tolerant in his other dominions, he was
content to wait. At length, in 1545, the Council assembled at Trent
and dealt with the chief dogmas at issue. Then, when the decrees did
not satisfy the Lutherans, the Emperor combined with the Pope to
coerce them. A large contingent of papal troops crossed the Alps in
1547, and were met by the Lutheran forces on the Danube. The
Protestant League was divided; some of its members, true to the
doctrine of non-resistance, remained away; and one of the Saxon
princes, Maurice, invaded Saxony, on a promise that he should succeed
to the electorate. The Elector hurried back to his own country, the
muster on the Danube was broken up, and the Italians gained a decisive
victory over the Germans at Muhlberg on the Elbe. Maurice obtained
the reward, and being then, by virtue of his new dignity, the chief of
the Protestants, turned against the law by which the Emperor, after
his victory, attempted to regulate the affairs of religion. He
secured the help of France by the surrender of a part of Lorraine,
which Moltke did not entirely recover, and, attacking the Emperor when
he was not prepared, brought him to terms.

At Augsburg, in 1555, peace was concluded between the religions, and
continued until the Thirty Years' War. It abolished the faggot and
the stake. The Catholics gained nothing by this, for no Lutherans had
thought that it could be lawful to put people of the old religion to
death. The Lutherans obtained security that they should not be
persecuted. On the other hand, it was agreed that if any territorial
prelate seceded, he should forfeit the temporal power which he enjoyed
by right of his ecclesiastical dignity. So that the ecclesiastical
territories, which composed a large part of Germany, from Salzburg to
the Black Forest, and then all down the valley of the Rhine to Liege
and Munster, were to be preserved intact. No security whatever was
obtained for Protestants outside the Confession of Augsburg. The
Lutherans negotiated only for themselves. And no real security was
given to the subject. He was not to be punished for his
nonconformity, but he might be banished and compelled to pass to the
nearest territory of his own persuasion. As these were very near,
generally, the suffering was less than it would have been in other
countries. Under that condition, the civil power could, if it chose,
enforce the unity of religion.

These enactments were an immense advance,