The result of the conflict seemed at one time so uncertain, that the fathers at the council were thrown into the utmost agitation. Some ferocious Protestant leader might stoop down upon them out of the mountains, lying out as they were exposed upon the frontier; they desired to flutter off to some safer residence;[1] and so much disturbed were they, that in the heat of their alarm they forgot the plainest proprieties of decorum. In an excited session one venerable prelate clutched another by the beard, and plucked out his hoary hair in handfuls;[2] and they would have broken up and dispersed on the spot, had not the Emperor sent a message, that if they were not quiet, he would have some of them flung into the Adige.
Finding himself meanwhile too weak to risk a battle, Charles had recourse to intrigue. The Protestant leaders used their strength unskilfully, and the summer had passed without an action. With the winter, Duke Maurice of Saxe, the Landgrave's son-in-law, and, if the family of John Frederick failed, the heir of the
- ↑ 'Tridenti tamen adeo trepidatum fuerat ut episcopi fugere meditarentur.'—Pallavicino.
- ↑ 'The Bishop of Capua having expressed an opinion rather vehemently, the Bishop of Chæronea whispered to his neighbour that such folly and impudence were inexcusable. The first Bishop asked what he was saying. 'I said, my Lord,' replied the Bishop of Chæronea, 'that your folly and impudence were without excuse.' Then the other, as the wont is among men, overcome with anger, blazed out into revenge; laying his hand on the beard of his brother prelate, he did tear away many of the hairs thereof, and straightway went his way. As the assembly gathered about him, the Bishop of Chæronea did show no other sign of displeasure save that in a loud voice he repeated his words again; the fathers at the unseemly spectacle were disturbed incredibly.'—Pallavicino.
