violent disputes continued.

At last Charles determined to crush the Reformation in
Germany by military force. The German Protestants refused to
be bound by the decrees of the Council of Trent (1545),
because it was held in a foreign country and presided over
by the Pope. Their attitude confirmed the Emperor in his
resolve, and in 1546 began the conflict known as the
Smalkaldic War, of which Armstrong gives us a spirited and
impartial account.

War was actually opened neither by Emperor nor princes, but by the
Protestant towns. The capable _condottiere_ Sebastian Schartlin von
Burtenbach led the forces of Augsburg and Ulm briskly southward, seized
Fussen in the Bishop of Augsburg's territory on July 9th, and then
surprised the small force guarding the pass of Ehrenberg, which gave
access to the Inn valley. The religious character of the war was
emphasized by plunder of churches and ill usage of monks and clergy. Two
obvious courses were now open to the insurgent princes. Either they
could march direct on Regensburg, where a mere handful of troops
protected Charles from a strongly Protestant population, or in support
of Schartlin they could clear Tyrol of imperialists, close the passes to
Spanish and Italian reenforcements, and even pay a domiciliary visit to
the Council of Trent. This latter was Schartlin's programme; the
Tyrolese had Protestant sympathies and dreaded the advent of the foreign
troops; Charles averred that even their government was ill-affected.
Schartlin would even have persuaded the Venetians and Grisons to forbid
passage to the Emperor's troops, and have enlisted the services of
Ercole of Ferrara, the enemy of the Pope. But either of the two
strategic movements was too bold for the Smalkaldic council of war. The
first would have violated the neutrality of Bavaria, in which the league
still believed, while it had no quarrel with Ferdinand, who was
ostensibly conciliatory. The towns, moreover, wished to keep their
captain within hail, for they feared the possibility of attack either
from Regensburg or from Ferdinand's paltry forces in the Vorarlberg.

Schartlin retired on Augsburg, but on July 20th, reenforced by a
Wuertemberg contingent, occupied Donauworth, and was here joined on
August 4th by the Elector and Landgrave. The insurgent army now numbered
fifty thousand foot and seven thousand horse. The very size of this
force, by far the largest that Germany