at Dr. Martinus Lutherus's door. [Rentsch,
p. 625.] A notable passage; worth thinking of. But such visits of high
Princes, to that poor house of the Doctor's, were not then uncommon.
Luther cleared the doubts of George; George returned with a resolution
taken; "Ahead then, ye poor Voigtland Gospel populations! I must lead
you, we must on!"--And perils enough there proved to be, and precipices
on each hand: BAUERNKRIEG, that is to say Peasants'-War, Anabaptistry
and Red-Republic, on the one hand; REICHS-ACHT, Ban of Empire, on the
other. But George, eagerly, solemnly attentive, with ever new light
rising on him, dealt with the perils as they came; and went steadily on,
in a simple, highly manful and courageous manner.

He did not live to see the actual Wars that followed on Luther's
preaching:--he was of the same age with Luther, born few months later,
and died two years before Luther; [4th March, 1484,--27th Dec., 1543,
George; 10th November, 1483--18th February, 1546, Luther.]--but in all
the intermediate principal transactions George is conspicuously present;
"George of Brandenburg," as the Books call him, or simply "Margraf
George."

At the Diet of Augsburg (1530), and the signing of the Augsburg
Confession there, he was sure to be. He rode thither with his Anspach
Knightage about him, "four hundred cavaliers,"--Seckendorfs, Huttens,
Flanses and other known kindreds, recognizable among the lists;
[Rentsch, p. 633.]--and spoke there, notbursts of parliamentary
eloquence, but things that had meaning in them. One speech of his, not
in the Diet, but in the Kaiser's Lodging (15th June, 1530; no doubt, in
Anton Fugger's house, where the Kaiser "lodged for year and day" this
time but WITHOUT the "fires of cinnamon" they talk of on other occasions
[See Carlyle's _Miscellanies_ (iii. 259 n.). The House is at present an
Inn, _"Gasthaus zu den drei Mohren;"_where tourists lodge, and are still
shown the room which the Kaiser occupied on such visits.]), is still
very celebrated. It was the evening of the Kaiser Karl Fifth's arrival
at the Diet; which was then already, some time since, assembled there.
And great had been the Kaiser's reception that morning; the flower of
Germany, all the Princes of the Empire, Protestant and Papal alike,
riding out to meet him, in the open country, at the Bridge of the Lech.
With high-flown speeches and benignities, on both sides;--only that the
Kaiser willed all men, Protestant and other, should