s, to which were soon added ten more. Nothing
can more decisively show than this the wonderful progress which the
Reformation in so short a time had made. From this Protest the reformers
received the name of Protestants, which they have since retained.

The emperor, flushed with success, now resolved, with new energy, to
assail the principles of the Reformation. Leaving Spain he went to
Italy, and met the pope, Clement VII., at Bologna, in February, 1530.
The pope and the emperor held many long and private interviews. What
they said no one knows. But Charles V., who was eminently a sagacious
man, became convinced that the difficulty had become far too serious to
be easily healed, that men of such power had embraced the Lutheran
doctrines that it was expedient to change the tone of menace into one of
respect and conciliation. He accordingly issued a call for another diet
to meet in April, 1530, at the city of Augsburg in Bavaria.

"I have convened," he wrote, "this assembly to consider the difference
of opinion on the subject of religion. It is my intention to hear both
parties with candor and charity, to examine their respective arguments,
to correct and reform what requires to be corrected and reformed, that
the truth being known, and harmony established, there may, in future, be
only one pure and simple faith, and, as all are disciples of the same
Jesus, all may form one and the same Church."

These fair words, however, only excited the suspicions of the
Protestants, which suspicions subsequent events proved to be well
founded. The emperor entered Augsburg in great state, and immediately
assumed a dictatorial air, requiring the diet to attend high mass with
him, and to take part in the procession of the host.

"I will rather," said the Marquis of Brandenburg to the emperor,
"instantly offer my head to the executioner, than renounce the gospel
and approve idolatry. Christ did not institute the sacrament of the
Lord's Supper to be carried in pomp through the streets, nor to be
adored by the people. He said, 'Take, eat;' but never said, 'Put this
sacrament into a vase, carry it publicly in triumph, and let the people
prostrate themselves before it.'"

The Protestants, availing themselves of the emperor's declaration that
it was his intention to hear the sentiments of all, drew up a confession
of their faith, which they presented to the emperor in German and in
Latin. This celebrated creed is known in history as the _