X 1552. BOOK papal court with that asperity of censure which was natural to a man whose situation enabled him to observe its intrigues thoroughly, and who was obliged to exert all his attention and talents in order to disappoint them. But whichsoever of these authors an intelligent person takes for his guide in forming a judgment concerning the spirit of the council, he must discover so much ambition as well as artifice among some of the members, so much ignorance and corruption among others; he must observe such a large infusion of human policy and passions, mingled with such a scanty portion of that simplicity of heart, sanctity of manners, and love of truth, which alone qualify men to determine what doctrines are worthy of God, and what worship is acceptable to him; that he will find it no easy matter to believe, that any extraordinary influence of the Holy Ghost hovered over this assembly, and dictated its decrees. The French en surprise While Maurice was employed in negociating with the deavour to king of the Romans at Lintz, or in making war on the Strasburg; emperor in the Tyrol, the French king had advanced into Alsace as far as Strasburg; and having demanded leave of the senate to march through the city, he hoped that, by repeating the same fraud which he had practised at Metz, he might render himself master of the place, and by that means secure a passage over the Rhine into the heart of Germany. But the Strasburgers, instructed and put on their guard by the credulity and misfortune of their neighbours, shut their gates; and having assembled a garrison of five thousand soldiers, repaired their fortifications, razed the houses in their suburbs, and determined to defend themselves to the utmost. At the same time, they sent a deputation of their most respectable citizens to the king, in order to divert him from making any hostile attempt upon them. The electors of Treves and Cologne, the duke of Cleves, and other princes in the neighbourhood, interposed in their behalf, beseeching Henry that he would not forget so soon the title which he had generously assumed, and, instead of being the deliverer of Germany, become its oppressor. seconded them with zeal, soliciting Henry to spare a city which had long been connected with their community in friendship and alliance. X. 1552. Powerful as this united intercession was, it would not but withhave prevailed on Henry to forego a prize of so much cut success. value, if he had been in a condition to have seized it. But, in that age, the method of subsisting numerous armies at a distance from the frontiers of their own country was imperfectly understood, and neither the revenues of princes, nor their experience in the art of war, were equal to the great and complicated efforts which such an undertaking required. The French, though not far removed from their own frontier, began already to suffer from scarcity of provisions, and had no sufficient magazines collected to support them during a siege which must necessarily have been of great length P. At the same time, the queen of Hungary, governess of the Low Countries, had assembled a considerable body of troops, which, under the command of Martin de Rossem, laid waste Champagne, and threatened the adjacent provinces of France. These concurring circumstances obliged the king, though with reluctance, to abandon the enterprise. But being . willing to acquire some merit with his allies, by this retreat, which he could not avoid, he pretended to the Swiss that he had taken the resolution merely in compliance with their request; and then, after giving orders that all the horses in his army should be led to drink in the Rhine, as a proof of his having pushed his conquest so far, he marched back towards Champagne. None A hert of While the French king and the main army of the con- The operafederates were thus employed, Albert of Brandenburg was of entrusted with the command of a separate body of eight Branden thousand men, consisting chiefly of mercenaries, who had urg resorted to his standard rather from the hope of plunder, than the expectation of regular pay. That prince, seeing P Thuan. 351, 332. Sleid. 557. Brantome, tom. vii, 39. X 15520 BOOK papal court with that asperity of censure which was natural to a man whose situation enabled him to observe its intrigues thoroughly, and who was obliged to exert all his attention and talents in order to disappoint them. But whichsoever of these authors an intelligent person takes for his guide in forming a judgment concerning the spirit of the council, he must discover so much ambition as well as artifice among some of the members, so much ignorance and corruption among others; he must observe such a large infusion of human policy and passions, mingled with such a scanty portion of that simplicity of heart, sanctity of manners, and love of truth, which alone qualify men to determine what doctrines are worthy of God, and what worship is acceptable to him; that he will find it no easy matter to believe, that any extraordinary influence of the Holy Ghost hovered over this assembly, and dictated its decrees. The French en While Maurice was employed