions thinned their ranks.  According to the latest statistics there are 1,109,154 Lutherans and 2,024,332 Calvinists in Hungary.  The Saxons of Transylvania belong almost exclusively to the Reformed faith; they had always preserved in a remarkable degree their love for civil and political freedom, hence their minds were prepared to receive Protestantism.  Three monks from Silesia, converts to Luther’s views, came into these parts to preach, passing from one village to another, and in the towns they “held catechisings and preachings in the public squares and market-places,” where crowds came from all the country round to hear them.  The peasants went back to their mountain homes with Bibles in their hands; and since that time the simple folk, through wars and persecutions, have held steadfast to their faith.

Herrmannstadt became a second Wittenberg:  the new doctrine was not more powerful in the town where Luther lived.  Several bishops joined the party of the seceders, and already the towns throughout Hungary had generally declared for the Reformation; in many the “Catholic priests were left, as shepherds without flocks."[15] When Popish ceremonies aroused the ridicule of the people, and when even in country