t duke, Ulric. Civil war
had now commenced. But the Protestants were strong, determined, and had
proved their valor in the recent war with the Turks. The more moderate
of the papal party, foreseeing a strife which might be interminable,
interposed, and succeeded in effecting a compromise which again secured
transient peace.

Charles, however, had not yet abandoned his design to compel the
Protestants to return to the papal church. He was merely temporizing
till he could bring such an array of the papal powers against the
reformers that they could present no successful resistance. With this
intention he entered into a secret treaty with the powerful King of
France, in which Francis agreed to concentrate all the forces of his
kingdom to crush the Lutheran doctrines. He then succeeded in concluding
a truce with the Turks for five years. He was now prepared to act with
decision against the reformed religion.

But while Charles had been marshaling his party the Protestants had been
rapidly increasing. Eloquent preachers, able writers, had everywhere
proclaimed the corruptions of the papacy and urged a pure gospel. These
corruptions were so palpable that they could not bear the light. The
most intelligent and conscientious, all over Europe, were rapidly
embracing the new doctrines. These new doctrines embraced and involved
principles of civil as well as religious liberty. The Bible is the most
formidable book which was ever penned against aristocratic usurpation.
God is the universal Father. All men are brothers. The despots of that
day regarded the controversy as one which, in the end, involved the
stability of their thrones. "Give us light," the Protestants said. "Give
us darkness," responded the papacy, "or the submissive masses will rise
and overthrow despotic thrones as well as idolatrous altars."

Several of the ablest and most powerful of the bishops who, in that day
of darkness, had been groping in the dark, now that light had come into
the world, rejoiced in that light, and enthusiastically espoused the
truth. The emperor was quite appalled when he learned that the
Archbishop of Cologne, who was also one of the electors of the empire,
had joined the reformers; for, in addition to the vast influence of his
name, this conversion gave the Protestants a majority in the electoral
diet, so many of the German princes had already adopted the opinions of
Luther. The Protestants, encouraged by the rapidity with which their