cases it was the government which took the lead, in others the
government undoubtedly compelled the people to continue Catholic even
when there was a strongly Protestant public opinion. Such was the case
in Albertine Saxony,[1] whose ruler, Duke George, though an estimable
man in many ways, was regarded by Luther as the instrument of Satan
because he persecuted his Protestant subjects. When he died, his
brother, [Sidenote: April, 1539] the Protestant Henry the Pious,
succeeded and introduced the Reform amid general acclamation. Two
years later this duke was followed by his son, the versatile but
treacherous Maurice. In the year 1539 a still greater acquisition came
to the Schmalkaldic League in the conversion of Brandenburg and its
Elector Joachim II.

[Sidenote: Philip of Hesse, 1504-67]

Shortly afterwards the world was scandalized by the bigamy of Philip of
Hesse. This prince was utterly spoiled by his accession to the
governing power at the age of fifteen. Though he lived in flagrant
immorality, his religion, which, soon after he met Luther at Worms,
became the Evangelical, was real enough to make his sins a burden to
conscience. Much attracted {120} by the teachings of some of the
Anabaptists and Carlstadt that polygamy was lawful, and by Luther's
assertion in the _Babylonian Captivity_ that it was preferable to
divorce, [Sidenote: 1526] he begged to be allowed to take more wives,
but was at first refused. His conscience was quickened by an attack of
the syphilis in 1539, and at that time he asked permission to take a
second wife and received it on December 10, from Luther, Melanchthon,
and Bucer. His secret marriage to Margaret von der Saal [Sidenote:
March 4, 1540] took place in the presence of Melanchthon, Bucer, and
other divines. Luther advised him to keep the matter secret and if
necessary even to "tell a good strong lie for the sake and good of the
Christian church." Of course he was unable to conceal his act, and his
conduct, and that of his spiritual advisers, became a just reproach to
the cause. As no material advantages were lost by it, Philip might
have reversed the epigram of Francis I and have said that "nothing was
lost but honor." Neither Germany nor Hesse nor the Protestant church
suffered directly by his act. [Sidenote: 1541] Indeed it lead
indirectly to another territorial gain. Philip's enemy Duke Henry of
Brunswick, though equally immoral, attacked him in a pamphlet. Luther