At length the 20th of July arrived. The assembly of the States was opened, and the whole nation was attentive to what was about to take place. On the issue of this conference hung the religious future of Denmark. On the side of Rome appeared the bishops, not to defend their doctrine, but to sit as councillors of the kingdom, and, as they pretended, as judges. The two doctors whom we have mentioned, and besides them, Eliæ, Muus, Samsing, Wulff the apostolical prothonotary, and several others came forward after them to defend the papacy. On the evangelical side, Tausen, Wormorsen, Chrysostom (_guldenmund_), Sadolin, and Erasmus presented themselves; twenty-two ministers altogether.[290] During the first eight days the latter continued silent, and did not take a single step in self-defence; their adversaries the while proceeding with all the more violence against those whom they called the _heretics_. Eight days after the opening, Tausen presented himself at the head of his party and delivered to the king the evangelical confession which they had drawn up. The king communicated it to the prelates, and they took the necessary time for its examination. How would things turn out? Already on the 12th of July, Charles V. had received from the pope a request that he would destroy by force the Reformation in Germany, and he was ready to do this. Would it not be the same at Copenhagen? The young man from Kiertminde, Tausen, as he stood on the shore of the Great Belt, had seen the waters of the sea scatter the boats of the fishermen, and advancing furiously on the coast beat down the trees, overthrow the houses and lay waste the fields. Was not the Reform threatened with like ruin? Tausen thought so. His friends therefore and himself, full of boldness, determined to appeal to the people. They wished at the least that the triumph of their cause should proceed not so much from a decree of the states as from the free conviction of their fellow-citizens. They therefore distributed among themselves the forty-three articles of their confession, and every day the twenty-two ministers delivered in turn two sermons on the doctrines which they professed in it. The prelates, who had fancied that they should see their adversaries in alarm, hiding their convictions like cowards, were amazed at this unexpected boldness; and the crowds of hearers which streamed into the churches threw them into a great rage. They hastened to the king. They entreated him, they obliged him to prohibit these Lutheran sermons which, they said, infringed on the rights of the Diet. But Frederick, although overcome for a moment by the bishops, listened to the representations of the pastors and withdrew his [Sidenote: Sermons Multiplied.] prohibition. Then the Protestants, anxious to redeem lost time, preached four sermons every week-day and twelve every Sunday.[291] If the prelates abounded in the attack, the reformers superabounded in the defence. The case is, perhaps, unique in