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The history of Germany

Wolfgang Menzel

Grau. K. K. 4

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I

THE

HISTORY OF GERMANY

FROM THE

EARLIEST PERIOD TO 1842

- .

WOLFGANG MENZEL

TRANSLATED BY MRS. GEORGE HORROCKS

IN THREE VOLUMES
VOL. II.

LONDON
GEORGE BELL

1908

SONS

[Reprinted from Stereotype pfatet.j

HISTORY OF GERMANY.

SECOND PERIOD.-CONTINUED.

THE MIDDLE AGES.

CLX. Conrad the Fourth and Conradin.

The news of the emperor's death was received with exult-
ation by the pontiff : "Let the heavens rejoice, and let the
earth be glad." With insolent triumph he wrote to the city
of Naples, declaring that he took her forthwith into his pos-
session, and that she should never again be under the control
of a temporal sovereign. He also declared the Hohenstaufen
to have forfeited their right upon Apulia and Sicily, and even
upon Swabia. The Alemannic princes made a lavish use of
the freedom from all restraint granted to them by the pope.
The Alpine nobles became equally lawless. Baso, bishop of
Sion, a papal partisan, whom William of Holland had em-
powered to confiscate the lands of the Ghibellines, counte-
nancing the tyranny exercised by Mangipan, lord of Mori 11,
over the Valais peasantry, they applied for aid to Peter, earl
of Savoy, by whom he was humbled [a. d. 1251]. In 1255,
the Ghibelline bishop, Henry of Coire, took the field against
the Rhaetian dynasts, who discovered equal insolence, and de-
feated them and their allies, the Lombard Guelphs, at Enns.
The imperial cause was sustained in Upper Italy by Ezzelino,
in Lower Italy by Manfred. This prince, Enzio's rival in
talent, valour, and beauty, was a son of the emperor by his
mistress Blanca Lancia, whom he afterwards married. Born
and educated in Italy, he was the idol of his countrymen, and
as prince of Tarento, was by no means a despicable antagonist
to the pope.

vol. iu b

CONRAD THE FOURTH.

Conrad IV., Frederick's eldest son and successor, every
where driven from the field in Germany, took refuge in Italy,
and, trusting that his father's death had conciliated the pope,
ottered in his necessity to submit to any conditions he might
impose, if he were recognised emperor by him. His advances
were treated with silent contempt. Manfred, with a truly
noble and fraternal spirit, ceded the sovereignty of Italy to his
brother, whom he aided both in word and deed. In 1253, the
royal brothers captured Capua and Naples, where Conrad
placed a bridle in the mouth of an antique colossal horse's
head, the emblem of the city. The terrible fate that pursued
the imperial family was not to be averted by success. Their
younger brother, Henry, the son of Isabella of England, to
whom the throne of Sicily had been destined by his father,
suddenly expired, and, in 1254, his fate was shared by Conrad
in his 26th year. Their deaths were ascribed to poison, said,
by the Guelphs, to have been administered by Conrad to
Henry, and by Manfred to Conrad. The crime was, neverthe-
less, indubitably committed by the papal faction, the pope and
the Guelphs being solely interested in the destruction of the
Ilohenstaufen. Manfred's rule in Italy was certainly secured
to him by the death of his legitimate brothers, but on the
other hand it deprived him of all hope of aid from Germany,
and his total inability unaided to oppose the pope was evident
immediately after Conrad's death, when he made terms with
the pontiff, to whom he ceded the whole of Lower Italy, Ta-
rento alone excepted. He was, nevertheless, speedily neces-
sitated again to take up arms against the lieutenant of the
pope, and was driven by suspicion of a design against his life
to make a last and desperate defence. The German merce-
naries at Nocera under the command of the Margrave von
Hochberg, and the Moors who had served under the emperoi
Frederick, flocked beneath his banner, and on the death of the
pontiff, [a. d. 1254,] who expired on the anniversary of the
death of Frederick II., affairs suddenly changed. The car-
dinals elected Alexander IV., who was powerless against Man-
fred's party ; and the son of Conrad IV., the young Duke
Conradin of Swabia, whose minority was passed in obscurity
at the court of his uncle of Bavaria, being unable to assert his
claim to the crown of Apulia, the hopes of the Ghibellines of
Lower Italy naturally centred in Manfred, who was unani-

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CONRAD THE FOURTH.

mously proclaimed king by his faithful vassals, and crowned at
Palermo, A. D. 1258.

In Upper Italy the affairs of the Ghibellines wore a con-
trary aspect. Ezzelino, after making a desperate defence at
Cassano, was defeated, wounded, and taken prisoner. He died
of his wounds, [a. d. 1259,] scornfully rejecting to the last all
spiritual aid. His more gentle brother, Alberich, after seeing
liis wife and children cruelly butchered, was dragged to death
at a horse's tail. The rest of the Ghibelline chiefs met with
an equally wretched fate. These horrible scenes of bloodshed
worked so forcibly upon the feelings of even the hardened Ital-
ians, that numbers arrayed themselves in sackcloth, and did
penance at the grave of Alberich : this circumstance gave rise to
the sect of the Flagellants, who ran lamenting, praying, preach-
ing repentance, and wounding themselves and others with
bloody stripes, through the streets, in order to atone for th*
sins of the world.

It was in the course of this year that Manfred solemnized
his second nuptials with Helena, the daughter of Michael of
^Etolia and Cyprus, who was then in her seventeenth year,
and famed for her extraordinary loveliness. The uncommon
beauty of the bridal pair, and the charms of their court, which,
as in Frederick's time, was composed of the most distinguished
bards and the most beautiful women, were such as to justify
the expression used by a poet of the times, " Paradise had once
more appeared upon earth." Manfred, like his father and his
brother Enzio, was himself a Minnesinger. His marriage with
Helena had gained for him the alliance of Greece, and the union
of Constance, his daughter by a former marriage, with Peter
of Arragon, confirmed his amity with Spain. He was now en-
abled to send aid to the distressed Ghibellines in Lombardy ;
A* D. 1260. They were again victorious at Montaperto, and
the gallant Pallavicini became his lieutenant in Upper Italy.
The pope was compelled to flee from Rome to Viterbo. The
city of Manfredonia, so named after its founder, Manfred, was
built at this period.

The Guelphs, alarmed at Manfred's increasing power, now
sought for foreign aid, and raised a Frenchman, Urban IV.,
to the pontifical throne. This pope induced Charles d'Anjou,
the brother of the French monarch, who had already " fished
in troubled waters" in Flanders, to grasp at the crown oi

b 2

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CONRAD THE FOURTH.

Apulia. On the death of Urban, [a. d. 1265,] another French-
man, Clement V., succeeded to the chair of St. Peter, and
greatly contributed to hasten the projected invasion. Charles
was gloomy and priest-ridden ; extremely unprepossessing in
In3 person, and of an olive complexion ; invariably cold, silent,
and reserved in manner, impatient of gaiety or cheerfulness,
and so cold-blooded and cruel as to be viewed with horror
even by his bigoted brother, St. Louis. This ill-omened
prince at first fixed his residence in the Arelat, where the
emperor's rights were without a champion, and then sailed
with a powerful fleet to Naples, A. D. 1266. France, until
now a listless spectator, for the first time opposed her influence
to that of Germany in Italy, and henceforward pursued the
policy of taking advantage of the disunited state of the Ger-
man empire in order to seize one province after another.

Manfred collected his whole strength to oppose the French
invader, but the clergy tampered with his soldiery and sowed
treason in his camp. Charles no sooner landed than Riccardo
di Caseta abandoned the mountain pass intrusted to his de-
fence, and allowed the French to advance unmolested as far as
Benevento, where, on the 26th of February, 1266, a decisive
battle was fought, in which Manfred, notwithstanding his gal-
lant efforts, being worsted, threw himself in despair in the
thickest of the fight, where he fell, covered with wounds.
Charles, on the score of heresy, refused him honourable burial,
but the French soldiery, touched by his beauty and gallantry,
cast each of them a stone upon his body, which was by this
means buried beneath a hillock still known by the natives as
the rock of roses.*

Helena, accompanied by her daughter Beatrice and her
three infant sons, Henry, Frederick, and Anselino, sought
safety in flight, but was betrayed to Charles, who threw her
and her children into a dungeon, where she shortly languished
and died. Beatrice was saved from a similar fate by Peter of
Arragon, to whom she was delivered in exchange for a son of
Charles d'Anjou, who had fallen into his hands. The three
boys were consigned to a narrow dungeon, where, loaded with

• L'ossa del corpo mio sarieno ancora

CONRAD THE FOURTH.

chains, half-naked, ill-fed, and untaught, they remained in
perfect seclusion for the space of thirty -one years: in 1297,
they were released from their chains, and allowed to be visited
by a priest and a physician. The eldest, Henry, died in 1309.
With fanatical rage, Charles destroyed every vestige of the
reign of the Hohenstaufen in Lower Italy.

Italy was for ever torn from the empire, from which Bur-
gundy, too long neglected for the sake of her classic sister,
was also severed. Her southern provinces, Provence, Vienne,
and Toulouse were annexed to France, whilst her more
northern ones, the counties of Burgundy and Savoy, became
an almost independent state.

Whilst the name and power of the Hohenstaufen family
was being thus annihilated in Italy, Germany seemed to have
forgotten her ancient fame. The princes and vassals who
mainly owed their influence to the Staufen, had ungratefully
deprived the orphaned Conradin of his inheritance. Swabia
was his merely in name, and he would in all probability have
shared the fate of his Italian relatives had he not found an
asylum in the court of Louis of Bavaria.

William of Holland, with a view of increasing his popularity
by an alliance with the Welfs, espoused Elisabeth, the daughter
of Otto of Brunswick. The faction of the Welfs had, however,
been too long broken ever to regain strength, and the circum-
stance of the destruction of his false crown (the genuine one
being still in Italy) during a conflagration which burst out
on the night of the nuptials, and almost proved fatal to
him and his bride, rendered him an object of fresh ridicule.
He disgraced the dignity he had assumed by his lavish sale
or gift of the imperial prerogatives and lands to his adhe-
rents, whom he by these means bribed to uphold his cause,
and by his complete subserviency to the pope. His des-
picable conduct received its fitting reward : no city, none
of the temporal nor even of the spiritual lords throughout the
empire, tolerated his residence within their demesnes. Conrad,
archbishop of Cologne, ordered the roof of the house in which
he resided at Nuys, to be set on fire, in order to enforce his
departure. At Utrecht, a stone was cast at him in the church*
His wife was seduced by a Count von Waldeck. This wretch-
ed emperor was at length compelled to retire into Holland,
where he employed hiniseJf in attempting to reduce a petty

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CONRAD THE FOURTH

nation, the West Friscians, beneath his yoke. This expedition
terminated fatally to himself alone ; when crossing a frozen
morass on horseback, armed cap-a-pie, the ice gave way be-
neath the weight, and whilst in this helpless situation, unable
either to extricate or defend himself, he was attacked and
slain by some Friscian boors, to whom he was personally un-
known. On discovering his rank, they were filled with terror
at their own daring, and buried him with the utmost secrecy.
The regency of Holland was committed to Adelheid, the wife
of John d'Avesnes, during the minority of her nephew, Flo-
rens V., the son of William. She was expelled by the Dutch,
who disdained a woman's control. Florens succeeded to the
government on attaining his majority. On the death of the
emperor, John d'Avesnes was induced by a political motive to
conciliate his mother and step-brothers, who were supported
by France. The departure of Charles d'Anjou was purchased
with large sums of money. Guy de Dampierre obtained
Flanders : John d'Avesnes, merely the Hennegau. Namur
passed from the hands of Philip, the brother of Baldwin of
Constantinople, by intermarriage, into those of the French
monarch, but was sold by Louis to Guy de Dampierre, who
bestowed it on one of his sons. Artois remained annexed to
France.

Tine northern Friscians greatly distinguished themselves
at this period by their spirited contest with the Danes. Wal-
demar had left several sons, Erich, Abel, Christoph, etc.
Erich, on mounting the throne, [a. d. 1241,] attempted to
reconquer Holstein and Lubeck, in which he signally failed,
and his metropolis, Copenhagen, was burnt to the ground
[a. d. 1248] by a Lubeck fleet. Erich was basely slain by
his brother Abel, who cast his corpse, laden with chains, into
the water, and seized the sovereignty, a. d. 1250 : and this
monster of infamy was offered the imperial throne by Innocent
IV., when that pontiff was seeking for a fitting tool to set up
in opposition to the Hohenstaufen. Abel was a tyrant. The
heavy taxes imposed by him on the northern Friscians, in the
west of Schleswig, inducing a rebellion, he invaded their
country, but was defeated by the brave peasantry, and slain
on the Myllerdamm by a wheelwright, named Henner. His
corpse was interred in the cathedral at Schleswig, but his
ghost becoming restless and troublesome^ it was disinterred,

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COXRAD THE FOURTH

pierced with a stake, and sunk in a swamp at Gottorp, A. D.
1251. He was succeeded by his more moderate brother,
Christoph, who was poisoned in 1259 by the canon Arnefast.
The pope was implicated in the commission of this crime,
Christoph having refused to submit to the authority assumed
by the clergy ; his son was consequently rejected by the Dan-
ish bishops, who raised Erich, the son of Abel, to the throne.
The pope, the former friend of the lawless Abel, raised
Christoph's assassin to the bishopric of Aarhus. Margaretha,
Christoph's widow, and her infant son, Erich Glipping, the
blinkard, maintained their station for a while, but the op-
posing faction being succoured by the Earls Gerhard and
John of Holstein, they were defeated and taken prisoners on
the Lohaide near Schleswig, A. D. 1291. Albrecht of Bruns-
wick, their most active supporter, governed Denmark in
Margaretha's name. Margaretha also succeeded in obtaining
pardon from the pope, by a pilgrimage undertaken by her for
that purpose to Rome. Her son Erich became king of Den-
mark, and Erich, the son of Abel, duke of Schleswig. Erich
Glipping was despotic, dissolute, and lawless ; he was mur-
dered in his sleep, [a. d. 1286,] in revenge for having violated
the wife of Stigo, the marshal of his empire. By the noto-
rious Birka Rett, a new code of laws compiled by this mon-
arch, he had completely deprived the Danes of their ancestral
rights and liberties, and reduced the peasantry to servitude ;
a measure that gained for him the favour of the clergy and
nobility. He was succeeded by his son, Erich Menved.

On the death of Conrad IV. and of William of Holland,
fresh competitors for the crown appeared, although undemand-
ed by the German princes, each of whom strove to protract
the confusion that reigned throughout the empire, and utterly
to annihilate the imperial power, in order to increase their own.
The crown was, in consequence, only claimed by two foreign
princes, who rivalled each other in wealth, and the world be-
held the extraordinary spectacle of the sale of the shadow
crown of Germany to the highest bidder. The electoral princes
were even base enough to work upon the vanity of the wealthy
Count Hermann von Henneberg, who coveted the imperial
title, in order to extract from him large sums of money, with-
out having the slightest intention to perform their promises.
Alfonso of Castille sent twenty thousand silver marks from

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CONRADIN

Spain, and was in return elected emperor by Treves, Bohemia,
Saxony, and Brandenburg. Richard, duke of Cornwall, how-
ever, sent thirty-two tons of gold from England, which pur-
chased for him the votes of Cologne, Mayence, and Bavaria ;
and, to the scandal of all true Germans, both competitors,
neither of whom were present, were simultaneously elected
emperor, Alfonso in Frankfurt on the Maine, and Richard
outside the walls of the same city, A. D. 1257. Alfonso, buried
in the study of astronomy, never visited Germany. Richard
claimed the throne, without regarding the superior rights ot
Conradin,* in right of his wife, the sister of Frederick II., as
the heir of the Hohenstaufen, a claim which drew upon him
the suspicions of the pontiff, who, notwithstanding Richard's
apparent humility, delayed his recognition of him as emperor.
In Germany, where he made his first appearance on the defeat
of the citizens of Treves at Boppart by his rival Conrad of
Cologne, he was merely held in consideration as long as his
treasury was full. Necessity ere long compelled him to return
to England. In 1268 he revisited Germany, where, during
his short stay, he attempted to abolish the customs levied on
the Rhine. f It was during this visit that he became enamoured
of Gdde von Falkenstein, the most beautiful woman of the day,
whom he persuaded to accompany him to England.

Conradin, the last of the Hohenstaufen, resided sometimes
in the court of Louis of Bavaria, at other times under his pro-
tection at the castle of Ravensburg on the Bodensee, an an-
cient allod of the Welfs, which had formerly been bequeathed
by Welf the elder to Barbarossa. In this retreat he asso-
ciated with a young man of his own age, Frederick, the son of
Hermann, Margrave of Baden. Frederick assumed the sur-
name " of Austria," on account of his mother, who was a de-
scendant of the house of Babenberg ; he cherished, moreover,

* He released Zurich from her allegiance to Conradin, and bribed
Count Uliich (with the thumb) of Wurtemberg, who had just inherited
the rich county of Urach, wUh one thousand silver marks.

f The Englishman, Thomas Wikes, even at that period termed the
Rhenish customs " furiosam Teutonicorum insaniam." The name of
the city of Antwerp is allied with the idea of customs. A giant named
Duion is said to have formerly levied a toll upon passengers on the spot
where the city now stands, and to have cut off one of the smugglers*
hands, which he threw into the water; — hence, Hand Werf (thro*
handj — Antwerp.

CONRADIN

% Lope }f gaining possession of that duchy, on the restoration
of the Hohenstaufen. Conradin and Frederick became inse-
parabla companions ; equally enthusiastic and imaginative,
their ambitious aspirations found vent in song, and sportive
fancy embellished the stern features of reality. One of Con-
radin^ ballads is still extant. His mother, Elisabeth, who, on
the death of Conrad IV., had carried him for protection to
the court of her brother, Louis of Bavaria, had wedded Mcin-
hard, Count von Gortz, the possessor of the Tyrol. In 1255,
Munich became the ducal residence, and the metropolis of
Bavaria. (In 1248, the dukes of Meran-Andechs becoming
extinct on the death of Otto, their possessions fell to his cousin,
Albrecht, Count of Tyrol, whose daughter, Adelheid, brought
them in dower to her husband, Meinhard I., Count von
Gortz. Meinhard left two sons, Meinhard II., who wedded
Elisabeth, and obtained the Tyrol, and Albrecht, who suc-
ceeded to Gortz.) Bavaria was now the sole supporter of the
fallen imperial dynasty. Gratitude towards the Hohenstaufen,
however, was far from being the guiding motive of this selfish
prince, who solely aimed at turning his guardianship to ad-
vantage by laying Conradin under an obligation which he was
bound to repay if restored to his dignity, or in case of his de-
struction, by seizing all that remained of the Hohenstaufen
inheritance. Cruel and choleric, he was one day seized with
jealousy on perusing a letter innocently penned by his con-
sort, Maria of Brabant, and in a fit of sudden fury stabbed the
bearer of the letter, the castellain, and a waiting- woman, threw
the chief lady in attendance out of the window, and ordered
his unoffending wife to execution, a. d. 1256. When too late,
he became convinced of her innocence, and was seized with
such terrible despair, that his hair turned white in one night;
in order to propitiate Heaven, he founded the wealthy abbey
of Furstenfeld.

The seclusion of Conradin's life and the neglect with which
he was treated became daily more harassing to him as he
grew up, and he gladly accepted a proposal on the part of the
Italian Ghibellines, inviting him to place himself at their head.
He was, moreover, confirmed in his resolution by Louis of
Bavaria and Meinhard von Gortz, who even accompanied him
into Italy, but merely for the purpose of watching over their
own interests, by persuading the unsuspecting youth, in return

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CONRADIN.

for their pretended support, either to sell or mortgage to then*
the possessions and rights of his family. Conradin's was still
duke of Swabia,* and held the ancient Franconian possessions
of the Salic emperoi-s. The private possessions of the Ilohen-
8 tau fen having been declared crown property by Frederick
IL, the majority of the petty lords in Franconia,| unawed
either by the power of the emperor or by that of the duke,
had asserted their independence as immediate subjects of the
empire. In Swabia, Conradin's dignity was merely upheld for
the purpose of legitimating robbery and fraud, and his last
official act as duke was the signature of a document which
deprived him of his lawful rights. J His conviction of their
eventual loss inclined him to cede them voluntarily, particu-
larly as the sale furnished him with funds for raising troops.
In the autumn of 1267, he crossed the Alps at the head of
ten thousand men, and was welcomed at Verona by the Seal a,
the chiefs of the Ghibelline faction. The meanness of his
German relatives and friends was here undisguisedly displayed.
Louis, after persuading him to part with his remaining pos-
sessions at a low price, quitted him, and was followed by Mein-
hard, and by the greater number of the Germans. This de-
sertion reduced his army to three thousand men.

The Italian Ghibellines remained true to their word. Verona
raised an army in Lombardy, Pisa equipped a large fleet, the
Moors of Luceria took up arms, and Rome welcomed the
youthful heir of the Hohenstaufen by forcing the pope once
more to retreat to Viterbo. He was also joined by two bro-
thers of Alfonso, the phantom monarch, Henry and Frederick,
and marched unopposed to Rome, at whose gates he was met,
and conducted to the capitol by a procession of beautiful girls

* According to a curious document in the Allegranza opuscoli eruditi
latini et italiani, at Cremona in 1781, the emperor, Frederick II., con-
lirmed the annexation of Chiavenna to the duchy of Swabia, to which the
whole of Switzerland and Alsace belonged. On the fall of the Hohenstau-
fen this duchy was divided into innumerable petty counties, bishoprics,
townships, independent societies of knights, and free cantons of peasantry.

f It was in this manner and at this time that the great forest of Dfu-
eich, which belonged to the crown, came into the hands of the lords of
Falkenstein, Hanau, and Isenburg.

X Ulrica, count of Wiirtemberg, received the office of Marshal of Swa-
bia and that of imperial governor in Ulm and in the Pyrss (the free pea-
gantry of the Leutkirche heath). He nevertheless remained inactive in
Couradiu's cause.

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COXRADIN.

bearing musical instruments and flowers. The Pisanese,
meanwhile, gained a signal victory off Messina over the French
fleet, and burnt a great number of the enemy's ships. Con-
radin entered Lower Italy and encountered the French army
under Charles, at Scurcola, where his Germans, after beating
the enemy back, deeming the victory their own, carelessly
dispersed to seek for booty, some among them even refreshed
themselves by bathing : in this condition they were suddenly
attacked by the French, who had watched their movements,
and were completely put to the rout, August 23rd, 1268. Con-
radin and Frederick owed their escape to the fleetness of their
steeds, but were basely betrayed into Charles's hands at
Astura, when crossing the sea to Pisa, by John Frangipani,
whose family had been laden with benefits by the Hohen-
staufen. Conradin, whilst playing at chess with his friend
in prison, calmly listened to the sentence of death pronounced
upon him. On the 22nd October, a. d. 1268, he was con-
ducted, with Frederick and his other companions, to the
scaffold erected in the market-place at Naples. The French
even were roused to indignation at this spectacle, and Charles's
son-in-law, Robert, earl of Flanders, drawing his sword, cut
down the officer commissioned to read the sentence of death
in public, saying, as he dealt the blow, " Wretch ! how darest
thou condemn such a great and excellent knight ?" Conradin,
in his address to the people, said, " I cite my judge before the
highest tribunal. My blood, shed on this spot, shall cry to
Heaven for vengeance. Nor do I esteem my Swabians and
Bavarians, my Germans, so low, as not to trust that this stain
on the honour of the German nation will be washed out by
them in French blood." He then threw his glove on the
ground, charging him who raised it to bear it to Peter, king
of Arragon, to whom, as his nearest relative, he bequeathed all
his claims. The glove was raised by Henry, Truchsess von
"YValdburg, who found within it the seal ring of the unfor-
tunate prince, and henceforth bare in his arms the three black
lions of the Staufen. His last bequests thus made, Conradin
knelt fearlessly before the block, and the head of the last of
the Hohenstaufen rolled on the scaffold.* A cry of agony

* Malaspina, although a Guelph and a papal writer, sublimely de-
scribes Conrad's wretchea fate, his courage, and his beauty. " Non voct
querula, sod ad caelum jungebat palmas. Suum Domino spiritura com*

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CONItADIN.

burst from the heart of his friend, whose head also fell ; nor
was Charles's revenge satiated until almost every Ghibelline
had fallen by the hand of the executioner.* Conradin's un-
happy mother, who had vainly offered a large ransom for his
life, devoted the money to the erection of the monastery of
Stams, in a wild valley of the Tyrol. Charles's next work was
the destruction of Luceria, where every Moor was put to the
sword. Conrad, a son of Frederick of Antioch,f a natural
descendant of Frederick II., alone escaped death. A contrary
fate awaited Henry, the youthful son of the emperor Richard,
* the kinsman and heir of the Hohenstaufen, who, when tarry-
ing by chance at Viterbo on his way to the Holy Land, was,
by Charles's command, assassinated, A. D. 1274.J The unfor-
tunate king Enzio was also implicated in Conradin's fate. On
learning his nephew's arrival in Italy, he was seized with the
greatest anxiety to escape from Bologna, where he was im-
prisoned, and concealing himself in a cask, was carried by his
friends out of his prison, but being discovered by one of his

mendabat, nec divertebat caput sed exhibebat se quasi victimam et cae-
soris truces ictus in patientia exspectabat Madet terra pulchro cruore
diffuso, tabetque juvenili sanguine cruentata. Jacet veluti flos pur-
pureus improvida falce succisus."

* The Germans, nevertheless, looked on with indifference, and shortly
afterwards elected an emperor, Rudolf von Habsburg, who married his
daughter to the son of Charles d'Anjou, and who was the tool of the pope
and of the French monarch. The German muse alone mourned the fall
of the great Swabian dynasty. Conradin and Frederick were buried side
by side to the right of the altar, beneath the marble pavement of the church
of Santa Maria del Carmine, in the market-place of Naples, where the
execution took place. About a century and a half ago the pavement of
the church was renewed, and Conradin was found with his head resting
on his folded hands. The remains were left in their original state. The
(modern) inscription on the tomb runs thus ; Qui giacciono Corradino
di Stooffen, ultimo de* duchi dell' imperiale casa di Suevia, e Federico
fAsburgh, ultimo de' Duchi d' Austria, Anno 1269. The raiser of this
monument must have possessed more piety than knowledge when he
made the luckless Frederick the last of the Habsburgs.

f A daughter of this prince, Isolda, married Berlhold von Hohenburg,
probably the Minnesinger, who comes directly after the princes in
Maness's collection.

J His sorrowing father exposed his heart to public view on the Thames
bridge in London. — Dante mentions this circumstance in the twelfth
canto of the Inferno : —

Mostrocci un* ombra dall' un canto sola,
Uicendo : Colui fesse in grembo a Dio
Lo cuor che'n su Tamigi ancor si cola.

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CONRADIN.

lonjr fair locks which fell out of the mouth of the cask, he wa9
strictly confined, some say, in an iron cage, until his death,
which happened A. D. 1272. During the earlier part of his
imprisonment, when less strictly treated, his seclusion, embel-
lished by poetry and art, had been cheered by the society of
his beautiful mistress, Lucia Viadagola. From these lovers
descended the family of the Bentivoglio, who derived their
name from Lucia's tender expression ; " Enzio, che ben ti
voglio."

Thus terminated the royal race of the Hohenstaufen, in
which the highest earthly dignity and power, the most bril-
liant achievements in arms, extraordinary personal beauty, and
rich poetical genius, were combined, and beneath whose rule*
the middle age and its creations, the church, the empire, the
states, religion, and art, attained a height, whence they neces-
sarily sank as the Hohenstaufen fell, like flowers that fade at
parting day.

Charles d'Anjou retained Apulia, but was deprived of Sicily.
In the night of the 30th of March, 1282, a general conspiracy
among the Ghibellines in this island broke out, and in this
night, known as the Sicilian Vespers, all the French were
assassinated, and Manfred's daughter, Constance, and her hus-
band, Peter of Arragon, were proclaimed the sovereigns of
Sicily. Charles, the son of Charles d'Anjou, was taken
prisoner, and afterwards exchanged for Beatrice, the sister of
Constance. Constance behaved with great generosity to the
captive prince, who, saying that he was happy to die on a
Friday, the day on which Christ suffered, she replied, " For love
of him who suffered on this day will I grant thee thy life."

It is remarkable that about this time the crusades ended, and
all the European conquests in the East were lost. Constanti-
nople was delivered in 1261, by the Greeks, from the bad
government of the French Pullanes, and, in 1262, Antioch
was retaken by the Turks. The last crusade was undertaken
in 1269, by Louis of France, Charles d'Anjou, and Edward,
Prince of Wales, who were joined by a Friscian fleet, which
ought to have been equipped instead in Conrad's aid. After
besieging Tunis and enforcing a tribute, the French returned
home. The English reached the Holy Land, [a. d. 1272,] but
met with such ill success, that Tripolis was lost in 1288, and
Accon in 1291. On the reduction of these cities, the last

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THE INTERREGNUM.

strongholds of the Christians, Tyre voluntarily surrendered
and Palestine was entirely deserted by the Franks.*

•r

CLXL The Interregnum.

The triumph of the pope over the emperor was complete :
but the temporal power of which the emperor had been de-
prived, instead of falling wholly into the hands of his antago-
nist, was scattered among the princes and cities of the empire,
and, although the loss of the emperor had deprived the empire
of her head, vitality still remained in her different members.

The power of the Welfs had ceased a century before the
fall of the Hohenstaufen. The princes that remained possessed
but mediocre authority, no ambition beyond the concentration of
their petty states and the attainment of individual independ-
ence. The limited nature of this policy attracted little atten-
tion and insured its success. Equally indifferent to the down-
fal of the Hohenstaufen, and to the creation of the mock
sovereigns placed over them by the pope, they merely sought
the advancement of their petty interests by the usurpation of
every prerogative hitherto enjoyed by the crown within their
states, and thus transformed the empire, which had, up to this
period, been an elective monarchy, into a ducal aristocracy.
Unsatisfied with releasing themselves from their allegiance to
their sovereign, they also strove, aided by their feudal vassals
and by the clergy, to crush civil liberty by carrying on, as will
hereafter be seen, a disastrous warfare against the cities, in
which they were warmly supported by the pope, whom they
had assisted in exterminating the imperial house. The power
they individually possessed was, moreover, too insignificant to
rouse the jealousy of the pontiff, whom they basely courted
and implicitly obeyed. The people, meanwhile, (at least those
among the citizens and knights who still ventured freely to
express their opinions,) bitterly lamented the dissolution of t lie
empire, its internal anarchy, the arbitrary rule of the princes,
their utter disregard of order, public security, and national
right, and loudly demanded the election of a successor to the
imperial throncf

* The common denomination in the East for all the Western nations
f The spirit of these times is preserved in Rudiger Maness's collection
of the Minnesingers.

THE INTERREGNUM.

Ottocar of Bohemia, who took advantage of the universal
anarchy to extend the limits of his Slavonian state, was the only
one among the princes who strove to raise himself above the
rest of the aristocracy. The Austrian nobility, sending Ulrich
von Liehtenstein to Henry of Misnia, in order to offer him
the country, he was bribed when passing through Prague by
Ottocar, who found means to induce the Austrians to elect
him instead, and in order to exclude all other competitors,
espoused Margaretha, the eldest and now aged sister of Frede-
rick the Warlike, who left her convent in Treves to perform
this sacrifice for her country. Ottocar then marched in aid

Prussians and Lithuanians. On his return in 1254, on ar-
riving at Breslau he threw the flower of the Austrian nobility,
whose allegiance he mistrusted, Ulrich von Liehtenstein not
excepted, into chains, carried them prisoners into Bohemia,
and confiscated all their lands. Louis and Henry of Bavaria,
whose father, Otto, had been formerly nominated to the go-
vernment of Austria by the emperor Frederick II., influenced
by hatred of their dangerous and despotic neighbour, and
being, moreover, aided by the archbishop Ulrich of Salz-
burg, raised a faction against and fortunately defeated him at
Muhldorf, where a bridge gave way beneath the rush of the
Bohemians, three thousand of whom were drowned, A. D.
1255. Ottocar, in order to protect his rear, had ceded Styria
to Bela, king of Hungary. Gertrude, Margaretha's younger
sister and the widow of Hermann of Baden, had fled for protection
to the Hungarian monarch, to whom she had, in her infant son's
name, transferred her claim upon Austria, in return for which
Bela had procured her a second husband, Roman, a Russian
duke, by whom she was speedily abandoned. The Styriaiia
vainly opposed the monarch thus forced upon them ; they
were overpowered ; fifteen hundred men, wlio had taken re-
fuge within the church at Modling, were burnt to death.
The cruelty subsequently practised by the Hungarian go-
vernor, Stephen von Agram, occasioned a fresh insurrection
in 1254 ; so close was the pursuit of the enraged natives that
the obnoxious governor merely escaped by swimming across
the Drave ; the attempt of the gallant Styrians to regain their
freedom proved vain ; all aid was refused by Ottocar, and
they again fell beneath the Hungarian yoke and the iron rod

THE INTERREGNUM.

of their ferocious governor. Four years later, Ottocar com-
menced a brilliant career. In 1258, the Styrians again re*
belled, and in eleven days drove every Hungarian out of the
country,* upon which Ottocar despatched to their aid Conrad
von Hardegg, an old Austrian noble, who fell valiantly op-
posing the superior forces of the foe on the river March, and,
in 1259, took the field in person at the head of his whole
forces, and entirely routed the Hungarians in a pitched battle
at Croisenbrunn. Styria was replaced beneath his rule, [a. d.
1260,] and in the ensuing year peace was further confirmed
by his marriage with Cunigunda, Bela's wayward niece, for
whom he divorced the hapless Margaretha. This divorce was no
sooner effected than the Austrians, deeming his right of in he*
ritance annulled, attempted to free themselves from his tyran-
ny ; resistance was, however, vain ; the malcontents were
thrown into prison, and, as an example to all future offenders,
Otto of Misnia, the judge of the country, was burnt alive
in a dungeon filled with straw. Ottocar's power was still fur-
ther increased by the possession of Carinthia, which was be-
queathed to him by Ulrich von Ortenburg, who expired, a. d.
1263, leaving no issue. The opposition of Ulrich's brother,
Philip, the patriarch of Aglar, and of Ulrich of Salzburg, was
unavailing. They were defeated, and the whole of the moun-
tain country was annexed to Bohemia.

Silesia had been partitioned between the sons of the patri-
otic duke, Henry, who fell on the field of Wahlstatt. A quarrel
subsequently arose between them, and Boleslaw, on attempt-
ing to make himself sole master of the country, was reduced
to submission by his brother, Henry of Breslau, the celebrated
Minnesinger. Boleslaw was also so passionately fond of singing
and of music, that he was always accompanied by Surrian, hia
fiddler, who, during his master's wanderings, sat behind hira
on horseback. Silesia, notwithstanding the numerous German
colonists settled by Henry in the country devastated by the
Tartar war, was ruined by the repeated partitions between
the sons and grandsons of her dukes, and by their consequent
Feuds. One instance will suffice to give an idea of the disas-

• The arms of Steyer or Styria are a Steer :
" Es gebieret, wie der Stier Horner treibt, ihm selber WafFen,
Steyr kaiin steuern seinem Feind und den Zora mit Zarne strafen."

Fugger.

THE IXTEUREON 'TM.

trous and disturbed state of this wretched country. Henry
the Thick, the son of Boleslaw, was imprisoned by his cousin
Conrad von Glogau for six months in a narrow cage, in
which he could neither sit upright nor lay at full length.
Wladislaw von Leignitz, the son of Henry the Thick, was a
wild and lawless wretch, who led a robber's life in his castle of
Hornsberg, near Waldenburg, and was finally taken captive
by the outraged peasantry. The germanization of Branden-
burg advanced. Since the partition of the bishopric of Lebus,
[a. d. 1252,] between Brandenburg and Magdeburg, the city
of Frankfurt on the Oder had been made by the former the
centre of German civilization, and peopled with German set*
tiers. Whenever the German nobility took possession of a
village, the Slavonian peasantry obstinately resisted every inno-
vation. Several villages were, in consequence, sold to Ger-
man citizens and peasants, under condition of their being
peopled with Germans, in which case, the purchaser became
the hereditary mayor of the free community.* In 1269, the
Margrave, Otto, erected on the Polish frontier the wooden
castle of Zielenzig, exactly opposite to which Boleslaw of Po-
land instantly built the fortress of Meseritz. Magdeburg ceded
her part of the bishopric of Lebus to Brandenburg, but merely
as a fief dependent on the archbishopric.

Upon the death of Henry Raspe in Thuringia, Sophia, the
daughter of St. Elisabeth, and widow of Henry duke of Bra-
bant, brought her infant son, Henry, to Marburg, where fealty
was sworn to the " child of Brabant," the descendant of the
great and beloved national saint. The Wartburg and the
protection of the country were intrusted by Sophia to her
neighbour the Margrave Henry, surnamed the Illustrious, ot
Misnia, who proved faithless to his trust, and attempted to
make himself master of the countrv. which he also induced the
mean-spirited emperor, William, to claim as a lapsed fief. So-
phia hastened into the country on receiving information of his
treason. The gates of the city of Eisenach, which had already
paid homage to Henry of Misnia, being closed against her,
she seized an axe, and with her own hand dealt a vigorous blow
upon the gate, which was instantly opened by the astonished
citizens. Negotiations were opened between the contending
parties ; Henry of Misnia deceitfully proposed that th«

• Wohlbriick's History of Lebus.
vol. II. 0

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matter should be left to the decision of twenty Thurinjjian
nobles of high standing, and that Sophia should promise to
cede Thuringia to him, if they swore that his claim was more
just than hers. Sophia fell into the snare, and the perjured
nobles took the oath. On hearing their decision the injured
duchess threw her glove into the air, exclaiming, " O thou
enemy of all justice, thou devil, take the glove with the false
counsellors !" According to Imhof's chronicle, the glove van-
ished in the air. Sophia now implored the aid of the warlike
duke of Brunswick, Albrecht the Fat, who invaded Thuringia,
[a. d. 1256,] and defeated Henry of Misnia ; but Gerhard,
archbishop of Mayence, creating a diversion in Henry's favour
by invading Brunswick during his absence, he was compelled
to retrace his steps, upon which Henry of Misnia re-entered
the country and captured Eisenach, where he condemned the
gallant counsellor, Henry von Velsbach, who had watched
over Sophia's interests in that city, to be cast by an enormous
catapult from the top of the Wartburg into the town below.*
The feud was meanwhile vigorously carried on. Albreclit
returned, and conquered the whole of Thuringia ; his horrid
cruelty occasioned an insurrection, which was headed by the
aged Rudolf von Vargula, and Albrecht was surprised when
intoxicated on the Saai near Halle, and taken captive, A. r>.
1263. Peace ensued ; Henry of Misnia retained Thuringia,
and Henry of Brabant, the founder of the still reigning house
of Hesse, was forced to content himself with Hesse, Brabant
falling to his nephew John.

Before the commencement of this war, a contest had arisen
between Albrecht and his nobles, who were at that period as
rebellious against their dukes as the dukes were against the
emperor. Busso von der Asseburg, who bore in his escutcheon
a wolf with the Welfic lion in his claws, formed a conspiracy
among the nobles against the Welfs, in which Gerhard, arch-
bishop of Mayence, joined. Albrecht was, however, victorious,
Gerhard was taken captive, and Conrad von Everstein, one of
the conspirators, hanged by the feet, A. D. 1258. In the bishop-
ric of Wurzburg, the noble family of Stein zum Altenstein
attained great power, and excited the jealousy of the bishop,

* He is said to hare been cast down three times; twice he etuiped
with his life — but the third time was killed, exclaiming with his last
breath, " Thuringia belongs to the child of Brabant ! "

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THE INTERREGNUM.

Henning, who invited them to a banquet, where they were all
except one, who, drawing his sword, cut off the bishop's nose
and escaped, deprived of their heads. The ferocity of the
nobles manifested itself also in 1257, during a great tourna-
ment held at Neuss, where the mock fight became earnest,
and Count Adolf von Berg, thirty-six knights, and three hun-
dred men at arms, were slain. In 1277, the robber knights
took the frontier count, Engelbert, captive, and he pined to
death in prison. Berold, abbot of Fulda, was also murdered
in 1271, by his vassals, whilst reading mass; thirty of the
conspirators were, however, executed. The citizens of Erfurt
endured several severe conflicts with Sigmund, (surnamed the
Thuringian devil,) Count von Gleichen, the son of the crusader
of that name celebrated for his two wives.

The power of the princes in Germany was counterpoised
by that of the cities, which, sensible of their inability indi-
vidually to assert their liberty, endangered by the absence and
subsequent ruin of the emperor, had mutually entered into an
offensive and defensive alliance. The cities on the Northern
Ocean and the Baltic vied with those of Lombardy in dense-
ness of population, and in the assertion of their independence.
Their fleet returned from the East covered with glory. They
conquered Lisbon, besieged Accon and Damietta, founded
the order of German Hospitallers, and gained great part of
Livonia and Prussia. A strict union existed among their
numerous merchants. Every city possessed a corporation, or
guild, consisting, according to the custom of the times, of
masters, partners, and apprentices. These guilds were armed,
and formed the chief strength of the city. Ghent and Brug-
ges were the first cities in Flanders which became noted for
their civil privileges, their manufactories, commerce, and in-
dustry. In the twelfth century, they had already formed a
Hansa,* or great commercial association, in which seventeen
cities took part. In the thirteenth century, their example
was followed by the commercial towns on the Rhine, the Elbe,
and the Baltic, but on a larger scale, the new Hansa forming
a political as well as a commercial association, which was com-
menced by Lubeck, between which and Hamburg a treaty was

• Hansa signified every association, the members of which paid a sen-
tribaiion.

c i

THE INTERREGNUM.

made, [a. d. 1241,] in which Bremen and almost every city
in the north of Germany far inland, as far as Cologne and
Brunswick, joined. The most distinguished character of these
times was a citizen of Liibeck named Alexander von Soltwe-
del, the indefatigable adversary of the Danes, who, besides
assisting in gaining the victory near Bornhovede in 1227,
performed still more signal services at sea. He several times
went in pursuit of Erich IV. of Denmark, who incessantly
harassed the northern coasts, with the Liibeck fleet ; plun-
dered Copenhagen, or, as Ditmar writes it, Copmanhaven ;
burnt Stralsund, at that time a Danish settlement, to the ground,
and returned home laden with immense booty. John, earl of
Holstein, was taken prisoner by the citizens of Liibeck, whom
had provoked, a. d. 1261. The citizens of Bremen pulled
down the custom-houses erected by the archbishop and as-
serted their independence, A. D. 1246.

A similar league, though more for the purpose of mutual
protection, was formed between the cities of the Rhine, almost
all of which favoured the imperial cause, and, by having on
more than one occasion taken part with the Hohenstaufen
against the bishops and the pretenders to the crown, had in-
curred the animosity of the great vassals, with whom they had
to sustain several severe contests. In 1291, the ancient town
of Metz carried on a spirited contest against the bishop, and
subsequently united with Strassburg and other neighbouring
cities against the pope's stanch adherents, the Dukes Mat-
thseus and Frederick of Lothringia. In 1263, the citizens of
Strassburg expelled their despotic bishop, Walter von Gerold-
seck, and destroyed all the houses belonging to the clergy and
nobility. Count Rudolf von Habsburg at first aided the
bishop, but afterwards, on the retention of a bond by Walter's
successor, Henry, sided with the citizens, not because, as
modern sentimentalists imagine, he was the friend of popular
liberty, but from an entirely selfish motive. Rbsselmann,
mayor of Colmar, whom the bishop had expelled, re-entered
Colmar in a wine cask, incited the citizens to open sedition,
and opened the gates to the Habsburg. The citizens after-
wards gained, unassisted, a complete victory over the bishop at
Eckwersheim. A feud broke out subsequently between Ru-
dolf and the city of Basel on occasion of a tournament, during
which the nobles, attempting to insnare the pretty daughters

.60 Uy

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THE INTERREGNUM

of the citizens, were driven with broken heads out of the city,
A- o. 1267.

The civil disturbances that took place in Cologne are most
worthy of remark. The archbishop, Conrad von Hochstetten,
(since 1237,) made the dissension between the pope and the
emperor conduce to his own aggrandizement, by supporting
himself on the authority of the former. His first great feud
with Simon, bishop of Paderborn and Osnabruck, and the
dukes of Saxony, was chiefly carried on in his name by the
frontier count, Engelbert, who gained a signal victory on the
Wulfrich near Dortmund, A. d. 1254. This archbishop after-
wards attempted to deprive the cities of their privileges. His
first attack was directed against Aix-la-Chapelle, as the
weakest point ; but this city had been placed by the emperor
under the protection of Guillaume, Comte de Juliers, by whom
the archbishop was defeated and taken prisoner ; his first act,
on regaining his liberty, was to take advantage of the emperor's
absence in Italy, in order to encroach upon the privileges of
the citizens of Cologne by striking a new coinage, which the
citizens protesting against, he fled to Bonn, where he threw
up fortifications. His siege of Cologne, during which he at-
tempted to bombard the city by casting immense stones across
the Rhine from Deutz, was unsuccessful and a reconciliation
took place. It was in the presence of the newly-elected em-
peror, William of Holland, that Conrad laid the foundation-
stone to the great cathedral of Cologne. Unable to reduce
the city beneath his authority by force, Conrad had recourse
to stratagem, and incited the guilds of mechanics, particularly
the weavers, (there were not less than thirty thousand looms in
the city,) against the great burgher families, who were ex-
pelled, a. d. 1258. Conrad shortly afterwards died, and was
succeeded by Engelbert von Falkenberg, [a. d. 1261,] who
pursued the system of his predecessor, seized the city keys,
fortified the towers of Beyen and Ryle, and surrounded the
whole city with watch-towers, which he garrisoned with his
mercenaries, and, relying upon his power, began to lay the
city under contribution. One of the citizens, Eberhard von
Buttermarkt, roused to indignation by this insolence, exhorted
the people to conciliate the burgher families, the guardians of
the ancient liberties of Cologne and the promoters of her
glory, and to unite against their common enemy, the arch*

THE INTERREGNUM

bishop. The burgher families were consequently recalled,
and Mathias Overstolz, placing himself at their head, stormed
the archbishop's watch-towers and freed the city, a. d. 1262.
Engelbert made a feigned submission, but subsequently re-
treated to Rome, whence he placed the city under an interdict.
On his return, he was anticipated in an attempt to take Co-
logne by surprise, by the citizens, who seized his person. On
his restoration to liberty, he had recourse to his former arti-
fice, and again attempted to incite the weavers against the
burgesses ; this time, however, the latter were prepared for
the event, and being, moreover, favoured by the disinclin-
ation of the rest of the citizens to espouse the archbishop's
quarrel, easily overcame their antagonists. Engelbert was
more successful in his next plan, that of creating dissension
among the burgesses themselves, by exciting the jealousy
of the family of Weissen against the more prosperous and
superior one of the Overstolze. The heads of the family
of Weissen, Louis and Gottschalk, fell in battle, the rest fled ;
but a hole being made in the wall during the night by one of
their partisans, named Habenichts, (Lackall,) they again pene-
trated into the city. Old Mathias Overstolz was killed in the
fight that took place in the streets, whence his party succeeded
in repelling the assailants. After this unnecessary bloodshed,
the city factions discovered that they were merely the arch-
bishop's tools, and a reconciliation took place. Aix-la-Chapelle,
equally harassed by Engelbert, who also possessed that bishopric,
placed herself under the protection of Guillaume, Comte de
J uliers, and of Otto, Earl of Gueldres. A bloody feud ensued.
Engelbert was taken prisoner in the battle of Lechenich and
shut up in an iron cage, and the Comte de Juliers, attempting
to rule despotically over Aix-la-Chapelle, fell, together with
his three sons, beneath the axes of the butchers, a. d. 1267.
Disturbances broke out in Liege, A. d. 1277. The bishop,
Henry, erected a fortification in the city, reduced the citizens
to slavery, and led the most profligate life. He was de-
posed, but getting his successor, John, who was a very cor-
pulent man, into his power, had him bound with ropes on a
horse, and trotted to death. Henry was at length assassinated
by the citizens. These disputes between the citizens and the
bishop were of common occurrence in almost every city. The
inhabitants of Hameln were unsuccessful in their contest with

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THE INTERREGNUM

the bishop of Minden, to whom [a. d. 1259] the patronage of
the city had been resigned by the abbot of Fulda. The Count
von Everstein, the city patron, and the citizens opposed the
bishop, but were defeated, and several of them taken prisoners.
In 1252, the citizens of Leipsig destroyed the Zwingburg, the
fastness of the despotic abbot of St. Augustin ; those of Halle
protected the Jews [a. d. 1261] against the archbishop, Ru-
precht von Magdeburg, by whom they were persecuted ; those
of Wiirzburg compelled the bishop, Tring, [a. d. 1265,] to
raise the interdict laid upon them, and defeated his successor,
Berthold, in a pitched battle at Kitzingen, a. d. 1269. The
citizens of Augsburg also defeated their bishop, Hartmann,
on the Hamelberg.

