Martin Luther : the hero of the reformation 1483-1546 / by Henry Eyster Jacobs . wellaware of the account I must render the Lord Jesus atthe Day of Judgment. Let no one, therefore, regardthis a matter of jest or trifling ; for I am in earnest. New dangers were threatening the evangelicalcause, rendering the division among its adherentsmost inopportune. Peace had been made betweenPope and Emperor, and the time had come when itseemed to the evangelical princes that they couldno longer remain undisturbed by attempts to coercethem. In their alertness to be informed as to thefirst approaches of dan
Martin Luther : the hero of the reformation 1483-1546 / by Henry Eyster Jacobs . wellaware of the account I must render the Lord Jesus atthe Day of Judgment. Let no one, therefore, regardthis a matter of jest or trifling ; for I am in earnest. New dangers were threatening the evangelicalcause, rendering the division among its adherentsmost inopportune. Peace had been made betweenPope and Emperor, and the time had come when itseemed to the evangelical princes that they couldno longer remain undisturbed by attempts to coercethem. In their alertness to be informed as to thefirst approaches of danger, the Elector and Land-grave were imposed upon by the forgeries of Ottovon Pack, a former counsellor of Duke George, inwhich a counterfeit agreement of Ferdinand andGeorge with the Electors of Brandenburg and May-ence, and the Bishops of Salzburg, Wuerzburg, andBamberg, was produced. Lutheranism was to beextirpated; the Elector and Landgrave were to bedeprived of their dominions, and the confederateswere to divide the territory. Without a suspicion Erlangen, 30 : 363 THE ELECTOR JOHN FREDERICK OF SAXONY. AFTER THE COPPER ENGRAVING BY G. PENCZ, 1543. 1529] The Marburg Colloquy 285 as to its genuineness, the Protestant princes pre-pared for war. The Landgrave was for moving atonce upon the confederates. The Elector sum-moned Luther to Torgau for consultation. Al-though also deceived as to the genuineness of thedocument, he used all his influence to dissuade fromany aggressive movement. There was no proof thatthe Emperor approved the conspiracy, and there-fore, he argued, it would be a crime to break thepeace. The only course was to wait patiently forthe ripening of the plot. If the Landgrave still in-sisted on making war, then the Elector, he declared,should not co-operate, as it would be contrary toGods will. The wisdom of Luthers advice wasseen, when the Landgraves demand for an explan-ation exposed the fraud. Luther had saved Ger-many from a religious war. As the dark
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