[_Calvin's Lat. Corresp._ Opera, tom. ix. p. 18.]
[280] Albert, Margrave of Brandenbourg, a bold and perfidious
adventurer, entirely devoted to the cause of the Emperor. He is
reported to have said: "If the Devil will but pay me well, I will
serve him." He maintained in 1553 a long struggle with Maurice of
Saxony, and was vanquished, the year following, at the battle of
Sievershausen, where his adversary perished.
[281] Without doubt, George of Anhalt, the scholar of Luther, and
who, notwithstanding his high birth, wished to be ordained minister
and ecclesiastical inspector of the diocese of Mersebourg. He died
in 1553.--Melch. Adam. _Vitæ Theologorum Germanorum_, p. 245.
[282] The Sultan Soliman had entered into Hungary, and had already
taken possession of the town of Buda, under pretext that the young
King John Sigismond was incapable of defending it against his
enemies.
[283] That letter was an urgent and pressing appeal to the justice
and to the clemency of Francis I., by the whole Church of Christ:
"We have been very much grieved, because, when it could not be
denied that many abuses of long standing clung to the Churches,
nevertheless, so greatly has the heat of anger been inflamed
everywhere, that not only private individuals, but also whole
nations may be brought into jeopardy: which, when they become
suppliants to your royal highness, you may consider that it is not
we only, but the very Church of Christ that lies mourning at the
feet of the greatest kings, and implores and entreats their help,
that the light of the dawning Gospel may not be extinguished, and
that quiet, modest men and members of Christ may be let alone." This
earnest prayer remained unanswered in the corrupt court of Valois.
Policy alone brought about the adoption of measures which humanity
demanded, and the ruin of the Vaudois, and the retribution upon the
persecutors, were adjourned to another time.