nd prepared to aid Maurice, the German Protestants
of Lusatia and Silesia refused their contingents, and the Bohemian
Utraquists made common cause with the Lutherans. The Utraquist nobility
and towns formed a league in defence of national and religious
liberties; they convoked a diet and raised an army. Ferdinand was faced
by a general Bohemian revolt. His position was weakened by his wife's
death in February, for it was pretended that he was merely consort. Only
the Catholic nobles were for the Hapsburg King; the roads were
barricaded to prevent the passage of his artillery; and John Frederick,
entering Bohemia, received a hearty welcome. The North German maritime
and inland cities were now in arms, and the Lutheran princes of
Oldenburg and Mansfield were threatening the Netherlands. Charles sent
his best troops to Ferdinand's aid, and despatched Hans and Albert
Hohenzollern in support of Maurice. But Germans could still beat
Germans. Albert was surprised and taken at Rochlitz. Ferdinand eagerly
pressed Charles to march north in person. The Emperor was unwilling, and
Granvelle strongly dissuaded it. The despatch of Alba was the
alternative, but Charles did not trust his generalship. He was delayed,
partly by gout, and partly by fear of a fresh rising in the Swabian
towns. Here he had left seven thousand men, but he could not himself
safely stay in Nuremberg without a garrison of three thousand, and could
not afford to lock these up. His sole presence in the North, wrote Piero
Colonna, was worth twenty-five thousand foot, and Charles, ill as he
was, must march.

The unexpected turn which the war had taken in Saxony was not Charles'
only trouble. Paul III had been alarmed by the Emperor's progress, which
had been more rapid and complete than he expected, and at the end of six
months, for which he had promised his contingent, he withdrew it. The
material loss was slight, but the whole aspect of the war was altered.
Charles could scarcely now profess to be fighting for submission to Pope
and council, for the council in March transferred itself, after violent
altercations with the Spanish bishops and imperial envoys, to Bologna.
Rome rejoiced at the successes of John Frederick. In the late French war
the Turks had figured as the Pope's friends and had spared his shores;
it now seemed possible that the Lutherans might be the Pope's allies.
It was certain that, if time were given, the Pope's defection would
stimulate the acti