Chap.  I.]  DISTURBANCES  AT  WITTENBERG  257

baptism,  he  did  not  feel  himself  competent  to  enter  the  lists  against
them.  We  find  disciples  and  friends  of  Melanchthon  among  their
adherents.1

The  elector  was  equally  incapable  of  offering  any  efficient  resistance.
We  are  already  acquainted  with  the  character  of  this  prince, — his  tem-
porising policy,  his  reluctance  to  interfere  in  person,  his  habit  of  letting
things  take  their  own  course.  His  was  the  most  peaceful  nature  produced
by  this  troubled  and  warlike  age  ;  he  never  had  recourse  to  arms  ;  when
advised  to  seize  Erfurt,  on  the  plea  that  he  might  accomplish  it  with
the  loss  of  only  five  men,  he  replied,  "  One  were  too  many."2  Yet  his
quiet,  observant,  prudent,  and  enlightened  policy  had  ever  been  crowned
with  ultimate  success.  His  pleasure  was  to  adorn  his  own  territories,
which  he  thought  as  beautiful  as  any  on  earth,  with  castles,  like  those
of  Lochau,  Altenburg,  Weimar  and  Coburg ;  to  decorate  his  churches
with  pictures  from  the  admirable  pencil  of  Lucas  Kranach,  whom  he
invited  to  his  court  ;  to  keep  up  the  high  renown  of  his  chapel  and  choir,
which  was  one  of  the  best  in  the  empire,  and  to  improve  the  university
he  had  founded.