These examples show the spirit then reigning in the cities
which, more particularly in Swabia and Franconia, were in-
cessantly at open enmity with the petty nobility, (whose num-
bers were greatly increased by the subdivision that took
place within these two duchies,) sometimes on account of the
numerous Pfahlh'urger or enfranchised citizens, peasants who
enrolled themselves among the citizens in order to escape from
the tyranny of the petty lords ; sometimes on account of the
merchants, who were either pillaged by the coble knights,
or allowed a safe passage on payment of a heavy toll.
The tolls on the Rhine and the Neckar formed a perpetual
subject of dispute. The ruins of the fastnesses with which
these robber knights crowned the heights on the banks of
these rivers, and whence they waylaid the travelling mer-
chants, still stand, picturesque memorials of those wild and
lawless times. The cities of Swabia, particularly Reutlingeu
and Esslingen, carried on a lengthy contest with Ulrich, count
of Wurtemberg, the bitterest enemy and the destroyer of cities,
whose example on the Neckar was followed by the nobles on
the Rhine. The exaction of a fresh and heavy toll on pass-
ing the Rheinfels, by Count Diether von Katzenellenbogen
gave rise to the Rhenish league, to which the first impulse w«s
given by Arnold de Turri, (of the Thurm, tower,) a citizen of
Mayence, against the exactions and robberies of the nobles,
A. D. 1247. The confederation, which at first solely consisted
of Mayence, Worms, Spires, Basel, and Strassburg, was re-
newed after the death of Conrad IV., [a. d. 1255,] and was
shortly swelled by sixty of the Rhenish and Swabian towns.

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24 THE HIERARCHY.

In 1271, it had gained great strength, and a considerable
number of the fastnesses of the robber knights were destroyed,
but it never attained the note enjoyed by the great northern
Hansa.

The hopes of Germany, which lay, as it were, buried in the
tomb of the last of the Hohenstaufen, revived with the main-
tenance of civil right by the cities, and a glorious prospect of
civil liberty and of common weal opened to view.

PART XII.

SUMMIT OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

CLXIL The Hierarchy.

The spirit of religion, originally mild and lowly, had, at the
period of which we treat, gradually assumed a character of
fervid devotion and extravagant enthusiasm. The zealots of
the times sought to realize a heaven upon earth, where God
was to be represented by his vicegerent the pope, the angels
by the immaculate priesthood, and heaven itself by the church,
to which those whose lives were not entirely devoted to the
service of God, the laity, mere dwellers on the outskirts of
heaven, were to be subordinate.

The layman, the emperor, and the empire were thus to be
subordinate to the priest, the pope, and the church, and the
whole world was to be governed by a great theocracy, of
which the pope was the head. The Sachsenspiegel, or Saxon
code, says : " God sent two swords on earth for the protection
of Christendom, and gave to the pope the spiritual, to the em-
peror the temporal one : " the Schwabenspiegel, that was
shortly afterwards compiled in order to suit the schemes of
the church of Rome, altered the sense thus : " God, now the
Prince of Peace, left two swords here upon earth, on his ascen-
sion into heaven, for the protection of Christendom, both of

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THE HIEEARCHY.

which he consigned to St. Peter, one for temporal, the other
for spiritual rule. The temporal sword is lent by the pope
to the emperor. The spiritual sword is held by the pope
himself."

The subordination of all the princes of the world to a higher
power, and the combination of all the nations of the earth into
one vast and universal community, was in truth a grand and
sublime idea ; but unfortunately for its realization, the ecclesi-
astical shepherds allowed too much of earthly passion and of
sordid interest to cling to them in their elevated and almost
superhuman position, and gave an undue preponderance to
the Italians in the universal community of nations, in which
men were to regard each other as the children of the God of
peace and love, in whose presence strife was to cease. That
mutual concord is productive of mutual benefit has long been
a received truth. The long-lost vigour restored by the Ger-
man conqueror to ancient Rome, was repaid by the acquisition
of learning, and of the knowledge and love of art, for which
Germany owes, and ever must owe, a heavy debt of gratitude
to Italy, and especially to the church of Rome ; even the de-
terioration of German nationality by the preponderance of
that of Rome may be viewed as the inevitable result of this
universal and historical fact. The national rights of Germany
nevertheless must not, as too often has been the case, be set
aside, nor their violation be forgotten.

The Roman pontiff solely attained his gigantic power by
undermining the German empire ; and the success attending
his schemes, far from being the result of the power of mind
over matter, or of the superiority of the Italian over the Ger-
man nation, may be chiefly ascribed to the treason of the great
vassals of the crown, who, at first unable to assert their in-
dependence, willingly confederated with the pope, whom they
regarded as a half-independent sovereign, whose power as the
head of the nations of Italy might serve to counterpoise that
of the emperor, and countenanced the dismemberment of Lom-
bardy from the empire, the seizure of Lower Italy and of the
Burgundian Arelat by the French, and the sole election of
French or Italian popes. Italy could never have gained this
novel preponderance without the aid of the princes of Ger-
many. The election of German popes had been upheld by the
emperors. If the ancient Roman empire had been overthrown

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by Germans ; if their victories over the Moors, the Hungari-
ans, and the Slavonians had saved Christendom from ruin,
and the whole heart of Europe was undeniably their own,
why then should not Germany also preponderate in the church,
and the pope be a German by birth ? The germanization
of the church would have been effected by the emperors
had they not been abandoned and betrayed by the princes of
the empire. It has been objected, that the sovereignty and
tyranny of the emperor would have been a worse evil, and
that the church of Rome would have been reduced in Ger-
many to the state in which she now is in Russia ; a consola-
tory reflection, founded upon an utter misapprehension of the
national feeling throughout Germany. Had the unity of the
empire and its external power been preserved under the em-
peror, civil and mental liberty would, in all probability, have
reached a much higher pitch than they possibly could un-
der a polygarchy influenced by the inimical and malicious
foreigner.

By the destruction of the Hohenstaufen, the popes, at the
head of the Italians, gained a complete victory over the em-
perors, who until now had been at the head of the nations of
Germany, but the means of which they made use in the pur-
suance of their schemes were exactly contrary to the tenets of
the religion they professed to teach, nor was their vocation as
vicegerents of Christ upon earth at all compatible with the
policy by means of which, leagued with France, they pursued
their plans in Italy, and continually injured, harassed, and
degraded the Germans as a nation. For this purely political and
national purpose, means were continually made use of so glaring-
ly unjust and criminal, that the measure of offence was at length
complete, and called forth that fearful reaction of German na-
tionality, known as the Reformation. From the eleventh to
the sixteenth century, it was the policy of Rome, as, since that
period, it has ever been that of France, to weaken, to disunite,
and to subdue Germany.

The remainder of the princes of Christendom were, after
the fall of the German emperors, either too weak still to oppose
the pope, or entered into alliance with, and supported him ; as,
for instance, the French monarch, whom he treated on that
account with a condescension never practised by him towards
sn emperor of Germany.

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The power of the pope over the church was absolute. Hia
authority over the councils, which he convoked at pleasure,
was uncontrolled. The canons, (canones,) or public decrees,
were drawn up under his direction in the general council, and
his private decrees, drawn up without its assistance, such
as decretalia, bullm et brevia, were of equal weight. The
whole of these laws formed the body of the canon or ecclesi-
astical law (corpus juris canonici S. ecclesiastici). The first
collection of Gratian, which, in 1151, had been opposed as the
new Roman law to the resuscitated old civil Roman law
made use of by the emperor Frederick Barbarossa for the
confirmation of his power, was, in 1234, completed and ratified
by the pope, Gregory IX. In order to limit the power of the
archbishops, which threatened to endanger his authority, the
pope gradually withdrew the bishops from beneath their juris-
diction, and rendered them, as well as the monkish orders,
solely dependent upon the pontifical chair. His next step
was to give unlimited extension to the right of appeal from
the lower courts to Rome, and, consequently, exemption or
freedom from all other jurisdiction except that of the pope.
Multitudes now poured into Rome with demands for justice,
and the legates, for still greater convenience, travelled into
every country and administered justice in the name of the
pope. The appointment to ecclesiastical offices depended on
him alone. The exclusion of the imperial vote had been
gained in the great dispute concerning right of investiture.
The power of the chapters was limited by papal reservations.
At first the pope asserted his right to induct, independently
of the episcopal chapters, successors to those bishops who died
within a circle of two days' journey round Rome, an event of
very frequent occurrence, Rome, on account of the right of
appeal, being always filled with foreign clergy, and no bishop
being confirmed in his dignity unless he appeared there in
person. Before long the reservation was extended, and the
pope decreed that on him alone depended the nomination to
all ecclesiastical dignities that fell vacant during certain months,
and finally asserted his right of removing or deposing the
bishops, and of founding and of holding the nomination to new
benefices. The pope, moreover, created, since the crusades,
titular or suffragan bishops, possessed of no real bishoprics,
but bearing the title of one in the Holy Land, (in partibm

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itffidclium,) that had to be conquered before they could be in-
stalled. These titular bishops were assisted by real bishops,
who, in fact, acted as papal overseers. The pope also pos-
sessed the right, as the monarch of the Christian world, of
taxing the whole of Christendom, The taxes were partly di-
rect, partly indirect. The former were styled annates or
yearly allowances, and were merely levied upon the church,
the laity contributing richly enough in other ways. Since the
twelfth century, it had been the custom to pay a portion of
the income of each ecclesiastical office to the pope, who, before
long, claimed the whole income of the first year of installation.
The indirect taxes were far more numerous. Both priests and
laymen were taxed for the crusades and other pious purposes.
The chattels of the bishops and abbots, which, on their de-
cease, formerly fell to the emperor, were now inherited by the
pope. Simony, so heavily visited upon laymen by the pontiff,
was now practised by himself, and the sale of ecclesiastical
dignities to the highest bidder, was by no means of rare oc-
currence.

The most terrible weapons wielded by the pope, were the
ecclesiastical punishments in three classes ; excommunication,
or simple exclusion from the church ; the bann, by which the
criminal was outlawed and his murder declared a duty ; and
the interdict, which prohibited the exercise of church service

in the city or country in which the excommunicant dwelt.

These spiritual weapons were supported by an unlimited ter-
ritorial possession, feudal right, an armed force, and an inex-
haustible source of ever-increasing wealth. The pope was a
temporal prince in the state of the church ; the archbishops,
bishops, and abbots in the empire, were no less temporal
princes in their dominions. The amount of the pontifical
treasury was every century swelled by tithes, indulgences, and
fines, by offerings to the saints, by the gifts of the pious or the
penitent

The external power of the church was, nevertheless, sur-
passed by its internal, moral power. Had this moral power
remained untinctured by the insolence resulting from unlimited
rule, it would have become a blessing to every nation. But
ordinances merely calculated to increase external authority
were added to the simple tenets of the Christian religion.
The most important of these new dogmas was the sanctity of

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celibacy, which, since the time of Gregory IV., had been im-
posed as a duty upon the priesthood, and which at once broke
every tie between them and the rest of mankind. The prac-
tice of celibacy caused them to be regarded in the superstition
of the times as beings of angelic purity. The ceremony of
ordination, from which the vow of eternal chastity was in-
separable, raised the consecrated priest above every earthly
passion, and bestowed upon him the power of holding direct
intercourse with the Deity, whilst the layman could only hold
indirect intercourse with him by means of the priest. In order
to strengthen this belief, the mass, during which the priest
holds up the Deity to the view of the layman, and confession,
in which the layman receives remission of his sins in the name
of God from the priest, were greatly increased in importance
and signification. During the celebration of the Lord's sup-
per, the chalice was at first withdrawn from the lower and
plebeian classes, and, before long, from all laymen, and the
priests alone were declared worthy of partaking of it. Thus
was the equality of all mankind in the sight of God, as an-
nounced by the Saviour of the world, destroyed. The study
of the Bible was, for similar purposes, also prohibited to all
laymen.

External worship, the Roman liturgy, the solemnization of
church festivals, were amplified. Innumerable new saints ap-
peared, all of whom required veneration, particular churches,
chapels, festivals, and prayers. The number of relics, to which
pilgrimages were made, consequently, also incrreased.* Pe-
nances multiplied, among others, the fasts, at first so simple.
Then came the ceremonies. The poetical feeling of the age,
the idleness of the monks, and even the jealousy between their
various orders, demanded variety. f Innumerable particular
festivals, processions, reb'gious exhibitions, which often de-

• One of the most extraordinary pilgrimages was founded by Frederick,
archbishop of Treves, a. d. 1273, to the grave of St Willibrod at Epter-
nach, where a general dance in her honour was performed by the pil-
grims, who, linked together, made two steps forward, one backward, and
then zigzagged off to the right and left. This custom was kept up until
very lately.

f Juliana, a nun at Liege, having, in 1230, seen the full moon with a
piece out of it in a vision, and being told by a voice from heaven, that
this signified the want of another great church festival, Urban IV. in*
•tivited that of Corpus-Chxiati.

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generated to the most extravagant popular amusements, were
instituted and varied according to the customs of different
countries, or according to the peculiar history of the saint.
Thus, for instance, the ass on which Christ entered Jerusa-
lem, gave occasion to an ass's festival ; the long fast, com-
mencing with Easter, was prepared for by the most frantic
gaiety, the present carnival, as if to wear out old sins by giving
vent to them. Prayer was, on the other hand, as greatly sim-
plified, and the rosary, which assisted the repetition of the
same prayer by counting with the fingers, was introduced.

The dogma most important in its results, was the remis-
sion of sins, or absolution. No one by repentance could find
grace before God unless first declared free from sin by the
priest, and absolution, at first solely obtained by severe per-
sonal penance, was ere long much oftener purchased with
money ; and in order to implant the necessity of absolution
more deeply in the minds of the people, the power of Satan,
eternal torments in hell, and the pains suffered in purgatory
until absolution had been obtained from some priest on earth,
were forcibly depictured. Still, notwithstanding the mis-
chievous and bad tendency of these abuses, the enormous num-
ber of pious institutions and donations by which the church
was enriched, afford a touching proof of the disposition of the
people, who disinterestedly sacrificed their worldly wealth for
the salvation of the dead, for parents, husbands, wives, and
children. Thus did the church, for its ambitious purposes,
abuse man's purer and gentler feelings.

The childlike belief in the direct intercourse between the
visible and invisible world, and that of men with God, was the
source of the deep poetical feeling and enthusiasm that cha-
racterize these times ; and the popular respect for all that was
or seemed to be holy, is the finest as well as the most striking
trait of the middle ages.*

Germany was, at that period, divided into the following
ecclesiastical provinces : — 1. The archbishopric of Treves, with

• In 1465, the city of Berne, when the pyx with the holy of holies
was stolen from the high altar in the cathedral, went into deep mourning
on account of this proof of the anger of God. Gambling and luxury
were abolished, splendour in apparel restricted, swearing severely pun-
ished, the mora.8 of the citizens thoroughly reformed. — Wirt, History of
Switzerland.

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«he bishoprics of Toul, Verdun, Metz. 2. The archbishopric
of Mayence, the bishoprics of Spires, Strasbourg, Worms,
Augsburg, Constance, Coire, Wiirzburg, Eichstadt, Pader-
born, Halberstadt, Hildesheim, Verden, Bamberg. 3. The
archbishopric of Cologne, the bishoprics of Liege, Utrecht,
Osnabriick, Munden, Munster. 4. The archbishopric of
Salzburg, the bishoprics of Ratisbon, Freisingen, Passau,
Brixen, Gurck, Chiemsee, Seckau, Lavant, Olmiitz. 5. The
archbishopric of Bremen, the bishoprics of LUbeck, (Olden-
burg,) Schwerin, (Mecklenburg,) Ratzeburg, Camin, Schles-
wig. 6. The archbishopric of Magdeburg, the bishoprics of
Zeiz, (Naumburg,) Merseburg, Misnia, Brandenburg, Lebus,
Havelberg. 7. The archbishopric of Besancon, the bishoprics
of Basle, Lausanne, Sion, Geneva. 8. The archbishopric of
Prague, the bishoprics of Leutmeritz, Kb'nigsgratz. To these
were added, 9. The archbishopric of Riga, with the bishoprics
Ermeland, Culm, Pomesania, Samland, Reval, Dorpat, Oesel.
The bishopric of Breslau was independent. In the Nether-
lands, the bishoprics of Cammerich, (Cam bray,) Doornik,
(Tournay,) and Arras, were under the jurisdiction of the arch-
bishopric of Rheims. The bishopric of Trent belonged to
the patriarchate of Aglar (Aquileia). The archbishoprics
and bishoprics belonging to the empire in Italy and the Arelat
had long been lost.

Monasteries and nunneries rapidly increased in number.
The oldest and richest were canonries or prebends, (similar
to the episcopal chapters,) generally sinecures for the nobility.
Even in the common monasteries the harder work was commit-
ted to the lay-brothers, (fratres,) whilst the actual monks
(patres) merely prayed and sang.* A reaction in the pride
and laziness of monastic life was, however, produced by some
pious men who reformed the Benedictine orders, and reintro-
duced the severest discipline and complete renunciation of the
world, as the Carthusians, the Premonstratenses, the Cis-
tercians, etc.,f and finally, the great begging orders, the

• In some of the largest and richest monasteries, which contained
several hundred monks, the choir service was carried on for centnries
incessantly by day and by night, the monks relieving each other by turns.
This was the case at Corbey, in Westphalia, and at St. Maurice, in the
Canton Vaud.

t The order of the Carmelites was founded during the cnisades on
Mount Gunnel, where the prophet Eiias formerly dwelt in seclusion.

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Franciscans and Dominicans, of whom mention has already
been made as the pope's most devoted servants, his spiritual
mercenaries or church police, who watched over his interest
in different countries. Before long a jealousy arose between
these two numerous orders, and a dispute broke out among
the Franciscans, some of whom wished to modify the severity
of the rules of their order, and to alter the vow of poverty so
as to enable them to become, not the possessors, but the man-
agers of property, whilst others resolved to persevere in the
practice of the most abject poverty, humility, and penance.
The latter, thoroughly animated with the spirit of the first
teachers of Christianity, endangered the pope, by openly
and zealously preaching against the worldliness and luxury
of the church, in consequence of which Innocent IV. decided
against them and countenanced the opposite party, A. D. 1245.
The Franciscans refused to obey, and became martyrs in the
cause. The contest was of long duration. They wrote openly
against the pope, often supported the emperor against the
church, and although delivered up to their bitterest enemies,
the Dominicans, by whom they were burnt as heretics, their
tenets continued to be upheld by some of the monks, and even
influenced the universities.

At this period, German mysticism had already ceded to
Italian scholasticism. The founder of this mysticism was, as
has already been mentioned, the count and abbot, Hugh de
St. Victoire. His Gothic system was grounded on the three
original powers of the Deity, and their effect on the universe.
The Godhead is triple, as Power, Wisdom, and Goodness ;
the universe is triple, as heaven, earth, and hell ; the human
soul is triple, in so far as it can freely revert to each of these
three. In the chevaleresque spirit of the times, Hugh ad-
monished men to bid defiance to the double spells of sense,
(hell,) and of reason, (earth,) with eyes fixed in constant
adoration on heaven ; like the knight, who, intent upon freeing
his beloved, fights his way through enchanted forests guarded
by monsters. The power by which he is enabled to defy
danger and to rise superior to temptation being pure, spotless

love. Incited by this example, Honorius, (Augustodu-

nensis, of Augst, near Basle,) set up another mystical system,
in which he represented the struggle of the soul, not like
Hugo, as a courageous rejection of the world, bat as a thorough

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comprehension of the universe. He compared the world to a
harp, whose discords were all reducible to harmony ; and main*
tained that, although God might have departed from his ori-
ginal unity in the hostile contrasts in the world, man, like a
little god, possessed the power of regaining the sense of di-
vine unity by a knowledge of the harmony of the universe. —
Rupert von Duiz, on the other hand, sought for manifestations
of the Divine essence not so much in nature as in time, in
history. He beheld God the Father manifested in the ancient
pagan times until the birth of Christ, God the Son in the
Christian and present times, and believed that God the Holy
Ghost would be manifested at a third and future period. Thus,
Hugh imaged Divine power, Honorius Divine beauty, and
Rupert applied both to daily life, drew heaven down to the
earth, the eternal into the finite. The idea of Hugh coincided
with Christian knighthood, that of Honorius with Christian
art, that of Rupert with great historical advance in civiliza-
tion by a transmutation of forms. The thoughts of these
three men portray the spirit of their times.

These mystic philosophers flourished during the reign of
Barbarossa, and were succeeded by another, Albert the Great,
a Swabian nobleman of the house of Bollstadt, bishop of Ra-
tisbon, (1280,) whose name shone brightly as the star of the
Staufen fell. His mind, although enriched with all the learn-
ing of the age, (by the ignorant he was suspected of magic,)
was deeply imbued with Italian scholasticism. Still, although
he joined the Italian philosophers, and became a thorough
papist, he was distinguished from the rest of the scholastics
by being the first who again made nature his study. He also
sought to explain the idea of God theoretically, without re*
ference to the ordinances of the church, but was weak enough
to exercise his wit on this apparently open way of research for
the mere purpose of attempting to prove that every papist

dogma was both natural and necessary. Among the papist

zealots in the twelfth century was the oracle of the Guelphs,
Geroch, provost at Reichersperg, the founder of Ultra-
montanism in Bavaria. He preached the destruction of all
temporal kingdoms and the supremacy of the pope. The lux-
ury of the ecclesiastics and the stupidity and licence of tin*
monks, so glaringly opposed to the doctrines they professed,
were, nevertheless, uusparingly ridiculed by the pen and

▼UL. u. •

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pencil. NigeHus Wireker wrote, at the close of the twelfth
century, a biting satire (Bmnellus, seu speculum stultorum)
against the monks. At a later period, the spirit of ridicule
gained increased force, being not only tolerated but fostered
in the court of the emperor Frederick II., and characterizes
the songs of the Minnesingers.*

The visions (visiones, revelationes) of ecstatic seers, dreamy
images supposed to reveal the profoundest secrets of hea-
venly wisdom, formed the transition from mysticism to poetry.
The first and most remarkable of these seers are St. Hilde-
garde of Bingen, and her sister Elisabeth, in the twelfth cen-
tury ; who were followed, in the thirteenth century, by St.
Gertrude, and her sister Matilda, in Mansfeld ; and in the
Netherlands, by Maria von Ognis and Lydtwit. Caesar von
Heisterbach and Jordan wrote in general upon the visions of
their times ; and Henry von Klingenberg, a work upon the
angels. The late discoveries in magnetism confirm the fact
of these celebrated seers having been somnambulists. Highly-
wrought poetical imagery pre-eminently distinguishes the
visions of St. Hildegarde.

The Virgin Mary, the ideal of chastity and beauty, the
model of piety for the women and the object of the ecstatic
devotion of the men, formed the chief subject of the poetry of
the times. The Latin work of the monk Potho glows with love
and adoration ; but the most valuable works of the age are, the
Life of Mary, and hymns in her praise, written in German in
the twelfth century, by Wernher, Philip the Carthusian,
Conrad von Wurzburg, Conrad von Hennesfurt, and by several
anonymous authors ; besides innumerable legends. Unlike
the later legends distinguished for their wonders, repetitions,
bad taste, boasting and flattery of many an ecclesiastical ty-
rant, of many a rich princess, who bequeathed their wealth to
the church and were consequently canonized, those of this period
are remarkable for their excellence, especially those in which a
moral precept or a Christian tenet was artfully wound up with
the history of a saint.f Most of the legends are written

* Art also exercised its wit. In the Strasburg cathedral there was
a group in stone representing a boar carrying the holy water-pot and
sprinkling brush, a wolf the cross, a hare the taper, a pig and a goat a
box of relics, in which lay a sleeping fox, and an ass reading mass, whilst
a cat acted as reading desk.

f Those legends, for instance, are extremely beautiful in wJuch Hi*

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

in Latin. Several of the German ones are in verse, that of
St. Gregory by the celebrated poet Hartmann von Aue, that
of St. George by Rein hot von Doren, that of St. Alexius by
Conrad von Wiirzburg, that of St. Elisabeth by Conrad von
Marburg and John Rote, Barlaam and Josaphat by Rudolf
von Hohenems, and several others. Among the German
poems on the life of Christ, " The Crucified," by John
von Falkenstein, is pre-eminent. Besides these there are a
multitude of parables, prayers, hymns, and pious effusions by
tlte Swabian Minnesingers, whose heroic poetry and amorous
ditties are also pervaded by the fear and reverence of God
distinctive of their times. Several excellent sermons written
in the thirteenth century in the Swabian dialect, by Berthold
von Regensburg, (Ratisbon,) are still extant. Rudolf von
Hohenems translated the Bible, up to the death of Solomon,
in verse, for Henry Raspe the Bad, and intermixed it with
legends and historical accounts. The celebrated Chronicle of
the Emperors is also similarly interwoven with numerous and
extremely fine legends ; also Enikel's Universal Chronicle,

CLXIII. Gothic architecture.

Ecclesiastical architecture took its rise from the Romans
and Byzantines. After the crusades, and under the Hohen-
staufen, a new style of architecture arose in Germany, far
superior to the Byzantine in sublimity and beauty ; the
churches were built of a greater size, the towers became more
lofty, lightness and beauty of form were studied, the pointed
arch replaced the rounded one, and architecture was render-
ed altogether more symbolical in design. This new and

divine power of innocence is set forth, such as those of the childhood of
Christ. Innocence struggling against and overcoming every earthly sor-
row, as in the legend of the emperor Octavianus ; its victory over earthly
desires, as in that of St. Genoveva. The triumph of Christianity over
paganism, of faith over worldly wisdom, is often the favourite subject, and
is well described in the legend of St. Faustinianus. The fidelity with
which the knight, conscious of his want of spiritual wisdom, serves the
saint, is praised in that of St. Christopher. Faith and the force of will
triumph over the temptations of the world in the legend of St. Antony.
Faith and repentance snatch the sinner from the path of vice in that of
8t Magdalene. And the victory of patient hope and faith over torture
'Uath is recorded with boundless triumph in that of all the martyrs.

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36 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURK

thoroughly German style was denominated the Gothic* Thi§
art was cultivated and exercised by a large civil corporation.
At an earlier period every monastery had its working-monks,
(operarii,) architect, sculptor, painter, musician ; but, in the
thirteenth century, the great guild of masons and stonemasons
was formed in the cities, who adopted in the service of the
church its mystical ideas, and eternalized them in their gigantic
labours. Their secret was preserved in the guild as the heri-
tage of its members, who enjoyed great privileges and wert,
termed Free-masons, their art the royal one. In Upper Ger-
many, for instance, at Ulm, this guild even ruled the city foi
some time, a circumstance that explains the existence of so
many fine churches in that city, in all of which the same idea,
the same rules may be traced.

The churches were skilfully adorned with carved work,
rich ornaments, pillars, and pictures, and built in such a man-
ner as to echo and give the finest tone to music. At length
the Germans acquired the grand idea of expressing the sub-
limity of the Deity by means of architectural designs ; and
whilst the churches still served their former purpose, the
rough masses of stone became fraught with meaning. The
majestic edifices still stand to bear witness to the spirit to
which they owed their rise. The buildings were to be lofty
and large, striking the eye with wonder and filling the heart
with the feeling of immensity, for the God to whom the tem-
ple is raised is great and sublime. The appearance of heavi-
ness was to be carefully avoided, art was to be hidden and its
creations to spring forth with the apparent ease of a plant
from the soil, for faith in God is neither forced nor oppressive,
but free, natural, and sublime. The building must be lofty,
the columns and the pillars shoot like plants and trees up-
wards towards the light, and terminate in high and pointed
towers, for faith aspires to heaven. The altar must stand to-
wards the East, whence came the Saviour. The chancel, the
holy of holies, only trodden by the priest, must be separated

* The word Gothic has no reference either to the ancient Goths, Go-
thic architecture having taken its rise under the Hohenstaufen, or to
the Spaniards, it having been first introduced into Spain by the masters
John and Simon of Cologne, by whom the cathedral at Burgos was
erected. The term "Gothic" has a later and an Italian origin, tin
Italians applying it to German architecture to denote its barbarity.

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GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

finom the aisle, where stood the people, for the priesthood is
nearer than the people to the Deity. Finally, the sublimity
of the whole edifice was to be veiled by rich and beauteous
ornaments, the straight and abrupt lines were to be bent into a
thousand elegant curves and degrees, manifold as the colours of
the prism, whilst the massive edifice rose as if from blocks of
living stone, for God is hidden in the universe, in nature and
in endless variety. All these ornaments had also one princi-
pal form, as if the idea of the whole pervaded each minute
particle. This form is the rose in the windows, doors, arches,
pillar ornaments ; and borne by it, or blossoming out of it, the
cross. By the rose is signified the world, life ; by the cross,
faith and the Deity. A cross within the rose was in the
middle ages the general symbol of the Deity.*

The building was the work of centuries. The plan devised
by the bold genius of one man required unborn generations to
complete, for the live-long toil of thousands and thousands of
skilful hands was necessary to impress the hard stone with the
master's thought. With genuine self-denial and freedom from
a mania for improvement, artists of equal skill followed in
spirit and in thought the first laid-down plan, and each in
turn, ambitious for his work and not for a name, have, almost
all, the inventor and the perfecter, remained utterly unknown.
The cathedral of Cologne is, both in size and in idea, the
greatest of these works of wonder. It was commenced in 1248 ;
the chancel was finished in 1320. It is still in an unfinished
state, none of its towers are completed, and yet it is the loftiest
building in the world, and surpasses all as a work of art.
Ranking next to it stands the Strasbourg cathedral, begun in
101 o, the plan of its celebrated tower was designed in 1276,

• The sublimity of Gothic architecture was regulated by a scale ac-
cording to law. All the archieptscopal cathedrals had three towers, two
in front and one over the high altar. All episcopal ones had two on the
western side. All parish churches one in front, or where the aisle joins
the chancel. All chapels of ease, merely a belfry. Among the monastic
churches, those of the Benedictines had two towers, between the chancel
and the aisle ; those of the Cistercians, one over the high altar ; those of
the Carthusians, a very high tower on the western side ; those of the
begging orders, merely a belfry, that of the Franciscans beiore, and that
of the Capuchins over the door. The position of the altar to the east,
was the same in all churches. The Jesuit and Protestant churches, at a
Jater period, aped the old Roman architecture, and introduced tasteless
«*ruamenu and irretfuUritr.

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

by Erwin von Steinbaeh, and the tower itself at length com-
pleted in 1439, by John Hiitz of Cologne. The other tower
is still wanting. Among the other great works of this pe-
riod, may be enumerated the splendid churches of Freiburg in
Breisgau, Ulm, Erfurt, Marburg, Wlirzburg, Nuremberg,
Ratisbon, Oppenheim, Esslingen, Wimpfen, Zanten, Metz,
Frankfurt, Tann, Naumburg, Halberstadt, Misnia, the St
Stephen's church at Vienna ; at a later date, the stately edi-
fices at Prague, and numerous fine churches in the Nether-
lands. The palaces of Barbarossa at Hagenau and Gelnhau-
sen have long been destroyed, besides many churches, for
instance, at Paulinzelle, etc. Many of the town-council
houses, as well as many of the cathedrals, still retain their an-
cient beauty.

Among the other arts in the service of religion, those of the
sculptor, the founder, and the carver, were early put into re-
quisition in Germany for the adornment of the churches.
Fine statues existed as early as the age of the Ottos, for in-
stance, that of Otto I. at Magdeburg, and that in the church
at Naumburg of the time of Otto III. In Germany sculpture
never rose essentially above architecture in merit. The secret
of the great effect produced by art in the middle ages, was the
accordance of every separate part with the whole, like the dif-
ferent organs of life, which, when united, expressed the idea
no single part could represent, and produced a joint effect in
which each art assisted the other. As the wondrous pile
wholly consisted of sculptured materials, sculpture merely ex-
erted its skill in shafts and decorations, whilst painted win-
dows and frescoes gave light and colouring to each object, and
the subject of each picture accorded with all around. Then
the pile resounded and spoke like God from the clouds, from
its lofty tower, or alternately sorrowed and rejoiced like man
in the deep-swelling organ. The art of the founder and of the
musician was devoted solely to the service of the church.

The worship of the saints encouraged that of images and
pictures, which was at first violently opposed as heathenish
and idolatrous : thus the people's natural sense of beauty saved
art. The painting of profane subjects was also encouraged,
as the picture of the battle of Merseburg, celebrated by con-
temporaries, proves. Painting also rose to greater perfection
as architecture advanced. The fine old German paintings ap»

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE

peared after the crusades. The picture of the Saviour, or ot
the Virgin, or of a saint, ever adorned the high altar. All
the subordinate pictures were to correspond with and refer to
that over the altar, and to represent the actions, the miracles,
or the symbols of the patron Deity of the church. All repre-
sented sacred objects, or what was holy by profane ones. For
this reason they were, until the fifteenth century, always
painted upon a golden ground, which signified the glory and
brightness of religion. Their subjects, whether landscapes or
figures, bear a character of repose, for the essence of holiness
is calm, childlike simplicity, and the truth of nature. The
first great school of painting appeared in the twelfth and thir-
teenth centuries at Cologne, and probably resulted from the
connexion between the Netherlands and Greece. Its most
celebrated master, in the fourteenth century, was William of
Cologne. A celebrated painter, Henry of Bavaria, flourished
as early as the twelfth century ; in the thirteenth, appeared
Jacob Kern of Nuremberg ; in the fourteenth, a society of
painters formed at Prague, having at its head, Nicolas Wurm-
ser, court painter to the emperor Charles IV. Painting on
glass was afterwards brought to great perfection. Oil paint-
ing was first introduced about this period. This art ap-
pears to have been principally practised in the Netherlands,
and more particularly in the city of Cologne, or, as it was
called during the middle ages, the Holy City. The excellence
and fame of the Colognese school remained unrivalled, and
the works of William unsurpassed, until the commencement of
the fifteenth century, when painting in oils was invented by a
Dutchman, John van Eyk, the first master of the pure German
school. A peculiar style of painting on parchment was prac-
tised in manuscripts. Charlemagne possessed devotional books
ornamented with pictures, and almost all the manuscripts, un-
til quite the latter part of the middle ages, are filled with them
The churches were rendered still more imposing in various
other ways, by the management of the light, the fumes of in-
cense, the measured movements of the priests, the splendour
of their attire, the sumptuous plate, etc. The solemn tones of
the organ accompanied Latin hymns of deep and stirring im-
port. Under the last of the Salic dynasty, Guido d'Arezzo
had introduced harmony into music in Italy. During the
ffign of Barbarossa, Franco of Cologne improved the writing
ftud trbe measure of music.

THE EMTEROR AND THE EMPIRE.

CLXIV. The Emperor and the Empire.

According to the idea of Charlemagne, the German empe-
ror was to be the chief shepherd of the nations of Christen-
dom, and to unite the separate races. The supremacy had,
however, been usurped by the pope, to whom the emperor and
the rest of the sovereigns and princes of Europe were declared
subordinate. In the empire itself the officers of the crown
had become hereditary princes, and their support of the em-
peror depended entirely on their private inclination. The
emperor grasped but a shadowy sceptre, and the imperial dig-
nity now solely owed its preservation to the ancestral power
of the princely families to whom the crown had fallen. The
choice of the powerful princes of the empire therefore fell
purposely upon petty nobles, from whom they had nothing to
fear ; and even when the crown, by bribery and cunning, came
into the possession of a great and princely house, the jealousy
of the rest of the nobility had to be appeased by immense
concessions, and thus, under every circumstance, the princes
increased in wealth and power, whilst the emperor was gradu-
ally impoverished. Imperial investiture had become a mere
form, which could not be refused except on certain occasions.
The Pfalzgraves, formerly intrusted with the management of
the imperial allods, had seized them as hereditary fiefs. The
customs, mines, and other royal dues had been mortgaged to
the church, the princes, and the cities ; the cities had made
themselves independent of the imperial governor, and the free
peasantry, at length, also lost the protection of the crown, and
fell under the jurisdiction of the bishops and princes, who
again strove to enslave them.

The most productive sources of the imperial revenue were
presents in return for grants of privileges, for exemptions from
certain duties, and the legitimation of bastards, or for the set-
tlement of disputed inheritances, with which a disgraceful
trailic was often made. Thus the dukes of Austria paid a
certain sum of money to the emperor for investing them with
their dignity in their own territory, instead of in the diet.
The taxes paid by the Jews for toleration within the empire
also poured a considerable sum into the imperial treasury.
They were on this account termed the lacqueys of the holy
Roman empire. As the universities increased in importance

Digitized by Google

THE EMPEROR AND THE EMPIRE.

they were granted imperial privileges, and the emperor held
the preferment to the professorships, etc., in his gift, which
was managed in his name by a Pfalzgrave nominated for that
purpose ; but, as the dignities bestowed upon poor professors
were not very profitable, the emperors carried on a more lu-
crative traffic in titles, which they bestowed upon the nobility,
raising counts to the dignity of princes, lords to that of counts,
and citizens to the knighthood. By this means there existed
before long numbers of petty princes, having the title of duke,
(dux,) who possessed a mere shadow of an army ; counts, who
were neither provincial nor popular judges ; and all the doctors
in the universities, although they might never have bestrode a
horse, were enrolled as chevaliers or knights. These lollies
commenced in the fourteenth century.

According to the mystical fashion of the times, the different
grades in the empire were illustrated by the number of the
planets. The empire was represented as a great camp with
seven gradations and seven shields, the first of which was
borne by the emperor, the second by the spiritual lords, the
third by the temporal princes, the fourth by the counts of the
empire, the fifth by the knights of the empire, the sixth by
the country nobility, the vassals of the princes, the seventh by
the free citizens and peasantry ; the serfs, who were incapable
of bearing arms, being excluded.

The ancient distinction between the feudal vassals and the
freehold proprietors still existed. Every knight who possess-
ed an ancient allod, however small in extent, considered him-
self equal in birth to the most powerful counts and dukes.
These nobles, originally nobles of the empire, were generally
termed the Semperfreien^ ever free. Their privilege consisted
in their freedom from any bounden duty save to the emperor,
whilst they could be feudal lieges over other freemen ; a pri-
vilege so much the more pertinaciously insisted on by the
weaker among them, who possessed rank without the ability
to maintain it. Hence arose the importance attached to the
ancient allod, to ancestral castles, to ancient names and arms,
in short, to birth, and the haughty contempt with which the
barons of the empire looked down upon the feudal nobility.
There was, in reality, a great difference between the Semper'
freien themselves, and the powerful dukes might often smile

TIIE EMPEROR AND THE EMPIRE.

at the impoverished counts and barons, (Freiherren,) *ho set
themselves up as their equals in rank.

The three spiritual princes, the archbishops of Mayence,
Cologne, and Treves, had anciently precedence in the election
of the emperor and in the administration of the affairs of the
empire. In the fourteenth century, four temporal princes
associated themselves with them, and seized the exclusive right
of electing the emperor and the exercise of the imperial offices as
their hereditary right. The electors, or Churfdrsten, were re-
stricted to the number of seven, on account i f the mystical idea
represented by that number. They were, the archbishop of
Mayence, as arch-chancellor of the German empire ; the arch-
bishop of Treves, as chancellor of Burgundy ; the archbishop
of Cologne, as chancellor of Italy ; the Rhenish Palatine, as
imperial Truchsess, (dapifer,) seneschal, who at the coronation
bore the imperial ball in the procession, and at the banquet
placed the silver dishes on the table ; the duke of Saxon- Wit-
tenberg, as marshal of the empire, who bore the sword before
the emperor, and acted as master of the horse ; the Margrave
of Brandenburg, as imperial chamberlain, who bore the sceptre
before the emperor, held the ewer and basin, and managed the
imperial household ; the king of Bohemia, as imperial cup-
bearer. These Churfursten elected the emperor according to
custom at Frankfurt on the Maine, and crowned him at Aix-
la-Chapelle. The first diet was always opened by the emperor
in person at Nuremberg.

This princely aristocracy, however, could not succeed in
totally excluding the rest of the spiritual lords of the German
church, the jealous nobles of the empire, and the powerful
cities, from the government of the empire, and they were be-
fore long compelled to concede seats and votes in the diet to
the bishops, abbots, petty princes, counts, knights, and bur-
gesses.

After the fall of the Hohenstaufen and the Babenbergs, the
following princely houses or races come chiefly into notice ;
the ancient race of the AVelfs in Brunswick, that of WitteU-
bach in Bavaria, that of Ballenstadt or Ascanien in Branden-
burg and Anhalt, the Zahringer in Baden, that of Wettin in
Misnia, that of Lowen in Brabant and Hesse, then those 01
the counts of Kabsburg, Luxemburg, Wurtemberg. those of

Digitized by L>00j9i£

THE EMPEROR AND THE EMPIRE.

the Truchsesses of Waldburg, Hohenzollern, Nassau, Olden-
burg, all of which acquired great fame at a later period. The
reigning families of Holland, Flanders, Gueldres, Juliers,
Holstein, and Meran became extinct, and only the modern
houses of Burgundy and Lothringia became celebrated in the
west of the empire. To the south of the Alps, the Earl of
Savoy, the Visconti in Milan, the Margraves d'Este in Fer-
rara, gained great power. In Hungary, the ancient royal
house of Arpad reigned for a short period longer, and the old
Slavonian races also in Bohemia, Pomerania, Mecklenburg, (the
descendants of Niclot,) and Silesia (the ancient house of Piast).

The prince only ruled as liege lord over his vassals, among
whom all the clergy, all the counts and knights of the empire,
the imperial cities, and free peasantry were not included, al-
though within his demesnes. In his quality as duke, the
prince had the banner, and a right to summon to the field ;
but the ancient duchies had been dismembered and divided
into several fiefs, and the nobles of the empire marched under
the imperial banner, so that the prince merely took the field
at the head of his immediate vassals. In his quality as count,
he had the right of jurisdiction, but merely over his vassals,
the clergy and all the vassals of the empire being free from
it. The highest officer who acted in the name of the prince,
was the Vxzdom or deputy, (vice-domus,) also termed the cap-
tain of the country. The sheriff of the country, who repre-
sented the prince in feudal matters, and the judge of the court,
who superintended the private possessions of the prince, held
sometimes separate offices. Many of the princes gained the
privilege of no appeal being permitted from their tribunal to
the emperor (privilegium de non appellando). The emperor,
nevertheless, always remained the sole source of legislative
and executive power, so that a privilege of this description
can merely be counted as an exception, and the emperor had
the right of bestowing new privileges, according to his will,
throughout the whole empire, even on the princes his subjects.
Below the upper provincial courts of justice, were especial
provincial courts, answering to the ancient Gau or provincial
courts, (judicia provincialia,) over which a sheriff presided ;
and below these again the old hundred courts, the bailiwicks
with bailitfs and domain judges. The lower courts judged
petty offences j the provincial courts of justice, capital crimes.

44 THE EMPEROR AND THE EMPIRE

The power of the princes was also considerably increased
by the royal dues, such as customs, mines, etc., conceded to
them by the emperor.

The rule of the princes was most despotic in the Slavonian
frontier provinces, where the feeling of personal independence
was not so deeply rooted among the people ; the princes of
Brandenburg, Bohemia, and Austria, consequently, ere long
surpassed the rest in power. In the western countries of Ger-
many there were a greater number of petty princes. After
rendering the emperor dependent upon themselves, the princes
had to carry on a lengthy contest with the lower classes, the
result of which was the institution of the provincial estates.
The example of the princes, who had made their great pos-
sessions independent of the emperor and hereditary, was fol-
lowed in turn by their vassals, the feudal nobility, who en-
deavoured to secure to themselves the free possession of their
estates ; whilst a fixed station, similar to that gained in the
empire by the imperial towns and free peasantry, was also
aspired to by the provincial towns and serfs. The tyranny of
some of the princes, like Frederick the Quarrelsome and Henry
Raspe, occasioned confederacies to be set on foot between the
provincial nobility, the cities, and the peasantry, against the
princes. In other places, the necessities of the princes caused
the imposition of taxes, which, being at that period unheard
of, were laid before the people in the form of requests {Beden,
precaria). Hostile attacks, the encroachments of neighbour-
ing powers, disputed claims, often rendered it necessary for
the princes to turn to their subjects, and to purchase their aid
with grants and privileges. It was in this manner that the pro-
vincial estates, which stood in the same relation to the prince as
the imperial estates did to the emperor, and that provincial
diets, which represented the imperial diet on a small scale,
arose. At first, separate agreements were made for certain
purposes. Thus, in 1302, the barons and knights of Upper
Bavaria granted a tax to their duke ; in 1307, the clergy and
the cities did the same ; but each estate separately, and it was
not until 1396, that the three estates met in a general diet.
The fourth or peasant class was only free, and therefore pos-
sessed of a right to sit in the diet, in the Tyrol, Wurtemberg,
Kempten, Hadeln, Hoja, Baireuth. — — The provincial dieta
secured the privileges of the princes and the estates, and bound

THE EMPEROR AND THE EMPIRE.

them together by the ties of mutual interest and mutual pro-
tection. The maxim of the estates was, " Where we do not
counsel, we will not act."

The policy pursued by some of the princely houses is re-
markable. Primogeniture (the right of the first-born to the
whole of the inheritance, by which subdivision, so prejudicial
to family power and influence, was avoided) was, notwith-
standing the evident advantage, introduced at a later period,
and became by no means general. The Zahringer and the
"Welfs at first attempted to strengthen themselves by means of
the cities, in which they were unsuccessful, the cities of Zurich
and Berne on the one hand, and that of Liibeck on the other,
making themselves independent. The Wittelsbacher were
more successful, and increased their authority by favouring
the institution of the provincial estates. At a later period,
the Habsburgs chiefly supported themselves upon the pro-
vincial nobility, the Luxemburgs on the citizen class, on art
and science, and raised Bohemia to a high degree of civiliza-
tion ; whilst the Wurtembergs raised themselves imperceptibly
to greater power, by purging their demesnes as much as pos-
sible of the ecclesiastical and lay lords and of the cities, and by
solely favouring the peasantry.

The laws wholly consisted of treaties and privileges. The
former were, 1st, Concordates between the emperor and the
pope, in which the emperor always made concessions to the
church, and by which the canon law was essentially increased.
2nd, Laws of the empire concluded in the diet between the
emperor and the assembled states, and answering to the capi-
tularies of former times, but now chiefly consisting of resolu-
tions for the maintenance of public tranquillity, decrees of the
states for the regulation of the empire. The independent
spirit of the estates opposed a more comprehensive mode of
legislation, as had been, for instance, attempted to be intro-
duced by Frederick II. 3rd, Capitulations, grants, charters,
negociations concerning inheritances and divisions, concluded
between the emperor and the powerful princes. 4th, Feudal
laws agreed to by the feoflfer and the feodary. 5th, Provin-
cial laws settled between the princes and the provincial
estates. 6th, Federative laws of the federated knights, cities,
and peasants. 7th, Commercial privileges of the citizens and
peasantry. 8th, Privileges of corporations and guilds, some

<6 THE EMPEROR AND THE EMPiRK.

for the single towns, others for the members of a corporation
spread throughout the empire.* Every trade imposed its parti-
cular regulations upon itself ; the customs of the craft were
tfvery where similar, and merely the political privileges of the
corporation di tile red in different towns.

Privileges were conferred by the emperor, and also by the
princes, and always merely related to single prerogatives.

