Albert  left  Nuremberg  in  company  with  Planitz^  to  whom  he
had  communicated  the  doubts  and  perplexities  which  harassed
him,  and  received  from  the  Saxon  counsellor  the  advice  that
he  should  pay  a  visit  to  Luther  himself  at  Wittenberg,  and  in
a  personal  conversation  open  his  heart  to  him.  Albert
did  so,  and  proposed  the  question,  "Was  the  vow  of  the
Teutonic  Order  lawful?  "  Without  any  reserve  the  Reformer
declared  that  he  regarded  it  as  entirely  repugnant  to  the  Word
of  God,  and  with  much  warmth  urged  the  Grand  Master  to
have  done  with  false,  and  to  espouse  real  chastity,  by  taking  a
wife,  and  to  convert  his  hermaphrodite  principality  into  a
temporal  sovereignty.  There  were,  of  course,  many  obstacles
to  an  immediate  execution  of  this  counsel;  but  the  Grand
Master  smiled,  and  withdrew.  From  that  time  there  was  an
understanding  between  Luther  and  Albert ;  and  the  former
enjoined  Brismann  and  the  other  evangelical  teachers,  who,
encouraged  by  the  favour  of  Albert,  traversed  his  dominions
preaching  the  Gospel,  to  prepare  the  minds  of  the  people  for
the  contemplated  change,  and  induce  the  Commendators  of  the
Order  to  solicit  Albert  to  adopt  a  step  to  which  he  was  him-
self well  inclined.  The  menaced  position  of  Prussia,  unable
to  match  the  power  of  Poland,  and  hopeless  of  assistance
against  her  old  foe  from  the  German  States,  rendered  the
measure,  in  a  political  point  of  view,  highly  expedient,  and  the
next  year  the  metamorphose  was  actually  accomplished,  with
only  one  dissentient  voice  among  the  knights,  that  of  Eric  of
Brunswick.  Albert,  from  being  Grand  Master,  became  Duke
of  Prussia,  and  consented  to  pay  homage  to  the  King  of
Poland  as  his  feudal  superior.  On  the  same  occasion,  George
Polentz  resigned  his  castles,  towns,  villages,  and  all  the  tem-
poralities of  his  See  to  the  newly  constituted  Duke ;  pro-
claimed that  the  office  of  a  Bishop  is  to  preach  the  Word


46  THE    LIFE    OF    MARTIN    LUTHER.
