and soldiery of the Church of
Rome, and condemned for their faith to tortures of the most cruel
and revolting kind. In 1684-6, they were again threatened with an
exterminating persecution; but were saved in part by the intervention
of the Protestant States of Saxony and Brandenburg, though more than a
thousand emigrated on account of the dangers to which they were exposed.

"But the quietness which they then enjoyed for nearly half a century
was rudely broken in upon by Leopold, Count of Firmian and Archbishop of
Salzburg, who determined to reduce them to the Papal faith and power.
He began in the year 1729, and ere he ended in 1732 not far from thirty
thousand had been driven from their homes, to seek among the Protestant
States of Europe that charity and peace which were denied them in the
glens and fastnesses of their native Alps.

"The march of these Salzburgers constitutes an epoch in the history of
Germany. * * * Arriving at Augsburg, the magistrates closed the gates
against them, refusing them entrance to that city which, two hundred
years before, through Luther and Melancthon and in the presence of
Charles V and the assembled Princes of Germany, had given birth to the
celebrated Augsburg Confession, for clinging to which the Salzburgers
were now driven from their homes; but overawed by the Protestants, the
officers reluctantly admitted the emigrants, who were kindly entertained
by the Lutherans.

"The sympathies of Reformed Christendom were awakened on their behalf,
and the most hospitable entertainment and assistance were everywhere
given them." Only a few months after the signing of the Georgia Colony
Charter, the "Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge"
requested the Trustees to include the Salzburgers in their plans. The
Trustees expressed their willingness to grant lands, and to manage any
money given toward their expenses, but stated that they then held no
funds which were available for that purpose.

In May, 1733, the House of Commons appropriated 10,000 Pounds to the
Trustees of Georgia, "to be applied towards defraying the charges
of carrying over and settling foreign and other Protestants in said
colony," and over 3,000 Pounds additional having been given privately,
the Trustees, at the suggestion of Herr von Pfeil, consul of Wittenberg
at Regensberg, wrote to Senior Samuel Urlsperger, pastor of the Lutheran
Church of St. Ann in the city of Augsburg, who had been very kind to
the Salzbu