questionable step; feasible perhaps for a great Elector of
Saxony;--but for a Margraf of Anspach? George had come home from
Jagerndorf, some three hundred miles away, to look into it for
himself; found it, what with darkness all round, what with
precipices menacing on both hands, and zealous, inconsiderate
Town-populations threatening to take the bit between their teeth,
a frightfully intricate thing. George mounted his horse, one day
this year, day not dated farther, and "with only six attendants"
privately rode off, another two hundred miles, a good three days'
ride, to Wittenberg; and alighted at Dr. Martinus Lutherus's door.
[Rentsch, p. 625.] A notable passage; worth thinking of. But such
visits of high Princes, to that poor house of the Doctor's, were
not then uncommon. Luther cleared the doubts of George; George
returned with a resolution taken; "Ahead then, ye poor Voigtland
Gospel populations! I must lead you, we must on!"--And perils
enough there proved to be, and precipices on each hand:
BAUERNKRIEG, that is to say Peasants'-War, Anabaptistry and Red-
Republic, on the one hand; REICHS-ACHT, Ban of Empire, on the
other. But George, eagerly, solemnly attentive, with ever new
light rising on him, dealt with the perils as they came; and went
steadily on, in a simple, highly manful and courageous manner.

He did not live to see the actual Wars that followed on Luther's
preaching:--he was of the same age with Luther, born few months
later, and died two years before Luther; [4th March, 1484,--
27th Dec., 1543, George; 10th November, 1483--18th February,
1546, Luther.]--but in all the intermediate principal transactions
George is conspicuously present; "George of Brandenburg," as the
Books call him, or simply "Margraf George."