In 1684-6, they were again threatened with an exterminating persecution;
but were saved in part by the intervention of the Protestant States
of Saxony and Brandenburg, though more than a thousand emigrated
on account of the dangers to which they were exposed.
"But the quietness which they then enjoyed for nearly half a century
was rudely broken in upon by Leopold, Count of Firmian and Archbishop
of Salzburg, who determined to reduce them to the Papal faith and power.
He began in the year 1729, and ere he ended in 1732
not far from thirty thousand had been driven from their homes,
to seek among the Protestant States of Europe that charity and peace
which were denied them in the glens and fastnesses of their native Alps.
"The march of these Salzburgers constitutes an epoch
in the history of Germany. * * * Arriving at Augsburg,
the magistrates closed the gates against them, refusing them entrance
to that city which, two hundred years before, through Luther and Melancthon
and in the presence of Charles V and the assembled Princes of Germany,
had given birth to the celebrated Augsburg Confession, for clinging to which
the Salzburgers were now driven from their homes; but overawed
by the Protestants, the officers reluctantly admitted the emigrants,
who were kindly entertained by the Lutherans.
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