The canon law, clear and comprehensive, as greatly con-
trasted with the confused state of the temporal legislature, as
did the church with the empire. It was on this account that
the Hohenstaufen endeavoured to introduce the Roman law,
and, at all events, favoured the study of this law, which was
introduced into the university of Bologna by the great lawyer
Irnerus (Werner). Besides which, the Germans themselves
endeavoured to compile general codes of law out of the numer-
ous single laws. Eike (Ecco, Echard) von Repcow was the
first who, by command of Count Hoier von Falkenstein, (the
picturesque ruins of whose castle are still to be seen on the
Harz,) collected all the Saxon laws, and formed them into a
compilation called the Saxonspiegel, or Saxonlage, written in
Latin and low German, a. d. 1215. It contained the im-
perial prerogatives, feudal laws, provincial laws, and ancient
usages in law matters, and every Saxon could refer to it for
information in every legal case. Whenever the ancient
Saxon law opposed the new papal ordinances, it was defended
and maintained, on account of which the pope rejected many
of the rights insisted on in this code. Although the Saxon-
spiegel was simply a private collection, (first ratified by Fre-
derick II.,) and was not only far from containing all the Ger-
man laws, but was also compiled without reference to order,
the want of a general code of laws was so deeply felt, that this
code shortly became extremely celebrated, was continually
copied, and finally completed by the addition of local laws and
regulations. In 1 282, it appeared in a new form as the Schwa-
benspiegely or code of Swabian laws, and, as was natural on

* For instance, the pipers and musicians, who had a distinct court of
justice, as also had the singers at a later period. The bee-masters' court
in Nuremberg, an imperial court of justice for the free corporation of bee-
masters, who, during war-time, sent a contingence of six arquebusiers to
serve the empire, and whose honey furnished the celebrated Nuremberg
gingerbread, was peculiar of its kind*

THE EMFEROR AND THE EMPIRE.

the fall of the Hohenstaufen, with a much more decided papist
tendency ; also with new additions, as the standard law-book
and imperial law, to all of which the Sachsenspiegel served as
a foundation.— Among the especial laws, the feudal laws of
Lorabardy of 1235, and the Austrian provincial laws of 1250,
the municipal laws of Soest and Lubeck, and the Friscian pea-
sant laws, were the most celebrated.

The feudal system gradually gained ground. So little was
it deemed disgraceful to be a feodary, that it often happened
that the feudal lord was at the same time vassal to his vassals.*
Hence arose the strange and scarcely accountable symbols of
enfeoffment. When a wealthy man of rank held a property
or a priv ilege in fee of an inferior, he humbled himself merely
in a laughable manner before him. The same took place be-
tween equals, and, in this manner, a number of feudal tenures
became associated with ridiculous customs suggested by chance
and by good humour.f The feoffee of a church was invested
by touching the bell-rope.

In the administration of justice, the right of every criminal
to choose his own judges was still preserved. Thus, the Schwa-
benspiegel says, " Every temporal tribunal is raised by elec-
tion, in order that no lord may impose a judge upon the people
except the one whom they choose themselves." In the same
manner, the proceedings were held in public, and conducted
by word of mouth, both in the imperial courts of justice and
all others, down to those of the peasantry. Even evidence by
averment, single combat, and ordeals was still retained in the
law, and single combat came into still greater practice on ac-
count of the customs of chivalry. J

• The emperor Henry VI. was invested by the bishop of Basle, a. d.
1 1»5, with the city of Breisach. Och's History of Basle.

f Diimge has given several examples. A monastery had, when first
invested, presented the feudal liege with a pair of boots, which he pro-
bably needed at the moment, and was consequently obliged to present
him annually with a pair. The emperor Sigmund, when on a journey
being once well entertained, invested his host with a meadow ; the hosjt
in return engaging to meet every emperor who might visit that part of the
country with a waggon-load of cooked meats served in dishes. The city
of Nimwegen sent a glove full of pepper as an annual offering to the city
of Aix-la.Chapelle, in return for the decision of their law cases by the
tribunal of the latter city. Birkenmeyer*s Antiquarian Curiosities.

t Even among the lower classes and among women. In the thirteenth
century, it was the custom when a complaint waa brought before tha

4ft

THE EMPEROR AND THE EMPIRE

The influence of the Roman and Mosaic notions, however,
introduced a fresh barbarity into criminal law, unknown in
Germany, even during the earliest ages. All the lower courts
were not only empowered, as formerly, to fix the JVergeld or
fine at a certain amount, but also to pronounce over " hide
» nd hair," that is, to adjudge the criminal to be flogged,
ljeaten, or shorn ; whilst all the upper courts were empowered
to pronounce over " head and hand," over life and death.
The gallows and the rack were ever at work. Chopping ofT
the hands, putting out the eyes, etc., became the order of the
day. It is remarkable in the transition from the ancient
Germanic to the Roman-Mosaic administration of justice, that
the office of headsman, which, in ancient pagan times, was a
priestly function in the name of the Divinity, was long deemed
sacred and honourable, and was, consequently, performed by
the youngest counsellors; and it was not until Roman tortures
and numerous and cruel bodily punishments and modes of
death were introduced together with the Doctors of the Ro-
man law, that the people attached the idea of disgrace and
infamy to the headsman's office, now become both hateful and
difficult to perform, and it was for the future committed to a
newly-formed corporation or society of headsmen, who were
licensed to follow that bloody and disgusting profession, but
were, on that account, deprived of all honourable privileges in
social life. — The mode of crime often furnished the mode of
punishment. Thus, for instance, coiners were boiled in kettles.
Heretics were burnt alive. The aristocracy, like the clergy,
enjoyed privileges. For a high dignitary of the church to be
convicted of misdemeanour, a greater number of witnesses
were requisite than could by any possibility be present. It
gradually became a settled custom, that equals in birth alone
could prefer a complaint against one another. The emperor
himself conferred the right upon certain knights of being
solely amenable to accusations laid to their charge by another
knight. The same difference was made in punishments ; the
hanging of a knight has always been cited by historians
as an exception, and that of the lower classes as a general

court of the violation of female chastity, and the matter could not be proved,
for the defendant to be buried in the ground up to his middle, and, arrninl
with a stick an ell in length, to fight with the complainant, who struck at
lain with a stone tied up in her veil. Gautr. Chronicle of Augsburg,

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THE EMPEROR AND THE EMPIRE. 49

rule. The Roman law also introduced the use of the most

horrid modes of torture into the German administration of ius-
tice ; and also in law-suits, written and secret proceedings gra-
dually gained ground by means of secret examinations, written
decisions, and reports to higher courts.

In Westphalia, as in Friesland, the ancient mode of ad-
ministering justice was longest preserved. There the pro-
vincial Grafs still held their tribunal in the open air, witn
the elected j ustices or sheriffs, in the presence of the free pea-
santry. This tribunal was denominated a free court of jus-
tice ; the seat of justice, the free seat ; the Graf, the free Graf;
the sheriffs, the free sheriffs. In each district, Gau, or pro-
vince, were several seats of justice, answering to the ancient
hundred courts. These courts were afterwards replaced by
Ihe Femgericht, superior or high court of judicature, the secret
tribunal (secreta judicia) formed under the great regent of
the empire, Engelbert, archbishop of Cologne, and duke of
Westphalia, who federated with a number of honourable men
of every class for the purpose of secretly judging and punish-
ing all evil-doers. Secrecy was, at that time, highly neces-
sary, each of the judges, in case his name was discovered,
being exposed to the vengeance of the innumerable turbulent
spirits. The utility of this tribunal was ere long so generally
recognised, that in the fourteenth century it already counted
100,000 members. These members were bound by a solemn
oath. A traitor was hanged seven feet higher than other cri-
minals. The chief judge presided over the whole of the
members. Next in order were the free Grafs, who elected the
chief judge ; then the free sheriffs, who elected the free Graf ;
and fourthly and lastly, the messengers who summoned the
court and the accused, and executed the sentence. All the
members recognised each other by a secret sign. No eccle-
siastic, except the spiritual lord, no Jew, woman, or servant,
were permitted among the members, nor were they amenable
to the court. Freeborn laymen alone were, in this manner,
judged by their peers. Such accusations were also alone
brought before this court that either had not been, or could
not be, brought before any other. The tribunal assembled
in secret. A member came forward as accuser. The ac-
cused was summoned three times. There was no appeal
except in cases of indecision, and then only to the emperor
you it. b

THE ARISTOCRACY

or to the pope. If the accused neglected to appear, ths oath
of the accuser was declared sufficient proof of his guilt. On
the other hand, every member accused by another could
clear himself by oath. The condemned criminal was secretly
and mysteriously deprived of life. His body was always
found with a dagger marked with the letters S S G G (stick,
stone, grass, grein) plunged into it.

CLXV. The aristocracy and the knighthood.

The lower nobility were of three kinds. The old and
proud families, who still retained their allods and despised
feudality, were the sworn enemies of the princes, the bishops,
the abbeys, and the cities. Within the walls of their an-
cestral castles they bade defiance to all, and acknowledged no
superior except the emperor. The more powerful families
strove to place themselves on an equal footing with the
princes, and took advantage of the disturbances of the times
to extend their authority, more especially since the fall of
the duchies of Franconia, Saxony, and Swabia. In this
manner, noble families, such as those of Habsburg, Luxem-
burg, Wurtemberg, Hohenzollern, Nassau, Mansfeld, Schwarz-
burg, etc., which, at first, merely possessed some small castle,
gradually rose. The weaker families were partly ruined by
their more powerful neighbours, who attacked and reduced
them to submission, and partly maintained their independ-
ence by entering into a mutual league after the example of
the cities. The mode in which these bold knights existed
was very romantic* Whenever the labour of their en-

* The memory of the wild knights still lives in numerous legends.
The four robber-nests of the notorious knight Landschaden von Nockar-
Steinach still stand on the Neckar. This knight was put out of the bann
of the empire, but disguising himself in black armour, and wearing hi?
vizor always closed, accompanied a crusade to the Holy Land, where he
distinguished himself by performing prodigies of valour, and at length,
when the emperor, struck with his bravery, offered him a reward in the
presence of his other knights, lifted his vizor and discovered the well-
known features of the old robber. — Who is there throughout Bavaria
unacquainted with grim Heinz von Stein ? And stories, like the fol-
lowing, are to be met with in all the old chronicles. A troop of Hes-
sian robber-knights, headed by the lords of Bibra, Ebersberg, Thiingen,
md Steinau. entered the little town of Rriickenau concealed in wine-casks,

AND THE KNIGHTHOOD.

slaved serfs was insufficient for their maintenance and for that
of their men-at-arms, they robbed the monasteries, and way-
laid the merchants travelling with their goods from one city
to another. The citizens often marched against them, and
sometimes the emperor in person ; many of their castles were
destroyed, and themselves, whenever they could be caught,

hanged on the nearest tree, booted and spurred. It often

happened that several poor neighbouring knights would build
a castle at their common expense, in which they dwelt toge-
ther, and which formed the common inheritance of their chil-
dren. These were termed co-proprietors. In the songs of
the Minnesingers, the bitter complaints of the poor knights,
that although equal in birth to the princes, they were so far
inferior to them in power, are of frequent recurrence.

The nobles belonging to the different orders of knighthood
formed a second and distinct class. They also still breathed
the spirit of ancient freedom and proud independence, and, at
the same time, acquired an aristocratic influence, equalling
that of the princes. The first of these orders, the Templars,
became so powerful in Italy, that the French monarch made
use of his influence over the pope, in order to annihilate them.
Had the German order of knighthood settled in the heart of
Germany, a coalition between it and the whole of the dis-
contented nobles of the empire would have resulted, and a
strong opposition have thus been raised against the princes ;
but by migrating to the utmost limits of the empire, to Prus-
sia, it ever remained a stranger to the internal affairs of
Germany, merely recruiting its numbers from the German
aristocracy.

out of which they crept during the night, and pillaged the place, but, be-
ing delayed by packing the booty, were attacked by the citizens, and,
after losing all their ill-gotten gain, were chased from the town. The
independent spirit of the knights, however, was sometimes shown in a
more worthy manner. The legend of the knight Thedel Unverferden
ron Wallmoden, who was said to use the devil as his steed, and was
famed for his fearlessness, is perfectly in accordance with the age. Henry
the Lion once attempting to startle him by suddenly biting his finger, he
gave him in return a hearty box on the ear, angrily exclaiming, *• Have
you become a dog ? " The conduct of the Freiherr von Krenkingen was
still more independent ; when visited by the emperor Barbarossa at his
estate at Tengen near Constance, he received him sitting, because he
held his lands in fee of no one but of the sun, and although he personally
honoured the emperor, did not own him as his liege lord.

THE ARISTOCRACY

The feudal aristocracy formed a third class as court no*
bility, and filled all the chief offices of state. This class con*
sisted of the ancient ministeriales, who actually served at
court,* and of the vassals, the feudal nobles, who either held
lands in fee of the clergy and of the temporal princes for services
rendered, or who had changed their originally free allods into
a feudum oblatum. These nobles, although raised by their
own services, still maintained an aristocratic power, opposed
to that of the princes. The vassals often rose in arms against
their liege, as was the case in Thuringia, Austria, Bavaria,
etc., and at length gained new political rights as provincial
estates, and yet these nobles were bound both by their feudal
oath, by habit, and by interest, to the court of the prince.
Many fiefs were inseparable from court offices, and those
knights who could neither live by robbery, support the soli-
tude of their rocky fastnesses, nor enter the church, were alone
able (no value being at that period attached to agriculture and
industry) to satisfy their ambition, their love of splendour,
and their romantic love of adventure, at court.

The institution of knighthood (ordo militaris) was founded
during the crusades, and formed an exclusive society, in which
novices (noble youths, pages, guargune, armour-bearers) and
companions (squires, men-at-arms) learnt the art of arms un-
der the master, (a knight,) and followed him to the field, until
they had rendered themselves worthy of the honour of knight-
hood. The ceremony consisted of being invested with the
weapons sacred to knighthood, and receiving a stroke with the
flat of the sword, f which was deemed the highest honour that
even a sovereign could attain. The youthful knight, in sign
of devoting himself to the service of God, prepared himself
like a priest by fasting and watching (over his arras at night)
for the solemnity, and, robed in white, swore, before the altar,

* It often happened that their original vassalage was not removed,
even when a family was already in the enjoyment of all the other privi-
leges of the ministerial nobles, but it was only in law questions that the
real rank of these aristocrats was brought into notice. HiiUmann his
collected several cases of this kind.

f With the words :

" In honour of God and the Virgin pure,
This receive and nothing more,
Be honest, true, and brave,
Better knight than slave."

AND THE KNIGHTHOOD.

ever to speak the truth, to defend right, religion, and her serv-
ants, to protect widows, orphans, and innocence, and to fight
against the infidels. Besides these general duties, each knight
imposed upon himself the private one of fighting in honour of
his mistress or his wife, bore her favourite colour and her
token, and used her name as his war-cry.

The institution of knighthood was the result of the ancient
heroic spirit of our pagan forefathers, sanctified by that of
Christianity. The chivalric school of arms was an imitation
of the ancient warlike fraternities, in which personal bravery
and unflinching courage were, as in chivalry, necessary in the
warrior. The ancient spirit of the people might be traced
even in the lawless insolence of the wild robber-knights and
ruffians. It was this spirit that inspired these bold and ven-
turesome knights with such profound contempt for all law
save sword-law, according to the motto of that wildest of
knights, Count Eberhard von Wiirtemberg ; " The friend of
God and foe of all mankind \ n Like to a race of royal eagles,
they built their eyries on the summits of the rocks, and looked
down with proud contempt on the laborious dwellers in the
vale. It was the same spirit that drove them to the mountain
tops, there to erect their lordly castles, and thence to rule the
plain, that in olden time caused mountains to be selected for
the abode of kings and the seat of gods. The hardy habits of
these mountain knights, life and continual exercise in the
open air, the objects by which they were surrounded, the
sunny height, the forest shade, the rushing stream, the flowery
mead, also fostered in their bosoms that love of nature, with
which the German in days of yore was so strongly imbued,
and tuned the poet's soul.

The courts of the emperor and of the princes naturally be-
came the centres of chivalry. It was in these courts, to which
the assemblage of knights lent splendour, that they sought to
earn distinction by deeds of prowess in honour of their dames,
and acquired all the accomplishments of the day. Wherever
a prince proclaimed a tournament the knights poured in crowds
to the spot. A herald or king-at-arms examined their gene-
alogies and right of admission to the noble pastime. After the
usual forms, the tournament began in the presence of the
princes, of the ladies, by whom the prize was bestowed, and
of an innumerable crowd composed of every class. The

THE ARISTOCRACY

advantage of ground, light, and sun was rendered as equal as
possible. The weapons also were alike. A tournament ge-
nerally signified a mimic fight, of which there were several
kinds, on foot and on horseback, merely with the sword
and the lance. The principal part of the tournament was
the tilting or breaking of lances, by which the prowess of
the knights was proved. The knights and their horses were
clothed cap-a-pie in mail, and ran against each other with long
heavy lances. The one who bore the fearful blow without
being unseated, and cast his opponent to the ground, was de-
clared victor.* This dangerous sport often proved fataLf
Each knight bore his arms. Each of the nations of Germany
had originally two colours, into which the shield was divided,
or one was the ground-colour and the other that of the figure
represented upon it. These colours were the same in every
family belonging to the same nation, the figures alone varying.
The French shields were white and red, those of the Swabi-
ans red and yellow, those of Bavaria white and blue, those of
Saxony black and white. The hereditary offices of the em-
pire and the free imperial towns assumed the colours of the
reigning dynasty. J The rapid succession of different reign-
ing families, the intermixture and exchange of feudal posses-
sions, had, it is true, been productive of great confusion in the
ancient colours of the four principal nations of Germany.

* The old German custom was to tilt freely at each other ; the I talian
custom was to place a barrier between the knights, along which they
rode, each on the opposite side, against the other, so that the men and
not the horses received the blow. As the spirit of chivalry declined, the
armour became less ponderous — this was termed the modern mode.
There were four distinctive modes of tilting, the old German, the modern
German, the Italian, and the modern Italian. There were also numer-
ous varieties of tilting, differing from the real fight, that is, from the vari-
ous modes of fighting on foot with long or short swords, daggers, clubs,
battle-axes. The best accounts are to be found in Schemel's Book of the
Tournament, in manuscript, with coloured designs, (the only one of ita
kind,) in the Ambraser collection at Vienna.

t At a tournament held at Magdeburg in 1175, sixteen knights were
slain ; at one at Neuss in 1256, thirty-six ; in 1394, at Liegnitz, the duke,
Boleslaw, lost his life ; and in 1496, twenty-six knights fell.

X The Imperial colours took from the Saxon dynasty black, from the
Franconian red, and from the Swabian gold colour. Under the Cario.
ringians they were simply Franconian, white and red. Those of France
were, for the same reason, originally white and red, the blue afterward*
added was the colour of the Valois.

AND THE KNIGHTHOOD.

The greatest variety reigned in the symbols, eacli family hav-
ing its own peculiar sign ; and some individuals again made
choice of particular ones, as, for instance, Henry the Welf,
the lion, Albrecht of Brandenburg, the bear. It must fur-
ther be remarked, that the names of families with the addi-
tion " von," was originally no sign of nobility of birth, every
peasant having a right to add to his name that of his birth-
place or place of abode.

It was at the courts that the knights abo learnt to carry
the feeling of honour to a high degree of refinement, and to
practise the customs of chivalry. There it was that they
smoothed down the rough, coarse manners that had accom-
panied them from their villages, that blood-thirsty cruelty
was checked, and the difficult art of honour fostered and cul-
tivated to an incredible excess, with the same assiduous en-
thusiasm with which the Germans, at that period, pursued
every object regarded by them as sacred. When at length
the spirit had vanished that once animated the noble1 to deeds
of chivalry, the dead form of honour alone remained in the
corrupt system of duelling, and in the foolish prejudices allied
with birth and station.

The service of the fair formed an essential part of courtly
and knightly customs. It originated in the reverence paid
during pagan times to women, was ennobled by Christianity,
and, in conformity with the rules of art and manners, prac-
tised in the courtly circle, and admitted into the code of hon-
our. To insult or injure a woman was against the laws of
chivalry, for honour imposed upon the strong the defence and
care of the weak. Woman, the ideal of beauty, gentleness,
and love, inflamed each knightly bosom with a desire to serve
her, to perform great deeds at her bidding or in her name, to
worship her as a protecting divinity or a saint, to conquer or
to die under her colours ; and this submission to the gentle
yoke of women, bred in humility and religion, chiefly contri-
buted to civilize and humanize the manners of the age. The
knight of renowned courage and an adept in the rules of hon-
our was likewise required to understand the rules of female
society, the service of the fair, courtship or the service of love,
before he could secure the reward of love, the heart and hand
of his beloved. Love became an art, a knightly study. The
rules of love were recorded in verse and in song, and applied

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56 THE CHIVALRIC POETRY OF SWABIA.

with the greatest minuteness to every case. There were also
courts of love composed of select women and knightly poets,
who gave their judgment with extraordinary sagacity on every
question of love. This art was in romantic countries termed
gallantry, a term now merely indicative of the empty, vain
shadow of the ancient reality. The difference is so great, that
the term gallantry, which at that period signified modesty
and virtue, now signifies immodesty and vice. Fidelity was
the very essence of true love. And the practice of chastity
and continence bestowed those blessings of health and strengt h
on the generations of that period, which the licence of later
ages, like rust upon iron, could alone destroy.

CLXVL The chivalric poetry of Swabia.

The chivalric poetry of Swabia flourished from the com-
mencement of the twelfth until that of the fourteenth century.
The poets sang to the harp, the favourite instrument during
the middle ages. The violin or fiddle appears to have also
come into use at an early period, the singers being termed
harpers or fiddlers. Poetry, of whatever description, was
generally in rhythm, an ancient German invention, and pecu-
liar to the German language, it having been unknown to the
more ancient nations, the Greeks and the Romans, and being
adopted from the German by the Italians of more modern
date. By the metre the shortness or length of the vowel was
merely marked ; rhythm, on the contrary, marked the differ-
ence between the vowels, and added the charm of harmony,
thus converting the monotonous rise and fall of one tone into
a language varied as the tones of music. Rhythm introduced
a higher species of poetry, and added richness and expression
to language.

Minnelieder, or love songs, were of high antiquity in Ger-
many. We find, in the time of Louis the Pious, that the Ger-
man nuns sang Winlieder, ( JVin, friend,) which were forbidden
as too worldly by that pious emperor. In the days of chivalry
me sun of love once more rose upon Swabia, and awoke thou-
sands of flowers, a world full of songs of love, which have
been handed down to us by hundreds of poets. The joy of
the heart is in these songs compared to spring ; pain, to winter.

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THE CHIVALRIC POETRY OF SWABIA. 57

They are full of beautiful comparisons. They are themselves
flowers, their roots the heart, their sun love, their atmosphere
fate. The preservation of the most beautiful of the Minne-
lieder is due to the noble knight, Rudiger Maness von Manek,
a citizen of Zurich, who, about the year 1300, assiduously col-
lected them into a manuscript enriched with pictures. This
collection was left at Paris by mistake in 1815. Another
valuable collection of Minnelieder is to be seen at Jena, a
smaller one at Heidelberg. Among the Minnesingers were
several princes, among whom the Hohenstaufen chiefly distin-
guished themselves ; the emperor Frederick II., Manfred,
and Enzio always used the Italian language ; Minnelieder, in
the German tongue, of the emperors Henry VI. and Conrad
of Swabia, are still extant, besides some composed by Wenzel,
king of Bohemia, Henry, duke of Breslau, Henry, duke of
An halt, John, duke of Brabant, Henry, Margrave of Misnia,
Otto, Margrave of Brandenburg, etc. The finest and great-
est number of Minnelieder were the work of Swabian nobles of
lesser degree, the most distinguished among whom was
Walther von der Vogelweide, who sang not only of love, but
of national glory, and of the corruption that began to prevail in
the church and state. Next to him came Reinmar von Zwe-
ter. The most ardent admirers of the sex were Ulrich von
Lichtenstein, (who, attired as " Dame Venus," travelled from
Venice into Bohemia, challenging every knight to single com-
bat,) and Henry Frauenlob of Mayence, who was borne to
his grave by the most beautiful of the women of that city,
and wine was poured over his tomb. Hartmann von Owe
was the finest of the pastoral poets.

An anonymous poet of the twelfth century blended the finest
of the old ancestral legends of the Franconians, Burgundians,
and Goths, bearing reference to Saxony, Swabia, and Bavaria,
into one great epic poem, that carries us back to the time of
Attila, (Etzel,) and in the description of the different races
and of their heroes borrows many traits from later history
and softens the gloom and cruelty of pagan times by tinging
the whole with the brighter spirit of chivalry and Christianity.
This most extraordinary of all German poems is the song of
the Nibelungen, which has been with justice said to figure in
Gorman poetry as the epic poem of Homer does in that of
Greece. The general idea of the Mbelungenlied is similar

THE CIIIVALRIC POETRY OF SWABIA.

with that of the Edda, nor is the resemblance fortuitous. The
fate of the ancient heroic age was fixed beforehand ; it was to
be fulfilled by the universal struggle caused by the migrations,
and the new and milder age promised in the Edda after the
conflagration of the world, was to commence with the Chris-
tian era, and under the wise legislation of Theodoric the Great.
The composer of the Nibelungenlied took a similar view of
ancient times. He assembles all the German heroes at Etzel's
court, and destroys them all, together with the empire of the
Huns, in one immense conflict, whence Dietrich von Bern
(Verona) alone issues victorious and becomes the founder of a
new era.

The histories of Henry IV., of the Saxon war, and of Fre-
derick Barbarossa, (Giinther Ligurinus,) written in Latin
verse, are imitations of the ancient Roman poets. The follow-
ing heroic legends, written in German rhythm, bear more
resemblance in their tone and spirit to the ancient book of
heroes ; the legend of Duke Ernest of Swabia, written by
Henry von Veldek and others, the wondrous histories of Henry
the Lion, Louis of Thuringia, Frederick of Swabia, Frederick
the Quarrelsome, Godfred of Bouillon, etc., and many other
ancestral legends of both the princes and lower aristocracy.

To these may be added the chronicles written in rhythm of
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, in which historical
facts intermingle with legendary tales.

The poetry of Germany became gradually influenced by the
taste prevalent throughout Europe. The orders of knight-
hood embraced the whole of the Christian aristocracy of Eu-
rope, without distinction of nation or of language, and the
conquest of the holy sepulchre united them in one common
object, and brought them into contact. They became ac-
quainted with the manners and customs of the East, studied
the poets of Greece and Rome, and the fantastic magic tales
of Araby. A new species of poetry, full of warmth and life,
replaced the old popular legends ; a similar spirit animated
the poets of Germany and Italy, who mutually borrowed
from each other. German romance, however, bore away the
palm, and surpassed that of rival nations both in compass and
depth.

In the twelfth century, the legends of Greece and Rome
began to be interwoven with those of Germany, and gave

THE CHIVALRIC POETRY OF SWABIA. 59

birth to the chronicle of the emperors, which was written in
verse. This and other chronicles of the same period are a
complete medley of ancient legends and classical stories. Lam-
precht's Life of Alexander the Great is, on the other hand, re-
markable for beauty and simplicity, but the tone was first
given to German romance by Henry von Veldek, in the reign
of Barbarossa, the splendour of whose court he has described
in his free translation of the -dEneid. He was followed by
several others of the same school. The foreign legends of
King Arthur of the round table, etc., were also borrowed and
successfully imitated. These poems, still breathing the spirit
of those chivalric times, are in themselves a golden key to the
middle ages.

In the thirteenth century, Reinecke Fuchs, a satire written
by Willem de Matoc in the Netherlands, offered a strong con-
trast with this chivalric poetry, and ridiculed the policy of the
courts and of the great with surpassing wit. The materials
from which this fable was composed, belong to a still earlier
date, and appear to have formerly served as satires upon po-
litical life.

The knights, assembled at the different courts, emulated
each other in feats of arms or in song. The German legend-
ary bards, in particular, opposed, as national poets, those of the
holy " Graal" or universal ones. Hermann, Landgrave of
Thuringia, assembled the most renowned poets of the age of
either party in the Wartburg, where a prize was to be con-
tested. Among the number were Henry von Veldeck, Wal-
ther von der Vogelweide, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Bitterolf,
Reinhard von Zwetzen, Henry von Ofterdingen. They first
tried each other's wit, by proposing enigmas and ingenious
questions. Henry von Ofterdingen sang in praise of Leo-
pold, duke of Austria, and Wolfram von Eschenbach in that
of the Landgrave Hermann. The contest, without doubt,
aroused bitter feelings ; these two bards had been the most re-
doubtable champions of German legendary poetry and of that
of the holy Graal, and the feud carried on during those times
between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines is visible even in
their songs. This is seen in the names of the German-Rhen-
ish Nibelungen, and of the Italian-Gothic Wolfinger, Welfs ;
and a poem of Henry von Ofterdingen, the Little Rose-garden,
clearly favours the Wolfinger (Welfs or Guelphs). Accord*

THE CITIES.

ing to the story, the contest between Wolfram and Henry be-
came at length one of life and death, and the headsman stood
in readiness to decapitate the discomfited singer. Eschen-
bach's metallic notes were victorious, and Henry von Ofter-
dingen fled for protection to the Landgravine Sophia, who
covered him with her mantle and saved his life. He received
permission to visit Hungary and bring thence to his assist-
ance the celebrated bard and magician, Clingsor, to whose
art and influence at court he afterwards owed his life. This
scene took place in the great hall in the "Wartburg, which is
still standing, A. D. 1207.

The pipers and musicians were distinct from the knightly
bards, and exercised their art merely at festivals and dances.
They travelled about in small bands. They also formed a
particular guild or society, that spread throughout the whole
empire ; the counts of Rappoltstein in Alsace, who were their
hereditary governors, were termed the piper-kings, and,
adorned with a golden crown, annually held a great court of
justice, the pipers' court, to which all the musicians in Eu-
rope brought their complaints.

CLXVII. The cities.

The cities had, from an insignificant origin, risen to a height
of power that enabled them to defy the authority of the so-
vereign, and to become the most powerful support of the
empire. Increasing civilization had produced numerous wants,
which commerce and industry could alone supply. The peo-
ple, moreover, oppressed by the feudal system in the country,
sheltered themselves beneath the iEgis of the city corporations.
The artisans, although orginally serfs, were always free. In
many cities the air bestowed freedom ; whoever dwelt within
their walls could not be reduced to a state of vassalage, and
was instantly affranchised, although formerly a serf when
dwelling beyond the walls. In the thirteenth century, every
town throughout Flanders enjoyed this privilege. It was only
in the villages that fell, at a later period, under the jurisdic-
tion of the towns that the peasants still remained in a state of
vassalage. The emperors, who beheld in the independence
and power of the cities a defence against the princes and the

THE CITIES

popes, readily bestowed great privileges upon them, and re-
leased them from the jurisdiction of the lords of the country*
the bishops and the imperial governors. The cities often
asserted their own independence, the power of a bishop being
unable to cope with that of a numerous and high-spirited body
of citizens. They also increased their extent at the expense
of the provincial nobility, by throwing down their castles, by
taking their serfs as Pfahlbiirger, (suburbans,) or by purchas-
ing their lands.

The imperial free cities had the right of prescribing their
own laws, which were merely ratified by the emperor. The
sovereign princes of the country at first projected laws in
favour of the citizens, as, for instance, the Zahringer, the civic
legislature of Freiburg in the eleventh century, and Henry the
Lion, that of Liibeck. The celebrated civic laws of Soest
date from the twelfth century. These were folk) wed by those
of Stade, earlier than 1204 ; those of Schwerin, in 1222 ; of
Brunswick, in 1232 ; and by those of Muhlhausen, Hamburg,
Augsburg, Celle, Erfurt, Ratisbon, etc. To the right of
legislation was added that of independent jurisdiction, which
was denoted by the pillars, known as Roland's pillars, and by
the red towers. The red flag was the sign of penal judica-
ture, and red towers were used as prisons for criminals, and
as the practice of torture became more general in criminal
cases, torture, famine, witch, and heretic towers were erected
in almost every town. The management of the town affairs
was at length entirely intrusted to the council, which origin-
ally consisted of the sheriffs headed by a mayor, but was
afterwards chiefly composed of members elected from the dif-
ferent parishes, and was at length compelled to admit among
its number the presidents of the various guilds; and the
mayor, the president of the ancient burgesses, was, conse-
quently, replaced by the burgomaster, or president of the
guilds. The right of self-government was denoted by the
bell on the town or council house, in the middle ages the
greatest pride of the provincial cities, which had gained inde-
pendence.

The annual election of all the city officers was an almost
general regulation, and by this means the communes, at first
the aristocratic burgesses, and afterwards the democratic guilds,
always controlled the affairs of the town. At a later period,

THE CITIES.

the most powerful party attempted to render their dignitie3
hereditary, and revolutions repeatedly ensued in consequence.
All the citizens were freemen, bore arms, and could attain
knighthood. The burgesses formed chivalric guilds accord-
ing to families, as the Overstolzen at Cologne, the Zoren and
Muhlheimer at Strassburg ; or free associations, as, for in-
stance, the Lilien-Vente, in Brunswick, which numbered four
hundred and two knights.

Many of the cities were invested with royal privileges, such
as minting and levying customs. All possessed the right of
' holding large markets, which the country people were obliged
to attei id. On this account, artisans were not permitted to reside
in the villages, but were compelled to take up their abode ac-
cording to their craft in the cities. Several of the towns had
also staple laws, that is, all merchants passing through them or
along the river on which they were built, were compelled to
stop and to expose their goods for sale for some time within
their walls. It was also settled that all great festivals and
assemblies should be held in the cities.

The great burgesses in the cities were on an equality with
the provincial nobility, with whom they continually intermar-
ried ; consequently, many of the citizens possessed castles in
the province, or the knights, who inhabited the castles, had a
right of citizenship. The interest of the nobility was, how-
ever, opposed to that of the cities, which they molested either
in order to serve the prince, or on their own account, and the
great burgesses were compelled to declare for one party. In
the cities of Southern Germany, their inclination in favour of
the aristocracy and of the princes generally terminated in
their expulsion from the city. In the North of Germany,
they were animated with a more civic spirit, placed themselves
at the head of the populace, and in strong opposition to the
nobility, by which means they more firmly secured their au-
thority. As time passed on, the number of the artisans, di-
vided into guilds according to the craft they followed, increased
to an enormous extent, whilst that of the great burgess fanii*
lies gradually diminished, numbers of them becoming extinct.
As the aid of the artisans was indispensable for carrying on
the feuds between the burgher families of different cities, they
were compelled to grant them a part of the profit gained in
trade, hence it naturally followed that the guilds ere long

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THE CITIES.

grasped at greater privileges, and formed a democratic party,
which aimed at wresting the management of the town business
out of the hands of the aristocratic burghers.

The corporations corresponded with the ancient German
guilds. The artisan entered as an apprentice, became partner,
and finally master. The apprentice, like the knightly squire,
was obliged to travel. The completion of a master-piece was
required before he could become a master. Illegitimate birth
and immorality excluded the artisan from the guild. Each
guild was strictly superintended by a tribune. Every mem*
ber of a guild was assisted when in need by the society.
Every disagreement between the members was put a stop to,
as injurious to the whole body. The members of one cor-
poration generally dwelt in one particular street, had their
common station in the market, their distinguishing colours,
and a part assigned to them in guarding the city, etc. These
guilds chiefly conduced to bring art and handicraft to perfec-
tion. The apprentice returned from his travels with a stock
of experience and knowledge he could not have acquired at
home. The guilds of different cities had little connexion with
each other beyond housing their brother craftsmen on their
arrival in a strange city, and by the general similarity in their
rules of art and in their corporative regulations. The mer-
cantile guilds were an exception, and formed the great Hansa
league in which several cities were included. The society of
free-masons, whose art called them to different parts of the
world, were also closely united. They were divided, accord-
ing to the four quarters of the heavens, into four classes, each
of which had a particular place of assembly, symbolically
termed a lodge, where the masters met, for the purpose of de-
liberating over the mode in which any great architectural de-
sign was to be executed, of laying down rules, and of giving
directions in matters relating to art or to the corporation, of
nominating new masters, etc. The four great lodges were at
Cologne, Strassburg, Vienna, and Zurich.

The princes, bishops, and aristocracy, as well as, generally
speaking, the great burgher families, dreaded the rising power
of the guilds, and sought to annihilate it by violence. The
emperor, on the contrary, favoured them from prudential mo-
lives. Favour and disgrace were equally ineffectual ; the
power possessed by the guilds made its own way. The

€54

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burghers, few in number, and disdaining the co-operation of
the other ancient burgesses of ignoble descent, could not with-
stand the immense numerical strength of the artisans. Co-
logne, Aix-la-Chapelle, Strassburg, could each raise a body of
twenty thousand able-bodied citizens and suburbans. At Lou-
vain, the weavers' guild alone numbered four thousand masters
ttnd fifteen thousand apprentices. Revolts before long broke
©•it in all the cities. The guilds were sometimes victorious,
ttnd drove the burghers from the towns, or incorporated them
with their guilds ; sometimes the burghers succeeded in de-
fending themselves for some time, with the aid of their parti-
sans and of the neighbouring nobility. The emperor some-
times attempted to arbitrate between the contending parties, or
peace was brought about by the neighbouring cities. These
events gave rise to constitutions varying from each other in
the different cities, in some of which the burghers retained
the shadow of their former authority, and in others were ut-
terly pushed aside and a new council was formed, consisting
of the heads of each corporation. The whole of the citizens
were, consequently, divided into corporations, and the lesser
and less numerous craftsmen of different kinds united into one
body. But, as the son generally followed his father's busi-
ness, and, consequently, succeeded him in his guild, particular
families retained possession of the presidency of the guild, and
often formed a new order of patricians, which, whenever it
seemed likely to endanger the liberties of the citizens, was
associated with a civic committee. The former, in that case,
was termed the little council, and exercised the executive
power according to prescribed rules ; the latter, the great coun-
cil, which had the legislative power, and called the little cue
to account.

The guilds first rose to power in the cities of Southern
Germany ; at Basle and Ulm, in the thirteenth century. In
Northern Germany, the burghers maintained their power by
means of the commercial league, which was chiefly between
themselves. The democratic reaction in the North took place
as the power of the Hansa declined, and during the general
struggle for liberty at the time of the first reformation.

German commerce flourished in the Northern Ocean earlier
than in the Baltic, which, until the twelfth century, was in-
fested by Scandinavian and Slavonian pirates. Flanders fat

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THE CITIES.

surpassed the other countries of Germany in her municipal
privileges, art, and industry, possessed the first great com-
mercial navy, and founded the first great commercial league
or Hansa, in the twelfth century.

This example, the final subjection of the Wends on the
Baltic, and the crusades, greatly increased the activity of com-
merce in the thirteenth century, on the Rhine, the Elbe, and
the Baltic. The crusades were undertaken in a mercantile as
well as a religious point of view. In the East, the merchant
pilgrims formed themselves into the German orders of knight-
hood, and, on their return to their native country, leagued to-
gether [a. d. 1241] for the purpose of defending their rights
against the native princes, and their commerce against the
attacks of the foreigner.

This Hansa league extended to such a degree in the thirteenth
and fourteenth century, as sometimes to include upwards of
seventy cities ; its fleets ruled the Northern Ocean, conquered
entire countries, and reduced powerful sovereigns to submission.
The union that existed between the cities was, nevertheless,
far from firmly cemented, and the whole of its immense force
was, from want of unanimity, seldom brought to bear at once
upon its enemies. A single attempt would have placed the
whole of Northern Germany within its power, had the policy
of the citizens been other than mercantile, and had they not
been merely intent upon forcing the temporal and spiritual
lords to trade with them upon the most favourable conditions.

All the cities included in the league sent their representa-
tives to the Hanse diet at LUbeck, where the archive was kept.
The leagued cities were, at a later period, divided into three
and afterwards into four quarters or circles, each of which
had its particular metropolis, and specially elected aldermen.
In the fifteenth century they stood as follows : 1st, The Wen-
dian cities, Lubeck, (the metropolis of the whole league, where
the directory of the Hansa, the general archive and treasury,
were kept, where the great Hanse diets were held by the de-
puties from all the Hanse towns, in which they took into
deliberation commercial speculations, the arming of fleets,
peace and war,) Hamburg, Bremen, Wismar, Rostock, Kiel,
Greifswald, Stralsund, LUneberg, Stettin, Colberg, Wisby
(celebrated for giving the maritime laws, the " Wisbyska wot-
ter-recht," to the Hansa) in Gothland, etc. 2nd, The Western

VOL. II. 9

THE CITIES.

cities, Cologne, with the Dutch towns of Nimwegen, Sta-
vern, Grbningen, Dortrecht, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Maestricht,
Emden, Ziitphen, etc., with Westphalian Soest, Osnabriick,
Dortmund, Duisburg, Miinster, Wesel, Mindeu, Paderborn, etc.
3dly, The Saxon cities, Brunswick, Magdeburg, Halle, Hil-
desheim, Goslar, Gottingen, Eimbeck, Hanover, Hameln,
Stade, Halbenstadt, Quedlinburg, Aschersleben, Erfurt, Nord-
hausen, Muhlhausen, Zerbst, Stendal, Brandenburg, Frank-
furt on the Oder, Breslau, etc. 4thly, The Eastern cities,
Dantzig, (from Danske-wik, Danish place, having been first
founded by the Danes,) Thorn, Elbing, Konigsberg, Culm,
Landsberg, Riga, Reval, Pernau, etc. The German order
of Hospitallers also sent its representatives to the diet : its
close connexion with the Hanse towns was partly due to its
origin and partly to the position of Prussia, to which those towns
sent German colonists and aid of every description, a union
between that country and the Germanized mere of Branden-
burg being still hindered by Wendian Pomerania and Poland.

Firmly as the Hospitallers and the Hansa were allied, the
interests of the two parties were, nevertheless, totally at va-
riance, that of the former being conquest, that of the latter
commerce. The cities on the Elbe and Rhine required protec-
tion against the German princes ; the maritime cities merely
applied themselves to commerce. Those on the Baltic were
continually engaged in disputes with the Flemish, who sup-
ported themselves by their manufactures and their alliance
with Italy, whilst the more distant towns on the coast of the
Baltic refused to interfere. At Bruges, the Hansa merely
possessed a dep6t for their goods, which passed thence into the
hands of the Italians. The Colognese merchants possessed a
second great depot as early as 1203, in London, still known as
Guildhall, the hall of the merchants' guild of Cologne. At
a later period, the Hansa monopolized the whole commerce of
England. At Bergen, in Norway, the Hansa possessed a third
and extremely remarkable colony, three thousand Hanseatic
merchants, masters, and apprentices, living there like monks
without any women. The Hanseatic colonists were gener-
ally forbidden to marry, lest they should take possession of the
country in which they lived and deprive the league of it. The
fourth great dep6t was founded at Novogrod in the north of
Russia, A. d. 1277. By it the ancient commercial relation*

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between the coasts of the Baltic and Asia were preserved, and
the Hansa traded by land with Asia at first through Riga,
but on the expulsion of the Tartars from Russia and the
subjugation of Novogrod by the Czars, through Breslau, Er-
furt, Magdeburg, and Leipzig. Germany and Europe were
thus supplied with spices, silks, jewels, etc. from Asia, with
furs, iron, and immense quantities of herrings from the North.
France principally traded in salt, whilst Germany exported
beer and wine, corn, linen, and arms ; Bohemia, metals and
precious stones ; and Flanders, fine linen, and cloths of every
description.

The ferocity of the Hungarians, Servians, and Wallachians,
and the enmity of the Greeks, effectually closed the Danube,
the natural outlet for the produce of the interior of Germany
towards Asia. The traffic on this stream during the crusades
raised Ulm, and, at a later period, Augsburg, to considerable
importance. The traffic on the Rhine was far more consider-
able, notwithstanding the heavy customs levied by the barbar-
ous princes and knights which the Rhenish league was annually
compelled to oppose and put down by force, Cologne was the
grand dep6t for the whole of the inland commerce. Goods
were brought here from every quarter of the globe, and, ac-
cording to an Hanseatic law, no merchant coming from the
West, from France, Flanders, or Spain, was allowed to pass
with his goods further than Cologne ; none coming from the
East, not even the Dutch, could mount, and none from the

upper country descend the Rhine beyond that city. The

high roads were naturally in a bad state, and infested with
toll-gatherers and robbers. The merchants were compelled
to purchase a safe-conduct along the worst reads, or to clear
them by force of arms. Most of the roads were laid by the
merchants with the permission of well-disposed princes. Thus,
for instance, the rich burgher, Henry Cunter of Botzen, laid
the road across the rocks, until then impassable, on the Eisack,
between Botzen and Brixen, A. D. 1304 ; travellers, up to that
period, having been compelled to make a wearisome detour
through Meran and Jauffen.

The lace and cloth manufactures of the Flemish, which
lent increased splendour to the courts, the wealthy, and the
high-born, were the first that rose into note, the Hansa being
merely occupied with trade and commercial monopoly. Ulm

f 2

THE PEASANTRY.

afterwards attempted to compete with the Italian manufac-
turers ; but Nuremberg, on account of her central position, less
attracted by foreign commerce, became the first town of ma-
nufacturing repute in Germany.

The trade with the rich East, and the silver mines discover-
ed in the tenth century in the Harz, in the twelfth, in the Erz
mountains in Bohemia, brought more money into circulation.
The ancient Hohlpfennigs, (solidi, shillings,) of which there
were twenty-two to a pound, (and twelve denarii to a shilling,)
were replaced by the heavy Groschen, (solidi grossi,) of which
there were sixty to a silver mark, and by the albus or white
pennies, which varied in value. The working of the Bohe-
mian mines in the fourteenth century, brought the broad Prague
Groschen into note ; they were reckoned by scores, always
by sixties, the cardinal number in Bohemia. The smaller
copper coins, or Heller, (from hohl, hollow, halb, half, or from
the imperial free town, Hall,) were weighed by the pound, the
value of which was two gulden, which at a later period, when
silver became more common, rose to three.

The Jews were greatly oppressed during this period. In
the cities they were forced to dwell in certain narrow streets
that were closed with iron gates at night. They were forbid-
den to purchase land, or to belong to any corporation. They
were chiefly pawnbrokers and usurers, Christians being strictly
prohibited by the church from taking interest on money lent.

CLXVIIL The peasantry.

In Swabia and Saxony the free communes of peasantry, in
the Alps, the Tyrol, Wiirtemberg, Friesland, Ditmarsch, and
some of less importance in the country around Hadel, Baireuth,
and Hall, retained their liberties for the longest period. These
communes had been originally either Gaue, districts, or hun-
dreds under the jurisdiction of the counts and centners, and
now resembled oases varying in extent, whither liberty had
fled from the barren waste of vassalage. The peasants of
Friesland and Switzerland, whose power equalled their love
of tiberty, gained the upper hand in those countries, whilst, in
other countries, where their power was less, they remained
unnoted and in obscurity.

Friesland was divided by the Fly (Zudyer See) into Western

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THE PEASANTRY.

and Eastern Friesland. The former fell [a. d. 1005] under
the counts of Holland, and the attempt to suppress the liber-
ties still proudly upheld by the peasantry, proved fatal te
more than one of their rulers. The latter enjoyed greater
freedom under the bishops of Utrecht, Bremen, and Munster,
whose spiritual authority they recognised, but administered
their temporal affairs themselves, the interference of the clergy
in temporal matters being prohibited by law. The Fries-
landers, moreover, disregarded the decree of Gregory VII.
concerning the celibacy of the clergy, and compelled their
priests to marry for the better maintenance of morality. The
ancient and still pagan popular assembly was maintained even
in Christian times, or, at all events, was renewed. The dif-
ferent tribes assembled during Whitsuntide, at a place near
Aurich, sanctified by three old oaks, (the ancient Upstales-
boom, tree of high justice,) for the purpose of voting laws and
of deliberating over the affairs of the country. During war-
time, and more especially whenever strange fleets and pirates
landed, barrels of pitch were set on fire, the alarm spread
rapidly from village to village, and the people rose en masse
to defend the coasts. It appears that the Marcellus flood, as
it was termed, which laid Friesland waste in 1219, and swal-
lowed up whole villages, occasioned the reinstitution of the
ancient meeting at the Upstales-boom, in 1224. The numer-
ous crusades undertaken by the Friscians at this period were
partly occasioned by this flood, as the crusaders were accom-
panied by their wives and children, and were, in reality, emi-
grants. In 1287, a second and still more destructive flood
overwhelmed Friesland, and fifty thousand men, with their vil-
lages and a large portion of the country, sank into the sea, on
the spot now occupied by the bay of Dollart. A fresh meet-
ing at the Upstales-boom followed in 1323, in which the older
laws of the country were formed into a general code. The
separate tribes among the Friscians were independent free-
men, as in the ancient days of Germany. They annually
elected a judge (Rediewd) and a Talemann, whose office it was
to restrain the power of the former. Each of these tribes had
its own laws, which were perfectly similar to those of ancient
Germany. The most important of these are the Hunsingocr
provincial law, the Rustringer Asega-book, and the Brokmer
Briefs. The whole of the laws were popular resolutions ; " so

THE PEASANTRY,

will the Brockmen, so have the people decided," were the sim-
ple words annexed to them. The common salutation between
the people was, " Eala fria Fresena /" " Hail, free Friscian ln
Nobility and stone houses came into vogue among them at a
very late period.

