CHAP. He is cited to Rome; and loses his bishoprics. Reforma tion of tance from the landgrave, and proposes to make similar applications to Marpurg and Wittemberg. These were the bright prospects of the province in the year 1544. Soon after that, the pope succeeded in stirring up the emperor to take more decisive measures against the reformation: the Smalkaldic war followed, and the good designs of the bishop of Munster were frustrated. In the year 1547 he was cited to Rome by the pope, to answer the charge of defection from the catholic faith: but the canons on this occasion interposed their good offices on his behalf, urging particularly the services he had formerly rendered in the suppression of the anabaptists. Hence he is supposed to have yielded improperly to the prevailing torrent, after Charles's triumph over the protestant powers. If so, we may trust that he was "chastened of the Lord, that he might not be condemned with the world:" for he afterwards suffered in the conflicts which arose among his neighbours, and the more severely for his former close alliance with the landgrave: he was plundered of his wealth, and even lost his bishoprics; and was reduced to live as an exile in his own city of Munster, dependent on the liberality of the citizens. He died July 15, 1553. Chytræus commends him as a prince of high character, distinguished for piety, wisdom, justice, and clemency.-Munster is to be added to the list of those places in which the light of the reformation was extinguished again, ere it had well dawned upon the people. In other places however, happier success still attended the efforts made to diffuse the knowledge of divine truth, and to correct the 1 Chytr. lib. xviii and xii. Seck. iii. 513, 514. A. D. 1544. abuses which prevailed. The town and adjoining district of Ruthen in Voightland,1 the city and district of Rotenburg, and the princi- Ruthen, pality of Henneberg, both in Franconia, are particularly mentioned. In the second of these Rotenburg, places the reformation was almost universally embraced by the votaries in religious houses, as well as by other classes of the people; so that in the year 1546 no more than one monk and two aged nuns were found remaining. The zeal also of the inhabitants, and their eagerness to hear the word of God, are represented as very striking. Numbers fell on their knees in the churches, and with tears of joy thanked God for their deliverance from the superstition in which they had lived.2 neberg. But the account of Henneberg is attended and Henwith the most interesting and remarkable particulars. William prince of that territory had William, been a zealous devotee in the cause of Romish superstition; the institutor of associations and observances designed to perpetuate it; and a persecutor of those who revolted from it: and, as was to be expected, he trained up his sons, three of whom he dedicated to the sacred office, in the same principles. His eldest son and successor, however, George Ernest, attended George the landgrave of Hesse to the diet of Augsburg Ernest, in the year 1530: and there it pleased God that he should receive the seeds of divine truth, which gradually sprung up, and were afterwards cherished by the piety of his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Eric duke of Brunswick and Elizabeth of Brandenburg, before mentioned.3 Poppo also, another son of William's and a and Poppo, canon of Wurtzburg, disgusted with the lives 1 Seck. iii. 458. 2 Ib. 514, 515. 3 Above, pp. 258, 259. CHAP. of the higher popish clergy, (of which his situation had given him sufficient experience,) and princes of impressed with the piety of his brother, became Henneberg. equally inclined with him to the cause of reformation and, little as such an event might have been anticipated, they prevailed upon their father, whose mind we must suppose to have undergone a gradual but great change, not only to yield to their wishes, but heartily to concur with them. The assistance of John Forster, a pious divine of Wittemberg, was solicited and obtained; and the protestant faith was in the year 1544 publicly professed. William, as he was a late, so he proved a zealous and persevering labourer in the cause. Aided by his sons, he settled the ecclesiastical affairs of his principality in an excellent order and so determined a spirit did he shew, that, when the protestant confederation was broken and crushed, and all men were trembling before the power of the emperor, he resolutely refused the Interim (a corrupt mixture of popery and protestantism,) prescribed by that potentate in the year 1548. He even wrote to him early in the year following, to this effect: "That he had the fullest conviction, that nothing was taught in the churches of his principality which was not clearly contained in the holy scriptures, commanded to be taught by our only Saviour Jesus Christ, and received in the primitive and apostolic church. That these things he and those connected with him embraced, and would confess in the face of the whole world, at the risk of their fortunes and their lives. That, in all other respects, he had no more anxious desire than to discharge his duty to the emperor; and that the same was earnestly inculcated upon his people by their pastors. He A. D. 1544. begs, therefore, that he may not be required to receive the Interim; but that what he has already established in his province may remain undisturbed. He adds, that the emperor ought to conclude, that a man, who for temporal considerations would surrender what he was convinced in his own conscience was the truth and will of God, was not likely to prove faithful to his earthly superior."-Here again an open and manly avowal of principle proved to be the best policy. William remained undisturbed amid all the changes which took place he lived to the year 1559, and then died, at the age of eighty Jan. 24. one, in the pious and unwavering confession of the true faith of the gospel. Though William was the father of thirteen children, (seven of them sons,) yet his family became extinct with that generation. His dominions devolved partly to the elector of Saxony, and party to the landgrave of Hesse, so that they continued, and to this day continue protestant.1 1 Seck. iii. 456-458. CHAPTER VIII. George prince of Anhalt. tion. FROM THE PEACE OF CRESPY TO THE DEATH OF We have now arrived at the last stage of the history proposed to be comprised in the present volume and, having here also particular accounts to offer of two eminent persons, we will place them first in order, in immediate contact with the histories of individuals which have preceded. The first of these persons is George prince of Anhalt, a name which has already repeatedly occurred in the course of our progress. This excellent man appears to have been blessed with pious and judicious parents, to whose care His educa- of his education, though they were themselves to a considerable degree involved in the prevailing darkness and superstition, and though he lost his father at the early age of eight years, he afterwards felt himself to be deeply indebted. Of his mother, in particular, who was the granddaughter of the king of Bohemia, we shall find him taking very pleasing notice. He was born in the year 1507, and being a younger son was destined for the church. After the death of his father, he was placed under the care of George Heldus, or Heltus, (called from the place of his birth Forchemius,) a learned and pious instructor at Leipsic, who had also Joachim |