Solemn Orations in Praise of the Divine Elector Princes of Saxony, Maurice and Christian I

ORATION I.

of the papists, to which George was uniquely attached, to the Lutheran. The nobility and the people, to whom the piety and religion of Duke Henry were well known, when they learned of the Will of George, asked that he explore the will of his brother Henry through ambassadors. The ambassadors approach Henry, explain the Will of George, and try to persuade him with many reasons to acquiesce to the will of his brother, not to attempt a change of religion, and thus to take up the inheritance not only of a most ample dominion, but also of a great treasury in ready money and other precious things. Henry answers the ambassadors piously and spiritedly: "You have approached me just as Satan approached Christ, when he wished to be worshipped by the Lord by showing him the riches of the world. Do you consider me so fickle, so forgetful of God and piety, that for the sake of obtaining the riches of this world I would suffer myself to be drawn away from the known heavenly truth, and become a suppliant to the devil together with you? Indeed, your opinion of me deceives you greatly." But because George departed from this life before the ambassadors could bring back the response of Henry to his home, Henry immediately brought all the people of his brother under his own power and faith, purged the impious superstition of the Papists, that filthy stable of Augeas, in all his provinces through the faithful work of the Rev. Father Luther and other Theologians, abrogated the impious Mass, but commanded the use of the sacred Eucharist, drove the slothful-bellied Monks out of their hiding places, willed that the Word of GOD be taught purely and incorruptly, showed the highest happiness to the entire people, and a little later, when he had lived long enough for nature and glory, in the 68th year of his age, exchanged this fleeting life for an eternal and immortal one, leaving Maurice together with Augustus as heirs and princes of these lands. Maurice, being older, with great expectation of piety, virtue, and nature of the fatherland, with the highest joy of his orders
B 3