In the rest of the countries of Germany, the peasantry were
chiefly in a state of servitude. In the ancient Gaue, the Graf
no longer stood at the head of free-born men and equal. He
still exercised the penal judicature, the highest office of a
judge, and bore the banner, the highest command during war ;
but these offices had become hereditary in his family. He
was, moreover, lord over his ministeriales, who rendered him
personal service ; the protector of the few free and independent
inhabitants of the Gau, who paid a tribute for the protection
granted ; the manorial and feudal lord of the vassals, (peasants
who kept horses, and instead of paying ground-rent to their
lord rendered him average service,) and proprietor of the serfs.
A governor or mayor was placed over the peasantry in the
separate villages. Their local customs were, at a later period,
sometimes termed village regulations, village rights, and were
laid down by the peasantry themselves. In criminal matters,
the punishments for the serfs were of a more disgraceful na-
ture than those for the free-born. The ringleaders of mobs
were so called, owing to their being condemned to carry a
ring or wheel into the neighbouring country, where they were
put to death.* The German, generally speaking, preserved,
even in servitude, more personal honour than the Slavonian ;
the peasants in Western Germany were in consequence more
harassed with dues, while those in the Eastern provinces suf-
fered a greater degree of personal ill-treatment. The former
consequently possessed a certain degree of mental cultivation,
nay, literature. The finest of the popular ballads were trans
lated into the country dialect, and well known by every pea
sant, and numbers of legends and songs forgotten by the uppe»

classes, became traditional among the peasantry. Heavy

tmposts and dues were levied at an early period. The nobles,
more particularly since the crusades, appear to have become
more luxurious, and, naturally, more needy. Several extra-
ordinary customs, among others the jus prima noctis, from

• This was probably the remains of the heathen custom of crushing
malefactors beneath the wheels of the sacred car.

THE LIBERAL SCIENCES

which a conclusion has been drawn of the degraded state of
the peasantry, have been greatly misunderstood ; the honour
of the female serfs was guarded by the laws, and, in Lom-
bardy, a woman whose chastity was violated by the lord of the
demesne, was instantly affranchized together with her husband,
who thus acquired a right to revenge his injured honour. The
misery of the peasantry was by no means so great during the
middle ages as it became after the great peasant war in 1525.

The division of the ancient free nation into different classes
with opposite views and interests, and particularly the subor-
dination of the peasantry to petty village proprietors, had in
general a most pernicious effect, and chiefly contributed, since
the fall of the Hohenstaufen, to lower the high spirit and na-
tional pride of the German. The parish priest belonged to
the universal Christian church, the knight to the universal
European aristocracy, the citizen was solely intent on his
mercantile affairs, and the cities were, like islets on the
deep, distinct spots on the surface of the land ; these upper
classes as ill replaced the ancient and great order of free pea-
santry, as did their energy and civilization the national vigour
they had lost ; and to this may justly be ascribed the misfor-
tunes and disgrace with which the empire was subsequently
overwhelmed.

CLXIX. — The liberal sciences.

The emancipation of the sciences was fast approaching.
The knowledge spread by the crusades had given rise to a
general spirit of investigation and research. The monastic
academies were placed on a more extensive footing, and trans-
formed into universities. In Paris, independent of Rome,
theology was particularly studied. Hence spread the Italian
heresy of the pupils of Abelard, of Arnold of Brescia, and
here was the birth-place of German mysticism, Hugh von
Blankenburg being a professor in the Paris university, and
abbot of the French monastery of St. Victoire. At Bologna, a
school of law for the study of the resuscitated Roman law
was formed, under the auspices of the Hohenstaufen, by the
great law professor, Irnerius, and thus was laid the founda-
tion to all the jurisprudence of later ages. At Salerno, the
6rst celebrated school of medicine was founded. The medical

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THE LIBERAL SCIENCES

science of the Arabs and Greeks was, after the crusades, also
adopted by this school.

The study of the sciences and the university system was
first introduced into Germany during the fourteenth century.
Until then, Virgilius, bishop of Salzburg, and Albert us Mag-
nus, formed the ideal of German erudition.

The historiographers, chiefly clergy, by whom the ancient
Latin chronicles were continued, were extremely numerous.
Besides Wippo, who wrote a biography of Conrad II., the
most celebrated among them were, Hermannus Contractus,
[a. d. 1054,] who was a lame Swabian count, and afterwards
a monk at Reichenau ; Marianus Scotus, a Scotchman by
birth, and monk at Fulda, who, the legend relates, read and
wrote by the light of his own finger ; Adelbold, bishop of
Utrecht, the author of the biography of Henry III. Henry
IV. and his times have found many commentators, who ge-
nerally wrote in a party spirit. The historians who favoured
the emperor, were Waltram, Conrad of Utrecht, Ben no of
Misnia ; those in favour of the pope, Hugo Blank and Deo-
datus, two German cardinals, Berthold of Constance, and the
monk Bruno. The most veracious history of Gregory VII.
was written by Paul Bernried. Some of the universal histo-
rians of this time acquired greater fame. Lambert of Aschaf-
fenburg wrote an excellent German history in Latin, the style
of which is superior to that of his predecessors. Sigebert de
Gemblours, [a. d. 1112,] besides a violent attack upon the
emperor, Henry IV., wrote an Universal Chronicle. Hepi-
danus wrote the Alemannic Annals ; Eckhart, a History of St.
Gall. Numerous chronicles of Quedlinburg, Hamersleben,
Hildesheim, also belong to this period. The celebrated Adam
von Bremen [a. d. 1076] is the most valuable writer of that
age in reference to the histories of the northern archbishop-
rics, and of the pagan North. To him succeeded Wibald, chan-
cellor to the emperor Lothar, and Frederick Barbarossa's am-
bassador at Constantinople. He was poisoned in Paphlagonia,
[a. d. 1158,] and left four hundred letters. Otto, bishop of
Freysingen, the son of Leopold, Margrave of Austria, and
step-brother to the emperor, Conrad III., died in the same
year after gaining great fame, and left, besides an Universal
Chronicle, a Biography of Barbarossa, and a History, since
lost, of the House of "Babenberg. Gunther, an Alsacian monk,

THE LIBERAL SCIENCES.

wrote, in Latin verse, the exploits of Barbarossa i». I) pp«r Italy,
(Liguria,) whence he received the surname of Ligurinus.
Barbarossa's deeds were also celebrated by Radewich, a canon
of Freysingen. Godfred di Viterbo, who lived during his youth
at Bamberg, and was probably a German, wrote an Universal
Chronicle, up to the year 1186 ; another was written, as far as
the reign of Conrad III., by Honorius von Augst ; a third
excellent Chronicle (Clironica regia S. Pantaleonis) was
written by some monks at Cologne ; a fourth, that of Magde-
burg, by the " Chronographus Saxo;" and another by the
monk Ekkehart at Bamberg, or Fulda. The best national and
provincial historians were Cosmas, a deacon at Prague, who
wrote a History of Bohemia, prior to 1 125 ; Helmold, a priest
at Bosow, near Lubeek, a celebrated Chronicle of the Slavo-
nians, prior to 1170 ; an anonymous monk at Weingarten, the
Chronicle of the Welfs; Conrad, abbot of Mcelk, a Chronicle of
Austria ; there were besides chronicles of the monastery of
Muri in Switzerland, of Pegau in the Lausitz, of Liege, the
Annals of Hildesheim, and other monastic chronicles of lesser
importance.

In the thirteenth century, Oliverius, canon of Paderborn,
who undertook a crusade against the Albigenses, accompanied
another to Jerusalem, and, in 1227, died a cardinal, wrote a
history of the Holy Land, and an account of the siege of Da-
mietta. In 1226, Burchard of Biberach added a continuation
to Ekkehart's Chronicle. Conrad von Lichtenau, abbot of
Ursperg, A. D. 1240, wrote a great Universal Chronicle, the
celebrated Chronicon Urspergense ; another was written about
the same time by a monk of Neumunster near Liege ; a third
by Albrecht von Stade, abbot of the same monastery prior to
1260. A celebrated Chronicle of the Popes and Emperors
was written by Martinus Polonus, of Troppau in Silesia, a. d.
1278. The Letters, Conversations, and Controversial Writ-
ings of Frederick II., and his Chancellor, Peter de Vineis, and
the History of the Englishman, Matthaeus Paris, particularly
concerning Frederick II., are of great historical value. An
ancient Erfurt Chronicle, the Chronicon Schirense, by the prior
Conrad von Scheyern, contains much interesting matter, be-
sides several other lesser chronicles, those of Halberstadt,
Lorch and Passau, St. Gall, Mayence, the Friscian Chro-
nica, b. Euimonis et Manconis, etc.

THE LIBERAL SCIENCES.

The historians of the fourteenth century partly wta**
chronicles in the spirit of the past age, as, for instance, Henry,
(Stero,) a monk of Altaich, Sigfried, presbyter of Misnia,
Matthias von Neuenburg, and Albert of Strassburg, partly
learned collections, such as the Cosmodromium of Gobelinus
Persona, deacon of Birkenfeld in Paderborn, [a. d. 1420,]
and the work de Temporibus Memorabilibus, of Henry of
Herford, who became a professor at Erfurt. Besides the Annals
of Colmar, and those of Henry von Rebdorf, as well as the
Ecclesiastical History of Henry von Diessenhofen, some of the
city and provincial chronicles are in part excellent. These
chronicles, as soon as the citizens took up the pen, were writ-
ten in German ; those written by the clergy are, without ex-
ception, in Latin. The most celebrated of the German writers
were, Ottocar von Horneck, who composed a History of Aus-
tria in verse, which reached as far as 1309 ; Peter Suchen-
wirth of Austria, the author of ballads, in which he hands
down to posterity the exploits of the heroes of his time ; Ernst
von Kirchberg, author of the Mecklenburg Chronicle, written
in verse; Albrecht von Bardewich, of the Lubeck Stades
Chronicle ; Closener, of that of Strassburg ; Koenigshoven, of
that of Alsace up to 1386 ; Riedesel, of that of Hesse; and
Gensbein, of that of Limburg, finally the Chronicle of the
sheriffs of Magdeburg. In 1326, Peter von Duisburg penned,
in Latin, the first History of Prussia, and Liebhold von Nor-
tha one of the frontier counts, and a catalogue of the arch-
bishops of Cologne.

The knowledge of geography was greatly increased by the
crusades. Some bold adventurers penetrated, even at that
period, into the heart of Asia. The most celebrated travels
are those of Marco Polo, the Venetian ; but eighteen years
earlier, in 1253, a German monk, named Ruisbrock, frater
Willielmus of the Netherlands, travelled through Great Tar-
tary as far as China, confirmed for the first time the account
given by the ancients of the position of the Caspian Sea, and
brought the first news of the existence of a native Asiatic
people with whom the Germans were related by descent. See
the works of Roger Bacon, Bergeron, and Humboldt. Wil-
liam von Baldensleven, a German nobleman and monk, tra-
velled [a. d. 1315] into the Holy Land, and thence Jnto
Tartary.

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PART XIH

SUPREMACY OF THE POPE.

CLXX. Rudolf von Habsburg.

The triumph of the pope over the emperor entirely changed
the aspect of affairs. The emperors became the mere tools of
a princely aristocracy under the JEgis of the pope. Weak-
ness and treason overwhelmed the ancient empire with dis-
grace. But, whilst the princes were engaged in appropriating
to themselves the fragments of the shattered diadem, the
people gradually acquired greater independence, formed them-
selves into federations without the aid of the princes, or into
estates under them, and finally broke the papal yoke by the
great Reformation.

Years had elapsed since the death of Frederick II. ; his
unfortunate son, Conrad, had been, like William, Richard,
and Alfonso, a mere puppet on the throne. Alfonso was still
living in Spain, completely absorbed in the study of astronomy.
The people, unforgetful of their ancient glory, again desired
an emperor, and the legendary superstition concerning the
return of Barbarossa once more revived. The lower and
weaker classes throughout the empire were bitterly sensible
of the want of the protection of the crown, but the election of
a successor to the throne would have been still longer neg-
lected by the princes, had they not felt the necessity of setting
a limit to the ambitious designs of Ottocar of Bohemia. A
conference accordingly took place between them and the pope,
and the election was not proceeded with until a fitting tool
for their purposes had been discovered, and their prerogatives
guarded by conditions and stipulations. The qualities required
in the new emperor were courage and warlike habits, in order
to insure a triumph over Ottocar ; a certain degree of popu-
larity, for the purpose of cajoling the people ; and the blindest
submission to the authority of the pope and princes.

This political tool was found in Rudolf, Count von Hab§-

uigmz

RUDOLF VON HABSBURG.

burg, who had been held at the font by Frederick II., a mark
of distinction bestowed by that monarch for his father's faithful
services. Rudolf had fought in Prussia, (whither he had un-
dertaken a crusade in expiation of the crime of burning down
a convent during a feud with Basle,) for Ottocar, by whom
he had been knighted, and had, since that period, fought with
equal bravery and skill for every party that chanced to suit
his interests, at one moment aiding the nobles in their innu-
merable petty feuds against the cities of Strassburg and Basle,
at another fighting under the banner of Strassburg, against the
bishop and the nobility, or making head in his own cause
against the abbot of St. Gall, and his own uncle, the Count
von Kyburg, on account of a disputed inheritance, etc. Wer-
ner, archbishop of Mayence, whom Rudolf had escorted across
the Alps, mediated in his favour with the pope. He had
also personally recommended himself, as a zealous Guelph, to
the pope, Gregory X., at Mugeilo in the Apennines, and,
notwithstanding the feuds he had formerly carried on with the
bishops and abbots, now played the part of a most humble
servant of the church ; he gained great fame, on one occasion,
by leaping from his saddle and presenting his horse to a priest
who was carrying the pyx. He agreed, if elected, to yield
unconditional obedience to the pope, to renounce all claim
upon or interference with Italy, and to enter into alliance
with the House of Anjou. Frederick von Ilohenzollern,
Burggrave of Nuremberg, (the ancestor of the Electors of
Brandenburg and of the royal line of Prussia,) acted as his
mediator with the princes, to three of the most powerful among
whom he offered his daughters in marriage, to Louis of Pfalz-
Bavaria, (the cruel murderer of his first wife,) Mechtilda, to
Otto of Brandenburg, Hedwig, and to Albert of Saxony,
Agnes. He moreover promised never to act, when emperor,
without the consent of the princes, on every important occa-
sion to obtain their sanction in writing, and confirmed them
all, Ottocar of Bohemia excepted, in the possession of the
territory belonging to the empire, and of the hereditary lands
af the Staufen illegally seized by them. That the election of"
a new emperor by the pope and the princes merely hinged
upon these conditions was perfectly natural, the whole power
lying in their hands. This was the simple result of the
downfal of the Staufen, and of the defeat of the Ghibellines.

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RUDOLF VON HABSBURG.

Rudolf, who was engaged in a feud with the city of Basle
when Frederick von Zollern arrived with the news of his elec-
tion, instantly concluded peace with that city, marched down
the Rhine, and was crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle, A. D. 1273.
The real imperial crown and the sceptre were still in Italy ;
the latter was supplied, by way of flattery to the church, by a
crucifix. The ceremony of coronation was enhanced by that
of the marriage of his three daughters. Henry of Bavaria,
. the brother of Louis, was, after some opposition, also won
over, and his son Otto wedded to his fourth daughter, Cathe-
rina. The lower classes in the empire were, nevertheless,
filled with discontent. The coalition between the great vas-
sals inspired them with the deepest apprehension. They
were, however, pacified. The lower nobility, who had ren-
dered themselves hated by their rapine and insolence, were
at strife with the towns. Rudolf, who had, up to this period,
been a mere military adventurer, a robber-knight, now headed
the great princes against his former associates, and reduced
them all, even the wild Count Eberhard of Wurtemberg, to
submission. This policy flattered the cities, which Rudolf also
sought to win by affability ; he bestowed the dignity of knight-
hood with great solemnity on Jacob Muller of Zurich, in order
to gain for his Swiss possessions the protection of the neigh-
bouring towns ; he was, nevertheless, viewed with great mis-
trust by many of the cities.

Gregory X. hastened to bestow his benediction on his new
creature, and, in order to deprive him at once of any pretext
for a visit to Rome, and of effectually closing Italy against
the Germans, came in person to Lausanne. Rudolf knelt
humbly at the pontiff's feet and vowed unconditional obe-
dience, an action he afterwards attempted to palliate by a jest,
saying that " Rome was the lion's den, into which all the foot-
steps entered, but whence none returned. He therefore pre-
ferred serving to fighting with the lion of the church."

The subjection of Ottocar had been one of the conditions
annexed to the possession of the crown. The vote of the
king of Bohemia, although that of the most powerful vassal of
the empire, had therefore been omitted in the election, or
rather, the whole scheme of Rudolf's accession had been man-
aged too secretly and rapidly for interference on his part. Ot-
tocar bavins: rendered himself hateful bj his severity* Stephen

RUDOLF VON HABSBURG.

of Hungary, the son of Bela, made a fresh attempt [a. d. 1270]
to gain possession of Styria. The Styrians, however, hated
the Hungarian even more than the Bohemian yoke, and he
was repulsed. Whilst pursuing the fugitives across the Neu-
siedler lake, the ice gave way, and numbers of the Styrians
were drowned. The Hungarians made fresh inroads, and Otto-
car redoubled his tyranny. Among other acts of cruelty, he
ordered the Styrian knight Seyfried von Moehrenberg, whom
sickness had hindered from coming to his rencontre, to be
dragged at a horse's tail, and then hanged by the feet. He
also continued to seize the castles of the nobility, and threat-
ened to cast the children of the expelled lords, whom he re-
tained as hostages, from the roofs. The Austrians and Sty-
rians were, consequently, fully justified in laying a solemn
accusation against their blood-thirsty tyrant before the diet at
Wurzburg, a. d. 1275. Bernhard von Wolkersdorf and Hart-
nid von Wildon spoke in their name. Rudolf, after sealing a
compact with Henry of Bavaria and with Stephen of Hun-
gary, took the field at the head of a numerous army, and Ot-
tocar, conscious of guilt and surrounded by foes, yielded,
again ceded Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola to the
empire, and was merely allowed to hold Bohemia and Mora-
via in fee of the emperor. In 1276, he came, attired in the
royal robes of Bohemia, to an island on the Danube, where
Rudolf, meanly clad as a horse-soldier, received him under a
tent, which, whilst the king was kneeling at his feet, and
taking the oath of fealty, was raised at a given signal, in order
to degrade the monarch in the eyes of the people ; a mean and
dastardly action ; and the reproach of vanity can alone be cast
upon the emperor, the king of Bohemia having merely ap-
peared in a garb suited to his dignity, on an occasion which,
far from elevating his pride, deeply wounded it ; nor can hif
high-spirited queen be blamed for inciting him to revenge the
insult. Rudolf, meanwhile, sought to secure his footing in
Austria. Unable openly to appropriate that country as family
property, he gradually and separately won the nobility, cities,
and bishops over to his interest, and induced the spiritual
lords more especially to bestow a number of single fiefs on his
sons, whom he by this means firmly settled in the country.
Ottocar, instigated by his queen, Cunigunda, at length de-
clared war, and marched at the head of his entire force against

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RUDOLF VON HABSBURG.

Rudolf. His plan of battle was betrayed to Rudolf by his best
general, Milota von Diedicz, who thus revenged the execution
of his brother. The Hungarians also came to Rudolf's assist-
ance, and Ottocar, defeated on the Marchfeld near Vienna,
[a. d. 1278,] by treachery and superior numbers, fell by the
hands of the two young Moehrenbergs, who sought him in the
thickest of the fight.

Rudolf held a triumphal festival at Vienna, where the cen-
tagenarian knight, Otto von Haslau, broke a lance with one
of his own great-grandsons. The greatest hilarity prevailed.
Rudolf, meanwhile, cautiously made use of passing events in
order to enrich his family. His son Rudolf was elevated to
the dukedom of Swabia, and his hand forced upon Agnes, the
daughter of Ottocar. Bohemia's rightful heir, Wenzel, the
infant son of Ottocar, was given up to Otto of Brandenburg,
the emperor's son-in-law, by whom he was utterly neglected,
whilst, under the title of his guardian, the duke plundered Bo-
hemia and carried oif waggon loads of silver and gold. Rudolf's
second son, Albert, received the duchy of Austria and the
hand of Elisabeth, daughter of Meinhard, count of Tyrol, who
was created duke of Carinthia. Rudolf also gave his fifth
daughter, Clementia, in marriage to Charles Mar tell, the son
of Charles d'Anjou, by whom the last of the Hohenstaufen
had been put to death at Naples. This marriage was a sa-
crifice made to the pope, whose jealousy of the increasing
power of his house he thus sought to appease. In 1280, a
Frenchman was raised, under the name of Martin IV., to the
pontifical chair. The hatred borne by this pope to the Ger-
mans was such, that he openly said that " he wished Germany
was a pond full of fish, and he a pike, that he might swallow
them all." Rudolf, nevertheless, deeply humbled himself be-
fore him. The band of Gutta, Rudolf's sixth daughter,

was forced upon the youthful heir to Bohemia, who was ran-
somed at a heavy price by his subjects. His mother, Cunigun-
da, had, meanwhile, married a Minnesinger, named Zawitch,
whom, on his release, he instantly ordered to execution, as a
•light reparation for the injured honour of his father.

The emperor continued, henceforward, to suppress petty
feuds in person, and travelled from one diet to another for the
purpose of passing resolutions for the peace of the country,
and from one province to another for that of enforcing peace.

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HUDOLF T DN HABSBURG

He was surnamed the living or wandering law,
and numbers of his magnanimous and just actions and sayings
became proverbial. The people, ever inclined to judge by
single actions, and equally blind to their motive and their
tendency, valued a quaint anecdote concerning the emperor
Rudolf far more highly than a great institution founded by
his predecessors, and the popular admiration of this chivalric
emperor has been handed down from one generation to another.
The empire, nevertheless, remained in a state bordering on
anarchy, might was right, and Rudolf, notwithstanding his
efforts, merely succeeded in re-establishing peace during short
and broken intervals.

At Neuss on the Rhine, [a. d. 1285,] appeared a certain
Thile Coluf, or Frederick Holzschuih, (wooden-shoe,) who gave
himself out as Frederick II., declaring that he had risen from
the dead. He held a court for a short time at Wetzlar. In
Swabia, Eberhard of Wurtemberg, Rudolf of Baden, and six-
teen other counts renewed their predatory attacks upon the
cities. They were reduced to submission [a. d. 1286] by the
emperor, who burnt the castle of Stuttgart to the ground. He
also made a successful inroad into Burgundy, less for the pur-
pose of connecting that country more closely with the empire
than for that of extending, or at all events of protecting, his
Swiss possessions on that side. In his old age, he married
Agnes of Burgundy, (Franche comte,) who was then in her
fourteenth year,* and reduced his rivals, the Pfalzgrave Otto,
(a descendant of another branch of the same family,) and the
Count Reginald von Mumpelgard, to submission. The latter
had attacked the people of Basle, and taken their bishop
prisoner in a bloody battle, in which a fourth of the citizens
were slain. The partition among the counts, however, con-
tinued to exist, and the eastern side of ancient Burgundy was
seized by Savoy, the Swiss confederation, and, above all, by
Berne, which, even at that period, refused to furnish the
imperial contingency, and made such a valiant defence that
Rudolf was compelled to retire from before the walls. The
bears in the city arms were placed in a bloody field in memory

* The bishop of Spires, by whom she was conducted after the cere-
mony to the carriage, was so enchanted with her beauty that he kissed
her, upon which the emperor said that it was the Ajrnus Dei, not Agnes,
that ne ought to "

RUDOLF VON HABSBURG.

ef the blood shed on this occasion. Rudolf merely advanced
northwards as far as Thuringia, where he destroyed sixty-six
robber castles, and, in 1290, condemned twenty-nine of the
robber knights to be hanged at Ilmenau.

The efforts of the emperor were confined to this narrow
circle, whilst bloody feuds, with which he did not interfere,
were carried on in every quarter of the empire. His chief
object was the confirmation of the Austrian possessions to his
family. He was also desirous of making the imperial crown
hereditary, and of naming his son, Albert, his successor to
the throne. The chagrin produced by the refusal of the
princes hastened his death, which took place A. D. 1291.
Rudolf was tall and thin, had a hooked nose, which occasioned
popular jokes at his expense, and a bald head.

The greatest anarchy and want of union prevailed through-
out the other provinces of the empire, which had completely
fallen a prey to petty interests and petty feuds. The Hansa
alone sustained the dignity of the German name both at home
and abroad, but merely in pursuance of its own interests, with-
out reference to the weak and mean-spirited emperor. The
Hanseatic flag ruled the Northern Ocean. Its fleets captured
every vessel belonging to Erich, king of Norway, and blocked
up the Scandinavian harbours. The treaty of Colmar, A. D.
1285, confirmed its commercial monopoly. The whole of
Northern Germany, meanwhile, senselessly wasted its strength
in intestine strife. The counts of Holstein again attempted
to subjugate the free Ditmarses, and suffered a shameful de-
feat, a. d. 1289. Florens V. of Holland revenged the death
of his father on the Western Friscians, over whom he gained
a signal victory at Alkmaar, when the secret of his father's
burial-place was discovered to him. His firm support of the
citizens and peasantry rendered him the darling of the people,
and roused the hatred of the nobles, who conspired against
and murdered him, A. D. 1296.

A violent feud was at that time also carried on on the Rhine.
Siegfried von Westerburg, who had succeeded Engelbert in
the archbishopric of Cologne, opposed the Count Adolf VII.
von Berg, who coveted the archbishopric for his b' other Con-
rad, and was, moreover, supported by the citizens. About
this time, Adolf took possession of the duchy of Limburg in
his right as grandson to Henry, duke of Limburg, who had

VOL. IX. O

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RUDOLF VON HABSBUEG.

inherited Berg ; Count Reinold of Gueldres also claimed the
duchy in right of his wite, another grandchild of the duke,
Henry, and the archbishop, confederating with him, exert-
ed his influence in his favour with the Netherland nobility,
more particularly with Henry von Luxemburg, and Adolf von
Nassau, the future emperor. Adolf von Berg, unable to meet
the rising storm, ceded his claims upon Limburg to the brave
duke, John of Brabant, and, aided by him and by the valiant
citizens of Cologne, gave battle to the archbishop at Wje-
ringen near that city, where Henry IV. of Luxemburg and
his three brethren were slain, and the archbishop, Reinhold, ol"
Gueldres, and Adolf von Nassau were taken prisoners, a. i>.
1288. John retained possession of Limburg. Siegfried, the
fomentor of the broil, was imprisoned, armed cap-a-pie, in a
cage, where he remained in that state for seven years. On
regaining his liberty, he feigned a reconciliation with Adolf
von Berg, whom, in an unguarded moment, he suddenly cap-
tured, and sentenced to be stripped naked, smeared from head
to foot with honey, and exposed in an iron cage to the stings
of insects and to the open sky. After enduring this martyrdom
for thirteen months, the wretched count was released, but
shortly afterwards died of the consequences. His sufferings
were avenged by his brother and successor, William, who
was victorious over the archbishop of Cologne, near Bonn,

[a. d. 1296,] and peace was finally made. Feuds of a similar

description, in which bishops played the chief part, were com-
mon throughout the empire.

In Misnia and Thuringia, Albert the Degenerate persecuted
his wife, Margaretha, of the noble house of Hohenstaufen, and
his children, with the most rancorous hatred, on account of
the disappointment of the hopes of aggrandizement which had
formed the sole motive of his alliance with that family. He
even despatched one of his servants to the Wartburg for the
purpose of assassinating her ; but the countess, warned by him
of his lord's intention, fled secretly (after biting her eldest
son, Frederick, in the cheek, in token of the vengeance she
intended to take) to Frankfurt,, where she shortly afterwards
died of grief. Albert persecuted his brother Dietrich with
equal enmity. Their father, Henry, (who fought so long with
Magdeburg against the Brandenburgs,) had divided his pos-
sessions between the two brothers, ijivintf Misnia and Thu

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RUDOLF VON HABSBURG.

ringia to Albert. Pleissner with the margraviate3 of Lands-
berg and Lausitz to Dietrich. Albert, when attempting to
expel his brother, was defeated near Tennstedt, [a.d. 1275,] by
him and his ally, Conrad, archbishop of Magdeburg. Dietrich
was surnamed the Thick, and was a Minnesinger. Conrad
died a. D. 1276 ; his successor, Gunther, was attacked by Otto,
margrave of Brandenburg, whose brother, Erich, coveted the
mitre. Otto was defeated at Aken, and subsequently taken
prisoner, [a. d. 1278,] in an engagement on the Sulz. He was
imprisoned in a narrow chest. On being ransomed for an in-
significant amount, he haughtily observed, Had ye placed
me armed cap-a-pie on horseback, and buried me in gold and
silver coin to my lance's point, ye would have had a ransom
worthy of me." He speedily infringed the treaty, and again
took up arms. He was surnamed Otto with the Arrow, on ac-
count of a wound he had received in his head, whence the
arrow-point could not be extracted, during the siege of Mag-
deburg. Bernhard, who succeeded Gunther in the archiepis-
copal dignity, quarrelled with Dietrich the Thick, who at-
tempting to seize his person by stratagem, he withdrew to the
castle of Werfen, which he fortified, A. D. 1282. Dietrich ex-
pired shortly afterwards without issue, and his possessions fell
to Albert the Degenerate. Bernhard, however, avoided an-
other bloody feud with Brandenburg by voluntarily resigning
his dignity in Erich's favour. Erich had long been an object
of hatred to the citizens, whose hearts he, nevertheless, after-
wards so completely gained, that being taken prisoner by
Henry the Whimsical of Brunswick in a feud concerning the
possession of a castle, they voluntarily ransomed him, in re-
turn for which he bestowed upon them great privileges. He

died in peace and honour. Otto the Severe, of Brunswick-

Luneburg, (the Welfs were much weakened by sub-division,)
carried on a feud with the city of Hanover, a. d. 1292.
Saxon-Lauenburg was governed during the repeated absence
of its duke, Albert, by the knight, Hermann Riebe, who prac-
tised common highway robbery, and whose castles were de-
stroyed by the citizens of Liibeck, a. d. 1291. In Nurem-
berg, two of the Burggrave's sons, who had hunted a child to
death with their hounds, were killed by the scythe-smiths,
A.D. 1298.

In Mecklenburg, the princes were divided into several

o 2

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ADOLF OF NASSAU.

branches, and were at feud not only with the cities of Rostock
and Wismar, but also with each other. The aged prince,
Henry von Giistrow, was murdered at Ribnitz, [a. d. 1291,] by
his sons, when hunting. Henry the Pilgrim, of Mecklenburg,
accompanied Louis IX. of France [a. d. 1276] to the Holy
Land, where he was taken prisoner. During his prolonged
absence, his wife, Anastasia, was ill-treated by her brother-
in-law, John von Gadebusch, and saved the lives of her infant
sons (the eldest of whom, Henry, was afterwards surnamed
the Lion) by concealing them beneath the gowns of her
female attendants. These sons afterwards avenged their
mother's sufferings on their wicked uncle, whom they defeated,
together with his allies, the princes of Brandenburg, Lauen-
burg, and Luneburg, on the Rambeeler heath, A. d. 1283. The
Pilgrim, after remaining for twenty-six years in slavery, was
released [a. d. 1302] by a miller's son from Gadebusch, who
had once served under him as an arquebusier, and who, on
being captured by the Turks, had embraced Mahommedanism,
and been created sultan of Egypt. On the Pilgrim's return,
no one recognised him. Two impostors, who had attempted
to personate him, had been executed, one by fire, the other by
water. His wild spirit, unbroken by long slavery, however,
ere long proved his identity. Finding his son, the Lion, en-
gaged in the siege of the castle of Glessen, he instantly ad-
vised the erection of a high gallows at its foot, in sign of the
disgraceful death that awaited its defenders. He also be-
sieged the castle of Wismar ; his efforts, however, proved un-
successful, and he expired during the same year, a. d. 1302.
During his absence, his daughter, Luitgarde, had wedded
Pribizlaw, duke of Poland, by whom she was condemned to
be hanged on a bare suspicion of infidelity.^ — In Pomerania,
the duke, Barnim IV., was stabbed by a certain Muckewitz,
whose wife he had dishonoured, A. d. 1295, The whole of
Europe's chivalry protected the assassin.

CLXXI. Adolf of Nassau,

Rudolf of Swabia, the eldest son of the deceased emperor,
died early, leaving an infant, Johannes, who was utterly neg-
lected. The second son, Albert, inherited the Habsburg poa-

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ADOLF OF NASSAU.

sessions; the third, Hartmann, was drowned in the Rhine
near Lauffen.

Albert's conduct, even during his father's life-time, made
the Austrians and Styrians bitterly repent their acceptation
of him as duke. In 1287, the citizens of Vienna revolting
against his tyranny, he besieged them from the Calenberg,
and when famine at length forced them to capitulate, deprived
them of all their privileges, and condemned numbers of them
to have their eyes and tongues torn out, and their fingers
chopped off. Iban, Count von Gunz, his equal in cruelty,
who was supported by Hungary, alone ventured to set him at
defiance. Ladislaw, king of Hungary, died, A. d. 1290. Al-
bert had been invested at a venture by his father with that
crown, but the Hungarians, headed by their new king, An-
dreas, invaded Austria, and compelled him to purchase a dis-
graceful peace by the cession of Pressburg and Tirnau.* The
brave Styrians stood by him in this emergency, nor was it
until peace had been concluded that they brought forward
their grievances, and accused him of issuing base coin, of rob-
bing private individuals, and of countenancing the licentious
practices of his stadtholder, Henry, abbot of Admont. Albert,
no longer in awe of the Hungarians, treated the complainants
with contempt, upon which Frederick von Stubenberg ex-
claimed, that u they had done wrong in expelling Ottocar,
having merely exchanged one tyrant for another." Hartnid von
Wildon, who had at first sued the Habsburgs for protection,
now again took up arms against them. Admont was taken by
storm, and the abbot expelled. Rudolf, archbishop of Salzburg,
protecting the mountaineers, Albert invited him insidiously to
Vienna, where he caused him to be poisoned. His successor,
Conrad, and Otto of Bavaria, Albert's son-in-law, from whom
he had withheld the dowry, promised their aid to the Styrians.
Albert, however, obviated their plans, by causing the Alpine
passes to be cleared of the snow during the winter, and sud-
denly attacked the rebellious nobles : Stubenberg was taken
prisoner. The nobles were, for the most part, compelled to
surrender their castles to the duke, who, on this occasion,
acted with unwonted lenity, his object being to conciliate the

• The Chron. Leobiense bitterly reproaches Albert with the devasta-
tion caused by the Hungarians : " Talis pestilenUa sex septimanis in
terra ista duraviL Dura superbit impius, incenditur pauper."

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ADOLF OF NASSAU.

people, and to guard his rear whilst attempting to gain posses-
sion of the imperial throne.

The helm of the state had fallen into the most worthless
hands. The creatures of the pope and of France, who had
risen to power since the fall of the Hohenstaufen, emulated
each other in baseness and servility. Gerhard, archbishop of
Mayence, the arch-chancellor of the empire in the name of the
pope, craftily managed the election of a successor to the late
emperor, by inducing the electors, who were divided in their
choice, to commit it to him alone, and deceived them all by
placing his own cousin, Adolf, count of Nassau, whom none
had thought of as emperor, on the throne, a. d. 1291. Albert
was the most deeply deceived, Gerhard having spared no flat-
tery, and even invited him, as he believed, to his own corona-
tion. On learning, midway, the election of Adolf, he pru-
dently yielded to circumstances, and took the oath of fealty to
the new emperor at Oppenheim, but refused the proposal of
affiancing their children. An open contest for the possession
of the throne would have raised too many and too powerful
foes, he therefore patiently waited until, as he hoped, Adolf
might create enemies against himself, and commit errors capa-
ble of being turned to advantage.

The emperor Adolf was a poor count, brave, but a slave
to the lowest debauchery, and misguided by his intriguing
cousin of Mayence, whose chief object in electing him was
the aggrandizement of the house of Nassau, by the increase of
its territorial possessions, the first step to which was the pro-
motion of intermarriages with the great families. Rudolf, the
son of Adolf, consequently, wedded Jutta of Bohemia, and his
daughter, Mechthilda, the youthful Pfalzgrave, Rudolf the
Stammerer. England offered money for the purpose of en-
gaging the emperor on her side against France. Adolf, how-
ever, had the meanness to accept it, and instead of forwarding
the interests of England, purchased with it Misnia and Thu-
ringia from Albert the Degenerate. This duke viewed his
own offspring with the deadliest hatred. His unfortunate
children, Frederick with the bitten check, and Diezmann, fled
from their cruel parent, who craftily regained possession of
them, and would have starved them to death had not his own
servants taken compassion upon them, and saved their lives.
On attaining manhood, they took up arms against their uu-

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ADOLF OF NASSAU.

natural father, and, supported by the enraged people, took him
prisoner. By the persuasions of Cunna von Isenburg, his
mistress, he was induced to offer his possessions for sale to the
emperor, for the sake of disinheriting his sons, a proposal
greedily accepted by Adolf, who also aided him with troops
against his children. The greatest cruelties were practised
by the imperial forces. On one occasion, they pitched and
feathered two women, and drove them through their camp.
The complaints of the Count von Hohenstein were unheeded
by the emperor, by whom licence was encouraged to such a
degree, that the Thuringians, excited to frenzy, exercised the
most horrid barbarities on every imperialist who chanced to
fall into their hands. In Muhlhausen, where the emperor
was peaceably received, he behaved with such brutality, that
the citizens expelled him the city. After a long struggle,
Frederick and Diezmann were compelled to seek safety in flight.

Albert's apparent disgrace by the election of Adolf, raised
a party against him in his oldest hereditary possessions. The
peasants of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden, formed a defen-
sive alliance, in 1291 ; whilst William, abbot of St. Gall, an
ancient foe to the house of Habsburg, the bishop of Constance,
the counts of Savoy, Montfort, Nellenburg, and the city of
Zurich, in the hope of freeing themselves from their encroach-
ing neighbour, by placing themselves under the protection of
the emperor, attacked Albert's town, Winterthur ; Count Hugh
von Werdenberg, the one-eyed, armed the Habsburg vassals
in defence, and Albert, speedily appearing in person, laid siege
to Zurich, but as quickly retreated in order to quell a revolt
to his rear among the Styrians, on whom he took a fearful re-
venge, but was compelled to make peace, his son-in-law, Louis
of Carinthia, being taken prisoner by the rebels. Louis was
exchanged for Stubenberg. Salzburg and Bavaria again took
part with Styria, and a diet was held at Trubensee, A. d. 1292.
The nobles demanded the dismissal of his governors, von
Landenberg and Waldsee, who harassed the country. Albert
refused, and bade them defiance ; Adolf remained an indiffer-
ent spectator ; Salzburg and Bavaria were lukewarm : the
citizens of Vienna also refused to aid the nobility, by whom
they had formerly been deserted, and Albert again succeeded
in quelling the insurrection.

Adolf, roused either by the derision with which he was

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ADOLF OF NASSAU

treated by his subjects, by whom he was nick-named the
Priest-king, or weary of his fetters, imprudently quarrelled
wfth his cousin Gerhard, and with Wenzel of Bohemia, who
claimed Pleissen as his share of the Misnian booty. Albert
had no sooner quelled the sedition in his hereditary lands, and
entered into amicable relations with Bohemia and Hungary,
than Gerhard, fearing lest he might share the fate with which
the universally and justly detested emperor was threatened,
resolved to abandon him, and to be the first to lay the crown
of Germany at his rival's feet. Under pretext of solemnizing
the coronation of the youthful king of Bohemia, he visited
Prague with the whole of his retinue, and there devised mea-
sures with Albert, who also arrived with a crowd of adhe-
rents. The duke even threw himself on his knees before
Wenzel, in order to sue for his vote. His party was very
numerous ; there were 190,000 horses in the city. Every
street was hung with purple; in the new market-place the
wine flowed from a fountain. Albert thence visited Press-
burg, [a. d. 1297,] for the purpose of wedding his daughter,
Agnes, to his ancient enemy, Andreas of Hungary. Thus
secure to the rear, and followed by numerous and powerful
adherents, he advanced to the Rhine; Salzburg joined his
party, Bavaria remained tranquil, Wurtemberg and numbers
of the Swabian nobility ranged themselves beneath his stand-
ard. Adolf, although merely aided by the Pfalzgrave Rudolf
and by the cities, marched boldly against his antagonist, whom
he compelled to retreat up the Rhine, upon which Otto of
Bavaria declared in his favour, and defeated Albert's party in
a nocturnal engagement near Oberndorf, in which Albert's
uncle and trusty counsellor, the aged Count von Heigerloch,
was slain. Notwithstanding this disaster, Gerhard convoked
the electors or their deputies to Mayence, deposed his cousin,
and proclaimed Albert emperor. Adolf's unworthy conduct
served as an excellent pretext for that of the electors whose
votes had been bought. The two armies watched each other
for some time on the Upper Rhine; Albert threw himself
into Strassburg, whose gates were opened to him by the
bishop, and then into the Pfalz, whither he was followed by
Adolf, who came up with him at the foot of the Donnerberg,
at a spot known as the Hasenbiihel, upon which Albert spread
a report that he and Gerhard had been slain, and making a

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ALBERT THE FIRST.

feigned retreat, Adolf hastily pursued with his cavalry, and
was no sooner separated from his infantry, than Albert sud-
denly turned and fell upon him. According to his orders his
soldiery stabbed the horses of the enemy, so that most of the
cavalry was speedily dismounted and compelled to fight in
their heavy armour on foot. Adolf, whose horse had been
killed under him, and who had lost his helmet, searched unre-
mittingly for his rival, and after attacking several knights
disguised in Albert's armour, was slain, when faint and
weary, as Albert himself confessed, not by his hand, as has
often been believed, but by that of the Raugraf,* A. d. 1298.

CLXXIL Albert the First.

This monster had at length, when hoary with age, attained
his joyless aim. A life of intrigue, danger, and crime had
lent an expression of gloom and severity to his countenance,
which even the brilliance and splendour of his coronation at
Nuremberg could not dispel, and he cruelly repulsed Adolf s
unhappy widow, who fell at his feet to beg the life of her son
Kuprecht, who had been taken prisoner in the battle. Agnes
of Burgundy, his stepmother, was reduced by him to poverty,
and at length found a refuge among her relations at Dijon.
His first act on mounting the throne was directed against the
youthful king of Bohemia, whose pride he sought to humble.
During the coronation, Wenzel had performed the office of
cup-bearer, mounted on horseback, his crown upon his head,
in order to preserve his dignity while performing that menial
office. The emperor also levied a- large sum upon the cities of
Franconia on account of the murder of the Jews, caused by
the desecration of the holy wafer by one of their nation.

An opportunity at this time offered for intermeddling with
the foreign policy of the empire, so long and so shamefully
neglected. The pope, Boniface VIII., had quarrelled with
Philip the Handsome of France, who had attempted to use him
as his tool. This pope was also highly displeased with Albert
for having accepted the crown without paying homage to him
as to his liege. " I am the emperor," wrote the pope to him,

• A title borne by one of the Rhenish Grafs or Counts. — Tbaxsiatoe.

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ALBERT THE FIRST

Upon this Albert confederated with Philip against the pope,
met his new ally at Tours, where he affianced his son, Rudolf,
with the Princess Blanca, Philip's daughter, and solemnly in-
vested Philip himself with the Arelat, which had in fact been
long severed from the empire.* This alliance with France
greatly diminished the influence and roused the anger of
Gerhard of Mayence ; Albert, however, acted with extreme
prudence by reconciliating the cities, until now inimical to
him, by the abolition of the Rhenish customs, whence the
ecclesiastical princes, and, more particularly, Gerhard, had
derived great wealth. Gerhard formed a papal party against
him by confederating with his neighbours of Cologne and
Treves, and with the Pfalzgrave Rudolf, Adolf's ancient ally ;
but Albert was supported by the cities, by Reinhold the War-
like, count of Gueldres, whose daughter he wedded to his son
Frederick, and by French troops, who laid waste the beautiful
Rhenish provinces. The archbishops, last of all that of
Treves, which endured a hard siege, were compelled to yield.
Fresh intrigues were meanwhile carried on in the Nether-
lands. John, the last count of Holland, and his wife were
poisoned, [a. d. 1299,] and John d'Avesnes, count in the Hen-
negau, the son of a sister of the emperor William, backed by
France, laid claim to the inheritance, whilst Albert, on the
other hand, attempted to seize the fiefs of the empire for the
purpose of bestowing them on his sons. When on a visit,
with this view, to Reinhold of Gueldres at Nimwegen, he ran
the greatest danger of being seized by John d'Avesnes, who,
in concert with France, intended to force him to concede to
his desires, or, it is even probable, to remove him from Philip's
path, that monarch cherishing the hope of procuring the

• crown of Germany for his own brother, Charles, the electors
being base enough to encourage the project. Reinhold was
also on his part deeply offended on account of Albert's refusal
to wed his son Frederick, who afterwards mounted the im-

; perial throne, with his daughter, by whom the emperor was
generously saved. He escaped by her assistance from

• Caesar Gallo remisit, quicquid Imperio Germanico majoris illius in
regno Arelatensi eripuusse Germani agre ferebant. — Petri Sazii pontif.
Are la tense, ad an. 1294. Albert was also reproached for being in the pay
of France, to which he replied, " That is no disgrace, for was not Adolf in
that of England I "

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ALBERT THE FIRST

Nimwegen, but was compelled to cede Holland to John
d'Avesnes.

Albert, thus deceived by France, now turned to the pope,
■who had just proclaimed the great jubilee. Rome was throng-
ed with pilgrims, and the wealth poured on the altars was so
enormous that the gold was absolutely collected thence with
rakes. By a disgraceful formula, Albert recognised the pope's
supremacy, and vowed to procure the crown of Hungary, va-
cant since the death of Andreas in 1301, for the French
house of Anjou in Naples, which was more submissive to the
pontiff than Philip the Handsome. Although Albert's real
object had been to place the crown of Hungary on his own
head, he sacrificed his own hopes for the sake of gaining the
favour of the mighty pontiff, and from the dread of being
overpowered by his numerous enemies, for Wenzel of Bo-
hemia also claimed Hungary, and at length openly vented his
long-concealed wrath upon him. The houses of Habsburg
and of Anjou, united beneath the pope, invaded Bohemia with
an immense army of half-pagan Cumans, who devastated not
only Bohemia but Austria. They were defeated by Wenzel
before Kuttenberg, and in Austria the Count von Ortenburg
raised the country and deprived the plunderers of their booty.
Wenzel died suddenly, bequeathing, with his last breath, his
claims upon Hungary to Otto of Bavaria, who rode alone and
in disguise, with the sacred crown and sceptre of Hungary in
his pocket, through Austria to that country, where he found
Charles Robert of Naples already firmly seated on the throne.
He gained but few adherents, and was taken prisoner. It is a
remarkable fact, that the Saxons of Siebenburg twice revolted
against the new French dynasty on the throne of Hungary ;
in 1325, under their count, Henningvon Petersdorf, who was
defeated and murdered by the wild Cumans, and in 1342,
when the king, Louis, entered their country at the head of a
large army and succeeded in conciliating them.

