with Ferdinand directed his forces against Saxony. The Elector was
defeated and captured at Muhlberg (April 1547). He was condemned to
death as a traitor, but he was reprieved and detained as a prisoner in
the suite of the Emperor, while his nephew, Maurice of Saxony,
succeeded to his dominions. Philip of Hesse, too, was obliged to
surrender, and Charles V. found himself everywhere victorious. He
insisted on the restoration of the Bishop of Naumburg and of Henry of
Brunswick to his kingdom as well as on the resignation of Hermann
Prince von Wied, Archbishop of Cologne. He was unwilling, however, to
proceed to extremes with the Protestant princes, well knowing that he
could not rely on some of his own supporters. Besides, he had become
involved in serious difficulties with Pope Paul III., who complained,
and not without reason, of the demands made upon him by the Emperor,
and of the concessions that the Emperor was willing to make to the
Lutherans.

Charles V. summoned a Diet to meet at Augsburg (1547), where he hoped
that a permanent understanding might be secured. A document known as
the /Augsburg Interim/, prepared by Catholic theologians in
conjunction with the Lutheran, John Agricola, was accepted
provisionally by both parties. The doctrines were expressed in a very
mild form, though not, however, altogether unacceptable to Catholics.
Protestants were permitted to receive communion under both kinds;
their married clergy were allowed to retain their wives; and it was
understood tacitly that they might keep possession of the
ecclesiastical property they had seized. The /Augsburg Interim/, as
might have been anticipated, was displeasing to both parties. Maurice
of Saxony, unwilling to give it unconditional approval, consulted
Melanchthon and others of his school as to how far he might accept its
terms. In their reply they distinguished between matters that were