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1544.] suggested that, as a first step towards the settlement of Europe, a letter should be addressed to the Pope, by the Catholic States, requiring him to state openly the part which he intended to take in the war with France. To invite any such step was to invite them to a rupture with Rome, or so at least they understood it. Exasperated at the double blow, the Catholics replied with a direct refusal. They would do nothing, they would consent to nothing, till the rights of the Church were recognized in their integrity; till the dissolved monasteries were restored; till the Augsburg Confession ceased to be tolerated; till the ordinances of Eatisbon were repealed, and the ancient liberty of persecution reestablished.

Fury begat fury. The Protestants could rave as well as they. The Catholics would not stir for the Emperor unless they had their own way. The Protestants declared as loudly that they would vote neither men nor money for the war till the Reform of the Church had been disposed of, till they had received a definite promise for ever of religious liberty. It was a very pretty quarrel.

The combatants being once engaged, would be separated only by mutual exhaustion. The Emperor allowed the discussion to rage on far into the spring; when the exhausted tongues sank into languor, in an interval of