Protestantism In Germany From the Augsburg Confession to the Peace of Passau

arms. Here are all the great scholars and
theologians of Germany, her Popish dignitaries and
her Protestant Reformers. Here too, in the train of
the chief personages, is much that is neither
princely nor scholarly -- lacqueys and men-at-arms,
idlers and sight-seers from far and near, who crowd
the streets, fill the taverns, and disturb the peace
and quiet of the city by engaging in battles of a
different kind from those which exercise the
prowess of the combatants in the Palatinate Chapel.
A great place is empty in this vast gathering -- that
of Luther. But he is no farther off than the Castle of
Coburg, where, sitting apart and maintaining a
keen correspondence with his friends, he can make
his spirit felt in the Diet and, unseen, guide the
course of its debates.
All being gathered into Augsburg, in obedience
to the summons of the emperor, at last with great
pomp comes the emperor himself, Charles, master
of two worlds. Behind him what a long and
brilliant train! Kings, Papal legates, ambassadors,
archbishops, priests, friars, and some ten thousand
men-at-arms. It is Mediaevalism rising up in a
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