With the troops which the princes now agreed to furnish, the Emperor marched into France, and in October, 1552, arrived before Metz, which he besieged until the following January. Then, with his army greatly reduced by sickness and hardship, he raised the siege and marched away, to continue the war in other quarters. But it was four years before the quarrel with France came to an end, and during this time the Protestant States of Germany had nothing to fear from the Imperial power. The Margrave Albert of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, who was on the Emperor's side, attempted to carry fire and sword through their territories, in order to pay himself for his military services. After wasting, plundering and committing shocking barbarities in Saxony and Franconia, he was defeated by Maurice, in July, 1553. The latter fell in the moment of victory, giving his life in expiation of his former apostasy. The greater part of Saxony, nevertheless, has remained in the hands of his descendants to this day, while the descendants of John Frederick, although representing the elder line, possess only the little principalities of Thuringia, to each of which the Saxon name is attached, as Saxe-Weimar, Saxe-Gotha, &c. [Sidenote: 1555.] Charles V., who saw his ambitious plans for the government of the world failing everywhere, and whose bodily strength was failing also, left Germany in disgust, commissioning his brother Ferdinand to call a Diet, in accordance with the stipulations of the Treaty of Passau. The Diet met at Augsburg, and in spite of the violent opposition of the Papal Legate, on the 25th of September, 1555, concluded the treaty of Religious Peace which finally gave rest to Germany. The Protestants who followed the Augsburg Confession received religious freedom, perfect equality before the law, and the undisturbed possession of the Church property which had fallen into their hands. In other respects their privileges were not equal. By a clause called the "spiritual reservation," it was ordered that when a Catholic Bishop or Abbot became Protestant he should give up land and title in order that the Church might lose none of its possessions. The rights and consciences of the people were so little considered that they were not allowed to change their faith unless the ruling prince changed his. The monstrous doctrine was asserted that religion was an affair of the government,--that is, that he to whom belonged the rule, possessed the right to choose the people's faith. In accordance with this law the population of the Palatinate of the Rhine was afterwards compelled to be alternately Calvinistic and Lutheran, four times in succession!