The example of the French monarch inspired Albert with a
desire for absolute sovereignty, at all events, in his hereditary
lands, and with a determination to break the power of the
bishops, the nobility, and the cities. With this intent, he
purchased a countless number of small estates, fiefs, privileges,
from the other princes, bishops, and even from knights ; the
smallest portion of land, the meanest prerogative that could

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ALBERT THE FIRST.

in any way increase his territory or his sovei eign rule, was
not overlooked. He drew the nobles from their castles, and
formed them into a brilliant cortege around his person. He
also introduced uniforms, and formed five hundred knights,
who were distinguished by a particular dress, into a sort of
body-guard. He placed governors over the lands, towns,
and castles he had either purchased or which had been ceded
to him, and also carefully guarded against the division of the
Habsburg possessions among the various members of the
family, withholding, for that purpose, from his youthful ne-
phew, Johannes, the allods to which he had a right in Zwit-
zerland. His encroachments brought him in collision with
Eberhard of Wiirtemberg, who was also engaged, although on
a smaller scale, in increasing his family possessions. Albert,
however, seduced by the prospect of greater gain, quickly ter-
minated this feud, in order to turn his undivided attention
upon Thuringiaand Meissen, where he hoped to reinstate him-
self, and which he intended, together with Bohemia, to annex to
his hereditary estates. Wenzel's son, the last of the ancient
race of Przmizl, was murdered by the magnates of the king-
dom at Olmiitz, a. d. 1305. He had amused himself by break-
ing pots, to each of which he gave the name of a Bohemian
noble, and had, by these means, incurred their suspicions.
Alberts son, Rudolf, whose wife, Bianca, was dead, was in-
stantly compelled to espouse Elisabeth, the widow of Wenzel,
who died shortly afterwards, and Henry of Carinthia, who had
married one of WenzeFs sisters, laid claim to the throne.
Frederick of Thuringia also valiantly defended his inheritance.

Frederick with the bitten cheek, whose gigantic iron ar-
mour is still preserved in the Wartburg, the descendant, on
the female line, by his mother, Margaret ha, from the Hohen-
staufen, had, after a brave resistance, been deprived of Mis-
nia and Thuringia. He took refuge in Italy, the country of
his great ancestors, where he was received by the Ghibellines
with open arms ; the example of Conradin, however, deterred
them from opposing a foe their superior in power. Frederick
returned to Germany, and, on the death of the emperor
Adolf, again fixed himself in Thuringia. His now aged father
had, on the death of his mistress, Cunna, married the wealthy
widow of the Count von Arnshove, whose daughter, Elisa-
beth, a young woman of surpassing beauty, was loved and

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ALBERT THE FIRST.

carried off by Frederick. His marriage with his step-sister
now served as a pretext to the emperor for renewing his
claims, as AdolPs successor, on Thuringia, and Frederick was
once more expelled from the Wartburg.* The Thuringians,
nevertheless, crowded beneath the standard of their former
darling, and Albert was defeated at Luchau, A. D. 1307, and a
second time at Borna, a. d. 1309. The people, whose rights
were no longer protected against the usurpations of the princes
by the emperor, who, moreover, abused the authority of the
crown in order to tyrannize over them, now aided the princes
against their sovereign. Frederick reconquered the whole of
his inheritance, with the exception of the Lausitz, which his
brother, Diezmann, had ceded to Brandenburg.

The pretensions of the Habsburgs to Bohemia sank on the
death of Rudolf, Albert having rendered himself so universally
hated, that the Bohemian estates unanimously refused to ac-
knowledge one of that obnoxious family as their sovereign,
and on Tobias von Bechin venturing to speak in Albert's fa-
vour, Ulrich von Lichtenstein ran him through the body with
his sword. The crown was bestowed upon Henry of Carin-
thia. Albert marched against Prague, and revenged himself
by laying the land waste, but was compelled to retreat. Dis-
appointed in his hopes in this quarter, he repaired to Upper
Swabia, where the greatest danger threatened. His former
expedition against Zurich was still fresh in the minds of the
people ; his neighbours, jealous of his power, and the people,
harassed by his provincial governors, viewed him with the
deadliest hatred. His nephew, Johannes, imbittered against
him by his unjust deprivation of the ancient ancestral property
in Switzerland, which he claimed as son of the eldest brother,
conspired against him with some Swabian knights, separated
him, when crossing the Reuss not far from the ancient castle
of Habsburg, from his retinue, and gave the signal for the
bloody deed. "How long is this corpse still to ride?" in-
quired von Wart. " Do your purpose !M shouted Johannes in

• With his new-born daughter, who cried incessantly during their
flight: although the enemy was close at hand, he stopped and asked the
nurse what ailed the babe. The nurse replied, " My lord, she will not be
fuiet until she is suckled : " so he ordered his men to halt, saying, " My
child shall have her desire though it cost me all Thuringia;" and, draw-
ing his men up in front, remained by his babe's side until she had be«a
tackled.— Bohtt.

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THE ENCROACHMENTS OF FRANCE.

reply ; and in an instant von Eschenbach had seized the em-
peror's bridle, whilst von Palm on one side, and von Wart
on the other, simultaneously dealt him a blow on the head.
The aged emperor cried out for assistance to his nephew, who
ran his sword through his back, and he expired on the road-
side, in the arms of an old woman, before his warlike son,
Leopold, who was on the opposite bank of the Reuss, could
cross the stream, a. d. 1308. This emperor had six sons,
Rudolf, Frederick the Handsome, Leopold the Glorious, Al-
bert the Lame, Henry the Amiable, Otto the Joyous ; and five
daughters.

CLXXIII. The encroachments of France. The Battle

of Spurs.

In France, Philip the Handsome realized the projects vainly
attempted by the Hohenstaufen in Germany ; he suppressed,
in the interior, the independence of the great vassals, gave to
his kingdom union and peace, and extended his influence
abroad. The popes, who had formerly cast themselves into
the arms of the French monarchs, were now unable to escape
from their toils. It was now in vain that Boniface VIII. de-
clared himself, in the Bull unam sanctam, lord over every
human creature, " subesse Pontifici Romce, omnem creaturam
humanam" etc. ; the proud pontiff, then in his eightieth year,
was, at Philip's command, seized in Rome herself by some
French knights, assisted by Romans, and so ill-treated that he
died mad, a. d. 1303. His successor, Benedict XL, bent be-
fore Philip, but afterwards attempting to shake off his fetters,
was removed by poison. The next pope, Clement V., was a
Frenchman by birth, and so completely Philip's tool, that he
removed his seat of government from Rome to Avignon, which
belonged to Arelat, and appertained to the house of Anjou ;
in 1 348 the city and territory of Avignon were sold by John
of Naples for ever to the pope. Philip, at that period, abol-
ished the rich and powerful order of Templars, and caused the
grandmaster, Molay, and several knights, whom he had insidi-
ously induced to visit France, to be burnt alive. This order
had greatly supported the aristocracy against the throne, and
was, consequently, dangerous to monarchical power ; and the

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THE ENCROACHMENTS OF FRANCE. 93

pope, to whom it was useful as a counterpoise against the
authority of the sovereigns, weakly allowed it to be annihilated.
The half Mahomedan or Graeco-gnostic heresy of the Templars
served as an excuse for their destruction. The principal part
of their possessions were inherited by the knights of St. John,
who fixed themselves in the island of Rhodes.

Philip also revived his former project of annexing Flanders,
which at that time had been raised by German industry, and
by the national spirit of its rulers, above every other country
in the world in prosperity and civilization, immediately to
France, its mere feudal dependence on that kingdom and its
independent government (by its own counts and its own laws)
putting it out of his power to drain it as he desired by means
of governors and tax-gatherers.

Guillaume de Dampierre bequeathed Flanders to his son,
Guido the Incapable, who attempted to place the wealthy
towns under contribution, which gave rise to the revolt at
Bruges, the great Moorlemaey, a. d. 1282. He also refused
to take the oath of fealty for Imperial Flanders to the em-
peror Rudolf, and was on that account placed under the
interdict by the pope, Rudolf's patron. This event was turn-
ed to advantage by Philip, who raised a party in his favour in
that country. Guido sought the protection of England, and
offered his daughter, Philippa, in marriage to the English
prince, Edward, but, blinded by Philip's dexterous flat-
tery, was persuaded to visit Paris, accompanied by his
daughter and the flower of the Flemish nobility, a. d. 1296,
where they were all retained prisoners. Guido, by dint of
great promises, regained his liberty ; Edward I. of England
orfered to negotiate terms for him, and, in order to gain the
emperor Adolf over to his interest, gave him a large sum of
money, of which, as has already been seen, he made such a
bad use. It was in vain that the princes of Brabant, Juliers,
and Holland took up arms ; the emperor, whom they expected
to join them, never appeared. Every thing went wrong ;
Edward marched singly in advance with his English troops
and was defeated ; the Dutch followed and suffered the same
fate at Furnes, where William, count of Juliers, was taken
prisoner, A. D. 1297. The defeated English, reduced to ex-
treme want, plundered the country, and three hundred Eng-
lish knights were slain by the enraged citizens of Ghent

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96 THE ENCROACHMENTS OF FRANCE.

Guido again submitted to the French king, who, contrary to
his plighted word, threw him into close imprisonment.

Philip now hastened to gain over by flattery the clergy
and the great burgher families in the Flemish towns, whom
the papal interdict and the imposition of taxes had rendered
inimical to Guido, in the hope of inducing the whole of Flanders
by their aid to acknowledge him as their sovereign prince, and
of thus setting aside the ruling families. The adherents to the
royal party in Flanders were denominated Liliards, from the
lily in the arms of France. The scheme proved successful,
and Philip, entering Flanders at the head of a large army,
received the oath of fealty from the different towns on his
route. The queen, on reaching Bruges, was welcomed by
six hundred of the wives of the citizens, all of whom equalling
or surpassing her in the richness of their apparel, she angrily
exctaimed, " I expected to see but one queen, and here are
six hundred !" The Liliards found their expectations de-
ceived, Philip depriving them of the power they enjoyed, and
attempting not only to drain the rich country of its wealth,
but also to place the Flemish, habituated to liberty and self-
government, under the yoke of a despotic French stadtholder,
Jacques de Chatillon. His treatment of Philippa, Guido's
daughter, whom he dishonoured in order to compel her father
to cede Flanders, chiefly contributed to imbitter the minds of
the people against him, and they rose to a man, resolved to
avenge their disgrace and to cast off the yoke of the foreignei
Peter de Konink, the head of the corporation of clothiers at
Bruges, being arrested, together with twenty-five of his
fellows, for refusing to contribute to the maintenance of the
French, the people set him free, and, placing him at their head,
expelled the traitorous town-council, the stadtholder Chatil-
lon, and all the French, from the city. Chatillon, however,
quickly assembled a larger force, and again forced his way
into the city, whence Peter de Konink was compelled to re-
treat. The people of Ghent had, meanwhile, followed the
example of the citizens of Bruges, and expelled their town-
council and all the French. The news of this proceeding
no sooner reached Bruges than a fresh tumult ensued.
One Breyel, a butcher, having killed a servant of Mons.
d'Epinoi, the French commandant at Male, not far from
Bruges, the commandant attempted to seize him, b it Breyel

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THE BATTLE OF SPURS

defended himself with the greatest fury, and the citizens
rushing to his assistance, Mons. d'Epinoi and every French-
man in Male were murdered. Chatillon, in the mean titiie>
negotiated matters with the citizens of Ghent, whom he in-
duced by promises to oppose the people of Bruges. In con-
sequence of this, on the arrival of Peter de Konink at the
head of a mob before Ghent, the gates were closed against
him, and lie returned to Bruges, where, finding the gates also
closed, he forced his way into the city, and shouting " Strike
the false foreigners down !" murdered every Frenchman whom
he encountered in the streets, and stationed his men at every
gate and corner with the watch-word, " Schild en Vriend,"
which no Frenchman could pronounce, so that all who had
concealed themselves and attempted to get away secretly were
by that means discovered and killed. This massacre took
place the 14th of May, 1302. Chatillon escaped by swimming
through the city moat. Ghent, where the Liliards triumphed,
remained true to the treaty. The citizens and peasantry,
however, flocked from every quarter to Peter de Konink.
Guido, a son of the captive count, also arrived, and William
of Juliers, the younger brother of the William of Juliers
taken prisoner at Fumes, and canon at Maastricht, abandoned
his church in order to place himself at the head of the citi-
zens. The Flemish nobility, (with the exception of those
who were imprisoned at Paris,) and Gottfried of Brabant,
were, however, induced, by their hatred of the citizens, to
side with France. Philip, impatient to revenge the insults
heaped upon his stadtholder, despatched forty-seven thousand
men, the flower of the French chivalry, under the command
of Robert d'Artois, against the little army of undisciplined
citizens and peasants, led by a priest. At Kortryk, on the 1 1th
of July, 1302, William of Juliers, guarded by a deep fosse,
awaited the onset of the enemy. Guido, too young to take
the command in person, had delegated it to William, who, as
commander-in-chief, had, on the rise of that bloody day, so-
lemnly bestowed the honour of knighthood on Peter, the
weaver, and Breyel, the butcher. Robert d'Artois, at sight
of this undisciplined mob, treated the advice of the constable
of Nesle, who attempted to dissuade him from making too
rash an onset, with contempt, and hinted that his connexion
by marriage with Guido cooled his zeal in the French cause.

VOL. n. u

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The constable, touched to the quick by this insult, angrily ea>
claimed, " Well ! I will lead you further than you will ever
return !" and dashing furiously forwards at the head of the
knights, plunged headlong into the muddy fosse, which was
quickly filled with the dead bodies of men and horses, those
in advance being pushed by those behind, who, blinded by the
dust, could not see what took place in front. At this mo-
ment, the Flemish infantry advanced and bore down all be-
fore them. No quarter was given. The noble constable fell.
Artois begged for his life, but his antagonists replied to his
entreaties, "There is no nobleman here to understand your
gibberish !" and struck him down. With him fell the bravest
and best of France's chivalry, and twenty thousand men.
Two German princes, Gottfried of Brabant and Theobald of
Lothringia, who fought under French colours, found here a
dishonourable death. The Brabant knights, in the hope of
saving their lives, flung themselves from horseback, and joined
in the Flemish war-cry, " Vlaendren ende Leu !" The Flem-
ish, among whom there were no knights, quickly discovered
the stratagem, and instantly shouted, "Down with all who
wear spurs !" The victors collected five thousand golden spurs
belonging to the princes and knights who had fallen on this
occasion, and hung them as trophies in the church of Kortryk.
This dreadful day was thence called " The battle of spurs."

William of Juliers, who had fought until forced, from very
weariness, to be carried from the field, returned to his solitary
cell. Philip, deeply humbled, sent his prisoner, Count Guido,
to negotiate terms, but the proud victor refused to listen, and
Guido nobly returned to his prison, where he died, at a great
age, not long after. John II., the new duke of Brabant, and
William, bishop of Utrecht, meanwhile, joined the Flemish,
and the German party became so powerful, that it was re-
solved to take vengeance on John d'Avesnes, who had until
now been intriguing in favour of France against the emperor,
Albert, and had taken possession of Holland. John lay, at
that time, sick. His son, William III., was defeated near the
Ziriksee, a. d. 1304 ; the whole of Holland was conquered.
The cruelty of the Flemish, however, roused the people to
rebellion. Witte von Hamsteede, a natural son of the old
Count Floris, and who shared his father's popularity, raised
the standard of revolt ; the women even fought in defence of

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their country, and the Flemish suffered a complete defeat near
Harlem. Philip of France, who had shortly before bribed
the emperor, to whose son, Rudolf, he had given his daughter,
Blanche, in marriage, despatched a great fleet under Grimaldi,
a Genoese, and a large land-army, against the Flemish, for
the purpose of reducing them to subjection, and of revenging
the disaster at Kortryk. Grimaldi was victorious, and took
Guido the younger prisoner. Upon this, William of Juliers
again quitted his cloister, replaced himself at the head of
the Flemish, fought with unexampled bravery at Mons-en-
puelle, captured the Oriflamme, and almost succeeded in taking
the king, who was wounded and fled. At this moment he
was himself deprived of life. Philip, who had retreated,
quickly returned to the charge, but, on beholding the immense
multitude confronting him, exclaimed, " Do the skies rain
with Flemish!" and refused to hazard another engagement.
Peace was negotiated by John of Brabant. Robert, (surnamed
de Bethune,) the eldest son of Guido the elder, was reinstated
in Flanders, but ceded Ryssel, Douai, and Lille to Philip.

John of Brabant, the negotiator of the peace, had to quell
disturbances in his own country. The cities of Brabant ri-
valled those of Flanders in industry and wealth, and rose be-
fore long against the nobility, who, with natural jealousy,
sought to diminish their privileges. Mechlin, Louvain, and
Brussels expelled the nobles from their walls, destroyed their
houses, and even closed the gates against the duke, who took
part with the nobility. The contest began a. d. 1303, and,
after long negotiation, was terminated, a. d. 1312, by the
laws of Kortenberg, by which great privileges were secured
to the cities.

CLXXIV. William Tell and the Swiss.

The Alpine peasantry also rose in defence of their liber-
ties, not as the citizens in Flanders, against the foreign in-
vader, but against their domestic tyrants. These simultaneous
events sprang from a similar origin, being produced by the
reaction of the popular spirit in Germany against the misery
and disgrace that had fallen like a curse upon the empire
siuca the fall of the Hohenstaufen. The peasantry, no longer

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WILLIAM TELL AND THE SWISS

protected and counselled by a wise and magnanimous em-
peror, betrayed and sold to the foreigner, and oppressed by
internal tyranny, were compelled to seek for aid in their own
resources, but their efforts, like those of unconscious instinct,
were solitary and uncombined, and consequently without mate-
rial result. As a whole, the German nation was animated be
no national spirit pervading and combining each kindred race,
but was so completely absorbed in local and provincial inter-
ests, ihat the inhabitant of one part of the empire remained
ignorant of and indifferent to the events that took place
among his brethren in another.

Around the beautiful lake formed by the Reuss, on its de-
scent from the St. Gothard, lie the four forest towns, as they
are called, and from which this lake takes its name — vier
Waldstcetter See — the lake of the four cantons — Uri, Schwyz,
Unterwalden, and Lucerne. The shepherds in the valley of
Uri were originally free-born Alemanni, who held their lands
in fee of the nunnery at Zurich, and the monastery of Wet-
tingen in the Aargau, but preserved their ancient communal
right of self-government, a situation corresponding with that
of the free Friscians and Ditmarses, who were subordinate to
the bishops of Utrecht and Bremen. The shepherds of Schwyz
and Unterwalden were claimed as serfs by the counts of
Habsburg, a claim they stoutly opposed, appealing to their
ancient liberties, and to a document drawn up in confirmation
thereof by the emperor, Frederick II., and ratified by the em-
peror Adolf. They consequently held with the free peasants
of Uri, with whom they had formerly been allied. (Lucerne
was incontestably Habsburgian.) The counts of Habsburg
exercised at this time, in the name of the emperor and of the
empire, the right of penal judicature (the provincial govern-
ment) throughout the whole district of the Aar, as far as the
St. Gothard, consequently also over Uri, over which they
formerly possessed no right. On the accession of the Habs-
burgs to the throne, they placed deputy governors over the
country, who bore the double office of crown-officers, by their
exercise of the right of penal judicature, and of administrators
of the possessions of the Habsburg ; between which, as may
easily be understood, they did not always draw a broad enough
line of distinction. The peasant was to them merely a pea-
Bant* whether a freeman of Uri or a serf of Lucerne. It is

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101

well known, that the object of the emperor Albert was the
abolition of local differences and privileges, and the subjection
of the free communes to his rule ; and the governors, as the free
peasants of Uri were doomed to experience, were neither un-
willing to obey nor tardy in executing the will of their sovereign.

The events that ensued we give in the words of the naive
chronicle of Tschudi : "In the year of our Lord 1307, there
dwelt a pious countryman in Unterwald beyond the Kernwald,
whose name was Henry of Melchthal, a wise, prudent, honest
man, well to do and in good esteem among his country-folk,
moreover, a firm supporter of the liberties of his country and
of its adhesion to the holy Roman empire, on which account
Beringer von Landenberg, the governor over the whole of
Unterwald, was his enemy. This Melchtaler had some very
fine oxen, and, on account of some trifling misdemeanour com-
mitted by his son, Arnold of Melchthal, the governor sent his
servant to seize the finest pair of oxen by way of punishment,
and in case old Henry of Melchthal said any thing against it,
he was to say, that it was the governor's opinion that the pea-
sants should draw the plough themselves. The servant ful-
filled his lord's commands. But, as he unharnessed the oxen,
Arnold, the son of the countryman, fell into a rage, and,
striking him with a stick on the hand, broke one of his lingers.
Upon this Arnold fled, for fear of his life, up the country to-
wards Uri, where he kept himself long secret in the country
where Conrad of Baumgarten from Altzelen lay hid for
having killed the governor of Wolfenschiess, who had insulted
his wife, with a blow of his axe. The servant, meanwhile,
complained to his lord, by whose order old Melch trial's eyes
were torn out. This tyrannical action rendered the governor
highly unpopular, and Arnold, on learning how his good father
had been treated, laid his wrongs secretly before trusty people
in Uri, and awaited a fit opportunity for avenging his father's
misfortune.

" At the same time, Gessler,* the governor of Uri and
Schwyz, treated the people with almost equal cruelty, and
erected a fortress in Uri, as a place of security for himself and
other governors after him, in case of revolt, and as a means of
keeping the country in greater awe and submission. His reply,

* Ettcrlyn names him Grissler ; Schilling, a Count von Seedorf. N*
contemporary document, containing his name, lias yet been discovered.

102

WILLIAM TELL AND THE SWISS.

on being asked, 'what the name of the fortress was to be ?*
'Zwing Uri,' (Uri's prison,) greatly offended the people of
Uri ; on perceiving which, he resolved to degrade them still
further, and, on St. Jacob's day, caused a pole to be fixed in
the market-place, which was the common thoroughfare, by the
lime-trees, at Altdorff, and a hat to be placed at the top, to
which every one who passed was commanded, on pain of con-
fiscation of his property and of corporal punishment, to bow
lowly and to bend the knee as if to the king himself, and
placed by it a guard whose duty it was to mark those who
refused obedience, thinking to gain great fame, if by this
means he should succeed in degrading this brave and un-
conquered nation to the basest slavery. It so chanced that
when the governor, Gessler, rode through the country to
Schwitz, over which he also ruled, there lived at Steinen in
Schwitz, a wise and honourable man of an ancient family,
named Wernherr von Stauffach, who had built a handsome
house near the bridge at Steinen. On the governor's arrival,
the Stauffacher, who was standing before the door, gave him
a friendly welcome, and was asked by the governor to whom
the house belonged? The Stauffacher, suspecting that the
question boded nothing good, cautiously replied, * My lord,
the house belongs to my sovereign lord the king, and is your
and my fief.' Upon this, the governor said, 'I will not allow
peasants to build houses without my consent, or to live in
freedom as if they were their own masters. I will teach you
to resist !' and, so saying, rode on his journey. These words
greatly disturbed the Stauffacher, who was a sensible, intelli-
gent man, and had moreover a wise and prudent wife, who,
quickly perceiving that something lay heavy on his mind, did
not rest until she had found out what the governor had said.
When she heard it, she said, * My dear Ee-Wirt, you know
that many of the good country-folk also complain of the go-
vernor's tyranny, it would therefore be well for some of you,
who can trust one another, to meet secretly, and take counsel
together how you may throw off his wanton power.' Stauf-
facher agreed to this and went to Uri, where, perceiving that
all the people were impatient of the hateful yoke of the go-
vernor, he trusted his secret to a wise and honourable man of
Uri, named Walter Furst, who mentioned to him their coun-
tryman of Unterwald, Arnold of Melchthal, who had taken

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refuge in Uri, but had often gone secretly back to Unterwald
to see his family, as one who might be trusted. He was
therefore called in, and these three men agreed that each of
them should secretly assemble all the trust-worthy people in
their own country, in order to take measures for regaining
their ancient liberties and expelling the tyrannical governor.
It was also agreed that they should meet at nijrht by the
Mytenstein, that stands in the lake beneath Sewlisberg, at a
place called ' in the Rajdlin.' Thus the ground-work to the
famous Swiss confederation was laid in the country of Uri, by
these three brave men.*

"On the following Sunday, the 18th of the winter-month
after Othmari, 1307, an honest peasant of Uri, William Tell
by name, who was also in the secret confederacy, passed
several times before the hat, hung up in the market-place at
AltdorfF, without paying it due homage. This was told to
the governor, who, on the following morning, summoned Tell
to his presence, and asked him haughtily, why he disobeyed
his commands ? Tell replied, ' My dear lord, it happened un-
knowingly and not out of contempt, pardon me ; if I were
clever, I should not be called Tell,f I beg for mercy, it shall
not happen again.' Now Tell was a good marksman, and
had not his equal in the whole country ; he had also beautiful
children, of whom he was very fond : the governor sent for
them, and said, ' Tell, which of your children do you love the
best?' Tell answered, 'My lord, they are all alike dear to

* Hence the old rhyme,

" When the lowly wept and tyrants stormed,

The Swiss confederacy was formed."

f Tell (toll, dull, stupid, Totpel) has a similar signification with the
Northern Toko, (Docke, sly fellow, or dissembler, in the Swiss dialect,
Tockeli — a silly butterfly,) a simpleton or fool. Both the name and the
story of Tell agree so precisely with those of the Danish Palnotocke, the
assassin of King Harald, that Tell's history has been sometimes deemed
a mere fabulous imitation of the Danish one. Both stories are, accord-
ing to Ideler, founded on one of still higher antiquity. Tell's history has
been, undeniably, adorned with much poetical fiction, but its principal
features are, nevertheless, true. The personal description of Tell ap-
pears to be perfectly genuine, for (as Monnich, in his treatise concerning
Tell, Nuremberg, 1841, remarks) his peasant-like manners, his perplex-
ity and timidity at the first moment, his ignoble and unideal character,
prove Tschudi's historical accuracy. A fictitious hero would have been
swre ideally portrayed.

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WILLIAM TELL AND THE SWISS.

me.' Upon this, the governor said, ' Well ! Tell, yon ai*e a
good and true marksman, as I hear, and shall prove your
skill in my presence, by shooting an apple off the head of one
of your children, but take care that you strike the apple, for
should the first shot miss, it shall cost you your life.' Tell,
filled with horror, begged the governor for God's sake to dis-
pense with the trial, 'for it would be unnatural for him to
shoot at his own dear child. He would sooner die.' But the
governor merely replied, ' Unless you do it, you or your child
shall die.' Tell now perceived that the trial must be made,
and inwardly praying God to shield him and his dear child,
took up his cross-bow, set it, placed the arrow in it, and stuck
another behind in his collar, whilst the governor placed the
apple with his own hand on the head of the child, who was
not more than six years old. Tell then aimed at the apple,
and shot it off the crown of the child's head without inflicting
the slightest injury. The governor was greatly astonished at
his wonderful skill, and praised him, but asked, 'what he in-
tended by sticking another arrow behind in his collar?' Tell
was afraid, and said, 'it was the custom among marksmen.*
The governor, however, perceived that Tell avoided his ques-
tion, and said, ' Tell, speak the truth openly and without fear,
your life is safe, but I am not satisfied with your answer.'
Then William Tell took courage, and replied, 'Well, iny
lord, I will tell you the whole truth ; if I had struck my child,
I would have shot at you with the other arrow, which would
certainly not have missed its mark.'

" When the governor heard this, he said, ' Very well, Tell ;
I have promised you your life, and will keep my word, but
now that I know your evil intentions against me, I will have
you taken to a place where you shall never again behold
either sun or moon and commanded his servants to take him
bound to Fluellen. He also went with them ; and, with his
servants, and Tell with his hands bound, got into a boat, in-
tending to go to Brunnen, and thence to carry Tell across the
country through Schwitz to his castle at Kussnach, (accord-
ing to Kopp, Kussnacht never belonged to a Gessler ; the go-
vernor, nevertheless, might have the right of entry into the
castle,) where he was to remain for the rest of his life in a
dark dungeon. Tell's cross-bow lay in the boat by the side
of the steersman. When they had got well into the lake,

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and had reached the corner at Achsen, it pleased God to raise
such a fearful and violent storm, that they all despaired of
safety, and expected to drown miserably. Upon this, one of
the servants said to the governor, 4 My lord, you see your and
our need, and the danger of our lives ; now Tell is a strong
man, and can manage a boat well, let us make use of him in
our necessity.' The governor, who was in mortal dread of a
watery grave, then said to Tell, ' If you truly bring us out of
this danger, I will release you from your bonds.' To which
Tell replied, ' Yes, my lord, I trust, with God's aid, to bring
you safely out of this peril.' Thereupon he was unbound,
and, standing at the helm, guided the boat well, but watciied,
meanwhile, for an opportunity to seize his cross-bow, which
lay near him, and to jump out ; as he approached a rock,
(since known as Tell's rock, on which a small chapel has been
erected,) he called to the servants, that they must go carefully
until they came to this rock, when the worst danger would be
past, and, on reaching the rock, drove the boat, for he was
very strong, violently against it, snatched up his cross-bow,
and springing upon the rocky shelf, pushed the boat back
again into the lake, where it lay tossing about, whilst he ran
through Schwitz to a hollow way between Art and Kussnach,
with a high bank above where he lay hid, and awaited the
coming of the governor, who, he well knew, must take that
road to his castle. The governor and his servants, after great
danger and trouble in crossing the lake, reached Brunnen ;
and riding thence through Schwitz, entered the hollow way,
plotting as they went along all sorts of designs against Tell,
who, nothing heeding, drew his cross-bow and shot the go-
vernor through the heart with an arrow, so that he fell heavily
from his horse, and from that hour never breathed more. On
the spot where William Tell shot the governor, a holy chapel,
that is standing at this day, was built."

Tschudi further relates, that on new-year's day, 1308, the
peasantry got possession of the fortresses of Sarnen and Rotz-
berg in Unterwald by stratagem, and that those of Uri de-
stroyed the new fortress of Zwing-Uri, and those of Schwitz
the castle of Lowers. After which it is said they formed at
Brunnen on the lake, on the 6th of January, 1308, the first
Swiss confederation, for the period of ten years, and with

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HEXRY THE SEVENTH OF LUXEMBURG

the reservation of their allegiance to the emperor and the
empire.*

The peasantry in the Tyrol also tried their strength at this
period. The Italians at Feltre attempting to deprive the
Germans at Fleims of some Alps in Southern Tyrol, the
Fleimsers attacked Feltre, took it by storm, and burned the
town to the ground, A. d. 1300. These peasants form the
most Southern German outpost on the Italian side, and dis-
tinguished themselves in all the wars, up to 1809.

CLXXV. Henry the Seventh of Luxemburg.

On the death of Albert, the crown of Germany was claimed
by Philip the Handsome of France, for his brother Charles ;
the princes, however, dreaded his power, and refused to elect
him. The Habsburgs were as little favoured, the late em-
peror's authority appearing to his jealous subjects to have
acquired too great weight. They consequently resolved to
place another petty count upon the throne, and, in order to
flatter the church, to recognise him as emperor, to whom the
ecclesiastical electors gave the majority of votes.

The city and archbishopric of Treves was, at that time, on
a good footing with the neighbouring count, Henry of Lux-
emburg. Henry was known to fame as the best knight of the
day in the lists. His alliance with Treves was necessitated by
the attacks of his neighbour of Brabant. The city of Treves
bestowed upon him the rights of citizenship, and his brother
Baldwin gained the mitre by means of his former medical

• This history is not confirmed by any contemporary writer, neither
has it been disproved. Henry von Hiinenberg alone mentions it in an
epigram, the authenticity of which we cannot vouch.

" Dura pater in puerum telum crudele coniscat
Tcllius, ex jussu, saeve tyranne, tuo
Pomum, non natum figit fatalis arundo
Altera mox, ultrix, te periture petet."

In 1388, in the provincial assembly at Uri, one hundred and fourteen
of the country people declared that they had known Tell personally, and
that in 1354 he was drowned at Biirglen during a flood, whilst attempt*
ing to save some persons. This declaration was even then necessary, ia
order to confirm the authenticity of 'fell's history.

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HENRY THE SEVENTH OF LUXEMBURG. 107

attendant, Peter Aichspalter, a Trevian by birth, his prede-
cessor on the archiepiscopal throne. Baldwin consequently
recommended his brother, who, being favoured by Mayence,
the archbishop of Cologne, who sided with France, was left
in the minority, and the princes, faithful to their plighted
word, accepted Henry for their emperor.

Henry VII. was proclaimed emperor at Rense, [a. d. 1308, J
near Braubach, on the left bank of the Rhine, and the royal
crown was placed upon his brows. The two other crowns,
the iron one of Lombardy and the imperial crown, were still in
Italy. Henry was one of the noblest monarchs who sat on
the throne of Germany Deeply conscious of the duties im-
posed upon him by his station, he followed in the steps of
Charlemagne and Barbarossa, and worthily upheld the dig-
nity and honour of the empire, ever remaining a stranger to the
petty policy of his late predecessors, who sacrificed the state
for the sake of increasing the wealth and influence of their
own houses. Sensible of his inability to cope with his jealous
vassals at home, he sought to extend his authority abroad, and
to cover himself with the glory of the ancient emperors by re-
pelling the assumptions of France, and repairing the losses
sustained by the empire since the fall of the Hohenstaufen, in
order to acquire the power necessary for restoring and main-
taining order in the interior of the empire. The Italians
were weary of French usurpation and intrigue ; the pope even
sighed for release from French bondage ; the times seemed
more than ever propitious for the restoration of Italy to the
empire, and the emperor would have neglected his duty had he
not created this diversion against the plotting king of France.
Henry acted both as a wise statesman and a great sovereign,
and shame upon the princes of Germany who withheld
their aid.

Before setting out for Italy he did his utmost to restore
peace and tranquillity to the empire. Bohemia was in a state
of complete anarchy. Henry of Carinthia filled every office
in that kingdom with Carinthians, drained the country of
money, took the heads of the Bohemian aristocracy prisoners
at a banquet, and threw Elisabeth, Wenzel's second sister, into
a dungeon, [a. d. 1308,1 in order to force her into a marriage
with alow-born knight, and thus exclude her from the succes-
sion. Aided by Berengar, an old and faithful chaplain, this

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108 HENRY THE SEVENTH OF LUXEMBURG

princess contrived to escape, and roused the people to rebellion.
Henry of Luxemburg was, at this conjuncture, raised to the
Imperial throne, and the Bohemians, resting their hopes on
him for aid, sent ambassadors, bearing with them the Princess
Elisabeth, then in her eighteenth year, to him, in order to offer
her in marriage to his son, John, a boy of fourteen. The
princess made the offer in person ; the emperor, struck with
the indecency of the demand, at first tauntingly rejected the
proposal, but afterwards, won by her spirit and innocence, con-
sented to the marriage, and despatched his son, John, a boy
of uncommon bravery and promise, at the head of a body of
troops, to Bohemia, where he was joyfully welcomed. The
Carinthians were expelled.

The position of the emperor in respect to the house of
Habsburg, at the head of which stood Albert's elder sons,
Frederick the Handsome, and Leopold, besides a daughter,
Agnes, the widow of the last of the Hungarian dynasty of
Arpad, was replete with difficulty. The Austrians had not
yet become habituated to their yoke. In Vienna, Albert's
death was the signal for an insurrection, which Frederick was
merely enabled to quell by the infliction of the most horrid
punishments; numbers of the citizens were executed, de-
prived of sight, and mutilated. Otto of Bavaria, whom Al-
bert had formerly expelled from Hungary, now revenged
himself upon Frederick by invading Austria, where he car-
ried all before him and laid the country waste. Styria was,
meanwhile, restored to tranquillity by the governor, Ulric
von Waldsee. The Habsburgs had also numerous enemies
in the Alps. The emperor, Henry, solemnly released the
peasants of Uri, Unterwald, and Schwitz, from the Habsburg
rule, and placed them under the immediate jurisdiction of the
crown ; an act completely contrary to the policy of the Habs-
burgs, but strictly just and in accordance with the prerogative
and duty of the sovereign, who alone possessed the right of
nominating the governors, and was in duty bound to remove
those who gave just cause of complaint to the people. The
Habsburgs exercised hereditary jurisdiction over their vassals
and serfs, but not over free subjects of the empire, whom
they merely governed in the name and at the pleasure of the
emperor. Henry, with equal justice, put the murderers of
the late emperor out of the bann of the empire, and offered

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HENRY THE SEVENTH OF LUXEMBURG.

109

peace and friendship to his sons. A grand and solemn funeral
service was performed by Henry's command at Spires, where
the remains of the emperors, Adolf of Nassau, and Albert of
IJabsburg, were deposited in the old imperial vault. Both of
their widows and Albert's daughter were present, a. d. 1309 ;
Elisabeth of Nassau, who had once vainly pleaded on her
knees to Albert for her son ; Elisabeth of Habsburg, who
sat weeping at the foot of the same Albert's coffin. The
empress, Margaretha, sought to comfort the widowed mourn-
ers, and, with a misgiving heart, entreated Heaven to guard
her from a similar calamity. Frederick the Handsome was
also in Spires with a numerous retinue, and a reconciliation
was assiduously attempted between the nouses of Luxemburg
and Habsburg. After a long dispute, the two parties agreed
to certain terms, and reciprocally guaranteed to each other the
quiet possession of their several territories.

Elisabeth fearfully revenged the murder of her husband.
Johannes had fled to Italy ; his accomplices, Ulric von Palm,
and Walter von Eschilbach, secreted themselves, one in a
penitentiary at Basle, the other for several years as a cowherd
in Swabia ; Rudolf von Wart fell into the hands of his pur-
suers, and was condemned by Agnes to be bound alive to the
wheel. He lived in this state for three days, during which
his faithful wife, Gertrude, sat at his feet weeping and praying
until he expired. Elisabeth's vengeance even overtook the
innocent ; all the relations and vassals of the murderers were
killed, to the number of a thousand men, and with their con-
fiscated property she built the convent of Koenigsfelden, (now
a mad-house,) in which her daughter Agnes took the veil, in
order to pass the remainder of her days in mourning for her
father.

The emperor also attempted to persuade Count Eberhard*
of Wurtemberg to desist from further violence, and repre-
sented to him at the diet at Spires the ruinous consequences
of internal feuds. " Enemies multiply abroad, when those

• This Eberhard was usually surnamed " the Enlightened." Peter
von Kcenigssaal (cron. aulee regie?) terms him more properly "fomea
perfidi®, vas perditionis, pacis destructor." This wild knight had an
extremely beautiful daughter, who lies buried at Rottenburg :

"Hicjacet ecce Rosa quondam nimium speciosa,
Innengard grata de Wirt em berg gene rata."

110 HENRY THE SEVENTH OF LUXEMBURG.

before whom they were wont to tremble are engaged in dis-
tension at home, and the bitter feelings roused by feuds be-
tween the different races in Germany, will, ere many years
elapse, become deeply and ineradicably rooted." Eber-
hard, who had been escorted to the diet by two hundred
knights, unmoved by the emperor's persuasions, openly set
him at defiance, and, saying that he owned no master, rode
away. Henry instantly put him out of the bann of the em-
pire, and carried the sentence into effect with the aid of the
Count Conrad von Weinsperg, A. v, 1311, and of the Swabian
cities, which, since 1307, had entered into an offensive and de»
fensive alliance against Eberhard. Esslingen, the most pow-
erful of the allied cities, had the insolence to receive the
homage of the whole county of Wurtemberg. The ancient
castle of Wurtemberg was destroyed, Stuttgard taken, and
Eberhard, chased from one robber castle to another, was at
length compelled to lie concealed in the castle of Besigheim
until the death of the emperor.

The G hi bel lines earnestly desired the emperor's arrival in
Italy,* and assembled under Visconti, the Milan exile, in
order to bid him welcome. The majority among them, never-
theless, were simply desirous of making use of the emperor,
for the purpose of lowering the power of the Guelphs ; very

* Dante places the emperor Albert in purgatory, and thus reproaches
him:

" Ahi serva Italia, di dolore ostcllo,
Nave senza nocchioro in gran tempesta ;
Non donna di provincie, ma bordello I

Ahi gente che dovresti esser devota,
E lasciar seder Cesar nc la sella,
Se bene intendi ci6 che Dio ti nota !

Guarda com' esta fiera e fatta folia,
Per non esser corretta dagli sproni,
Poiche ponesti mano a la predella.

O Alberto Tedcsco, c' abbandoni
Costei ch' e fatta indomita e selvaggia,
E dovresti inforcar li suoi arcioni ;

Giusto giudicio da le stelle caggia
Sovra '1 tuo sangue, e sia nuovo e aperto,
Tal che '1 tuo successor temenza n' aggia :

C avete, tu e '1 tuo padre, sofferto,
Per cupidigia di costa distretti,
Che '1 giardin dello 'mperio sia diserto.

Del Furgatorio, Canto vi

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HENRY THE SEVENTH OF LUXEMBURG.

Ill

few among thern still cherished a wish for the restoration of
the ancient empire. Among the latter was Dante, who im-
mortalized Arrigo (Henry) the Pious as the shepherd of his
people, as the restorer of justice, and in his work " de Mon-
archia," again exhausts all the arguments with which Fre-
derick II. had defended his temporal dominions against papal

tyranny. When [a. d. 1310] Henry, at the head of a

petty German force, and solely accompanied by Duke Leopold
of Austria and Count Amadeus of Savoy, crossed the Alps,
the Ghibellines flocked beneath his standard. The Milanese
Guelphs, panic-struck, opened the city gates, and the emperor,
entering the ancient capital of Lombardy, caused the lost iron
crown to be replaced by a new one, which he placed upon his
head, and marched in triumph through the streets with his
empress Margaretha, on whose long flowing golden locks a
diadem also shone, on an ambling palfrey at his side. The
Guelphic chiefs della Torre, meanwhile, encouraged by the
discontent raised in Milan by the promulgation of the strict
imperial edicts, the imposition of a tax and the expense caused
by the emperor's prolonged stay, set a conspiracy on foot,
which was, however, discovered, and the Germans, under
Leopold of Habsburg, drove the Torres from the city. Guido
della Torre fled to Cremona, whither he was pursued by the
emperor, who took the city and levelled it with the ground,
A. D. 1311.

Dante complained in a public letter of the emperor's trifling
in Upper Italy, instead of hastening to Rome to crush his
enemies at a blow. Henry, by his over-cautious and tem-
porizing policy, merely allowed the Guelphs time to recover
from their first surprise. Tibaldo de Brussati, whom he
had greatly favoured, faithlessly deserted him, and armed
the city of Brescia against him. Enraged at this act of treach-
ery, the emperor resolved to make of him a fearful example,
and, on taking him prisoner during a sally, sentenced him to
, be dragged to death round the walls. The death of Henry's
brother, Count Walram, who fell before this city, roused his
vengeance, and he vowed to deprive every inhabitant of Bres-
cia of his nose ; his camp was, however, devastated by a pesti-
lence, and Brescia yielded on condition that the noses of tta
statues with which the city was adorned should be sacrificed,
instead of those of the inhabitants, to the emperor's revenge.

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IIENRY THE SEVENTH OF LUXEMBURG.

His stay in Upper Italy was lengthened for the sake of re-
ducing the whole country to subjection. The citizens of Pa-
via came to meet him, and delivered to him the golden imperial
crown, lost there by Frederick II. In the winter he visited
Genoa, which still remained true to her allegiance. During
his stay in this city, he lost his empress, Margaretha. It was
either here or at Pavia that Johannes, the murderer of the
emperor Albert, presented himself in the garb of a monk be-
fore him when sitting at table, and fell at his feet to beg for
pardon, but was angrily repulsed and thrown into prison,
where he shortly afterwards expired, [a. d. 1313,] and was
buried in the Augustin monastery at Pisa.

Robert, king of Naples, favoured by the delay on the part
of the emperor, despatched his brother, John of Achaja, with
a body of picked troops to Rome, for the purpose of defending
that city in the name of France and of the pope against the
German invader. He was also strongly upheld by the power-
ful Guelphic faction of the Orsini. Henry, leaving the gal-
lant knight and Minnesinger, Count Werner von Homburg,
governor over Lombardy with Philip, the nephew of the earl
of Savoy, whose alliance he sought to fortify, as a colleague,
set off instantly, at the head of merely two thousand men, for
Rome, a. i). 1312. The Roman nobility came, with feigned
professions of friendship, to meet him, but, already fully ac-
quainted with Italian perfidy, he ordered them, with a con-
tempt unusual to him, to be thrown into chains, forced his way
into the city and stormed the Capitol, whence he was repulsed
with serious loss. St. Peter's church also proving impregna-
ble, he was compelled to solemnize his coronation in the La-
teran. The ceremony was disturbed by the arrows and shouts
of the Guelphs.

The abandonment of Rome was now his only alternative.
With unshaken spirit he, nevertheless, repulsed the Tuscans,
who attempted to cut off his retreat near Ancisa, laid waste
their beautiful country, which refused to own his sway, and
at length fixed his camp in a lonely spot, near Poggibonzi,
which he named the Kaisersberg, where he wished to found a
city. Whilst here, he put Robert, king of Naples, out of the
bann of the empire as a faithless vassal, and sentenced him tc
death. The pope, Clement V., however, imposed his com*
sianda upon him from France to keep peace with Robert

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HENRY THE SEVENTH OF LUXEMBURG.

113

whom the Tuscan league, on perceiving the weakness of the
emperor, proclaimed their protector. Henry also divided, as
if in peace and security, the Italian imperial offices and pos-
sessions among the faithful Ghibellines, sued for the hand of
the beautiful Catherine von Habsburg, a daughter of the em-
peror Albert, and made great preparations in Sicily, Genoa,
and Germany, for the renewal of the war on all sides. His
son John, king of Bohemia, was on the point of escorting his
father's bride, and of conducting a fresh body of German
troops across the Alps, and Henry's hopes seemed on the point
of being fulfilled, when, after an unsuccessful attack upon
Siena, he was poisoned at Buonconvento during supper by a
monk, August 24th, 1313. With his expiring breath he said
to his murderer, " You have given me death in the cup of life,
but fly, ere my followers seize you ! " At Pisa, Catherine
received a corpse instead of an imperial bridegroom.

Philip playing the traitor in Lombardy was seized by
the throat by Werner von Homburg, who was wounded in
the scuffle by Philip's attendants. The Ghibelline Visconti,
nevertheless, maintained their authority in Milan, and that
faction gained the upper hand in Tuscany. Robert of Naples,
on the other hand, retained possession of Naples, and even
succeeded in winning the favour of the Habsburgs, and Henry's
luckless bride, Catherine, again crossed the Alps in order to
wed Charles, the son of Robert. She died a few years after
of sorrow and disappointment, leaving no issue.

Whilst these events were passing in the South, Waldemar,
Margrave of Brandenburg, vied with the Hansa in subjugating
the North. The noble Ascanian family had merged in the
lines of Stendal and Salzwedel, and been greatly weakened by
the powerful archbishops of Magdeburg. Otto with the Ar-
row, the Minnesinger, died childless, and was succeeded by
his nephew, Waldemar the Bold, [a. d. 1308,] who also placed
himself at the head of the Stendal family, by poisoning his
youthful relative, John, the rightful heir. Sole master over
the march, he speedily gained great power, and pursued the
plan of conquering the whole of the coast of the Baltic. In
1309, he had already gained possession of Pomerelia, Dantzig,
and the mouths of the Vistula, which he made over provision-
ally to the German order, in order to gain them on his side
against the Hansa, against which he instantly turned his arm ft.

VOL. II. I

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114

HENRY THE SEVENTH OF LUXEMBURG.

Under pretext of solemnizing his nuptials at Rostock witb
his cousin, Agnes, he perfidiously attempted to take that city
by surprise ; but the wary citizens closed the gates against
him, and he and his ally, Eric Menved of Denmark, with
some petty princes and bishops, hostile to the Hansa, vainly
sought to reduce it to submission, a. d. 1310. The city com-
munes, suspecting the lower council of treasonable correspond-
ence with the enemy, revolted under Henry Runge, and de-
posed the members of the council, of whom they murdered
several ; but, being unexpectedly attacked by Henry of Meck-
lenburg, a bloody skirmish took place in the streets, and their
leader was taken and beheaded, a. d. 1314. During this year,
the citizens of Magdeburg revolted against their tyrannical
archbishop, Burkhard. The allied princes of Northern Ger-
many seized this as a pretext for attacking the city, but the
citizens made such a brave defence, so warmly pressed the
hungry princes to leave their camp and partake of their ban-
quets, and received the Margrave, Frederick with the bitten
cheek, who ventured to accept their invitation, so graciously,
that the siege was discontinued. A reconciliation took place ;
but the archbishop becoming still more despotic, confiscating
all heritages in the name of St. Maurice, the city patron, he
was finally [a. d. 1329] taken prisoner by the citizens, and
put to death by four men selected for that purpose from the
cities of Magdeburg, Halle, Calbe, and Burg.

