| Prepare the altar with glad full plenty | Auspicat. Victoria Caesari. Inger ingentes pateras minister |
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Prepare the altar with glad full plenty, cup-bearer let Bacchus' wine bubble, strew roses, here is an ode for the feast, joy's song, |
Inger ingentes pateras, minister, Et rosa undantem Bromium corona, His dapes festas simul apparato Non sine cantu. |
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Here is a fountain of mead*, greenery among branches of oaks and ilex; bring the lyre and lute into the kind shade. |
Affer argutam citharam chelymque Huc, ubi ad fontis caput Hydroelli Quercus atque ilex foliata densa Procubat umbra. |
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Caesar walks in triumph; the trumpets sound victory; the exultant shout echoes hymns of triumph heard across the known world. |
Caesaris jam jam video triumphum, Jam tubas audire licet sonantes, Jamque io et voces resonare ovantium Littus ad Istri. |
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Bloody armed men redden the river's waves from such struggles, from the sea's center the shapeless remains of dead bodies wash ashore. |
Qui, coloratis violenter undis Sanguine involvit galeas virosque, Ac liquens divae in gremium marinae Corpora versat. |
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The daring Spaniard, intrepid Belgian, the Italian with a Roman honor and ancient faith in his heart have tested the enemy. |
Barbarus sensit quid Iberus audax Quidque jam possit metuendus hasta Belga, quid testata patrum vigorem Itala pubes. |
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Here the rebel German humbly begs for pardon and the Landgrave now defeated, captured, repents having undertaken this war. |
En petit supplex veniam rebellis Teutonus, jam langravium inchoati, Poenitet belli, solida revinctum Colla catena; |
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Since such was the Gods' will, the altars are plundered, our sacred temples destroyed, many statues wholly reduced to these ashes. |
Ille (name Dî sic voluere laesi) Quod sacras auro spoliavit aras, Templa dejecit, simulacra divis, Ignibus arsit, |
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The avenging thunder of kings is heard; vainly, senselessly, this army brandished their swords with savage hands against the Gods. |
Sensit ultorem scelerum tonantem, Ac sui oblitus, rationis expers In Deos vana temerarius vi Arma paravit. |
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The new Casar drew his armies from afar, he consecrated himself to a cause, pitiless, his armies boasted they knew no fear. |
Militem nullo procul aere duxit Caesarem huic se se fore polliceri Dum coruscantis Jovis arma jactat Nulla timere, |
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No one thought how sharp Jove's knives cut blasphemers; they forgot humbled countries of Gods, the silent landscapes of the dead. |
Nescius quantum pater ille Divûm Fulminet telo horribili prophanos, Aetera attollens humiles, superbos Trudat ad arcum. |
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Those who scorn the laws and the old religion, who violate the oaths of their fathers, Caesar will suppress or crush, you will see them mocked. |
Ergo quid lex relligiove spreta, Sanctio aut possit temerata patrum, Quid fides fraudata, quid ira justa Caesaris, ipse |
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And all the while I pour the nectar of Bacchus and desire only to wed a song to the lyre in praise of Caesar. |
Videris; tuto at mihi nunc licebit Bromium siccare merum, meique Caesaris laudes resonare plectro ut Cumque loquaci. |
The full story is told by Chimenti, pp. 49-53. In 1530 after the Congress of Cologna Charles V assembled the Diet of German princes to discuss religious questions. The Protestants presented a document drawn up by Melancthon which argued for a new basis in beliefs; Charles V responded by rigidly exiling everyone who protested according to the Edict of Worms. The Protestant princes formed the League of Smalcalda (1531); they allied themselves with Francois I, but suffered a bad defeat at Mhuhlberg where the emperor's forces took prisoner a number of the leaders, including the Landgrave of Assia and the Elector of Sassonia.