Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/350

330 by a second consecration, and bishops preached there day after day on the long-insulted mysteries of the faith. The Diet, densely attended, opened on the 1st of September. Charles briefly reminded the assembly of his long efforts to compose the quarrels of Germany peaceably; he had been driven at last, he said, to another remedy, and God had given him success. Religion had been the cause of the turmoil. A council, as they had themselves told him again and again, was the only instrument by which it could be composed. The bishops of the Catholic States, therefore, would petition the Pope to send back the fugitives to Trent; and on the Pope's compliance, the Lutheran princes—Duke Maurice, the Elector Palatine, the Duke of Wurtemberg, and the rest, should promise obedience to the decisions of that council, whatever they might be. Meanwhile, he would reorganize the Imperial chamber; he would hear and determine questions of confiscated Church property in person; and while the Diet proceeded, he would permit no parties or separate conferences.

He was master of the situation, and for the time could insist on compliance; Duke Maurice, after an ineffectual attempt to make conditions, agreed to submit; and the petition to the Holy See was drawn, probably by the Emperor himself, and despatched. The bishops were made to say that they had long desired to see a general council meet in Germany; after years of delay a place had at last been selected, which virtually was more Italian than German. While the war