Frederick the Bitten, taking advantage of Waldemar's ab-
sence in the North, invaded his territory from the South in
the hope of regaining possession of the Lausitz, but was de-
feated by Waldemar at Grossenhayn and taken prisoner.
Waldemar then [a. d. 1312] attacked Witzlav, the Wendian
duke of Pomerania, who attempted to seize Stralsund, and,
assisted by the dukes of Mecklenburg, Brunswick, and
Saxon-Lauenburg, by the counts of Schwerin, and by the
united Poles, Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians, resolved to
humble the proud Margrave of Brandenburg, a. d. 1316.
Waldemar, unable to cope with this overwhelming force, was
defeated in Mecklenburg, and solely enabled to save himself
from utter destruction by raising a rebellion in Denmark, and
entreating the aid of the Hansa. The allied princes attacked
Stralsund, but were repulsed by the brave citizens, who took
Eric, duke of Saxony, captive in a sally, and raised their fine

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■

HENRY THE SEVENTH OF LUXEMBURG.

town -house with his ransom. The league was broken up,
[a. d. 1318,] and Waldemar died suddenly, leaving no issue.
Frederick with the bitten cheek also expired, [a. d. 1319,1
worn out with toil and laden with years, after having suc-
ceeded in restoring his family to their rights. He was suc-
ceeded in Misnia by his son, Frederick the Stern. Bran-
denburg, now a vacant fief, became an apple of discord between
the factions contending for the imperial throne. A side-
branch of the Ascanian family still reigned in Anhalt. The
Lausitz submitted to John of Bohemia.

About this time the free Ditmarses were at violent feud
with the counts of Holstein, who incessantly sought to reduce
them to submission. The peasants insolently invaded Holstein,
revelled in plunder, and bathed in the immense beer vats.
Count Gerhard defeated them by stratagem ; his soldiers were
ordered to break off the boughs of trees, under cover of which
they surprised the enemy, who mistook them for a wood.
Emboldened by this success, Gerhard invaded their country,
and again taking them by surprise by the rapidity of his
movements, once more defeated them. A small number of
men still defending themselves in the church of Oldenwaerden,
he ordered the building to be set on fire, but the melted lead
no sooner began to pour upon the heads of the besieged pea-
sants, than, making a furious sally, they repulsed the superior
forces of the enemy, and, rallying their scattered countrymen,
fell upon the Holsteiners, who suffered a defeat as shameful
a.s it was unexpected, and long afterwards left them unmo-
lested [a. d. 1319]. On the nomination of the Dane, John
Fursat, to the archbishopric of Bremen by the pope, he was
mocked by the Ditmarses, beaten with sticks by the East Fris-
cians, and compelled to flee to Avignon. The East Friscians
were nominally given by Rudolf of Habsburg, the hereditary
foe to liberty, to Reinhold the Warlike of Gueldres, but that
count never ventured to demand their homage. His son,
Reinhold the Black, who had the temerity to make the at-
tempt, was signally defeated in the battle of Vollenhoven,
A, d. 1328.

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lib

LOUIS THE BAVARIAN

CLXXVI. Louis the Bavarian, and Frederick of Austria.

On the death of the noble-hearted emperor, the empire
again fell a prey to the adverse factions of the Guelphs and
Ghibellines. The rancour of the Papal-Gallic party had
been again excited by Henry's expedition to Rome, and the
Habsburgs once more appeared on the scene as its supporters
and tools. Frederick the Handsome was, consequently,
zealously recommended by the pope as the successor to the
crown, for which a competitor also appeared in the person of
John of Bohemia, the son of the late emperor, whose preten-
sions were warmly upheld by his uncles, Baldwin of Treves
and Peter of Mayence ; his youth, however, proved the chief
obstacle, and, after some consideration, he ceded his rights in

favour of Louis of Bavaria. Frederick was remarkable for

the beauty of his person, but was inferior in mental energy to
his brother, Leopold, whose diminutive person enclosed a bold
and hardy spirit. Fate had, at an early age, brought Louis of
Bavaria and Frederick together. Their childhood had been
spent together, and a strong affection had subsisted between
them. Political events ptoduced a separation. The posses-
sions of the house of Wittelsbach, united under Otto, the friend
of the la3t of the Hohenstaufen, had been divided between his
sons Louis and Henry, the former of whom succeeded to the
Rhenish Pfalz and Upper Bavaria, the latter to Lower Ba-
varia. A fresh subdivision took place between the sons of
Louis, Rudolf receiving the Pfalz, and Louis, who mounted
the imperial throne, Upper Bavaria. Otto, the son of Henry,
the ex-king of Hungary, died in Lower Bavaria, leaving
several children still minors. Otto, who had been reduced to
poverty by the Hungarian war, had replenished his treasury
by the grant [a. d. 1311] of great privileges to his Estates,
which now interfered, the cities demanding Louis, the no-
bility, Frederick, as guardian over the children. Both the
guardians met at Landau as early friends. Louis maintained
his right, but Frederick refused to let the opportunity for
extending his sway over Bavaria slip, and the conference
terminated by their drawing their swords upon each other,
and being forcibly separated to meet again on the battle-field.
Louis, favoured by the justice of his cause and the bravery of

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AND FREDERICK OF AUSTRIA.

the citizens, gained a complete victory at Gamelsdorf over
the Bavarian nobility and the arrier-bann of Austria, led by
Ulric of Wallsee, beneath whom the bridge over the Isar
gave way, and thousands were drowned, a. d. 1313. This
victory rendered Louis highly popular among the people, and
particularly among the citizens. He, nevertheless, brought
about a reconciliation with Frederick, their ancient friendship
revived, and at Salzburg they shared the same bed.

The election of an emperor was canvassed. Louis, unsus-
picious of his own elevation, promised his vote to Frederick,
but, when unexpectedly elected by the Luxemburg party
instead of John, forgot his promise, and allowed himself to be
elected emperor by the majority of the princes in Francfurt
on the Maine, whilst Frederick was merely proclaimed em-
peror outside of the city gates by the archbishop of Cologne,
a papal partisan, by Henry of Carinthia, who was jealous of
John on account of Bohemia, by the Pfulzgrave, Rudolf, who
was also jealous of his brother, and by the Saxons. Walde-
mar of Brandenburg favoured Frederick. His ambassador,
Nicolas Bock, however, voted for Louis, and was sentenced
on his return to be chained fasting to the wall of his master's
banquetting-room, and compelled to look on whilst he feasted.
Every other vote was in favour of Louis, whose coronation
was solemnized with ancient splendour at Aix-la-Chapelle,
whilst Frederick was crowned at Bonn by the archbishop of
Cologne, Henry von Virneburg. The Colognese, who favoured
Louis, expelled their archbishop from the city, to which he
was permitted to return in 1321, for the purpose of reading
the first mass in the chancel (then first completed) of the
cathedral. Louis was compelled to reward the services of
John of Bohemia by the cession of the imperial free town of
Eger, and to bestow Boppard Alzey, (the knight, Henry von
Alzcy, had attempted Louis's life and been put to the rack,) etc.
in pledge on Baldwin.

The long war that ensued between the emperors is remark-
able for procrastination and indecision, the consequence of
their want of confidence in their allies. Leopold opened the
first campaign, in the summer of 1315, by surprising Louis
in Augsburg, and compelling him to flee by night from the
city. In his anger at the escape of his antagonist he fired
all the neighbouring villages, and then proceeded to Basle in

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118

LOUIS THE BAVARIAN,

order to celebrate the nuptials of his brother Frederick with
Elisabeth of Arragon, and his own with a countess of Savoy.
In the autumn of the same year he led his troops against the
Swiss, who favoured Louis.

War had long been fomenting in the mountains. As early
as 1313, the Habsburg vassals of Lucerne had undertaken an
unsuccessful expedition against Uri, Schwytz, and Unter-
walden, and the peasants of Schwytz had attacked the monas-
tery of Einsiedeln and taken the monks captive. The mur-
dered and disconcerted governors were still unrevenged, and
the confederates, confident of imperial favour, and proud of
the success of their first attempts, openly stood up in defence
of their liberties. Leopold, resolved to quell their insolence,
assembled his troops in the Argau and called a council of war
to deliberate on the mode of crossing the Alps. His court
fool, Jenni von Stocken, gravely remarked on this occasion,
" It is more advisable to deliberate upon the means of getting
out of them again." On reaching the Engpass, Leopold was
opposed by fifty men of Schwytz, who had been banished their
country for debt, and who, rolling stones down the mountain
sides, crushed both men and horses ; they were speedily re-
inforced by thirteen hundred of their countrymen, a dreadful
slaughter ensued, and Leopold was compelled to seek safety
in flight. This success was followed by another on the same
day over the count of Strassburg, who had crossed the Briinig
and entered Unterwald. The confederates afterwards entered
into an eternal league, [a. d. 1315,] and nominated a Landam-
man or chief magistrate.

Louis, meanwhile, remained undisturbed, and succeeded in
overcoming his brother Rudolf, and other malcontents. In
1317, a skirmish took place between Frederick, Leopold, and
Eberhard of Wurtemberg, who had ventured from retirement,
on one side, and Louis and John on the other, in which the
victory remained undecided. John was called into Bohemia,
where the nobles were in full revolt, but were pacified by the
mediation of the emperor, 1318. Disturbances continued rife
in Switzerland. The power of the Habsburgs, meanwhile,
increased. The Visconti, the emperor's Italian partisans, were
hard pushed by the pope, John XXII., and by Henry of
Habsburg. In 1321, Frederick, aided by the wild Hungari-
ans and Cumans, laid the whole of Bavaria waste ; and John

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AND FREDERICK OF AUSTRIA.

119

of Bohemia, ever fickle and restless, was at length induced to
join his forces with those of Louis. The cities alao contri-
buted both money and troops, and [a. d. 1 322] Frederick was
overtaken at Muhldorf in Lower Bavaria, before Leopold was
able to join him with a body of fresh troops. The battle was
rashly commenced by Frederick, who, at the onset, drove back
the Bohemians, but was quickly surrounded and taken pri-
soner. The flower of the Austrian nobility, among others
three-and-twenty of the family of Trautmannsdorf, strewed
the field. After the battle, Louis gratefully acknowledged the
services of his commander-in-chief, Schweppermann, to whose
skill he entirely owed his success. A basketful of eggs being
all that could be found for the imperial table, the emperor dis-
tributed them among his officers, saying, " To each of you one
egg, to our gallant Schweppermann two ! " Schweppermann
was of diminutive stature, old and lame, but skilled in the
tactics of the day. The emperor's words on this occasion may
still be read on this officer's tombstone at Castel, near Am-
berg. Frederick was imprisoned in the castle of Trausnitz,
near Landshut.

Thus freed from his most dangerous opponent, and victori-
ous in Switzerland, Louis was enabled to despatch eight hun-
dred lances to the aid of the Visconti, now sorely pressed by
the Guelphs. Eberhard of Wurtemberg also declared in his
favour, and was rewarded with the government of Swabia and
Alsace. The investment of the young prince, Louis, with the
vacant electorate of Brandenburg, suddenly changed the aspect
of affairs. John of Bohemia, roused to jealousy, entered into
a treasonable correspondence with the Habsburgs, and set
Henry the Amiable, Frederick's younger brother, who had
fallen into his hands at Muhldorf, at liberty. France, Naples,
Hungary, and the Guelphic faction implored the pope to shat-
ter the power of an emperor inclined to pursue the dreaded
policy of the Hohenstaufen ; and, in 1323, John XXII. inso-
lently summoned the emperor to appear before him at Avig-
non, the focus of French intrigue, and on being disobeyed,
solemnly placed him under an interdict, a. d. 1324. The
schism between the Franciscans, part of whom opposed the
luxury and vices of the clergy, nevertheless, raised friends for
the emperor even in the church, who defended him in their
termons and writings, and, in open defiance of the rapal in*

120

LOUIS THE BAVARIAN,

terdict, performed the church service for him and his adhe-
rents. Among others, Occam, an Englishman, the greatest
scholar of the age, demanded Louis's protection, exclaiming,
-< Defend me with the sword, and I will defend you with my
words !" The Dominicans, the pope's faithful servants, were,
consequently, persecuted throughout Germany.

The pope, maddened with rage, incited the Poles [a. d.
1825] and the pagan Lithuanians to invade Brandenburg,
where they burnt one hundred and fifty villages, and prac-
tised the most horrid atrocities. The pope, at this time at
the summit of his power, asserted in his extravagant bulls his
supremacy in the empire. Barnim of Pomerania acknow-
ledged him as his liege. The pope again acted in unison with
Charles IV. of France, whose hopes of gaining the crown of
Germany once more revived on the imprisonment of Frederick
and the interdiction of Louis. Leopold, who gave his brother
up as lost, held a conference with Charles at Bar-sur-Aube,
in which he assured to him the imperial crown, on condition
of his aiding the emperor's overthrow. An alliance was also
formed between John of Bohemia, France, and Naples, on
whose sovereigns he bestowed his sisters in marriage. His
intention, however, was, not to sell himself to, but to make
use of Charles in case of a fresh election. The princes of the
empire were also induced to listen to the proposals of the pope
and his allies, and the election of Charles by the diet held at
Rense, was solely controverted by the representations of Count
Berthold von Bucheck. The majority of the nation, in fact,
favoured Louis, and compelled the priests to perform service
in the churches.

Louis, convinced that a reconciliation with Frederick offered
the only means of salvation for Germany, visited him in his
prison in the Trausnitz, and sued for reconciliation in the
name of their youthful affection and the weal of the empire ;
and Frederick, swearing on the holy wafer to own him as his
sovereign, and to bring his brother Leopold to his feet, re-
turned to his own castle, where his wife, Elizabeth, had wept
herself blind during his absence, and, cutting off his beard,
which had grown an immense length during his captivity, sent
it by way of memorial to John of Bohemia. Leopold, insti-
gated by the pope, refused to do homage to Louis, and Fre-
derick, although publicly released from his oath by the pontii^

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AND FREDERICK OF AUSTRIA.

121

remained true to his plighted faith, and voluntarily presented
himself as a prisoner before Louis ; the two friends, now rivals
alone in generosity, secretly agreed to share the imperial
throne. Louis, once more freed from difficulty, nominated
the Margrave, Frederick of Misnia, to whom he had given
his daughter, Matilda, in marriage, governor of Brandenburg,
in the name of his son Louis, for the purpose of freeing that
unfortunate country from the depredations of the Poles,

whose deeds of cruelty were countenanced by the pope.

In the ensuing year, Leopold died mad, and was shortly after
followed by his brother, Henry the Amiable. The fourth
brother, Otto the Joyous, accompanied Frederick to Munich,
[a. d. 1326,] and wedded the princess Elisabeth of Bavaria,
whilst Henry of Lower Bavaria, then a youth, married one
of Frederick's daughters. John of Bohemia was appeased
by the possession of Silesia.

Tranquillity being thus secured in Germany, Louis ventured
to undertake an expedition to Rome for the purpose of receiv-
ing the imperial crown from the hands of a pope elected by
him in opposition to the pontiff at Avignon. The first op-
position he encountered was at Milan, where he seized and
imprisoned the Visconti whose fidelity he suspected. He was
also compelled to carry Pisa, where the gates were closed
against him, by storm. After declaring Robert of Naples out
of the bann of the empire, and creating Castruccio, the gallant
Ghibelline leader, duke of Lucca, he proceeded to Rome,
caused himself to be proclaimed in the capitol lord of the
eternal city, to be crowned with his wife Margaretha of Hol-
land in St. Peter's by two bishops, deposed the pope, John
XXII. of Avignon, who was burnt in effigy, and placed a
loyal Franciscan, under the name of Martin V., on the pon-
tifical throne. Margaretha shortly afterwards gave birth to
a son, Louis, surnamed the Roman. Robert, meanwhile, pre-
pared for war ; Castruccio died, and the Germans became so
unpopular on account of the expense of their maintenance,
that Louis was compelled to retrace his steps. Milan closed
her gates against him, and he was constrained to restore the
Visconti to liberty in order to procure money for the payment
of his troops. Martin V. was deposed and carried to Avignon,
where he was, with feigned compassion, pardoned by the pope,
who thus sought t) evince his superiority over the emperor. ■

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122 THE ELECTORAL DIET AT RENSE.

Louis the elder was, meanwhile, defeated on the Cremmer
Damm in Brandenburg by the papal partisan Burnim of
Pomerania. John of Bohemia had also been engaged in
Lithuania with his allies, the German Hospitallers. Frederick
the Handsome, deeply wounded by the refusal of the princes
to recognise him as the emperor's colleague on the throne,
expired four weeks before Louis's arrival in Munich from his

Italian expedition. About the same time, [a. d. 1328,]

Charles IV. of France, the last of the Capetian dynasty, also
expired, and was succeeded by his relative, Philip of Valois,
who pursued a similar policy in regard to Germany, and
entered into a close alliance with the pope.

CLXXVII. The electoral diet at Rense.

Difficulties seemed to gather around the path of Louis,
now sole emperor, and he again found it necessary to renew his
alliance with John of Bohemia, to whom he craftily offered the
vice-regency of Italy, which was greedily accepted, and John,
ever enamoured of adventure, instantly crossed the Alps.
Otto the Joyous, on the other hand, jealous of the emperor's
popularity in Switzerland and in the cities, renewed the
Habsburg feud, and a battle was on the point of taking place
at Colmar between him and the imperial forces, when Albert
the Lame, his elder brother, interposed, and a treaty was con-
cluded, by which the Habsburgs were to hold Schaffhausen,
Rheinfelden, Breisach, the bulwarks of the Upper Rhine, in
fee of the empire, and Otto to receive the empty title of vice-
gerent of the empire. John of Bohemia, enraged at these
conditions, instantly joined the Italian Guelphs.

The emperor, upon this, convoked a great diet at Nuremberg,
in which he urgently pointed out to the princes the necessity
of union. John, who speedily found himself deserted by his
Italian allies, and in want of money and troops, also appeared,
dexterously excused his conduct, and drew the Habsburgs,
whom he found on friendly terms with the emperor, over to
his side, giving his daughter, Anna, in marriage to Otto the
Joyous, whilst he himself wedded Elisabeth, the daughter of
the emperor Albert, whom he had ever bitterly hated and
opposed, Louis attempted to make use of John as a mediator

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THE ELECTORAL DIET AT RENSE.

123

"between him and the pope, who refused to come to terms, and
John, placing himself at the head of the French chivalry, re-
crossed the Alps and defeated the Ghibellines at Felice, where
his son Wenzel (afterwards the emperor Charles IV.) gained
his first spurs ; after which he returned to Germany, to carry
on feuds with the petty counts.

The emperor, in the hope of inducing the pope to release
him from the interdict, now offered to perform public penance,
to sacrifice the faithful Minorites, and to abdicate in favour of
his cousin, Henry of Lower Bavaria. These undignified con-
cessions and the folly of Henry, who, in the hope of securing
his succession to the throne, entered into a base alliance with
France, merely served to furnish the pope with fresh weapons,
to rouse the suspicions of the electoral princes, and to increase
his unpopularity.

John XXII., after declaring Italy for ever independent of
the empire, expired, [a. d. 1334,] at Avignon, leaving im-
mense wealth, most of which had found its way into his cof-
fers from Germany, whence he had also drawn the enormous

sums lavished by him upon France. Louis was, meanwhile,

favoured in Germany by public opinion, averse to the papal
intrigues at Avignon, by Albert the Lame, whose love of
peace counterbalanced the restlessness of John of Bohemia,
and by a quarrel that again broke out between the houses of
Luxemburg and Habsburg.

Henry of Carinthia and Tyrol, ex-king of Bohemia* died,
1335, leaving a daughter, the celebrated Margaretha Maul-
tasche, (with pouting lips, a name she received either on ac-
count of her large mouth, or from her residence, the castle of
Maultasch, between Botzen and Meran,) whom John of Bohe-
mia instantly wedded to his son John Henry, then in his
eighth year, with the intention of extending his sway over the
territories of her late father. The emperor and the Habsburgs,
jealous of this addition to the power of the Luxemburg family,
instantly leagued against him, and the Habsburgs were de-
clared Henry's successors. Margaretha chiefly distinguished
herself by laying siege to the castles of the opposite party
during this feud, which was put an end to in 1336, by the
division of the disputed inheritance between the rival houses,
to which the emperor was forced to give his assent. Dread*
ing lest the union of the late rivals might be turned againai

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124

THE ELECTORAL DIET AT RENSE.

himself, he entered into negotiation with the pope, Benedict
XII., the tool of France, who compelled him to refuse the
emperor's petition, upon which Louis degraded himself so far
as to address the French monarch personally, and to promise
not to ally himself with any of that king's enemies. Philip,
notwithstanding these concessions, still refusing his assent to
Louis's release from the interdict, the emperor broke off the
negotiation, and offered to aid the pretensions of Edward, king
of England, to the throne of France. War was declared be-
tween the empire and France, and the restoration of the Arelat
was demanded ; and so powerful was the force of public opinion
among the citizens and the lower orders throughout the empire
in favour of the emperor, that the princes at length took the
part of their long- neglected sovereign, and, following the ex-
ample of the bishops, who had met at Spires under the presi-
dency of Henry of Mayence, until now a zealous Guelph, and
had agreed to effect his release from the interdict, assem-
bled at Rense, where, moved by the emperor's remonstrances
against their base submission to a pope, a creature of France,
they declared that the supremacy of the German emperor
above all other sovereigns of the earth was exclusively be-
stowed by the election of the German princes, without its be-
ing ratified or the emperor being crowned by the pope ; that
the emperor was not the vassal, but the protector of the
church ; that, on the demise of the emperor, the pope should
no longer usurp the vicegerency of the empire ; and finally,
prohibited the publication of the papal bulls within the em-
pire without the previous consent of the German bishops.
These resolutions of the electoral princes were supported by
the cities ; and the priests, who refused to uphold the em-
peror, were expelled. The hopes of the people, raised by the
conference that took place between the emperor and the
English monarch at Coblentz, were, however, deceived ; the
princes, lately so energetic, were devoid of sincerity, and
Louis greatly diminished his popularity by his acceptance of
a sum of money from the British king, whose alliance he was
shortly afterwards, to the extreme discontent of the people,
induced to abandon by John of Bohemia, in the vain hope of
a reconciliation with France, and of a release from the papal
interdict.

The discord that prevailed among the princes had, mean*

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THE ELECTORAL DIET AT RENSE

125

while, encouraged the free spirit of the Swiss. The con-
federated peasantry had gained skill and discipline in the
incessant warfare with their noble and ecclesiastical neigh-
bours, and strength by their union with the inhabitants of
other cantons and towns, which had, like them, thrown off the
yoke. Berne joined the confederation, a. d. 1339.

The emperor, whilst carrying on his wretched negotiations
with the pope, had withdrawn to Bavaria, on which he be-
stowed an excellent code of laws. Lower Bavaria also fell
to him on the extinction of the reigning house on the death
of Henry, and the conduct of Margaret ha Maultasch, who,
dissatisfied with her youthful husband, John Henry, had di-
vorced herself from him, and wedded Louis the Elder, brought
the Tyrol into the imperial family. John of Bohemia, at that
time engaged in opposing the Polish party in Silesia, in which
he was aided by his son Wenzel, (surnamed Charles after the
French king, at whose court he had been educated,) no sooner
learned the defection of the Tyrol, than, hastening to Albert
the Lame, he entreated him to unite with him against the
house of Wittelsbach. Albert consented, and the confederates
were naturally joined by France and by the pope, Clement V.,
who dwelt at Avignon, like a Turk in his harem, surrounded
by his mistresses. A fearful anathema was hurled against the
emperor, whose courage again sank, and he yielded to every
condition prescribed by the pope, namely, to lay the crown at
his feet, to place the whole of his possessions at his disposal,
to perform every penance he thought fit to impose, and to
make every concession he chose to demand for France ; not-
withstanding which, the pope still refused to raise the inter-
dict, on account of the disinclination of the French monarch.
Louis, nevertheless, succeeded in pacifying John of Bohemia,
by indemnifying him for the loss of the Tyrol by the posses-
sion of the Lausitz, which, in point of fact, belonged to Bran-
denburg. The death of William IV., earl of Holland and
Hennegau, who was drowned together with two hundred and
fifty knights and ten thousand men, [a. d. 1345,] during an
expedition against the West Friscians, brought Holland and
Hennegau to the emperor in right of his wife, Margaretha,
the late earl's sister ; and he accordingly sent his son, William,
to Holland, where he gained great popularity among the peo*
pie by the grant of great privileges, and the friendship of bit

126

THE BATTLE OF CRRCY.

neighbours, the counts of Juliers and of Gueldres, whom he
created dukes of the empire.

This accession of wealth and influence greatly enraged the
anti-imperial party, more particularly John of Bohemia, who,
moreover, suspecting that Louis had been the instigator of a
conspiracy formed against him by Casimir of Poland during
his absence in Prussia, set up his son Charles, in revenge, ay
a competitor for the throne, and the pope, delighted with the
scheme, raised Prague to an archbishopric. The assent of
Louis's numerous enemies was quickly gained. His cousin,
Rupert of the Pfalz, surnamed the Red, attempted to seize
Bavaria, but was repulsed ; and Charles, who had laid siege
to the Maultasche in her castle in the Tyrol, was also speedily
compelled to retreat before Louis the Elder. John of Bohe-
mia, who had, meanwhile, received permission from the pope,
who merely acted in the name of France, for his son's elec-
tion, in return for which he promised to aid France against
England, now canvassed the German princes, and convoked
them to Rense, where shortly before they had so energetically
supported Louis, but where they now proclaimed Charles em-
peror, a. d. 1346. The people, however, rebelled. Frank-
furt and Aix-la-Chapelle closed their gates against the usurper,
and, notwithstanding the aid given by the archbishops, the
defeat of his opponents near Coblentz, and the power of his
Guelphic partisans in Austria, Hungary, and Italy, he was
unable to gain possession of the Tyrol, whence he and his
mercenary troops were expelled by Margaretha Maultasche.

Whilst these events were passing, Louis expired during a
bear hunt at Furstenfeld, in the vicinity of Munich, in the
arms of a peasant, A. D. 1347*

CLXXVIII. The battle of Crecy.—The black death.— The
Flagellants. — The murder of the Jews.

France and the pope regarded the emperor given by them
to Germany as their tool. Their whole power, however,
failed in reducing the Flemish citizens, although abandoned
by the rest of Germany, and on ill terms with their nobility
and rulers, to subjection. Bruges, unaided by the neighbour-
ing towns, was [a. d. 1328] compelled to yield to the allied

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THE BATTLE OF CRECY.

127

forces of France and Bohemia ; but the French did not long
triumph. Jacob von Artevelde, a wealthy brewer of Ghent,
but a man of noble birth, opposed the attempts made by Louis
of Nevers, earl of Flanders, to humble the pride of the citi-
zens, and, in unison with Siger von Kortryk, concluded a
commercial treaty in the name of the Flemish cities with
Kdward, king of England. Siger fell into the hands of Louis,
who ordered him to execution, upon which a general insur-
rection, headed by Artevelde, ensued, and this popular leader
speedily acquired greater influence in Flanders than had ever 4
been enjoyed by her earls.

Charles IV., the tool of Papal and French policy, now found
himself constrained, owing to his dependence upon his father,
to serve the French monarch against England, although, as
will hereafter be seen, he was too prudent a politician and
too sensible of his dignity to allow himself to be long enchained
to the petty interest of a French king. Lothringia had long
favoured France. The duke, Frederick, had fallen in Philip's
cause in Flanders, and his son, Rudolf, was also that mon-
arch's ally. Edward of England, on landing in Flanders,
was, notwithstanding the death of Artevelde, who, falsely
suspected of a design of selling Flanders to England, had
been assassinated by his countrymen, received with open arms
by the citizens, and joined by Henry the Iron, of Holstein.
The French suffered a total defeat at Crecy, August 26th,
1346. The emperor, uninterested in the fate of the battle,
fled, whilst his brave father, King John of Bohemia, who had
been blind for many years,* bound between two men-at-arms,
plunged headlong into the thickest of the fight, in the vain
hope of turning the battle. With him fell Rudolf of Loth-
ringia, Louis of Nevers, and all the Germans who had so
uselessly ventured their honour and their lives in a stranger's
cause, in that of their hereditary foe. When the death of the
German princes was told to the English king, he exclaimed,
" 0 ye Germans ! how could ye die for a French king ! 19
The sword of the blind Bohemian king bore the inscription,
"Ich dien," " I serve," that is, "God, the ladies, and right,"
which was on this occasion assumed by the Prince of Wales
as his motto.

• John had lost one of his eyes daring his Polish expedition, the otoei
trough the ignorance of his medical attendants.

uigitizea Dy ^oogic

128

THE BLACK DEATH.

The alliance between the English and Flemish proved but
of short duration, and Louis II. of Male, the son of Louis of
Nevers, was raised to the earldom on solemnly swearing to
respect the liberties of the citizens. France was compelled tc
restore Ryssel, Douai, and Bethune. Lothringia, and Henry,
bishop of Verdun, who had made a formal cession of his
bishopric to France, returned to their allegiance to the em-
pire. The Hansa greatly distinguished itself, [a. d. 1344,]
under Henry von Lacken, whom Louis had sent to command
its troops, by sea and by land, against the Swedes. Thuringia
was a prey to intestine feuds, a. d. 1342.

Fearful natural visitations and signs now filled all Europe
with alarm. In 1337, appeared a great comet ; during the
three ensuing years, an enormous multitude of locusts ; in
1348, the end of the world seemed at hand ; an earthquake of
extraordinary violence devastated Cyprus, Greece, Italy, and
the Alpine valleys as far as Basle. Mountains were swal-
lowed up. In Carinthia, thirty villages and the tower of
Villach were reduced to heaps of ruins. The air was thick,
pestilential, and stilling. Wine fermented in the casks. Fiery
meteors appeared in the heavens. A gigantic pillar of flame
was seen hovering over the papal palace at Avignon. A second
earthquake, that destroyed almost the whole of Basle, occur-
red In 1356. These horrors were succeeded by a dreadful
pestilence, called the black death, its victims being suddenly
covered with black spots like burns, and often instantly drop-
ping down dead. It first appeared in China, whence it
traversed Asia and spread over Europe. At Basle fourteen
thousand people fell victims to it, at Strassburg and Erfurt
sixteen thousand, and so on in proportion throughout Ger-
many ; and yet, according to the historians of that period,
Germany suffered less than other countries. In Osnabruck,
only seven married couples remained unseparated by death.
Of the Franciscan Minorites in Germany, without including
those in foreign parts, there died 124,434, whence a con-
clusion may be drawn both of the fury of the pestilence and
of the amazing number of this order, in which all took refuge
to whom the courtly manners and luxury of the rest of the
priesthood were obnoxious. Traces of the moral reformation
of the church were, even at that period, perceivable through-
but Germany. Besides the fathers and the lay brothers,

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THE FLAGELLANTS.

V29

tliere arose a third class of these monks, the Tertiarians, who
had no monasteries, but lived freely among the laity, and
practised the severest penance. Their number was without
doubt increased by the repeated disturbance of divine ser-
vice,* which the interdicted laity performed for themselves on
the refusal of the priests ; and the idea of atoning for sins by
the performance of severe penance naturally occurred when
absolution was no longer dispensed in the churches. Thus
arose the orders of Beguines, who, besides the imposition of
penance, attended the sick ; the Beghards, probably so termed
from their founder, a man from Picardy ; Lollards, (gebett
lallende, prayer-mutterers,) etc., whose sincere piety, which
sometimes degenerated to mere enthusiasm, strongly contrasted
with the levity, licence, luxury, and pride of the ecclesiastics.

These ideas and sects were already common throughout
Germany, when the great pestilence, which swept away a
third of the inhabitants of Europe, appeared. The day of
judgment was declared to be at hand, and a letter, said to
have been addressed from Jerusalem by the Creator of the
world to his sinning creatures, was dispersed throughout
Europe by a wandering tribe of penitents or Flagellants, who,
like their Italian predecessors in the thirteenth century, cru-
elly lashed themselves as they went along singing penitential
songs. They marched in good order under various leaders,
and were distinguished by white hats with red crosses. These
penitents at first created great enthusiasm, which gradually
decreased as the pestilence died away, and [a. d. 1349] Cle-
ment VI., who rightly beheld in them the commencement of
a great reformation, launched a bull against and persecuted
them as heretics. They preached, confessed, and forgave sins,
pronounced the absolution granted by the church to be of no
avail, upbraided the priests for their hypocrisy and luxury, and
taught that all men were brethren, and equal in the sight of
God. Persecution raised their enthusiasm to frenzy, and the
truths they at first inculcated were perverted by pride and
hatred ; some even gave themselves out as the Messiah. The
enthusiasm of the Beghards was allied with the greatest li-
cence, which, at a later period, so strikingly reappeared in the
Adamites and Anabaptists. In a council held at Vienne, they

• In quibusannis homines plures nati et mortui fuerunt, qui divint
officia nunquam celebrari viderunt.— Malleoli*.
vol. u. *

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130 THE MURDER OF THE JEWS.

were charged with believing every thing to be right and divine
to which their natures inclined them, for instance, community
of wives (an idea resuscitated by the Socialists of modern days).
According to Cornerus, they believed God to be neither bad
nor good, and, what was termed bad to be divine ; that man
was God, and that God could not have created the world
without him : "homo operatur quod Deus operatur, et creavit
una cum Deo coelum et terram, et est genitor verbi eterni, et
Deus sine tali homine nihil facere potest," like the idea of
Hegel, of God's first attaining consciousness in man. Man
could therefore only act by the inspiration of God, and when
man's inclinations led him to sin, it was a divine impulse on
which he acted, and real penance consisted in giving way to
this impulse, in order not to resist the will of God, "et quia
Deus vult me peccasse, ideo nollem ego quod peccata non
commisissem, et hajc vera est pcenitentia."

The Flagellants, so long as they possessed the power,
greatly tyrannized over the Jews. The hatred of this perse-
cuted race had slumbered since the crusades, but now awoke
with redoubled fury in Austria and Bavaria, on account of
the desolation caused by the prodigious quantities of locusts,
(which spread over a space of three German miles* in breadth,
and more miles in length than the most rapid horse could
gallop in a day,) which was declared to be a punishment in-
flicted by Heaven on account of the desecration of the Host by
the Jews, and a dreadful massacre ensued in both these coun-
tries, A. D. 1337. The severe penalties inflicted upon the
murderers by the emperor Louis put a stop to the slaughter.
In 1349, the appearance of the pestilence and of the Flagel-
lants was again a signal for massacre ; the pestilence was de-
clared the effect of poison administered by this unhappy peo-
ple ; the infatuated populace could no longer be restrained ;
from Berne, where the city council gave orders for the
slaughter to commence, it spread over the whole of Switzer-
land and Germany; thousands of Jews were slain or burnt
alive, and mercy was merely extended to children who were
baptized in the presence of their parents, and to young maid-
ens, some of whom escaped from the arms of their ravishers
to throw themselves headlong into the flames that consumed
their kindred. All who could, took refuge in Poland, whero

* Nine Englis?i.

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CHARLES THE FOURTH.

131

Casimir, a second Ahasuerus, protected them from love for
Esther, a beautiful Jewess. Poland has, since this period,
swarmed with Jews. The persecution, however, no sooner
ceased, than they reappeared in Germany.

CLXXIX. Charles the Fourth.

Charles IV. was the first of the emperors who introduced
the foreign policy against which his predecessors on the
throne had so manfully and unsuccessfully striven. The
Habsburgs had made some weak attempts of a similar nature,
but it was not until this reign that modern policy took deep
root in Germany. This emperor appeared to think that
honour had vanished, leaving caution in its stead.

Louis the Elder had succeeded to the claims of the house
of Wittelsbach, which it was Charles's primary object to de-
stroy. The failure of the Hohenstaufen, of his grandfather
Henry, and of Louis of Bavaria, clearly proved to him the im-
possibility of success as emperor, and induced him, like the
emperor Albert, to do his utmost to raise his house on the
wreck of the empire ; instead, however, like that emperor, of
increasing his power by open violence, he empoisoned Ger-
man policy with every hypocritical art, by the practice of
courtly treachery and secret murder, in which he had become
an adept in France. Primogeniture, first introduced by him
into his family, afterwards passed into that of Habsburg, and,
at all events, prevented the dismemberment of the empire,
whose external power was thereby increased, notwithstanding
the moral paralyzation of its effect.

The Ascaniers and the archbishop of Magdeburg, the
natural rivals to Brandenburg, instigated by the emperor,
raised a pretender, a miller, one Jacob Rehbock, whom they
declared to be Waldemar, to whom he bore a great resem-
blance, in opposition to Louis the Elder, who, unprepared for
this attack, lost the whole of Brandenburg with the exception
of Briezen, since named, on account of its fidelity, Treuen-
briezen, and Frankfort on the Oder, which was unsuccessfully
besieged by the emperor.

The Wittelsbacher and their adherents, Brandenburg. Pfalz,

Alayence, and Saxony, had offered the imperial crown to the

x 2

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132

CHARLES THE FOURTH.

conqueror of Crecy, which the English parliament, fearing
lest an emperor of Germany might forget his duty a9 king of
England, would not permit him to accept. Their choice then
fell upon Gunther von Schwarzburg, a knight distinguished
for his feats of arms, in whose favour they gained over the
Poles, the ancient foes of the house of Luxemburg. Charles
IV., however, craftily entered into negotiation with Edward,
to whom he proved the necessity of an alliance between them
against France, drew the Habsburg army on his side by
giving his daughter, Catherine, in marriage to Rudolf the
son of Albrecht the Lame ; and, with equal skill, dissolved the
AVittelsbach confederacy by wedding Anna, the daughter of
the Pfalzgrave Rupert, by ceding Brandenburg to Louis the
Elder, and declaring Waldemar, whom he had himself invested
with that electorate, an impostor; Louis the Elder, with
equal perfidy, sacrificing Gunther, who was shortly afterwards
poisoned by one of Charles's emissaries, a. d. 1347. Gunther
was a bold and energetic man, and had acquired great popu-
larity by a manifesto, in which he had pledged himself to
maintain the imperial prerogative and to pursue the policy of
the Hohenstaufen.

Charles stood alone at the head of the house of Luxem-
burg, whilst that of Wittelsbach was weakened and disunited
by subdivision, and the rest of the princes of the empire were
either intimidated or engaged in family feuds. By his diplo-
macy, marked as it was by fraud and cunning, he raised not
only the power of his own family but also that of the empire,
and by means of these petty arts succeeded where the Hohen-
staufen with all their valour and magnanimity had failed. He
dissolved the alliance between the pope and France, and
gained more by this diplomatic stroke than many a campaign
could have effected.* His stay during his youth at the
French court, and at the papal palace at Avignon, had ren-
dered him acquainted with the jealousy secretly existing be-
tween the two allies, with the desire of the pontiff to escape
from thraldom and to return to Rome, from which the dread
of again falling under the imperial yoke alone withheld him.
By the most fawning humility, feigned piety, and genuine
patience, Charles at length succeeded in winning his zon-

• HU motto was, " Optimum, aliena insania frui."

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CHARLES THE FOURTH

133

fidence. The dangerous position in which France was gra-
dually placed by England also aided his plans, and he bestowed
great favours upon Philip the Bold, the younger son of Jolm
king of France, who had inherited Burgundy, and whose
ambitious extension of his newly-acquired dominions was ill
viewed by France, A. D. 1358.

Charles's views upon Italy, far from extending to the re-
annexation of that country to the empire, were circumscribed
to the ceremony of coronation at Rome, which he entreated
as a favour in order to prove to the pope his little respect for
the electoral assembly at Rense, and his profound reverence
for the papal sanction. With this intention, he visited Rome
in a private capacity, without heeding the Italian factions, and
submitted to every command sent by the pope from Avignon,
even to the degrading condition of quitting the city immedi-
ately on the conclusion of the ceremony. During the ab-
sence of the pope, the Romans had rebelled against the tyranny
of the nobility, and had formed a republic, at the head of
which stood Cola di Rienzi, who, on the emperor's arrival,
hastened to his presence in the hope of bringing about the
restoration of the ancient Roman empire ; but Charles, taking
advantage of the confidence with which this enthusiast had
placed himself within his power, instantly threw him into
chains and delivered him to the pope, Innocent VI., who sent
him back again to Rome, there to work as his tool ; the Ro-
mans, however, speedily perceived that Cola, instead of foster-
ing the ancient rights of the people, was a mere papal instru-
ment, and an insurrection ensued, in which he was assassinated.
The Ghibelline faction gained an unexpected accession of
strength ; weary of the wretched state of disunion, their hopes
centred in Charles as the restorer of the national unity of
Italy, whilst the pope, in order to retain his supremacy in
that country, incessantly promoted dissension and division.
In the same spirit with which Dante had formerly addressed
Henry VII., did Petrarch now implore Charles IV. to restore
Italy to the empire ; a step that would solely have produced
a re-alliance between the pope and France ; the fate of his
predecessors had, moreover, taught Charles but too well the
measure of Ghibelline faith. He therefore contented himself
with bestowing great marks of distinction upon Petrarch, and
with publicly saluting the beautiful and celebrated Laura, im-

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134

CIIARLES TH15 rOirRTH.

mortalized in his sonnets. He even fomented the disputes
between the petty Italian princes and states, by the free sale
of privileges and declarations of independence, and collected a
vast number of relics in order to flatter the pope, and to adorn
the churches in Bohemia. The Ghibellines, enraged at his
conduct, set fire to the house in which he lodged at Pisa, and
he narrowly escaped with his life. On reaching Rome, he
was received with great demonstrations of friendship and
respect by the papal legates, and, the day after the corona-
tion, secretly quitted Rome, under pretext of following the
chase, in order to avoid being proclaimed her temporal sove-
reign.— Ten years later, he reaped the fruit of this policy
in the favour of Urban V., whom he visited at Avignon, and
who, even more than his predecessor, strove to free himself
from the trammels in which he was held by France. When
[a. d. 1365] Charles was crowned king of Burgundy (Arelat)
at Aries, he pacified France by ceding the hereditary posses-
sion of that country to the Dauphin, so called from the Del-
phinat, which fell to the crown prince of France in 1348.
Two years after, [a. d. 1367,] Urban V. re-entered Rome,
and, in the following year, was visited by Charles, whom he
met at Viterbo. The emperor afterwards conducted him to
St. Peter's, holding the bridle of his horse. Success had at-
tended his schemes. The disunion between the pope and
France, and his own reconciliation with the former, had been
effected. The next pontiff, Gregory XI., resided at Rome,
and was universally recognised as the successor of St. Peter,
whilst the antipope at Avignon, elected by the French cardi-
nals, was merely acknowledged in France.

With the same skill with which he had disunited the pope
and France, Charles now strove to reintegrate the empire, and
to quell her internal dissensions ; but he degraded his object
by the means by which he sought its attainment. His policy
towards the house of Wittelsbach was truly diabolical. The
Habsburgs and some other princely houses escaped by retiring
into obscurity. Several of the petty princes, as, for instance,
Luxemburg and Bar, received an accession of dignity. He
also contrived to place the ecclesiastical princes under his in-
fluence, and to remain on good terms with the pope by means
of his legate, Cardinal Talleyrand.

The golden bull drawn up a. d. 1356, is a circumstantial

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CHARLES THE FOURTH. 133

proof of the power to which Charles had, at that period, at-
tained. By it the number of electoral princes was definitively
reduced to seven, including the three spiritual electors of
Mayence, Cologne, and Treves, and the four temporal ones
selected by Charles for political purposes, Bohemia, Bran-
denburg, Saxon -Wittenberg, and Rhenish Pfalz. Charles
already possessed Bohemia, and was on the point of taking
possession of Brandenburg, whilst the weak and servile side-
branches of Wittelsbach and of Ascan reigned in the Pfalz
and in Wittenberg. The electors were also declared almost
independent sovereign princes, and exercised the jus de non
evocando, which deprived their subjects of the right of ap-
peal to the emperor ; privileges bestowed by Charles, not as
personal favours, but with the intention of enlarging his
hereditary possessions, and by intermarriage, heritage, pur-
chase, etc., of re-establishing the unity of the empire, which
explains the exclusion of the house of Habsburg, to which
Charles was unwilling to grant the same advantage, from the
number of electoral princes. This bull is silent in respect to
the supremacy of the emperor in Italy. It was in great part
drawn up by Cardinal Talleyrand.

Charles was named (falsely, for he did more for the empire
than any emperor since the Hohenstaufen) the step-father of
the empire, but the father of Bohemia. His person discover-
ed his Bohemian descent, his resemblance to his mother being
stronger than that to his father. He was of diminutive sta-
ture, but thickset* carried his head ill and drooping forwards,
had high cheek-bones and coal-black hair. His Slavonian
appearance curiously contrasted with his sumptuous attire, for
he seldom laid aside the imperial crown and mantle, and with
his French manners and education. He spoke five languages,
and was deeply versed in all the learning of the times. Part
of his biography, written by himself, is still extant. He also
drew out the plan for the new part of the cities of Prague and
Breslau.

In 1348, he bestowed a new code of laws upon Bohemia,
and, in 13.55, declared Moravia, Silesia, and the Lausitz in-
separable from that country. He also granted the greatest
privileges to the aristocracy and to the cities, encouraged
mining and agriculture, rendered the Aloldau navigable as far
as the Elbe, brought German artificers into the country, and

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136

CHARLES THE FOURTH.

converted the whole of Bohemia into a garden. In the midst
of the smiling country stood the noble city of Prague, whose
fine public edifices, the regal Hradschin, etc. ; the celebrated
bridges, are his work. Carlsbad was also discovered by and
named after him. He bestowed equal care upon Silesia,
where he introduced the cloth manufactures of Flanders, and
laid the foundation of the linen manufacture for which it
became noted. German privileges and the German language
quickly spread throughout Lower Silesia. In order to pre-
serve his amicable relations with Poland, he wedded, on the
death of Anna, a daughter of the house of Piast, Elisabeth,
the niece of Casimir of Poland, a woman of such extraordinary
strength that she could wrench a horse-shoe in two. In the
other provinces of his empire he gave a great impulse to
agriculture, manufacture, and trade, and Balbin remarks of
him, that his age was that of masons and architects. Nor
were the moral interests of his subjects neglected. He
founded the first German university at Prague, April 6th,
1348. The Habshurgs followed his example, and [a. d. 1365]
founded an university at Vienna, and the Pfalzgrave founded
another [a. d. 1386] at Heidelberg. The ecclesiastical
princes emulated their example, and Cologne also received an

university in 1388; Erfurt, in 1392. The instruction

was divided into four faculties, the three first of which were
the sciences, theology, jurisprudence, and medicine, the pro-
fessors of these sciences received the title of doctor. The
fourth faculty comprehended the liberal arts, grammar, rhe-
toric, music, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy,
whose professors were termed magistri. Numbers of the •
aristocracy, and still greater numbers of the citizens, crowded
the new lecture-rooms. The university of Prague ere long
contained seven thousand students.

The spirit of the new universities was, in consequence of
Charles's policy, at first wavering and undecided. Numbers
of Minorites still, as in the time of Louis of Bavaria, impa-
tient for the reformation of the church, crowded to them.
The school-divines of Oxford, and even those of Paris, since
the ftscape of the pope from the shackles imposed by France,
had declared against popery. The terms on which the em-
peror stood with the pontiff, however, rendered the first
teachers in the German universities, notwithstanding their

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CONTESTS BETWEEN THE CITIZENS, ETC. 187

ardent desire for reformation in the church, fearful of promul-
gating their doctrines. Henry of Hesse, and Marsilius ah
Inghen, the heads of the universities of Vienna and Heidel-
berg, by whom scholasticism was spread throughout Ger-
many, acquired great note ; but the moderation for which
they were distinguished was not long imitated. Hierarchical
power still strove for the ascendency ; the universities were
gradually tilled with papal adherents, and, in the ecclesiastical
provinces, were merely founded as ultramontane schools.
Roman sophistry quickly spread throughout Germany, but
was opposed [a. d. 1391] by John Tauler, a monk of Strass-
burg, who, struck with horror at the lies beneath which the
pure doctrines of the Christian faith lay concealed, attempted
to introduce purer tenets among the people. This popular
preacher of German mysticism was, however, too mild, and
his followers were too much wrapped up in ecstatic devotion,
to effect the slightest reformation in the church.

