--Maurice of Saxony.--A Change of Scene.--The Biter Bit.--The
Emperor humbled.--His Flight.--His determined Will.
The intolerant decrees of the diet of Augsburg, and the evident
determination of the emperor unrelentingly to enforce them, spread the
greatest alarm among the Protestants. They immediately assembled at
Smalkalde in December, 1530, and entered into a league for mutual
protection. The emperor was resolved to crush the Protestants. The
Protestants were resolved not to be crushed. The sword of the Catholics
was drawn for the assault--the sword of the reformers for defense. Civil
war was just bursting forth in all its horrors, when the Turks, with an
army three hundred thousand strong, like ravening wolves rushed into
Hungary. This danger was appalling. The Turks in their bloody march had,
as yet, encountered no effectual resistance; though they had experienced
temporary checks, their progress had been on the whole resistless, and
wherever they had planted their feet they had established themselves
firmly. Originating as a small tribe on the shores of the Caspian, they
had spread over all Asia Minor, had crossed the Bosphorus, captured
Constantinople, and had brought all Greece under their sway.
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