They were
still pressing on, flushed with victory. Christian Europe was trembling
before them. And now an army of three hundred thousand had crossed the
Danube, sweeping all opposition before them, and were spreading terror
and destruction through Hungary. The capture of that immense kingdom
seemed to leave all Europe defenseless.
The emperor and his Catholic friends were fearfully alarmed. Here was a
danger more to be dreaded than even the doctrines of Luther. All the
energies of Christendom were requisite to repel this invasion. The
emperor was compelled to appeal to the Protestant princes to cooeperate
in this great emergence. But they had more to fear from the fiery
persecution of the papal church than from the cimeter of the infidel,
and they refused any cooeperation with the emperor so long as the menaces
of the Augsburg decrees were suspended over them. The emperor wished the
Protestants to help him drive out the Turks, that then, relieved from
that danger, he might turn all his energies against the Protestants.
After various negotiations it was agreed, as a temporary arrangement,
that there should be a truce of the Catholic persecution until another
general council should be called, and that until then the Protestants
should be allowed freedom of conscience and of worship.
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