in negociating with the deavour to king of the Romans at Lintz, or in making war on the surprise Strasburg; emperor in the Tyrol, the French king had advanced into Alsace as far as Strasburg; and having demanded leave of the senate to march through the city, he hoped that, by repeating the same fraud which he had practised at Metz, he might render himself master of the place, and by that means secure a passage over the Rhine into the heart of Germany. But the Strasburgers, instructed and put on their guard by the credulity and misfortune of their neighbours, shut their gates; and having assembled a garrison of five thousand soldiers, repaired their fortifications, razed the houses in their suburbs, and determin. ed to defend themselves to the utmost. At the same time, they sent a deputation of their most respectable citizens to the king, in order to divert him from making any hostile attempt upon them. The electors of Treves and Cologne, the duke of Cleves, and other princes in the neighbourhood, interposed in their behalf, beseeching Henry that he would not forget so soon the title which he had generously assumed, and, instead of being the deliverer of The Swiss cantons BOOK Germany, become its oppressor. X. 1552. Powerful as this united intercession was, it would not but withhave prevailed on Henry to forego a prize of so much out success. value, if he had been in a condition to have seized it. But, in that age, the method of subsisting numerous armies at a distance from the frontiers of their own country was imperfectly understood, and neither the revenues of princes, nor their experience in the art of war, were equal to the great and complicated efforts which such an undertaking required. The French, though not far removed from their own frontier, began already to suffer from scarcity of provisions, and had no sufficient magazines collected to support them during a siege which must necessarily have been of great length P. At the same time, the queen of Hungary, governess of the Low Countries, had assembled a considerable body of troops, which, under the command of Martin de Rossem, laid waste Champagne, and threatened the adjacent provinces of France. These concurring circumstances obliged the king, though with reluctance, to abandon the enterprise. But being .willing to acquire some merit with his allies, by this retreat, which he could not avoid, he pretended to the Swiss that he had taken the resolution merely in compliance with their request; and then, after giving orders that all the horses in his army should be led to drink in the Rhine, as a proof of his having pushed his conquest so far, he marched back towards Champagne. While the French king and the main army of the con- The operafederates were thus employed, Albert of Brandenburg was A hert of entrusted with the command of a separate body of eight Bandien thousand men, consisting chiefly of mercenaries, who had urg resorted to his standard rather from the hope of plunder, than the expectation of regular pay. That prince, seeing P Thuan. 351, 352. Sleid. 557. Brantome, tom. vii, 39. X. 1552. BOOK himself at the head of such a number of desperate adventurers, ready to follow wherever he should lead them, soon began to disdain a state of subordination, and to form such extravagant schemes of aggrandising himself, as seldom occur, even to ambitious minds, unless when civil war or violent factions rouse them to bold exertions, by alluring them with immediate hopes of success. Full of these aspiring thoughts, Albert made war in a manner very different from the other confederates. He endeavoured to spread the terror of his arms by the rapidity of his motions, as well as the extent and rigour of his devastations; he exacted contributions wherever he came, in order to amass such a sum of money as would put it in his power to keep his army together; he laboured to get possession of Nuremburg, Ulm, or some other of the free cities in Upper Germany, in which, as a capital, he might fix the seat of his power. But, finding these cities on their guard, and in a condition to resist his attacks, he turned all his rage against the Popish ecclesiastics, whose territories he plundered with such wanton and merciless barbarity, as gave them a very unfavourable impression of the spirit of that reformation in religion, with zeal for which he pretended to be animated. The bishops of Bambergh and Wurtzburg, by their situation, y particularly exposed to his ravages; he obliged the former to transfer to him, in property, almost one half of his extensive diocese; and compelled the latter to advance a great sum of money, in order to save his territories from ruin and desolation. During all those wild sallies, Albert paid no regard either to Maurice's orders, whose commands as generalissimo of the league he had engaged to obey, or to the remonstrances of the other confederates, and manifestly discovered, that he attended only to his own private emolument, without any solicitude about the common cause, or the general objects which had induced them to take arms'. Maurice having ordered his army to march back into Sleid. 561. Thuan. 357. |