Several  very  important  matters  had  come  under  consideration  ;  above
all,  the  executive  ordinance,  on  the  plan  proposed  in  the  year  15 12,  and,
then  so  violently  resisted  by  Maximilian,  was  determined  upon  ;  namely,
that  the  circles  should  elect  their  own  captains  or  governors.  The  affairs
of  Turkey  and  Hungary  also  urgently  demanded  attention.  Whilst  the
two  principal  rulers  of  Christendom  inflamed  their  natural  jealousy  into
bitterer  antipathy  in  the  Italian  wars,  the  potentate  of  the  Osman  empire
led  out  his  armies,  fired  by  hatred  of  the  Christians  and  love  of  conquest,
and  took  possession  of  Belgrade,  the  ancient  bulwark  of  Christendom
which  was  but  feebly  defended  on  that  frontier.  Germany  was  not
insensible  to  the  danger  :  the  States  met  expressly  on  this  account  in
the  spring  of  1522,3  and  again  in  the  autumn;  a  part  of  the  supplies

1  The  revolt  of  the  cities  in  Castile,  which  broke  out  in  1521.  Cf.  Armstrong,
Charles  V.,  Chap.  V.
2.  Conquest  of  Mexico  completed  1522  ;  conquest  of  Peru,  1532.  For  a  succinct
account  of  the  Spanish  conquests  in  the  New  World,  cf.  Cambridge  Modern
History,  vol.  i.,  Chapters  I.  and  II.,  esp.  p.  40  ff.
