as
Luther himself did. The confiding attachment with which the Germans
received the grandson of Maximilian was almost touching; his noble,
reserved, and composed bearing had an imposing effect upon all. In the
beginning the best was hoped of him, and later also, even the
Protestants who had experienced his displeasure, rejoiced when he
encountered the Pope or conquered the French King. Long did the German
nation continue to feel itself exalted by the glory and splendour of
his government. Charles did his best; he spared the prejudices of the
Germans, indulged them more than any of his other people, and even when
he sided with a party, he knew how to conciliate his opponents by his
benevolent dignity. At last, however, the time came when his pride and
pretensions rose so high that the intractable independence of the
Protestant party became insupportable to him, and then his long
concealed opposition broke forth into hate. Suddenly, a storm arose
against him among the people. As in the first years of Luther, a sea of
small literature again overflowed the country: they fought against him
in prose and verse, and they depended more on the support of heaven
than was wise. The successor of Duke George of Saxony, that most
zealous opponent of the Reformation, the Protestant Maurice, united
himself with the Emperor against his own family, and the Protestant
party was defeated.

Now the Emperor Charles had attained the height of his power; the
battle of Muehlberg was won; the Smalkaldic league had fallen to pieces
ingloriously. The Protestant princes and cities hastened to make their
peace with that lord of half Europe, to whom in an evil hour they had
been so eager to offer the dominion over them. Carrying away with him
the captive Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse, he marched
from the Saale in triumphant procession to Augsburg, accompanied by his
army of Spaniards, and Flemings, and German _Landsknechte_. There all
the most powerful of Germany were gathered together at the Diet to
obtain pardon or reward, to pay court to the most mighty sovereign that
for centuries had ruled over Germany, to decide their own future and
that of their Fatherland, and to seek pleasure and adventures. Amidst
this crowd of sovereigns and dynasties, courtiers, swindlers, soldiers,
and deputations of citizens, was one Bartholomew Sastrow, the son of a
citizen of Greifswald. He was actively employed as agent of the Dukes
of Pomerania, who w