Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/556

536 and naked they set foot upon the British shores, the honourable humanity with which they were received, sheltered, and sustained must be counted among the not too many virtues of Edward's ministers. Austin Friars was made over to those who remained in London, with lands and farms to support their clergy; and the clergy themselves were enrolled as a body corporate and exempt from the Bishop's jurisdiction. The Duke of Somerset at his own expense established a colony of Walloon weavers among the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey.

The Emperor meanwhile went resolute to Augsburg, where he carried a vote in the Diet binding Germany to submit to the Council of Trent. The Duke of Mecklenburg entered the territory of the Magdeburgers. They made a sortie upon him, and were defeated utterly, with the loss of their artillery. The fate of Lutheranism appeared to be sealed; yet the Magdeburgers still would not surrender. Surrender, they said grandly, implied the mass, and the mass they would receive never. But they could die without difficulty; they made up their minds to the worst; and the news of the edict in the Low Countries did them service, bringing the old soldiers of the Landgrave and the Elector to their aid in thousands. In all reasonable probability, however, their resistance was hopeless. The Diet voted a force, the command of which they petitioned the Emperor should be given to Duke Maurice. The Emperor, who,