The catholics and protestants had made up their minds at that time for a contest, and everything foreboded the bursting of the storm in the next spring (1531). There were, so to say, two contrary currents among the friends of the Reformation in Germany. One party (the men of prudence) wished that the evangelical states should seek powerful alliances and prepare to resist the emperor by force of arms; the other (the men of piety) called to mind that the Reformation had triumphed at Augsburg by faith, and added that from faith all its future triumphs were to be expected. These two parties had frequent meetings at Wittemberg, Torgau, and elsewhere. One man especially, with open countenance and firm look, whose lips seemed always ready to speak, made his clear and sonorous voice heard: this was Luther. 'To God alone,' he told the elector, 'belongs the government of the future; your Highness must therefore persevere in that faith and confidence in God which you have just displayed so gloriously at Augsburg.'[246] But the jurists of Torgau were not entirely of that opinion, and they endeavoured to prove that their rights in the empire authorised the protestants to repel force by force. Luther was not to be shaken. 'If war breaks out,' he replied, 'I call God and the world to witness, that the Lutherans have in no wise provoked it; that they have never drawn the sword, never thrown men into prison, never burnt, killed, and pillaged, as their adversaries have done; and, in a word, that they have never sought anything but peace and quietness.'[247] The politicians smiled at such enthusiasm, and said that in real life things must go on very differently. A conference was appointed for the consideration of what was to be done, and in the meanwhile great efforts were made to win over new allies to the protestant cause. [Sidenote: ALLIANCE OF SMALCALD.] On the 29th of March, 1531, the deputies of the protestant states met at Smalcald, in the electorate of Hesse. In the eyes of the peace party this was a place of evil omen: the town was fortified, and there were iron mines in the neighbourhood, from which arms have been manufactured and cannons founded. As the deputies proceeded to the castle of Wilhelmsburg, built on a hill near the town, they wore a mournful anxious look. They were disappointed in the hope they had entertained of seeing Denmark, Switzerland, Mecklenburg, and Pomerania join them. Nevertheless they did not hesitate, notwithstanding their weakness, to assert their rights against the power of Charles V. Nine princes and eleven cities entered into an alliance for six years 'to resist all who should try to constrain them to forsake the Word of God and the truth of Christ.'