t of all the people."
(Walther 19f.) Thus the Interim before long became a dead letter
throughout the greater part of Germany.

123. Attitude of John Frederick toward Interim.

In order to obtain his liberty, the vacillating Philip of Hesse, though
he had declined to submit to the resolutions of the Council of Trent,
declared himself willing to adopt the Interim. "It is better," he is
reported to have said, "to hear a mass than to play cards," etc. (Jaekel
1, 130. 162.) Special efforts were also made by the Emperor to induce
John Frederick to declare his submission to the Council and to sanction
the Interim. But the Elector solemnly protested that this was impossible
for him. All attempts to induce him to abandon his religious convictions
met with quiet but determined resistance. One of the cruel conditions
under which the Emperor was willing to rescind the death-sentence passed
on the Elector was, that he should consent to everything the Emperor or
the Council would prescribe in matters of religion. But the Elector
declared: "I will rather lose my head and suffer Wittenberg to be
battered down than submit to a demand that violates my conscience.
_Lieber will ich meinen Kopf verlieren und Wittenberg zusammenschiessen
lassen, als eine Forderung eingehen, die mein Gewissen verletzt._" (1,
116.) Through Granvella the Emperor promised the Elector liberty if he
would sign the Interim. But again the Elector declared decidedly that
this was impossible for him.

In a written answer to the Emperor the ex-Elector declared, boldly
confessing his faith: "I cannot refrain from informing Your Majesty that
since the days of my youth I have been instructed and taught by the
servants of God's Word, and by diligently searching the prophetic and
apostolic Scriptures I have also learned to know, and (this I testify as
in the sight of God) unswervingly to adhere in my conscience to this,
that the articles composing the Augsburg Confession, and whatever is
connected therewith, are the correct, true, Christian, pure doctrine,
confirmed by, and founded in, the writings of the holy prophets and
apostles, and of the teachers who followed in their footsteps, in such a
manner that no substantial objection can be raised against it.... Since
now in my conscience I am firmly persuaded of this, I owe this
gratefulness and obedience to God, who has shown me such unspeakable
grace, that, as I desire to obtain eternal salvation and escape eternal
damn