Though the benighted masses looked up with much reverence to the pontiff, the princes and the nobles regarded him only as a _power_, wielding, in addition to the military arm, the potent energies of superstition.

A diet was convened.

The pope's legate appeared, and sustained the eloquent appeal of the emperor with the paternal commands of the holy father.

But the press was now becoming a power in Europe, diffusing intelligence and giving freedom to thought and expression.

The diet, after listening patiently to the arguments of the emperor and the requests of the pontiff, dryly replied-- "We think that Christianity has more to fear from the pope than from the Turks.