CLXXX. Contests between the citizens and the aristocracy. —

Wars of the Hansa.

Albert the Lame [a. d. 1358] had four sons, Rudolf the
Handsome or the Founder, who succeeded to the Tyrol, Leo-
pold the Pious, who fell at Sempach, Albert with the Tuft,
(so named from the tuft of hair he bore on his helm in memory
of his wife, in whose honour he founded an order of knight-
hood,) and Frederick. This family no longer ventured to
contest for the throne, but sought to extend and to maintain
its possessions by means less likely to attract attention. Its
authority was supported by the pope and by the nobility, and
it, consequently, suppressed every heretical tendency among
the people, persecuted the Waldenses, and deprived the cities
of their privileges. Vienna lost her ancient constitution and
corporative regulations, and was raised to higher importance
by becoming the ducal residence. The university, founded
by Rudolf, had & papal tendency. The nobility, meanwhile,
acquired greater power by their support of the ducal family,
ind the peasantry were gradually reduced to deeper servility.

In Switzerland, where liberty had made rapid progress, a
fcesh contest broke out between the confederated cities and

138

CONTESTS BETWEEN THE CITIZENS

the Habsburgs. Zurich, Glaris, and Zug joined tlie con-
federation. Peace was, however, at length restored by the
intervention of the emperor. The confederation retained the
freedom and privileges it had gained, which were recognised
by the emperor, to whom it swore fealty. No injustice was
committed ; the Habsburgs were paid their due, and the an-
cient right of the free peasantry to be under the jurisdiction
of the crown, without infringing their peculiar obligations to
the monasteries or their governors, was confirmed. Rudolf
built, in expiation of his conduct, the long bridge across the
lake of Zurich near Rapperschwyl, for the convenience of pil-
grims to Einsiedeln.

Hostilities between England and France meanwhile ceased,
and the emperor, during his stay at Strassburg. on his return
from his second visit to Rome, was offered by the knight de
Cervola a body of forty thousand mercenaries freshly dismissed
from the service of the English king. These mercenaries
were termed Guglers, from their Gugel hats or pointed hel-
mets. The emperor refusing to take them into his pay, they
began to plunder the country, but were defeated and dispersed
by the imperial troops, by Wenzel of Luxemburg and the
duke of Brabant. Nine years later a fresh and numerous
body of Guglers under Ingelram de Coucy, who claimed part
of Alsace in right of his mother, Catherine of Habsburg, be-
sieged Leopold in his castle of Breisach, and laid waste the
country, in which they were unopposed by Leopold, probably
from the hope of their attacking the Swiss confederation, for
which purpose John de Vienne, bishop of Basle, invited them
into the Bernese territory. The pass of the Hauenstein was
left open by the Count Rudolf von Nidau, who fled on their
approach, and forty thousand men, including six thousand
English knights, the wildest of whom was Jevan ap Eynion
ap Griffith " with the golden hat," poured across the Jura, and
iaid the country waste by fire and sword as far as the Biittis-
holz, near Lucerne, where three thousand of them were slain
by six hundred peasants ; the rest were cut to pieces in
two engagements by the Bernese, A. D. 1376. Coucy escaped
bad; to France. The bishop of Basle was punished by the
defection of Biel, which he had caused to be set on fire, and
which now joined the confederation. Leopold was afterwards
expelled Basle, on account of his insolence, by the citizens.

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AND THE ARISTOCRACY

139

Freiburg in the Briesgau was illegally sold to the Habsburgs
by the imperial governor, A. D. 1366 ; a transaction unnoticed
by the emperor, who desired to keep on good terms with
that house.

The Habsburgs were more fortunate in the East, where
they had gained Carinthia and the Tyrol, and entered into
alliance with the counts of Gorz (Goritzia *) and the Visconti.
The citizens of Trieste [a. d. 1369] implored the aid of
Austria against Venice, and [a. d. 1380] that splendid city
and harbour fell into the hands of the Habsburgs. Whilst in
Upper Germany the Habsburgs opposed the confederated
peasantry and the cities, the aristocracy and the cities con-
tested for superiority in the central and northern provinces,
and a struggle took place equally great and important in its
results as that between the church and the empire.

Had all the cities in Germany confederated against the
nobility, they might easily have overturned the empire, but
they were scattered too far apart, and were, moreover, too
jealous of each other's prosperity to tolerate such a concentra-
tion of power or the pre-eminence of any single city. Lubeck
might have become the Venice of the North, had not the other
Hanse towns been blinded by petty jealousy to their political
interest.

The power of the cities was, nevertheless, very great.
The citizens, proud of their newly-gained liberties, emulated
the knights in skill and bravery, and far surpassed them in
military knowledge ; fighting in serried ranks, etc. New
tactics and improvements in the art of siege were introduced
by the burghers, and the well-disciplined city regiments,
each distinguished by an uniform in the colours of their city,
first founded the fame of the German infantry. The use
of fire-arms, destined to destroy chivalry by rendering
personal strength unavailing against art, was first intro-
duced by the citizens. In 1354, Berthold Schwarz, a monk
at Freiburg in the Breisgau, by chance discovered gunpow-
der, and was killed by the explosion. The first powder-
mill was erected at Lubeck, A. D. 1360. John of Aarau
was the first celebrated cannon-founder, and founded his
first cannon [a. d. 1372] for the city of Augsburg. Stones

♦ Now famous as the retreat of the Bourbon dynasty and the bunai-
plac« of Charles X., ex-king of France, a. d. 1837. — Tran^lat*"*.

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140 CONTESTS BETWEEN THE CITIZENS, ETC.

were at first made use of instead of balls, which came into
use a. d. 1387.

The contest was carried on with the greatest obstinacy in
Swabia, where Eberhard the Riotous, who equalled his father
in wild independence, had been confirmed by Charles in the
government of Lower Swabia. His tyranny roused the cities
to open rebellion, and Charles came in person to Esslingen
for the purpose of restoring peace; the publication of the
golden bull, and its prohibition of the reception of fresh
Pfahlbiirger, (suburbans,) however, raised a suspicion of his
intention to deprive the cities of their corporative privileges,
and to reinstate the great burgher families, and the citizens
of Esslingen rose in open insurrection. Charles was com-
pelled to seek safety in flight, but was revenged by Eber-
hard, who reduced the city, A. D. 1360. For this service
he was rewarded with the government of Upper Swabia, and
the debts he had contracted with the Jews were declared null
by the emperor. Notwithstanding these favours, he leagued
with Habsburg and refused obedience to his liege, upon which
he was put out of the bann of the empire, but being defeated
at Scharndorf, [a. d. 1360,] and imploring the emperor to
allow him to retain his possessions in Bohemia as his vassal,
he was, consequently, not only pardoned, but restored to his
government and permitted to demand reparation from the
cities, whose power the emperor willingly saw humbled.

The tyranny of the Swabian governor at length incited
the nobility against him, and, in 1367, the Margrave of Baden
and the Rhenish Pfalzgrave leagued with the count of
Eberstein against him ; whilst in Upper Swabia two orders
of knighthood conspired against the cities, which renewed
their confederation in 1370, and vainly sought to persuade
Eberhard, who was now sorely pressed, to join their alliance.
The nobles, seeing their danger, made peace with their foe,
and the citizens suffered a signal defeat, A. D. 1372. Charles
once more favoured the victor, and empowered him to levy an
imperial tax upon the humbled cities, which again revolted.
Ulm was unsuccessfully besieged by the emperor in person,
and a fresh and more extensive confederation was formed
between the cities. It was in vain that the emperor pro»
nounced them out of the bann of the empire ; they refused to
lav down their arms, and the troops of Wurtemberg were do

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WARS OF THE HANSA.

feate<l in a bloody engagement, in which eighty-six no hie
knights Jell, at lleutlingen. a. d. 1377. The citizens were
again victorious at Kaufbeuren, and tliose of Ulm levelled all
the neighbouring castles with the ground.

In the ensuing year, [a. d. 1378,] the emperor expired,
and t!iH contest between the cities and the aristocracy burst
out wit!; nbled fury in every part of the empire. The
Hansa 1 cl. meanwhile, greatly distinguished itself, and had
forced WisMemar III. of Denmark, and Hakon of Norway, to
sue for ii,f ii est disgraceful terms of peace. The princes of
HoUtcin ui'l of Lower Germany, at strife among themselves,
vainly sought to humble the cities. Magdeburg, the most
powerful city of central Germany, withstood the repeated
attacks of the nobility, until the city-council, erroneously
imagining that a system of defence would put a stop to all
further attempts, inscribed upon the city-flag, " We fight not,
but defend," and foolishly followed that maxim. Had the
cities of Germany imitated the example set them by those of
Italy, they must, like them, have ruled the whole country.
Charles IV., unable to check the disorder prevalent through-
out the empire, meditated the future restoration of order by
means of an alliance with the Hansa, and in order to gain a
firm footing in the North, made the valuable acquisition of
Brandenburg, and fixed his royal residence at Tangermiinde,
whence he commanded the entrance to the Northern Ocean.
It was his desire to be declared the head of the Hansa, and
had the Hansa, alive to its true interests, formed this potent
alliance at a period when the princes were weakened by in-
testine broils, the whole of Germany must have presented a
far different aspect at the present day. But the cities, proud
of the power they had gained by their industry and valour,
deemed the emperor's alliance unnecessary, and, although
they treated him with the greatest personal respect, refused to
make the slightest concession, misunderstood his great po-
litical schemes, and rejected his proposals.

■

CLXXXI. Wenzel. — Great struggle for freedom.

Charles IV. sought by every means in his power to secure
to his sons the possessions he had acquired. The eldest,

142

WENZEL.

Wenzel, was brought up in pomp and luxury, at an early ago
initiated into the affairs of the empire, and, during his father's
life-time, declared his successor on the throne by the bribed
electors. The second, Sigmund, was united to Mary, the
daughter of Louis, king of Hungary and Poland, in the ex-
pectation of succeeding to those countries, and received
Brandenburg. The third, John, was invested with the
Lausitz, and surnamed "Von Gorlitz." Charles also be-
stowed Luxemburg on his brother Wenzel, and Moravia on
his younger brother, Jodocus.

Wenzel, called at too early an age to participate in the
government of the empire, treated affairs of state with ri-
dicule or entirely neglected them, in order to give himself
up to idleness and drunkenness. At one moment he jested, at
another burst into the most brutal fits of rage. The Ger-
mans, with whom he never interfered beyond occasionally
holding a useless diet at Nuremberg, deemed him a fool,
whilst the Bohemians, who, on account of his residence at
Prague, were continually exposed to his savage caprices, re-
garded him as a furious tyrant. The possessions with which
the Bohemian nobility had formerly been invested by the
crown exciting his cupidity, he invited the whole of the aris-
tocracy to meet him at Willamow, where he received them
under a black tent, that opened on either side into a white and
a red one. The nobles were allowed to enter one by one, and
were commanded to declare what lands they possessed as
gifts from the crown. Those who voluntarily ceded their
lands were conducted to the white tent and feasted, those who
refused were instantly beheaded in the red tent. When a
number of these nobles had thus been put to death, the rest,
perceiving what was going forward, obeyed, A. d. 1389. The
massacre of three thousand Jews in Prague, on account of
one of that nation having ridiculed the sacrament, gave
Wenzel the idea of declaring all debts, owed by Christians
to Jews, null and void ; thus putting into effect the Jewish
law, which enjoined all debts to be forgiven every seven years ;
a law they had never put into practice towards Christians.
The queen, Johanna, being killed by one of the large hounds
that ever accompanied her husband, he wedded the princess
Sophia of Bavaria, A. D. 1392. It was in the ensuing year
that the notorious cruelty with which he treated St. Nepo-

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WENZEL.

143

muck was enacted. One of the royal chamberlains having
caused two priests to be put to death for the commission of
some dreadful crime, the archbishop refused to tolerate this
encroachment on the prerogative of the church, and placed the
chamberlain under an interdict. Wenzel was roused to fury
at tins proceeding, and the archbishop sought safety in flight.
Several of the lower dignitaries of the church were seized.
The dean, Krnowa, dealt the king such a heavy blow on the
head with his sword-knot as to draw blood. Two lower eccle-
siastics, John von Nepomuck (Pomuk) and Puchnik, were
put to the rack in order to force them to confess the designs
of the archbishop, and by whom he had been instigated ;
Wenzel, irritated by their constant refusal, seized a torch, and
with his own hand assisted to burn the sufferers. They still
persisted in silence. John von Nepomuck was cast, during
the night, headlong from the great bridge over the Moldau
(where his statue now stands) into the stream. He was after-
wards canonized by the church as a martyr, and made the
patron saint of all bridges. Puchnik escaped with his life, and
was led by the king, now filled with remorse for his horrid
cruelty, to the royal treasury, where he aided him to fill his
pockets, and even his boots, so heavily with gold, as to render
him unable to stir.

Sigmund, at length conscious of the ruin into which the
folly of the king's conduct was hurrying his family, concerted
measures with Jodocus, Albert of Austria, and William of
Misnia, and suddenly seizing his brother at Znaym, [ a. d.
1393,] carried him prisoner to the castle of Wiltberg in Aus-
tria. John von Gorliiz, however, induced the princes to set
him at liberty on account of the scandal raised by such a
transaction. Wenzel was no sooner free, than, inviting the
Bohemian nobles, who had assisted at his incarceration, to a
banquet, he caused them to be beheaded, and poisoned his
brother John, who had undertaken the control of his atf'airs
in Bohemia.

The foreign relations of the empire were at this period ex-
tremely favourable, and merely required a skilful statesman
at the head of affairs to turn them to advantage. The dan-
gerous alliance between the pope and France had become
gradually weaker, and when, on the demise of Gregory in
1378, the Italians and Germans placed Urban VI. on the pon-

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144

GREAT STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM.

tifical throne in Rome, the French raised an antipope, Cle-
ment VII., at Avignon, a great schism arose in the church
herself. The popes thundered their anathemas against each
other, and an opportunity was now afforded for temporal sove-
reigns to intervene between them, as the pope had formerly
mediated between rival princes. France was fully occupied
with England, and the views of Naples upon the succession to
the throne of Hungary had failed. On the death of Louis of
Hungary and Poland, [a. d. 1382,] Sigmund hastened into
Poland in order to lay claim to the throne of that country
in right of his wife, Maria, Louis's eldest daughter. The
Poles, however, expelled him the country, and compelled him
to deliver up to them Hedwig, Louis's younger daughter.
Maria and her mother, Elisabeth, Louis's widow, were, mean-
while, exposed to great danger in Hungary, where Charles
the Little of Naples had arrived in person, laid claim to the
throne as nearest of kin on the male side, and seized the
crown. Elisabeth, a Bosmian by birth, and habituated to
scenes of blood, feigned submission, and, during a confidential
interview, caused him to be seized by two Hungarian nobles,
Niclas Gara and Forgacz. His cowardly Italian retinue fled,
and he was assassinated in prison, a. d. 1386. Elisabeth now
grasped the sceptre, and induced Maria, who regarded her
husband with antipathy, to give him a cold reception on his
arrival from Poland, and he was shortly after sent back to his
brother in Bohemia. Horwathy, in the hope of gaining pos-
session of the two queens, placed himself at the head of the
Neapolitan faction, and, suddenly attacking their retinue when
on a journey near Diakovar, slew Forgacz and Gara after a
brave resistance, caused all their women to be cruelly tortured
and put to death, and Elisabeth to be strangled in the pre-
sence of Maria, whom he imprisoned at Novigrad on the
Adriatic, with the intention of delivering her up to the venge-
ance of Margaretha, the widow of Charles the Little ; this
project was, however, contravened by the Venetians, who,
dreading the union of Naples with Hungary, instantly shut up
Novigrad. Jagello of Lithuania, meanwhile, wedded Hedwig,
between whom and William the Courteous of Austria a mu-
tual attachment subsisted. But the Poles, bribed by Jagello's
promise to embrace Christianity and to unite Lithuania with
Poland, gave him the preference, and William, whom Hedwig

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JltEAT STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM.

145

had secreted in the castle of Cracow, was expelled the coun-
try. Dalwitz, a Polish knight, who had been William's bosom
friend and counsellor, afterwards accused the wretched Hed-
wig of having carried on too intimate a correspondence with
that prince. Hedwig swore that she was innocent, and Dal-
witz was condemned to creep under a table and to bark like a
dog. The Hungarians, in order not to fall into the power of
Jagello, who counted upon Maria's condemnation in order to
unite Hungary with Poland, induced Horwathy to restore her
to her husband, Sigmund, on a solemn assurance of security
from vengeance on her part. Maria was no sooner restored
to liberty than Sigmund quarrelled with her, shut her up and
treated her with great severity, on account of her refusal to
cede to him the sole sovereignty, and her indignation at his
licentious conduct. She possessed, nevertheless, sufficient
nobility of mind to frustrate a conspiracy against his life, and
he gratefully restored her to liberty. She expired shortly
afterwards, A. D. 1392. Dalmatia, Bosnia, Moldavia, and
Wallachia, meanwhile declared themselves independent of
Hungary, to which they had hitherto belonged, and were en-
couraged in their rebellion by Horwathy, who was at length
taken prisoner and put to a cruel death. Sigmund, in order
to devote his undivided attention to Bohemia, mortgaged the
mere of Brandenburg to his Moravian cousins, Procop and
Jobst, the sons of his uncle Jodocus.

An enormous Turkish army under Sultan Bajazet now
suddenly appeared on the frontiers of Hungary, after reducing
almost every province in Greece to subjection, although Con-
stantinople had been besieged in vain. In 1365, Bajazet had
been opposed by Louis of Hungary, who was defeated on the
Marizza.* The enthusiasm caused by the crusades had long
died away, and it was with difficulty that Sigmund raised
sixty thousand men, among whom were six thousand Bur-
gundians and French, for the siege of Nicopolis, A. D. 1396.
Bajazet advanced at the head of two hundred thousand men to
the relief of that city, and after a long and terrible engage-
ment, in which sixty thousand Turks fell, gained the victory
by his enormous numerical superiority. Enraged at the loss
he had suffered, and at the cruelty with which the Christians

* In gratitude for his preservation he founded the shrine of Mariazell
in Styria to which crowds of pilgrims still annually flock. — Translator
vol II. L

146 GREAT STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM.

murdered their Turkish prisoners, he caused ten thousand of
the Christian captives to be executed in his presence. The
bloody scene had lasted four hours when the pachas, struck
with horror, cast themselves at his feet and sued for the lives
of the remainder. Coucy, one of the number, died in cap-
tivity. Sigmund escaped. The Turks did not follow up their
victory. Hungary again became a prey to intestine factions,
Ladislaw of Naples renewed his pretensions to that country,
A. D. 1399. Sigmund was thrown into prison, whence he
was liberated by Hermann von Cilly, on condition of accept-
ing his daughter Barbara in marriage.

One of the first mistakes committed by Wenzel, was the
conferment of the government of Swabia [a. d. 1382] on
Leopold, duke of Austria, by which the hatred of the cities
to the house of Habsburg was still further imbittered. Both
parties flew to arms. Eberhard of Wurtemberg, with the
intent of preventing the Habsburgs from gaining possession
of Swabia, prudently intervened, and conciliated himself with
the knights, the cities, and the princes ; Leopold also attempted
to negotiate terms with the cities, in order to strike with
greater security at the Swiss peasantry. The cities, not-
withstanding the proposals of peace and amity made to
them in 1382 and 1384, regarded them with suspicion, and
in 1385, thirty-one of the cities of Switzerland and Swabia
formed a confederation, which they invited the peasantry and
petty nobility to join for the purpose of making head against
the Habsburg ; the confederated peasantry, however, dis-
covered great lukewarmness, replying that it was harvest and
they had no time, upon which the cities accepted the alliance
proposed to them by the German princes and left the Swiss
peasantry, who were instantly attacked by Leopold, unassisted
in the hour of need. The battle of Sempach, in which the
peasants owed the victory to the patriotic valour of Arnold
von Winkelried, a peasant of Unterwald, (who made a path
with his body over the lances of the enemy,) and in which
Leopold fell, with six hundred and fifty-six of the nobility,
took place, a. d. 1386. This success was followed by the
battle of Naefels, during which the peasants of Glarus rolled
stones on the Austrian squadrons, [a. d. 1388,] and setting fire
to the bridges across which they fled, two thousand five hundred
of the enemy, including one hundred and eighty-three of the

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GREAT STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM. 147

nobility, were killed. The Swiss confederation gained a great
accession of strength by the adhesion of other cities. The pea-
sants of Valais also defeated the earl of Savoy at Visp, during
this year, and put four thousand of his men to the sword.

In 1380, the Swabian cities, which, after the battle of Sem-
pach, had become aware of the impolicy of petty jealousy,
gained courage to break off their alliance with the princes,
and again sued for that of the Swiss peasantry, which being
refused, they formed a great league with their sister cities on
the Rhine. Innumerable feuds ensued between them and the
nobility, until the defeat of the citizens of Frankfurt at Esch-
born [a. d. 1388] by the Pfalzgrave Rupert, when most of
the cities concluded peace with their opponents. By an im-
perial edict, [a. d. 1389,] they were forbidden to form a fresh
confederation, but neither their ancient hatred of the nobility
was allayed nor their strength broken, and frequent outbreaks
continued to take place.

Peace was scarcely restored, [a. d. 1392,] when the Alpine
herdsmen again, and with renovated vigour, arose in defence

of their liberties. The little hut built by St. Gall had, in

course of time, sprung up into a stately monastery, whose
proud abbot, Cuno, ruled the whole of the Alpine country un-
der the high Santis, and allowed his governors to tyrannize
over the people. The governor of Appenzell ordered a corpse
to be disinterred for the sake of its good coat. That of
Schwendi hunted all the peasants, who could not pay their
dues, with his dogs. One day, meeting the little son of a
miller, he asked him " what his father and mother were do-
ing?" "He bakes bread that is already eaten; she adds bad
to worse," answered the boy ; " that is, my father lives on his
debts, my mother mends rags with rags." " Why so ?" again
inquired his interrogator. " Because," said the boy, " you
take all our money from us ;M and when the governor set his
dogs upon him, he raised a milk-can, under which he had hid-
den a cat, which instantly flew out, and drew off the dogs.
The boy took refuge in his father's cabin, where he was killed
by the irritated governor.

The peasants, attracted by the cries of the unfortunate
father, raised a tumult, attacked the castle of Schwendi, and
burnt it to the ground. The governor contrived to escape.
All the other castles in the vicinity were speedily levelled

L 2

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RUPERT.

with the ground, and the whole country wa9 freed from its
oppressors. The citizens of St. Gall also joined the peasants
against the abbot, a. i>. 1400. The Swabian cities were called
upon to decide the matter, and decreed that St. Gall could
only confederate with cities, not with peasants, upon which
the Appenzellers were abandoned to their fate. The brave
herdsmen now resolved to fight their own battle, and, aided
by those of Glarus, defeated both the abbot and the citizens of
St. Gall, a. d. 1402. Delighted with their success, they sum-
moned the neighbouring peasantry to join the banner of liberty,
and Rudolf, Count von Werdenberg, Austria's foe, voluntarily
laid aside his mantle to take the herdsmen's dress and join
their ranks. Frederick of Austria was again repulsed ; but
the Appenzellers, imboldened by success, ventured too far
from their country, and laid siege to Bregenz, whence, after
suffering great loss, they were compelled by the nobility to re-
treat. They afterwards joined the confederation, A. d. 1407.

CLXXXII. Rupert— The Netherlands.

The incapacity of the emperor Wenzel was regarded with
indifference by the princes of the empire, who were, conse-
quently, unrestrained by his authority, but when his folly ex-
tended to a visit to Paris, where, in a drunken frolic, he ceded
Genoa to France and recognised the antipope at Avignon as
pope, instead of Boniface IX., who then wore the tiara at
Rome, John, archbishop of Mayence, a zealous papal adherent,
began to tremble for his mitre, and urged the princes to de-
pose him. The Pfalzgrave Rupert, ambitious of restoring
the faded glories of the house of Wittelsbach, offered himself
as a competitor for the throne, and was supported by the
princes of the upper country and of the Rhine, whilst those of
Northern Germany favoured Frederick of Wolfenbiittel, the
only man of note in the family of Welf. Wenzel was cited to
appear before the tribunal of the princes of the empire at
Oberlahnstein, and, on refusing to appear, was formally de-
posed, and Rupert was proclaimed emperor. His rival, Fre-
derick, was, at the same time, [a. d. 1400,] also proclaimed
emperor by the Saxons, at Fritzlar. This noble prince, who
was beheld with great enmity by the nobility, was, with the

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149

consent of John of Mayence, whose object it was to avoid every
species of schism, attacked and murdered by a Count von
Waldeck when on his way to Fritzlar. Rupert was so great
a favourite with the nobility, that the citizens, on his election,
instantly offered to uphold the deposed emperor, who, never-
theless, remained in complete inactivity at Prague. Aix-la-
Chapelle closed her gates against Rupert, who was, conse-
quently, crowned at Cologne. Wenzel was counselled to
bring about a reconciliation with Boniface, but treated the
matter with indifference. He was now disturbed by his
Bohemian subjects, and the nobles took advantage of the dis-
respect into which he had fallen to wrest from him the
greatest privileges. Procop and Jobst of Moravia declared in
Rupert's favour, in the expectation of gaining possession of
Bohemia. Procop, who was on bad terms with his brother,
however, quickly returned to his allegiance. During this
confusion, Sigmund unexpectedly appeared, and made Wenzel
and Procop prisoners. Whilst occupied in restoring Bo-
hemia to tranquillity, he incautiously intrusted Wenzel to
the keeping of the Habsburgs, who, delighted with the dis-
union prevailing in the house of Luxemburg, instantly set
him at liberty, and the Bohemians, with whom he was, not-
withstanding his cruelty and folly, more popular than Sig-
mund, replaced him on the throne. His madness increased
from this period.

Rupert no sooner mounted the imperial throne than he de-
clared against France, and sought to win the favour of the
cities by the abolition of the customs on the Rhine, which
had merely the effect of turning from him the affection of the
nobility. The princes were, moreover, faithless to him, and
he was viewed with jealousy by his Bavarian cousins. Un-
aided by his own family and at enmity with the house of
Luxemburg, he naturally sought an ally in that of Habsburg ;
and in the expectation of being warmly welcomed by Boni-
face IX., who still smarted under the insults heaped upon
him by Wenzel, undertook an expedition to Rome for the
purpose of receiving the crown from the hands of that pontiff.
Leopold the Proud, whose father, Leopold, had fallen at
Sempach, accompanied him across the Alps with the inten-
tion of attacking the Visconti, who had rendered themselves
greatly obnoxious to him as neighbours. Leopold was, in this

150

RUPERT.

expedition, assisted with Florentine gold. The Visconti,
however, who had been created dukes of the empire by
Wenzel, were victorious at Brescia, [a. d. 1401,] Leopold
was taken prisoner, and Rupert was compelled to retrace his
steps after vainly suing the Venetians for aid.

Rupert expired, a. d. 1411, deserted by all his partisans
and treated with universal disrespect ; his acceptance of
Offenbach and the Ortenau from William, bishop of Strass-
burg, a9 a bribe for his aid against the citizens, had rendered
him utterly contemptible ; the citizens were victorious, the
bishop was compelled to flee, and his allies were taken pri-
soners. Sigmund had, meanwhile, made peace with the
Habsburgs, and, assisted by Albert of Austria, laid siege to
Znaym, which was defended by some robber-knights, Procop's
partisans. Wenzel, trembling for the Bohemian crown in
case of his brother's success, went to Breslau, and formed an
alliance with Jagello, who had received the Christian name of
Wladislaw on his accession to the throne of Poland, A. d.
1404. Sigmund and Albert were, at the same time, poisoned
in the camp before Znaym. Sigmund escaped death by being
suspended for twenty-four hours by his feet, so that the
poison ran out of his mouth. Being deserted by William the
Courteous, he was forced to give up Bohemia, after poisoning
Procop in his prison. The German faction being, mean-
while, victorious over the Neapolitan party in Hungary, Sig-
mund regained that country; and the Turks, having been
defeated by Timur in Asia, Bosnia and Dalmatia once more
sought the protection of Hungary. The order of the dragon
and the university at Ofen were founded by Sigmund in
memory of these events.

Ernest the Iron of Styria, the youngest of the four sons of
Leopold of Austria, had confederated with his brother Leo-
pold against his infant nephew Albert, afterwards the em-
peror Albert II., whom they sought to deprive of his
inheritance, but who was successfully defended by Sigmund
and the Viennese. Ernest, independent of his perfidy to-
wards his nearest relatives, was a man of no mean intellect
He wedded Cymburga, a Polish princess, a woman of great
beauty and wit, and of such extraordinary strength as to be
able to break horse-shoes in sunder and to knock nails into the
wall with her bare hand. She was remarkable for the large

THE NETHERLANDS.

151

tinderlip that, even at the present day, characterizes the family
of Habsburg.

In the Netherlands, family feuds had been carried on with
great virulence. Gueldres fell [a. d. 1361] to the countess
of Blois, the daughter of Duke Reinhold, and Brabant was in-
herited by Johanna, who married Wenzel, duke of Luxem-
burg, who dying [a. d. 1383] without issue, Brabant and
Luxemburg fell to Antony of Burgundy. Thus the house of
Luxemburg lost its ancient ancestral possessions, without any
opposition on the part of the emperor AVenzel, Rupert alone
protesting against the encroachment of Burgundy upon the
empire.

Flanders had become a scene of still wilder disorder, and a
furious contest was carried on between Ghent, her allies, and
the cities that favoured the earl, Louis II., of Male. Peace
was made, A. d. 1381, but Louis, incited by the Child of
Edinghen, (Enghien,) attempting to take vengeance, Ghent
again revolted. Grammont was reduced to ashes by the Child,
who shortly afterwards fell before Ghent. That city being
reduced to great straits by the coalition of the citizens of
Bruges, her rival city, with the earl, Philip von Artevelde,
the son of the celebrated brewer, was placed, with unlimited
power, at the head of the citizens. Famine raged within the
walls, and the women were insisting upon a surrender, when
Artevelde returned from an unsuccessful parley with the be-
siegers, and thus addressed the people : " Shut yourselves up
in the churches, recommend your souls to God and die of
hunger, or bind yourselves with chains and yield to the cruel
earl, or — seize your arms and drive back the foe ! " Choose

one of these three!" "Choose for us," was the reply;

and Artevelde, placing himself at the head of the citizens,
made a desperate sally, defeated the troops of the earl and the
citizens of Bruges, who were pursued into their city, where a
terrible slaughter took place, a. d. 1382. Louis was concealed
by an old woman, and escaped ; nine thousand of the citizens
of Bruges were slain, and the city was plundered. Artevelde
became lord over the whole of Flanders.

Louis, whose daughter, Margaretha, had married Philip of
Burgundy, uncle to Charles VI. of France, now turned to
that country for aid, and a numerous French army was des-
patched against Artevelde, who, although successful at Co-

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Jo2 THE NETHERLANDS.

mines, was defeated and fell with twenty thousand of the
Flemish at Ro9ebecke, A. D. 1382. The English afterwards
aided Ghent, and the war was carried on with such fury, that
numbers of the Flemish migrated to England and Holland.
It was continued on the death of Louis, who was stabbed in a
broil at Artois by the duke de Berry, [a. d. 1384,] by Phi-
lip of Burgundy, the French and the nobles against the citi-
zens and the English. Peace was at length concluded, a. d.
1385. Flanders retained her ancient liberties, but hencefor-
ward appertained to Burgundy.

Two extraordinary women were mixed up with the in-
trigues of this period, Jacobea of Holland and Johanna of
Naples. Jacobea, the only child of William of Wittelsbach,
the heiress to Holland and the Hennegau, married John, the
son of Charles VI. of France, who dying early, she wedded
John of Brabant, the imbecile son of Antony. Her uncle,
John the Merciless, however, leagued with the pope, who, at
his request, dissolved Jacobea's second marriage on the plea
of too near a relationship, with Philip of Burgundy, England,
and the reigning faction of the Kabeljaus in Holland, with the
design of depriving her of her rich inheritance. Abandoned
on almost every side, and with a husband brutal and inca-
pable, this beautiful young woman, already deprived of part
of her possessions, now sought the protection of the English,
in the hope of receiving aid from one of their princes, Hum-
phrey, duke of Gloucester, to whom she offered her hand.
Philip of Burgundy interposed, and Gloucester had scarcely
landed in Holland when he again retreated to England. Ja-
cobea was betrayed into Philip's hands and carried prisoner to '
Ghent, whence she escaped in man's attire. During the same
year [a. d. 1425] John the Merciless expired, and bequeathed
his claims upon Holland to Philip, who, already in possession
of Flanders and heir presumptive to Brabant and Luxemburg,
spared no means, by fraud or violence, to gain possession of
the rest of the Netherlands, in which he was solely opposed
by the unfortunate Jacobea. Gloucester remained in England,
and merely sent some troops to her aid, who were joined by
the city faction of the Haecks, and defeated by the Burgun-
dians at Brouwershaven, a. D. 1425. John the Imbecile, of
Brabant, died in the ensuing year, and was succeeded by
Philip. Gloucester married an Englishwoman, and Jacobeaa

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THE NETHERLANDS.

Dutch partisans being again defeated in a naval engagement
near Wieringen, she was compelled to resign the government
of Holland to Philip, and to promise not to contract another
marriage without his consent. An annual pension was al-
lowed her, a. D. 1436. In this necessity, she found a faithf ul
friend and prudent counsellor in a handsome knight, Frank
von Borselen, whom she secretly married. Philip, who had
surrounded her with spies, gained intelligence of the con-
spiracy, threw the knight into prison,, and compelled Jacobea
to purchase her husband's liberty with the renunciation of her
claims in Philip's favour. Frank was appointed head forester,
and Jacobea, after living some years with him in that station,
died at the early age of thirty-six, a. d. 1439.

Not long before this, Otto the Welf, of Brunswick, a hand-
some young prince, had been, whilst on a visit to Italy, chosen
by Johanna of Naples for her fourth husband^ and by this
means implicated in the bloody intrigues of the house of
Anjou. Otto was wounded and imprisoned by Charles of
Durazzo, whom the pope had raised as his rival, and Johanna
was strangled. Otto was afterwards permitted to return to
Brunswick. His daughter by Johanna married a king of
Cyprus. The crown of Naples fell to Rene of Anjou, who
was driven from his throne by Philip of Arragon, who had
long been in possession of Sicily, A. D. 1442.

Norway, Sweden, and Denmark were declared inseparable
under the queen, Margaretha, the daughter of Waldemar UL
af Denmark, by the Calmar Union, A. d. 1397.

THIRD PERIOD.

THE AGE OF THE REFORMATION.

May God now help us, and give us one of the trumpets with which the walla o1
Jericho were thrown down, that we may also blow round these paper walla and
loosen the Christian rods for the punishment of sins, in order that we may comtt
ourselves by chastisement.— Luther.

PART XIV. THE HUSSITE WARS.

CLXXXIII. Sigmund.

We have now arrived at that stormy period when the worn-
out empire of the middle ages, shaken from within and with-
out, fell in ruins, when the degenerate church waded through
crime, and Heaven, in anger, emptied the viol of wrath over
Germany, until, after centuries of sorrow and suffering a
new era, with a new faith, a new constitution, new manners
and men, rose from the ruins of the past.

Physical strength and love of adventure had, in the earlier
ages, given rise to the German migrations, and, at a later
period, had given place to lofty aspirations of chivalry, faith,
and love, which, carried to excess and abused, now yielded
in their turn to the sovereignty of reason. The pious sim-
plicity and confidence of the people, more and more practised
upon by the popes and their scholastics, were at length so
shamefully abused for purposes of the meanest ambition and
avarice that reason finally revolted against the chains of
habitual belief. The ideas inculcated by Arnold of Brescia
and by Petrus Waldus had annually spread ; men saw that
the church had gone astray, and demanded that, cleansed
from her temporal lust of power and luxury, from her scho-
lastic lies and deceit, she should return to her primitive sim-
plicity and truth. The learned Englishman, Wycliffe, was,

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SIGMUND.

155

at that period, the soul of the reforming party. Heresy had
spread throughout Germany. Two hundred heretics were
burnt at Augsburg.

The circumstances of the times were far from unfavourable
for a reformation in the church. The pontifical chair had
been deprived of much of its supremacy by the schism in the
church, consequent on the election of the antipopes at Avig-
non by France, in opposition to the successor of St. Peter at
Rome, and the popes were reduced to the necessity of creating
a party in their favour among the clergy and in the universi-
ties, by which means the papal despotism, introduced by Inno-
cent IV., yielded to an ecclesiastical democracy, which now
assumed a right to settle the dispute between the popes, and
[a. d. 1410] the council of Pisa, composed of bishops and
doctors of the universities, boldly deposed the antipopes, Gre-
gory XII. and Benedict XIII., and elected another pope,
Alexander V., who, shortly afterwards dying, was succeeded
by John XXIII. Respect for the pontiff had, however, be-
come so deeply rooted in the minds of the people, that the de-
posed popes were able to maintain their authority, and the
world was scandalized by beholding three popes at once, as if
in mockery of the Trinity. The youngest of the three, John
XXIII., who had formerly been a pirate, a man sunk in guilt
and the lowest debauchery, was the most detestable, but the
clergy were too deeply depraved to feel any repugnance at his
election, and the cardinal, Peter d'Ailly, said openly, that the
church had become so bad that a good pope would be out of
his sphere, and that she could only be ruled by miscreants.

On the death of the emperor Rupert, the house of Wittels-
bach, weakened by division, remained in a state of inactivity,
and the powerful one of Luxemburg continued to occupy the
throne, Sigmund being elected in preference to Wenzel, who
contented himself with Bohemia, A. D. 1412.

Vain, arrogant, deceitful, and ever undertaking more than
he had power to perform, Sigmund discovered his trut, cha-
racter from the very onset. In the electoral assembly he
voted for himself, with these words, " There is no prince in
the empire whom I know better than myself. No one sur-
passes me in power, or in the art of governing, whether in
prosperity or adversity. I, therefore, as elector of Branden-
burg, give Sigmund, king of Hungary, my vote, and herewith

156

SIGMUND.

elect myself emperor." He united in his person many of the
qualities for which his relations were noted, possessing the
subtlety of Charles IV., the thoughtlessness of king John, the
licence of his brother Wenzel, with this difference, that, whilst
Wenzel was a worshipper of Bacchus, he was a votary of Ve-
nus. Endowed with beauty, eloquence, and energy, he was
totally devoid of real power or of reflection. He ever pursued
a temporizing policy, and for a present advantage would

thoughtlessly sacrifice a greater future gain. At first he

discovered a praise-worthy zeal for the church and state, and,
in order to devote himself entirely to the regulation of public
affairs, even sacrificed his private interests. The Turks, for-
tunately, made no further attempt upon Hungary, and Ladis-
law of Naples, the competitor for that crown, died. Sigmund,
anxious to secure himself to the rear, concluded peace with
Wladislaw of Poland, whom he entertained with great splen-
dour at Ofen. Annoyed by the successes of the Venetians in
Dalmatic, Friuli, and on the frontiers of Lombardy, he des-
patched against them a small number of troops under Pippo
of Hungary, who being defeated, he deemed it more advan-
tageous to make peace, and to cede Zara in Dalmatia to
Venice for 200,000 ducats. He then passed through the Ty-
rol, and visited the duke, Frederick, at Innsbruck, which he
quitted in great displeasure, and, proceeding to Italy, held a
conference at Lodi with the pope, whom he persuaded to con-
voke a new council. His attempt to reduce the Visconti to
submission failed, but at Turin he secured the allegiance of
Amadeus, earl of Savoy, after which he flattered the Swiss
with a visit.

Having thus settled the affairs of the state, and having re-
plenished his treasury by mortgaging Brandenburg to Fre-
derick of Hohenzollern, Burggrave of Nuremberg, he resolved
to become the reformer of the church, a scheme in which he
had the sympathies of Europe, and for this purpose convoked
a great council at Constance. The necessity of a reformation
was universally felt, and was even participated in by the
clergy, who desired the termination of the schism in the
church, and, moreover, hoped to extend their power by means
of a great council. Sigmund, fearing the party-spirit of the
clergy, sought to attract the laity, and to give to the council
more the appearance and authority of a general European

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congress, in which the votes were regulated, not by classes*
but by nations, and voluntarily ceded his prerogative, now a
mere delusion, as Roman emperor, and placed the nation of
the holy Roman empire no longer above, but on an equality
with the rest of those represented in this council. After in-
cessant efforts, he at length succeeded in uniting all the tem-
poral and spiritual sovereigns and princes of Kurope fof
this purpose, without being himself qualified to take the leai
in such an assembly, where his undignified conduct drew upon
him, and upon the church, the well-merited contempt of his
brother sovereigns.

CLXXXIV. The Council of Constance.

A. D. 1414, the spiritual and temporal powers of Catholic
Europe held a great general congress at Constance, either in
person or by their representatives. The temporal powers
consisted of the emperor,* of almost all the electors, of most
of the great vassals of the empire, of members of the nobility,
of the ambassadors of all the catholic sovereigns, and even of
those of Greece and Russia in their strange attire. Of the
spiritual dignitaries, there were three patriarchs, thirty-three
cardinals, forty-seven archbishops, one hundred and forty-five
bishops, one hundred and twenty-four abbots, eighteen hun-
dred priests, seven hundred and fifty doctors, and a crowd of
monks. Gregory and Benedict merely sent their legates,
John XXIII. alone appearing in person. The Spaniards at
first absenting themselves on account of their holding with
Benedict XIII., the council was merely composed of four
nations ; the Germans, including the Danes, Swedes, Nor-
wegians, Poles, Hungarians ; the Italians, French, and Eng-
lish, who formed two opposing parties, that of the Italians
under Pope John, supported by Frederick of Austria, John

• Sigmund entered Constance on Christmas eve, and rode by torch-
light to the church, where, with the imperial crown on his head, he
served as deacon to the pope whilst reading mass. He showed himself
more vain than efficient in the council. When, addressing the assembly,
he said, 44 Date operam, ut ilia uefanda schisma eradicetur," a cardinal
remarking to him, 14 Domine, schisma est generis neutrius," he replied,
** Ego sum rex Romanus et super grammaticam." In this council 1m
lowered his dignity in matters of far greater importance.

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THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE.

Df Burgundy, John, archbishop of Mayence, and Bernard,
Margrave of Baden; and that of the Germans, French, and
English. The French, unable to forget the subserviency
of the pope to their rule, still secretly set up Avignon in
opposition to Rome ; the Germans and English favoured the
French party for the purpose of deposing the notorious pope,
John, and some among them sincerely wished for a reform-
ation in the church ; whilst all the northern nations, without
exception, jealous of the preference ever given to Italians in
the appointment to ecclesiastical benefices, unanimously re-
solved to lower their pride on the present occasion ; accord-
• ingly> when the northern party, headed by the French car-
dinal, Peter d'Ailly, and Gerson, the celebrated chancellor of
the university of Paris, actively seconded by the German
clergy under the influence of the emperor, had carried the
question of voting according to nations, (which deprived the
majority of the Italian cardinals and bishops of their power of
influencing the number of votes,) it advanced a step further,
and declared that the popes were subservient to the council,
and that each of the three must either voluntarily resign the
tiara or be deposed. It was in vain that Rceder, a German
by birth, a Parisian doctor, implored the council to take the
question of the reformation first into consideration. The
spiritual lords, who ruled the assembly, solely intent upon
putting an end to the scandal of a papal trinity, and upon
restoring the external dignity of the church, were by no means
inclined to meet the demands of the people by reforming her
internal ihnspo

Pope John, threatened with a public trial for the crimes he
had committed, dissimulated his rage, and resigned the pon-
tifical tiara. A statement of his misdemeanors had already
been made public. His attempt to bribe the emperor failing,
he confederated with Frederick of Austria, who held a tourna-
ment outside of the city walls, and the pope, favoured by the
crowd, fled, disguised as a groom, with a cross-bow on his
shoulder, and merely accompanied by a page, to Schaffhausen,
where he was speedily joined by Frederick. John now so-
lemnly protested against his enforced abdication, and dissolved
the council. The terror caused by this step, however,
quickly subsided. Frederick was, in return, declared out of
the bann of the empire, and Sigmund, summoning the Swiss

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to his ai<I, bestowed the Austrian possessions upon them, on
condition of their invading that territory, and thus satisfied
his rancour as a Luxemburg against the house of Habsburg.
The Waldstaette had made peace with Austria, and refused,
but Berne, ever greedy of gain, instantly infringed the treaty
and began the attack ; upon which the citizens of Zurich and
the Alpine peasantry, filled with envy of the promised booty,
also invaded the Habsburg territory, which was speedily re-
duced to submission, and partitioned among the confederates.
Sigmund shortly afterwards visited Zwitzerland, and received
the oath of fealty from the confederation. Frederick was taken
prisoner at Freiburg by the Pfalzgrave, Louis, who com-
manded the imperial troops. On being carried to Constance,
he fell at the emperor's feet to sue for pardon ; Sigmund said
to him, "We regret that you have committed these offences
and, turning to the ambassadors of Venice and Milan, ob-
served, " You know how powerful the dukes of Austria are,
see what a German king can do !" The Tyrolese attempted,
when too late, to rise in favour of their duke. Frederick was
compelled to resign the territory of which he had been de-
prived, and to pay a heavy fine. Pope John was also taken
prisoner at Freiburg, and carried back to Constance, where
he was publicly brought to trial before the council, and his
profligacy and irreligion were fully divulged. He remained
in imprisonment in the castle of Heidelberg until 1418,
when he again took his place among the cardinals. Gregory
XII. submitted to the council, and retained his cardinal's
hat. Benedict XIII. still bade his opponents defiance from
Spain.

The insolence of the popes was no sooner humbled than the
council attempted to stifle the popular zeal for reform, for
which the heresy, kindled by John Huss in Bohemia, offered
a good opportunity. The Bohemians, an intuitively lively
and intelligent people, had gained a rapid advance in civiliza-
tion over the Germans, since the reign of Charles IV. The
university of Prague, endowed with the most valuable privi-
leges, had become noted for the learning of its professors.
The marriage of Anna, Wenzel's sister, with Richard, king of
England, rendered the Bohemians acquainted with the writ-
ings of WicklifFe, who, since 1360, had boldly ventured to at-
tack the abuses of the church in England. Jol n, who, al-

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though a serf by birth, had raised himself by his talent tc a
professor's chair at Prague, and had been chosen confessor
to the queen, roused by these writings, zealously preached
against papal depravity in Prague. The dispute between the
emperor Wenzel and the pope aided his efforts, and the Bo-
hemian students quickly adopted his tenets, whilst those from
Saxony, Bavaria, and Poland as sturdily opposed them. A
violent opposition arose, and was terminated by the new con-
stitution given to the university by the emperor Wenzel, by
which the votes of the Saxons, Bavarians, and Poles, on ail
public acts, were combined into one, and those of the Bohe-
mians tripled. All the foreigners, professors, and students,
amounting to several thousand, instantly quitted the university
and returned to their several countries, where the Saxons
founded [a. d. 1408] the university at Leipsic, the Bavarians
enlarged that of Ingolstadt, and the Poles that of Cracow.
Huss was triumphantly proclaimed Rector of Prague.

Emboldened by success, and confident that inquiry into the
abuses of the church once roused would continue to be prose-
cuted, Huss now denounced from the pulpit the anti-biblical
dogmas promulgated as Christian doctrine, and the temporal
usurpations of the church, in open defiance of the archbishop,
Sbinco, who virulently persecuted him. Some Englishmen
painted on the wall of an inn a picture, in which Christ was
on one side represented, meek and poor, entering Jerusalem
mounted on an ass ; on the other, the pope, proudly mounted
on horseback, glittering with purple and gold. The people
came in crowds to see this picture. Sbinco revenged himself
by committing all the heretical books that he could discover
to the flames, upon which the students shouted in the streets,
" The ABC protector burns the books he does not under-
stand." Three students were arrested, and, notwithstanding
the promise of their safety given to Huss by the town-council,
were beheaded in prison. Not long afterwards, Hieronymus
Faulfisch, or "of Prague," a bold friend of the reformer, seized
a wretched man, who, accompanied by two dissolute females,
publicly sold the papal dispensation, hung the letters of dis-
pensation on the bare bosoms of the women, whom he drove
in this plight through the streets of Prague, and finally burnt
the papal bull under the gallows. The wrath of the papists at
this insult became so violent, that Wenzel withdrew his pro-

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161

tection from the reformers, and banished them from the city.
Huss found an asylum with Hussinez, his feudal liege.

