The severe decree of the Diet, which even threatened violence, was at least productive of this good result, that it united the Evangelical party more closely. Whereas the theologians, especially Melanchthon, had formerly dissuaded from resistance to the Emperor, matters now took a very different turn. In view of the threatening attitude of the Catholics, the theologians perceived very well that it was necessary to be prepared for defence; and Melanchthon wrote to Camerarius, January 1st, 1531, that they were seldom asked the question now, whether it was right to wage war, and that they did not dissuade from preparation. "For there may be many needful and just causes for defence." One of these causes was the threatening language of the decree of the Diet of Augsburg. The election of the Emperor's brother FERDINAND, as King of Rome, which was strongly urged and accomplished by the Emperor, was another threatening event,[15] although Melanchthon defended it in a special opinion, delivered December 12, 1530. He referred to similar cases in former times. During the month of December of this year, the Evangelical states united more closely, and formed a league, March 29, 1531. Both Conferences were held in SMALKALD. The confederates declared that they had united "for the honor of Almighty God, and the better growth and prosperity of divine free doctrines, and to gain and maintain a Christian and harmonious peace," yet "only for mutual defence and preservation." This league, therefore, neither contemplated an attack, nor war. The Emperor, who was obliged to have his eyes directed to more than one point, and particularly against the Turks, whose Sultan, SOLYMAN, had already declared that he would soon be master of Hungary, and the whole of Germany, considered it most advisable to conciliate, under existing circumstances. The Electors of the Palatinate and of Mentz, acted as mediators. While Melanchthon had before this time been filled with the most anxious apprehensions, so that he feared the worst, he now said in a letter to Camerarius, when he heard of this mediation: "May God regard the sighs and tears of the distressed among us, and grant us peace!" This wish seemed about to be fulfilled, when the Emperor in Nuremberg made preparations for a Religious Peace. Melanchthon, Luther, and other Theologians, expressed their approbation in a written opinion.