ABSTRACT
It was in response to Ferdinand's plea that he should return to Germany that in April 1530 Charles passed through the Alps from Italy and approached the town of Augsburg, there to hold his second Diet. The estates gathered in an anxious mood. Just the previous year, false rumours supported by forged correspondence had sent both religious camps hurrying to arms. Charles's original scheme was to concentrate the attention of the Diet on the Turkish threat, win a consensus and then proceed to the trickier religious question. As for Pope Clement VII, he was so fearful that any failure to agree would arouse fresh demands for a General Council that he was ready 'to grant more than one concession' and urged his representatives in Augsburg to act accordingly. The Catholic princes, though, soon made it clear that they would in no way countenance force nor agree to any 'recess' at the close of the Diet which postulated such a solution.