The preaching and writings of the freethinking Bohemian
had excited such universal attention that John XXIII. cited
him to Rome. Huss refused to obey, but appeared before the
council, whose authority he alone recognised, and from which
he apprehended no danger, Sigmund having promised him a
safe-conduct, a. d. 1414. On his way to Constance, he dis-
puted at Nuremberg, where he elicited great applause, but
had scarcely readied Constance, than by a sermon he heed-
lessly afforded to his opponents an excuse, eagerly sought for,
for seizing his person, and was imprisoned in a narrow dun-
geon on the banks of the Rhine, where the common sewer*
emptied themselves. The pestilential atmosphere speedily
engendered a fever. His noble friend, von Chlum, enraged at
the ill faith of the prelates and princes, vainly appealed to the
safe-conduct ; the repeated addresses of the estates of Bohemia
to the council in behalf of their protege, and their demands
for his restoration, proved equally futile ; Huss was, for greater
security, carried to the castle of Gottlieben in the Thurgau,
where, by command of the bishop of Constance, he was chained
hand and foot to the wall of his dungeon ; in this state he re-
mained whilst the council were engaged in settling the papal
and Austrian affairs, which were no sooner concluded than Huss
was remanded before it. The unfortunate reformer could
hardly expect lenity from an assembly that had just bidden
defiance to the popes. The emperor, justly proud of standing
at the head of the council independent of the pope, was at that
time endeavouring to win over the Spaniards, whose king,
Ferdinand of Arragon, fanatically insisted upon the condemna-
tion of the heretics. The affair of Huss was, consequently,
regarded as an interruption, and his case was hurried over.
Sigmund refused the petitions of the Bohemian Estates, and
excused his want of faith by saying, that he had merely pro-
mised Huss a safe-conduct until his arrival at Constance,
when his promise was of no further avail, owing to his in-
ability to protect a heretic. As Huss entered the assembly-
room a solar eclipse darkened the air. Addressing the emperor,
he thanked him for the safe-conduct he had granted; the
blood rushed to the face of the emperor, who made no reply.
Huss then attempted to defend his doctrine* but was silenced;
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162 THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE.

the articles of accusation were read aloud, and he wa« ordered
to recant. The most irrational charges were made against
him, such as that of his having maintained the existence of
four gods, at which he could not suppress a smile. The car-
dinals and bishops laughed loudly in concert whenever pas-
sages commenting upon their criminal mode of life were read,
and as often as Huss, in the midst of this scandalous uproar,
rose to speak in his own defence, the tumult increased, and he
was condemned unheard, on his stedfast refusal to recant, to
the stake. The noble-minded Chlum said to him, " Be com-
forted, teacher of virtue, truth is of higher value than life ! "

Independent of the false charges brought against him,
Huss had, in fact, promulgated doctrines condemned as here-
tical by the church ; as, for instance, that laymen, as well as
priests, might freely participate in the Lord's supper ; that a
priest unworthy of his office could not dispense the sacra-
ment ; that the Holy Ghost rested upon the whole congrega-
tion, and not merely upon the priesthood ; that every pious
layman was fitted, without receiving ordination, to act as a
spiritual teacher and guide ; that the authority of the bishop
of Rome did not extend over foreign nations. He had, more-
over, greatly offended the temporal lords, by teaching that *
obedience was as little due to a wicked prince as to a wicked
pope.

In the midst of the solemn council, over which the em-
peror, seated on his throne, presided, Huss was deprived of his
priestly office, and crowned with a paper cap, an ell in height,
on which three devils were painted, with this inscription,
" the arch-heretic." He simply observed, " Christ wore the
crown of thorns." The elector of the Pfalz headed the pro-
cession to the place of execution. Huss, when bound to the
stake, on seeing a peasant zealously heaping on wood, ex-
claimed, "O sacred simplicity!" The pile was kindled, and
the martyr's voice was heard singing a psalm until he was
stifled by the flames. He is said to have prophesied on the
day of his death, " To-day you will roast a goose, (the meaning
of the word 'Huss,') but a hundred years hence a swan, that
you will not be able to kill, will appear." He suffered on his
forty-second birthday, a. d. 1415.

Hieronymus of Prague, who had also come to Constance,
terrified at the fate of his friend, fled, but was retaken and

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163

thrown into prison, where he was induced by hunger, torture,
and sickness, to recant. This momentary weakness was,
however, nobly expiated : " I will not recant," said he to the
council, with such unexpected firmness, that the Italian, Pog-
gio, struck with admiration, named him a second Cato ; "I
will not recant, for my blessed master has, with perfect jus-
tice, written against your shameful and depraved mode of life,
and with truth attacked your false ordinances and your evil
customs. I will not deny this belief, although you will kill
me." He was condemned to the stake; the weak attempt
made to save him by Caspar Schlick, Sigmund's chancellor,
who advised greater lenity on account of Bohemia, was un-
listened to. When the executioner was about to set lire to
the pile from behind, Hieronymus ordered him to set lire to it
in front, "for," said he, "had I dreaded fire, I should not
have been here," a. d. 1416.

The emperor, after the execution of Huss, projected a visit
to Spain for the purpose of personally persuading Benedict
XIII. to submit, and, in order to meet the expense of this
extraordinary journey, sold the whole of Brandenburg, toge-
ther with the electorship, to Frederick of Zollern for 300,000
ducats, and, for a smaller sum, created the Truchsesses of
Waldburg governors of Swabia. At Perpignan he was met
by Ferdinand of Arragon, and there finally succeeded in ef-
fecting the deposition of Pope Benedict. At Chambery he
raised Amadeus VIII., earl of Savoy, to the ducal dignity.
At Paris, where he was sumptuously entertained as the high-
est potentate on earth, he vainly endeavoured to make peace
between France and England, at that time engaged in bloody
warfare, and, for this purpose, visited England, where he was
received with distrust, the English imagining that he intended
to set himself up as umpire between the sovereigns of Europe,
and to assert his supremacy over England. On his arrival on
the English coast, the Duke of Gloucester, advancing into the
water with his sword drawn, demanded "whether he in-
tended to exercise any sort of jurisdiction in England," and,
on receiving an answer in the negative, permitted him to
land. His proposals for peace were ill received and refused.
William of Bavaria, count of Holland, came to London, in or-
der to be invested with his dignity by Sigmund, who re-
fused, and the Wittelsbacher returned to Holland, taking with

m 2

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164 THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE.

him the whole of his fleet, so that until it pleased Henrv of
England to furnish the emperor with the means of transport,
he was in some sort retained a prisoner in London, whence
the insolence of the mob, on one occasion, compelled him to
flee to Canterbury, where he was detained until he had signed
a treaty with England against France, upon which he never
afterwards acted.

On his return to Constance, he had at least the gratification
of adding the fifth vote, that of Spain, to the council ; har-
mony, however, was thereby unrestored, and the emperor's
authority had deeply fallen. A fresh and violent dispute
arose in the council, one party advocating the reform of the
abuses that had crept into the church, the other as eagerly
evading the question, and insisting on the election of a fresh
pope. Frederick von Zollern and the majority of the Ger-
mans and English strongly advocated reform, although far
from agreeing in their ideas how far reform ought to extend.
Peter d'Ailly placed himself at the head of the papal party,
which consisted of the higher church dignitaries, the French,
Italians, and Spanish, who, after some time, being joined by
the English, the Germans were compelled, after making an
energetic protest, to yield, Peter d'Ailly saying with his
habitual and open sarcasm to the German clergy, " Ye
want to reform others, although ye well know how good for
nothing ye are yourselves." What expectation more futile
than the correction of the abuses of power by its possessors !
It was the folly of the age to expect reformation from a
council.

An Italian cardinal was elected pope, [a. d. 1417,] under
the name of Martin V., and scarcely felt the weight of the
tiara on his brow before he concerted measures for the pre-
vention of every degree of reform, and, by concluding separate
concordats with the different nations of which the council was
composed, succeeded in dissolving it, and in reinstating the
papal authority. The question of reform was no longer agi-
tated ; the Germans formally renounced their connexion with
the Bohemians ; popular opinion was treated with contempt ;
the emperor was no longer energetic in the cause ; the bishops
and doctors alone acted ; the former were won by the pope's
amicable proposals, whilst the courage of the latter had been
visibly cooled by the fate of Huss, and thus miserably termin-

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DISTURBANCES IN BOHEMIA.

k4*d the council of Constance, on which so many hopes had
rested.*

CLXXXV. Disturbances in Bohemia. — Zizka.

Popular opinion had been disregarded by the council of
Constance, which vainly deemed that the name of Huss had
been swept from the earth when his ashes were borne away
by the rapid waters of the Rhine. But his doctrines had
taken deep root in Bohemia, and would undoubtedly have also
spread into Germany had not the jealousy of the Germans
been roused by the favour with which the emperors, Charles
IV. and Wenzel, had distinguished the Bohemians, who had,
moreover, often treated them with haughty insolence, and had
Huss preached not in the Bohemian but in the German tongue.
Germany was, perhaps, at that period, unfitted to receive his
doctrines ; the grossest ignorance still prevailed, and the Ger-
man universities, far from spreading enlightenment among the
people, were the abodes of papal superstition.

The Bohemian estates, influenced by Ulric von Rosenberg,
after vainly protesting against the faithless and illegal manner
in which Huss had been condemned, passed a resolution, [a. d.
1416,] authorizing every manorial lord to have the doctrines
of the murdered reformer preached within his demesnes. The
numerous adherents of the martyr of Constance took the name
of Hussites, and the preacher, Jacob of Miesz, gave them the
distinctive sign of the cup, by teaching, that as the Spirit of
God rested not on the priesthood alone but also on the whole
community, the people ought to partake, as in the early
Christian times, of the Lord's supper, in both forms, (sub
uiraque,) not merely of the bread, but also of the wine in the
chalice, until now partaken of by the priest alone. The Huss-
ites were hence termed Utraquists or Calixtines, brethren of
the cup. The people were at first pacified by the freedom
of preaching granted by the Estates. The plunder of some
monasteries by robber bands alone demonstrated their secret
hatred of the Roman clergy.

On the conclusion of the council of Constance, Martin V.,

• The city of Constance was ruined by the council, the emperor
meanly refusing to pay a farthing of his personal debts, and the miwder
of Huoti lay like a curse upon the city, which never after flourished.

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ZIZKA.

in the vain hope of crushing the heresy with spiritual weapon?,
hurled his fulminations against the Hussites. This was, how-
ever, merely the signal for strife. In the spring of 1419,
the cardinal-legate, Dominici, having condemned a Hussite
preacher, whose cup he cast to the ground, to the stake, the
Hussites, now in great numbers, secretly brooded over revenge.
There lived at that time in WenzePs court an experienced
officer, named John Zizka (Tschischka) von Trocznow, who
had lost one of his eyes during his childhood, had long served
against the German Hospitallers in Poland, and was now the
chamberlain and favourite of the aged emperor. The seduc-
tion of one of his sisters, a nun, by a priest, had inspired him
with the deepest hatred towards the whole of the priesthood,
and he viewed the Germans with national dislike. Since the
death of Huss, he had remained plunged in deep and silent
dejection, and on being asked by Wenzel why he was so sad,
replied, " Huss is burnt, and we have not yet avenged him !"
Wenzel carelessly observing that he could do nothing but
that Zizka might attempt it himself, he. took the jest in earn-
est, and, seconded by Niclas von Hussinez, Huss's former lord
and zealous partisan, roused the people. Wenzel, in great
alarm, ordered the whole body of citizens to bring their arms
to the royal castle of Wisherad that commanded the city of
Prague, but Zizka, instead of the arms, brought the armed
citizens in long files to the fortress, and said to the emperor,
" My gracious and mighty sovereign, here we are, and await
your commands ; against what enemy are we to fight ? "
Wenzel, upon this, took a more cheerful countenance, and
dismissed the citizens. All restraint was now at an end.
Hussinez was banished the city, but, instead of obeying,
assembled forty thousand men on the mountain of Hradistie
in the district of Bechin, which henceforward received the
biblical name of Mount Tabor, where several hundred tables
were spread for the celebration of the Lord's supper, July
22, 1419. An attempt made by Wenzel to depose the Hussite
city-council in the Neustadt, where the chief excitement pre-
vailed, and to replace it by another devoted to his interests,
created, at the same time, the greatest discontent throughout
Prague ; and on the imprisonment of two clamorous Hussites
by this new council, Zizka assembled the people, marched, on
the 30th of July, in procession, and bearing the cup, tluough

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the streets, and, on arriving in front of the council-house ot
the Neustadt, demanded the liberation of his partisans. The
council hesitated ; a stone fell out of one of the windows, and
the mob instantly stormed the building and flung thirteen of
the councillors, Germans by birth, out of the windows. The
dwelling of a priest, supposed to have been that of his sister's
seducer, was, by Zizka's order, destroyed, its owner hanged,
the Carthusian monks, crowned with thorns, were dragged
through the streets, etc. A few days afterwards, the emperor,
Wenzel, was suffocated in his palace by his own attendants,
Aug. 16th, 1419. His death was the signal for a general out
break. On the ensuing day, every monastery and church it
Prague was plundered, the pictures they contained were d&
stroyed, and the priests' robes converted into flags and dresses
It is impossible at this day to form an idea of the splendout
of these buildings, and of that of the royal palaces, on which
Charles IV. and Wenzel had lavished every art. iEneas
Sylvius mentions a garden belonging to the royal palace de-
stroyed during this period of terror, on whose walls the whole
of the Bible was written. Whilst the work of destruction
proceeded, a priest, Matthias Toczenicze, formed an altar of
three tubs and a broad table-top in the streets, and, during
the whole day, dispensed the sacrament in both forms. The
zeal of the wealthy citizens, however, was speedily cooled
by the dread of being deprived of their riches, and they en-
tered into negotiation with Sophia, Wenzel's widow, who still
defended the Wisherad, and even sent a deputation to Sig-
mund with terms of peace, to which Sigmund replied by
swearing to take the most fearful revenge. Zizka, finding the
citizens of Prague too moderate for his purposes, now invited
into the city the peasants, who were advised by his most
active partisan, the priest Coranda, to arm themselves with
their flails. In October, they plundered the Kleine Seite of
Prague and besieged the castle, whence the queen fled. Zizka
being, nevertheless, forced by the moderate party to quit the
city, fortified Mount Tabor and placed himself at the head of
the peasantry, who took the name of " the people of God," and
termed their Catholic neighbours, " Moabites, Amalekites,"
etc., whom they deemed it their duty to extirpate, whilst their
leader entitled himself " John Zizka of the cup, captain, in
the hope of God, of the Taborites."

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The Bohemian Estates, anxious for the restoration of trail*
quillity, now had recourse to the emperor, who, on the con-
clusion of the council of Constance, had made terms with the
Habsburgs in order to make head against the Turks, who had
invaded Hungary and Styria, and whom lie liad successfully
repulsed at Radkersburg in 1416, and at Nissa in 1419. He
received the Bohemian deputation at Brunn, and had the folly,
on their earnestly petitioning him to secure to them free com-
munion, and submissively representing the great danger with
which the country was threatened, and their desire, in unison
with him, to restore tranquillity by means of moderate con-
cessions, to allow them to remain for a length of time on their
knees, and to refuse their proposals. Instead of joining the
moderate party, the nobility and citizens, against the fanatical
peasantry, he insulted them all ; and, although he intended to
use violence, neglected the opportune moment, in order, ac-
cording to his usual policy, to secure himself to the rear, for
which purpose he visited Poland, where he made terms with
Wladislaw and the German Hospitallers, Jan. 6th, 1420.
Symptoms of reaction, meantime, appeared on the frontiers.
Hussite preachers, who ventured to cross from Bohemia, were
burnt as heretics.

These acts of cruelty excited reprisals on Zizka's part, and,
after swearing publicly with Coranda, at Pilsen, never to re-
cognise Sigmund as king of Bohemia, he began to destroy all
the monasteries in the country, and to burn all the priests
alive, generally in barrels of pitch, in open retaliation of the
burning of the heretics. He is said to have exclaimed on
hearing the agonizing cries of his victims, " They are singing
my sister's wedding song!" Sophia, who had garrisoned all
the royal castles and assembled a strong body of troops, des-
pcitched the lord of Schwamberg against him in the hope of
seizing him before he was joined by still greater multitudes.
Schwamberg came up with him near Pilsen, and surrounded
the multitude, great part of which consisted of women and
children, on the open plain. Zizka instantly ordered the
women to strew the ground with their gowns and veils, in
which the horses' feet becoming entangled, numbers of their
riders were thrown, and Zizka, taking advantage of the con-
fusion, attacked and defeated them. The superior numbers
of the imperial troops, however, compelled him to shut himseU

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169

in Pilsen, whence he was allowed free egress to Tabor, and he
gained another advantage over an army commanded by Peter
von Sternberg, by whom he was attacked on his march thither.
The citizens of Prague still closed their gates against him, but
admitted another body of peasantry, collected by Hinko
Crussina, on the newly-named Mount Horeb, near Trzebecho-
wicz, and thence denominated Horebites, for the purpose of
storming the castle of Prague, it being their custom to make
use of the peasantry in cases where negotiation failed. The
attack was unsuccessful, and the citizens, after a second time
vainly attempting to mollify the emperor, found themselves
compelled to recall Zizka, and to confederate with him.

Sigmund assembled an army in Silesia, whither Sophia also
went, whilst a body of imperial troops was slowly raised. The
citizens of Breslau had joined those of Prague, thrown their
ancient councillors out of the windows of the town-house,
[a. d. 1420,] and permitted the priest, Krasa of Prague, to
preach in their city. Sigmund condemned Krasa to the stake,
and twenty-three of the new councillors to be beheaded.
Inspirited by his vicinity, the Bohemian Catholics inflicted
great cruelties upon the Hussites dwelling among them. At
Kuttenberg, the German miners flung sixteen hundred of the
Hussite inhabitants down the mines. The Taborites, mean-
while, entered Prague, May the 20th, and rebuilt the fortiti-
cations, although the castle was still occupied by the imperial
garrison. Sigmund awaited the arrival of the German troops.
A convoy, sent by him to the garrison at Prague, was cap-
tured by the Hussites ; Tabor, besieged by Ulrick von Rosen-
berg, who had gone over to the emperor, was relieved by
Hussinez. Konigingratz fell into the hands of the Hussites,
and Slan was burnt to the ground. Both sides treated their
prisoners with equal cruelty, the Imperialists cutting a cup,
the Hussites a cross, on their foreheads, etc. In June, the
imperial army at length made its appearance, commanded by
the electors of Mayence, Treves, Cologne, Brandenburg, etc.,
one hundred thousand men strong, and joined the Silesians
and Hungarians, already assembled by the emperor. On the
30tb, the emperor reached Prague, and took up his abode in
the castle. Zizka instantly threw up fortifications on ti e
mountain of Witkow, since named the Zizkaberg, which com-
mands the city, aud the Imperialists fouud when too late that

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the city was impregnable, unless this post was first gained.
An attack made upon it by the Misnians fniliner, Sisrmund
made no further attempt, and, in the hope of coming to terms
with the moderate party, who were greatly obnoxious to the
wild peasantry, and of thus gaining a bloodless victory, so-
lemnized his coronation, on the 28th July, in the castle of
Prague, caused himself to be proclaimed king of Bohemia, and
paid his Slavonian and Hungarian troops with the jewels
taken from the imperial palaces and churches. The German
troops remained unrewarded, and, in August, quitted Bohe-
mia in discontent. Sigmund followed.

The emperor's hopes were speedily gratified. Strife broke
out between the citizens, the nobility of Prague, and Zizka
and his adherents. The Taborites ruled the city with a rod
of iron, not only destroying all that remained of the former
magnificence of the churches, but also prohibiting every
symptom of wealth or pleasure among the laity. Rich attire,
gambling, and dancing, were declared punishable by death,
and the wine-cellars were closed. The peasants and their
preacher harboured the fearful belief of their being the des-
tined exterminators of sin from the earth. All church pro-
perty was declared public property, and the possessions of the
wealthy seemed on the point of sharing the same fate. The
citizens and nobility rising in self-defence, Zizka deemed it
advisable to withdraw, and to form an encampment in the
open country, and accordingly, quitting the city on the 22nd
of August, destroyed the celebrated monastery of Koenigsaal,
and the tombs of the Bohemian kings. Sigmund, who had
impatiently awaited this event, now sought to conciliate the
faction he had so lately insulted, by seizing the monasteries,
and bestowing their lands on the nobility. Emboldened by
Zizka's departure, he again approached Prague, but Hussinez,
who coveted the Bohemian crown, and had placed himself at
the head of the Horebites, who preferred his rule to that of
the strict and republican Taborites, guarded the city, and,
aided by Crussina, laid siege to the Wisherad. Sigmund
attempted to surprise them on the 1 8th October, but suffered
a shameful defeat and fled into Hungary. The Wisherad
capitulated, and its palace and church, splendid works of art,
were destroyed.

Thia blow put a reconciliation between the moderate party

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ZIZKA.

and Sigmund out of the question, and the former once more
made terms with the wild peasantry, whose leaders were at
variance. The most deadly abhorrence of every existing in-
stitution had taken deep root within Zizka's breast, and he at
once condemned the ancient church, royalty, and inequality
of rank. A fraternity, composed of the children of God,
formed his ideal of perfection, and he expected to bear down
all opposition with the strokes of the iron flail. Hussinez was,
on the contrary, tormented by ambition, and his late success
had emboldened his pretensions to the crown. The moderate
party now skilfully opposed him to Zizka, whom they hastily
recalled. The city of Prachaticz, which had mocked that
leader, had meanwhile been burnt, together with the whole
of the inhabitants, and the bishop of Nicopolis, who by chance
fell into his hands, was drowned. On his return to Prague,
he joined the moderate party in the great national assembly,
in order to hinder the usurpation of Hussinez; Ulric von
Rosenberg was also present. The nobility, clearly perceiving
that Sigmund would never be tolerated by the people, pro-
posed to offer the crown to Wladislaw of Poland ; but Zizka's
republican spirit refused to do homage to any monarch, and
Wladislaw was, moreover, far from aspiring to a throne en-
tailing heavy cares and the hatred of the whole of Christen-
dom. Hussinez, deeply wounded by these proceedings, quitted
the city, fell from horseback, broke his leg, and died.

In the ensuing spring, Zizka prosecuted his war of exter-
mination against sinners, that is, against all who refused to
join his banner. Every city that ventured to resist was car-
ried by storm and laid in ashes, its inhabitants were mur-
dered, and the priests burnt alive. Taborite virtue also in-
duced another species of excess. Whilst Martin Loquis taught
that all the enemies of Christ were to be exterminated, that
Christ would appear and found the millennium exclusively for
them, some enthusiasts thought proper to anticipate that
blessed season by the introduction of the innocence of paradise,
by going naked like Adam and Eve, and giving way to the
maddest excesses. These Adamites, however, stood in great
terror of Zizka, by whom they were cruelly persecuted for the
ridicule they brought upon his system

The moderate party was no less active, and persuaded the
majority of the adverse or wavering nobles, and even the Bo-

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DISTURBANCES IN BOHEMIA.

b.emian ecclesiastics, to coalesce. A new and great diet waa
held at Czaslau, in which the nobility and clergy again de-
clared in favour of Huss's doctrines, and completely renounced
Sigmund as their king. This diet ratified four of the " articles
of Prague," free preaching ; the communion in both forms ;
the evangelical poverty of the priests and the secularization
of all ecclesiastical property ; the extirpation of sins. With-
out the last article, the Taborites could not have been gained,
July 7th, 1421.

Sigmund, enraged at the defection of the moderate party,
incited the Silesians to invade Bohemia, and twenty thousand
men poured into that unhappy country ; even women and
children fell victims to their cruelty. The rumoured approach
of Zizka, however, struck them with terror, and they retreated,
after acceding to the articles of Prague. Shortly after this,
Zizka was deprived of his remaining eye by the splinter of a
tree struck by a cannon-ball, during the siege of the castle of
Raby. Notwithstanding this misfortune, his knowledge of
the whole of Bohemia was so accurate, that he continued to
lead his army, to draw his men up in battle order, and to
command the siege. He always rode in a carriage near the
great standard. His war regulations were extremely severe.
Although blind, he insisted upon being implicitly obeyed.
On one occasion, having compelled his troops, as was often his
wont, to march day and night, they murmured and said to
him, " That although day and night were the same to him, as
he could not see, they were not so to them:" "How! you
cannot see ! " said he, " well ! set fire to a couple of villages."

In September, 1421, the imperial army at length took

the field, and vainly besieged Saatz, whilst Sigmund assem-
bled reinforcements in Hungary. The army, meanwhile, be-
came discontented at his prolonged absence, and, on the news
of Zizka's approach, dispersed. In November, Sigmund en-
tered the country at the head of a horde of eighty thousand
savage Cumans and Servians, and inspired the moderate party
with 8 ich terror that its chiefs threw themselves on his mercy.
Zizka was surrounded and shut up near Kuttenberg, but
broke his way through the enemy during the night. On new-
year's day, 1422, Zizka, drawing up his army in battle-array
near Kollin, awaited the onset of the foe, when the Hun-
garians, seized with sudden panic, fled without a stroke.

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They were overtaken by their unrelenting pursuers on the 5th
of January near Deutschbrod, where numbers of them were
drowned whilst crossing the Sazawa, by the breaking of the
ice. Deutschbrod was burnt down, and its inhabitants were
put to the sword.

Bohemia remained for some years after this unharassed
save by intestine disturbances. Loquis the prophet was con-
demned to the stake by the archbishop. One of his secret
adherents, John, a Prsemonstratenser monk, had, however,
gradually acquired such influence in Prague as to cause a
nobleman, Sadlo von Kostenberg, to be beheaded, and the
moderate party, dreading his power over the people, had him
secretly seized and put to death, a. d. 1422. The town-house
was instantly attacked by the populace ; the judge and five
councillors were murdered, and John's head was borne in
mournful procession through the city. The great college and
the valuable library, founded by Charles IV., were destroyed.
Prince Coribut, the nephew of Witold of Lithuania, aspired
to the crown, placed himself at the head of the moderate
party, and laid siege to the imperial castle of Carlstein ; but
the fickle nobles and Zizka refused to recognise him, and, on
his departure from Prague, the former leagued with the citi-
zens against Zizka, who, disgusted with their half-measures,
no longer spared them, and laid their lands waste. In 1423,
he discomfited the confederates at Horzicz, and gained pos-
session of Konigingratz, where, notwithstanding his blind-
ness, he killed the priest, who bore the host in front of the
enemy's ranks, with a blow of his club. His next step was
the invasion of Moravia and Austria in order to keep his
troops employed, and to strike Albert, Sigmund's son-in-law,
with terror ; he suffered great losses before Iglau and Kremsin.
In the ensuing year, [a. d. 1424,] the moderate party once
more took up arms against him, and pursued him to Kutten-
berg, upon which he feigned a retreat, and, suddenly turning,
ordered his battle-chariot to be rolled down the mountain
«tide upon the advancing foe, and, attacking them during the
fon fusion that ensued, captured their artillery, and, in sign of
triumph, set Kuttenberg in flames. Coribut now re-visited
Prague, and found the discomfited nobility more inclined in
kte favour, but was in his turn defeated at Kosteletz on the
Elbe by Zizka, who followed up his victory by marching

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THE REIGN OF TERROR.

directly upon Prague, which he threatened to level with tho
ground ; but sedition broke out in his own army. Procop,
Zizka's bravest associate, clearly perceiving the disastrous
consequences of civil warfare, confederated with the young
and highly-gifted priest, Rokizana, who had attained great
consideration in Prague. Peace was unanimously demanded,
and alone opposed by Zizka, who, mounting upon a cask, thus
addressed his followers: "Fear internal more than external
foes ! It is easier for a few, when united, than for many,
when disunited, to conquer ! Snares are laid for you ; you
will be entrapped, but without my fault !" Peace was con-
cluded, and a large monument was raised on the Spitelfeld, in
commemoration of the event, with stones heaped up by the
opposing parties. Zizka entered the city in solemn proces-
sion ; Coribut came to meet him, embraced and called him
father. Sigmund now sought to mollify the aged warrior, and
entered into negotiation with him. Zizka, however, re-
mained immovable, planned a fresh attack upon Moravia, and
died en route, the 12th of October, 1424.*

CLXXXVI. The Reign of Terror.— The Council of Basle.—

End of the Hussite war.

On the death of Zizka, the republican Hussites separated
into three bodies, the Taborites under Procop Holy, the
Orphans, or the orphan children of Zizka, who dwelt in their
waggon camp in the open country, vowed never again to sleep
beneath a roof, and elected as their leader Procop the Little,
and the ancient Horebites. Coribut and Rokizana headed
the imperial Hussites in Prague.

The emperor had, meanwhile, vainly implored the aid of
the great vassals against them. In 1425, Procop gained a
signal victory in Misnia ; fifteen thousand of the Misnians
strewed the field, and twenty-four nobles, who were overtaken
in the pursuit, knelt in a circle round their banner and sur-
rendered, but were mercilessly struck down with the iron

* Zizka was short and broad-shouldered, with a large, round, bald
head ; his forehead was deeply furrowed, and he wore long fiery-red
moustaches. His tomb was destroyed by order of Ferdinand II., the
Jesuitical hyena, who raged against both the dead and living.

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flails of the peasantry. Procop Holy, inspirited by this suc-
cess, re-entered Moravia, where he laid siege to the castle of
Kemnitz, which was valiantly defended by Agnes, the youth-
ful daughter of Zezima von Rosenberg, who had bequeathed
it to her. Unmoved by the fearful shouts of the Hussites,
who enclosed the keep on every side, and by the failure of the
attempt made by her uncle, Meinhart von Neuhausz, to re-
lieve the garrison, she undauntedly persevered in the defence,
and so greatly excited the admiration of the enemy, that Pro-
cop granted her free egress with all her people, and sent her
in safety to her uncle, von Neuhausz. — After devastating
Austria, [a. d. 1427,] whilst the Orphans and the Taborites
invaded the Lausitz, and laid villages and monasteries in
ashes, Procop besieged Prague, whence Rokizana had expelled
a Taborite preacher, but was conciliated by the promised sa-
crifice of Coribut, who was seized by the populace and
treated with great ignominy, notwithstanding the attempt of
the nobility, in which Hiinko von Waldstein was killed, to
liberate him ; and Coribut, after solemnly renouncing the
crown of Bohemia, returned to Poland. Martin V., on the
failure of this plan, again preached a crusade against the
Hussites, and sent Henry de Beaufort, bishop of Winchester,
to stir up the Germans. Sigmund also implored the princes
to ward off the increasing danger, and a large army was re-
assembled, to which Swabia, the Rhenish provinces, and even
the Hanse towns, sent troops. But the Bohemians also re-
united ; the nobility laid aside their animosity, and joined
Procop*s army. The Saxons, at that time besieging Mies, lied
on his approach, but were overtaken, and ten thousand of
their number slain, July, 1427.

On new-year's day, 1428, the Hussite factions held a re-
ligious meeting at Beraun, where Procop Holy distinguished
himself as a theologian. The people of Prague, desirous of
a reconciliation with the church, proposed the recognition of
the priesthood, as such, on condition of its reformation, which
Procop and the republican party stedfastly rejected, maintain-
ing the right of every individual to read the Mass. They also
rejected the sacraments. Procop, finding unanimity impos-
sible, and fearing fresh disturbances, wisely led his warlike
followers across the frontiers, and spread the terror of the
Hussite name throughout Silesia and Austria.

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THE REIGN OF TERROR.

Sigmund, weary of the war, now offered the government of
Bohemia to Procop, as he had formerly done to Zizka, on con-
dition of the restoration of order. In the spring of 1429, the
Bohemian estates again met at Prague, and openly negotiated
with Sigmund, who had come as far as Presburg. All parties
sighed for tranquillity, and Procop, at the head of a deputa-
tion, waited upon him, and again tendered to him the crown
of Bohemia, on condition of the free exercise of their religion
being conceded to the nation. The emperor hesitated. The
ancient feelings of hatred, meanwhile, revived ; the Taboritrs
and Orphans decided the matter by refusing obedience to any
sovereign, and the negotiation was broken off.

The weakness of the German potentates in the adjoining
provinces, the egotism and listlessness of those in the more
distant parts of the empire, the discouragement and voluptu-
ous habits of the emperor, and the unwillingness of the Ger-
mans to fight in a cause they deemed unjust, had left the
Hussites without an opponent, and had enabled them to exe-
cute their revenge on a systematic plan. Saxony was invaded,
the cities were sacked and burnt, every inhabitant, generally
speaking, was murdered. On the burning of Altenburg, the
Hussites said, " That was the answer to the death of Huss,"
and when they bathed in torrents of German blood, exclaimed,
" Here is the sauce for the goose (Huss) you roasted !" Sile-
sia, Hungary, and Austria were invaded. A fresh negotia-
tion opened between Sigmund and Procop at Eger, and a new
intrigue of the nobility, who offered the crown of Bohemia to
Frederick of Habsburg, proved equally futile.

About this time the pope, Martin V., expired. His suc-
cessor, Eugenius IV., spared no means for the termination of
this fearful war. On the 19th of July, a. d. 1431, a great coun-
cil was convoked at Basle, and negotiations were opened with
the Hussites, whilst the cardinal, Julian, preached a fresh
crusade against them, and Sigmund persuaded the princes
and Estates of the empire at Nuremberg to use every effort in
the cause. The Maid of Orleans, who had just driven the
English out of France, and who was revered as a saint
throughout Europe, also sent an admonitory epistle, written
in tlie spirit of popery, to the Hussites, who replied to the
friendly propositions of the pope and of the princes, " You
well know what separates us from you, you preach the gospel

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THE COUNCIL OF BASLE. 177

with your mouths, we practise it in our actions;" and when
threatened, thus admonished the nations gathered against them,
" If you submit to the deceitful priests, know that we submit
to God alone, and fight with his arm ; the power of the flesh
will be on your side, on ours that of the Spirit of God ! "

The imperial army, one hundred and thirty thousand men
strong, paid with the common penny, which, in 1428, was
fixed by the diet at Nuremberg as the first general tax
throughout the empire, commanded by Frederick of Branden-
burg, entered Bohemia, burnt two hundred villages, and com-
mitted the most horrid excesses. The Hussites came up witli
it near Tauss, the 14th of August, 1431, but scarcely was
their banner seen in the distance than the Germans, notwith-
standing their enormous numerical superiority, were seized
with sudden panic ; the Bavarians, under their duke, Henry,
took to flight, and were followed by all the rest. Frederick
of Brandenburg and his troops took refuge in a wood. The
cardinal alone stood his ground, and, for a moment, succeeded
in rallying the fugitives, who at the first onset of the enemy
again fled, and, in their terror, allowed themselves to be un-
resistingly slaughtered. One hundred and fifty cannons were
taken. The free knights of the empire, filled with shame at
this cowardly discomfiture, vowed to restore the honour of
the empire, and to march against the Hussites, on condition
of no prince being permitted to join their ranks. The nobility
cast all the blame on the cowardly or egotistical policy pur-
sued by the princes ; the flight however, chiefly arose from
the disinclination of the common soldiers to serve against the
Hussites, whose cause was deemed by them both glorious
and just.

These dreadful disasters drew a declaration from Sigmund
that the Bohemians could only subdue themselves, that peace
must be concluded with them at any price, and that in time
they would destroy each other. In consequence of these de-
liberations he assumed a supplicating attitude, and hypo-
critically assured them in writing of his good will and of his
present inclination to come to terms ; to which they replied,
that his real intention was to lead them from the truth. He
then committed to the council of Basle the task of carrying on
the negotiations, and withdrew.

The council, led by the spiritual and temporal lords, who

VOL. IU M

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178

THE COUNCIL OF BASLE.

were fully aware of the importance of the cause at 3take,
shared his opinion, and were, consequently, far more inclined
to make concessions than was the pope, who refused to yield
to any terms, preferring to throw the onus of the peace on
others. The council therefore acted without reference to the
pontiff, who in the mean time amused himself with solemnizing
a farcical coronation of the emperor at Rome. The emperor re-
mained, during the sitting of the council in Italy, engaged with
love affairs, although already sixty-three years of age. After
openly procrastinating the ceremony, the pope at length gave
full vent to his displeasure, [a. d. 1433,] by causing the crown
to be placed awry on Sigmund's head by another ecclesiastic,
and then pushing it straight with his foot as the emperor
knelt before him.

Whilst these ridiculous scenes were enacting in Italy,
negotiations were actively carried on at Basle. The cardinal,
Julian, well versed in Bohemian politics, led the council, in
which Frederick of Brandenburg exerted his influence in
favour of the Hussites. The Bohemians were invited to
Basle with every mark of respect, and all their proud con-
ditions were ceded. They were granted a safe-conduct, the
free exercise of their religion on their way to and even in the
council, no terms of ridicule or reproach were to be permitted,
all deliberations were to be suspended until their arrival, and
the pope was to be treated as subordinate to the council.
These concessions appear to have been intended to flatter the
pride of Procop and of the republicans in order to induce them
to negotiate terms of peace. Rokizana appears to have entered
into the projects of the council, and, possibly, owing to a be-
lief that the favourable moment had arrived for securing
religious freedom to Bohemia by an honourable peace, for
he certainly knew that that country began to sigh for peace,
and that the moderate party had secretly gained strength.
Procop was secured by being placed at the head of the em-
bassy to Basle, and the republican brethren were wearied and
dispersed by being sent upon fresh predatory incursions ; a
number of the Orphans were even sent into Poland to aid the
Poles against the German Hospitallers, in return for which
the Poles zealously upheld the Hussite cause at Basle.

On the 9th of January, 1433, three hundred Bohemians,
mounted on horseback and accompanied by an immense wui-

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THE COUNCIL OF BASLE

179

titude, entered Basle. Procop Holy, distinguished by his
hawk nose, his dark and ominous-looking countenance, accom-
panied by John Rokizana, the head of the Bohemian clergy ;
Nicolas Peldrzimowski, surnamed Biscupek, the little bishop,
the head of the Taborite preachers ; Ulric, the head of the
Orphan preachers ; and Peter Peyne, surnamed the English-
man, headed the procession, and were graciously received by
the council, which patiently listened to their rough truths.
Procop, being reproached with having said that the monks
were an invention of the devil, replied, " Whose else can they
be ? for they were instituted neither by Moses, nor by the pro-
phets, nor by Christ.'* The dispute was carried on for fifty
days with the unbending spirit common to theologians; nei-
ther side yielded, and the Bohemians, weary of the futile de-
bate, turned their steps homewards. A solemn embassy was
instantly sent after them, and the terms of the Hussites were
conceded, but with reservations, which, it was trusted, would
eventually undermine their cause. By this compact, the four
articles of Prague were modified as follows: 1st, That the
communion should be tolerated under both, but also under one
form ; 2nd, That preaching was certainly free, but that regu-
lar priests alone were to exercise that office ; 3rd, That the
clergy, although forbidden to possess lands, might administer
property ; 4th, And that sins were to be extirpated, but only
by those possessing legal authority. On the acceptance of
these articles by the Hussites, the council hypocritically styled
them the " first children of the church," such gross deceit did
the fear inspired by these wild upholders of religious freedom
prompt.

The proclamation of peace, and on such honourable terms,
after such long and terrible commotions, exercised a magic
influence on the crowd, and, added to the ill success and pre-
datory incursions of the republican Hussites during Procop's
absence, raised a general feeling against them ; and Procop,
on his return from Basle, found the other Hussite leaders
either suspicious of his conduct or rebellious against his au-
thority. Dissensions broke out in the camp, and, during a
wild carouse, the plates were hurled at Procop's head. He
returned moodily to Prague, but afterwards yielded to tho
supplications of his soldiers, and returned to the camp before
Pilsen. The moderate party in Prague under Rokizana, and

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END OF THE HUSSITE WAR.

the nobility under Meinhart von Neuhauss, now be Idly at
tempted to gain the upper hand. Procop the Little wad
driven from the Neustadt, after losing fifteen thousand men,
and fled to the camp before Pilsen ; Procop Holy instantly
raised the siege and marched upon Prague. Neuhauss ad-
vanced to his rencontre, and a decisive battle was fought at
Lippan, four miles from Prague, May 28th, 1434. The two
Procops fell, fighting side by side. Neuhauss, unmindful of
Procop's generosity towards his niece, Agnes, caused all the
prisoners, to whom he had promised safety, to be locked into
barns and burnt to death, two days after the battle. The
fugitives rallied at Comnicze, and were again defeated.

The nobility now placed themselves at the head of affairs,
supported by Rokizana, who thoughtlessly sacrificed political
freedom in order, as he imagined, to confirm that of religion.
Caspar Schlick, Sigmund's crafty chancellor, managed the
rest, and, by means of these two a treaty was concluded,
[a. d. 1435,] which bestowed the Bohemian crown upon Sig-
mund, freed Bohemia from the papal interdict, ratified the
compact entered into by the Hussites and the council of Basle,
nominated John Rokizana archbishop of Prague, and declared
the Catholic religion subordinate to that of Huss, by com-
pelling Sigmund to have Hussite preachers in his court. The
emperor, with his wonted hypocrisy, accepted the conditions,
but had scarcely entered Prague [a. d. 1436] with a large
concourse of followers, than he threw off the mask, reinstated
the Catholic religion, and ungratefully deposed and banished
John Rokizana, to whom he owed the crown. The fanatics,
notwithstanding their weak number, again flew to arms, and,
after a desperate struggle, were completely annihilated. The
last of the Taborites, Pardo von Czorka, was hunted down
like a wild beast, found under a rock, and hanged.

The nobility, freed from their fanatical opponents, turned
their attention homewards, and resolved to curb the violence
of the emperor and to secure the maintenance of peace by a
system of moderation. Sigmund was old, and his son-in-law,
Albert of Habsburg, pursued an uncompromising policy.
They therefore conspired with Rokizana and the empress,
Barbara, to proclaim Wladislaw of Poland successor to the
throne. Sigmund, on learning their intentions, perceived
the false step he had taken, again made concessions, and, sud-

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DISTURBANCES IN THE HANSE TOWNS. 181

denly entering Moravia, seized the person of the faithless
empress. He shortly afterwards expired at Znaim, sitting in
state " as lord of the world," as he vaingloriously boasted, a. d.
1437. Albert, aided by the subtlety of Caspar Schlick,
secured the succession, on condition of protecting the religious
freedom of the Utraquists.

CLXXXVTI. Disturbances in the Hanse Towns.— Albert
the Second. — Frustration of the Reformation.

Germany, occupied with her own internal affairs, took
little interest in those of Bohemia. The princes and cities
were every where at feud. In Liibeck, the metropolis of the
Hansa, dissensions broke out between the artisans and the mer-
chants, and spread to Hamburg, Stade, Rostock, and Stettin.
The pirates and Friscians regained courage and recommenced
their depredations. In 1418, the people of Bremen captured
two Friscians, Gerold Liibben, and his brother Didde, and
condemned them to execution. Gerold kissed the fallen head
of his brother. The citizens, touched at the scene, offered
him his life on condition of his marrying one of the citizens'
daughters, to which he replied, " I am a noble Friscian, and
despise your shoemakers' and furriers' daughters." His head
was struck off.

The defeat of the Hanseatic fleet in the Sound by the
Danes, [a. d. 1427,] was a signal for fresh disturbances, the
artisans laying the blame on the petty jealousy of the rich mer-
chants. The town-councillors were murdered in almost all
the cities, and the people, maddened with revenge, attacked
the Danish king, Eric, whom they signally defeated. Had
the Hansa leagued with the numerous and powerful cities of
Upper and Lower Germany, the power of the princes, at that
time weakened by dissension, must inevitably have sunk.
Sigmund, although well aware of this, supported Denmark
against the Hansa, instead of aiding the cities, which, misled
by petty commercial jealousies, were ever engaged with in-
ternal dissensions, instead of acting in concert.

Elisabeth, the daughter of Sigmund, brought in dower to
her husband, Albert of Austria, the whole of the Luxemburg
inheritance, Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, the Lausitz, and

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ALBERT THE SECOND.

Hungary. The wealth and great possessions of the house of
Habsburg had ever been chiefly acquired by marriage, hence

the proverb, " Tu felix Austria nube !" Albert was elected

as Sigmund's successor on the throne of Germany. He was
extremely dignified in his demeanour, tall and stout, grave
and reserved. At the diet held at Nuremberg, [a. d. 1438,]
he divided the provinces, with the exception of the imperial
and electoral hereditary possessions, into four circles, Fran-
conian-Bavaria, Rhenish-Swabia, Westphalian-Netherlands,'
and Saxony, whose representatives swore to maintain peace.

Albert found, meanwhile, no adherents in his newly-ac-
quired territory. Fresh dissensions broke out in Bohemia.
Albert did not disguise his Catholic fanaticism. In 1420,
one hundred and ten heretics were burnt in Vienna alone, and
thirteen hundred Jews in Austria, for having aided the
Hussites. The efforts made by Caspar Schlick, Albert's ne-
gotiator, to pacify the Bohemians, were almost contravened
by this false policy. The Utraquists elected Wladislaw of
Poland king, and intrenched themselves under Ptaczek von
Rattay on Mount Tabor, where they were besieged by
Albert, who was compelled to raise the siege by George von
Podiebrad. The Poles also making an inroad into Silesia,
Albert hastened to make terms with Wladislaw, and, for that
purpose, held a conference with him at Breslau, where he fell
down some steps and broke his leg. Affairs also wore a seri-
ous aspect in Hungary. Shortly after the death of Sigmund,
every German in Ofen was murdered by the Hungarians*
The danger with which they were threatened by the Turks,
however, rendered a union with the now powerful house of
Habsburg necessary. As early as 1431, the Turks had re-
crossed the Kulpa and invaded Croatia. The irruption of
the Turks under Sultan Murad caused still greater devastation ;
the Hungarians were defeated near Semendria, and such a
vast number of people were reduced to slavery, that a pretty
girl was sold for a boot. Albert marched into Hungary,
[a. xi. 1438,] but his troops fled the moment the Turks came
in sight. This emperor died [a. j>. 1439] of eating melons.

The empress, Elisabeth, gave birth to a posthumous son,
Ladislaw, who was placed under the guardianship of his cou-
sin of Habsburg, Frederick of Styria, the son of Ernest and
Cimburga, of whom little was known beyond his having made

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FRUSTRATION OF THE REFORMATION.

183

a quiet pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and his having carried on a
feud with the insolent count of Cilly, nor was it until he had
been raised to the throne as the head of the most powerful
family in the empire, that his incapacity was fully discovered.
His influence was null, even in Austria, that country swarm-
ing with robbers.

Frederick III. considered eleven weeks before accepting
the crown. He was a slow, grave man, with a large pro-
truding under-lip, moderate and sedate on every occasion,
averse to great actions of every description, and a stranger to
the passions of the human heart ; he delighted in scientific fol-
lies, such as dabbling in astrology and alchymy, in cultivating
his garden, and in playing upon words. This emperor, never-
theless, reigned for fifty-three years over Germany during a
period fraught with fate. Like his two predecessors, he was
certainly aided by Caspar Schlick, a doctor who rose from
among the ranks of the citizens to be chancellor of the em-
pire ; but this man, whose desert lies far beneath his fame,
never performed one great deed, never understood the spirit
of his times nor the duty of the crown, but solely occupied
himself with decently veiling the incapacity of his three suc-
cessive masters, and with deferring by his plausible negotia-
tions the decision of the great questions that agitated the age

Germany, during the long and almost undisturbed peace,
indubitably gained time for the development of internal im-
provement in respect to her social welfare, art, and industry,
and even for the partial regulation of the empire by the
federative system, by the union of the lesser and greater Estates
of the empire in the circles, that of the ecclesiastical orders
with those of knighthood and of the citizens in the provincial
diets, by the government of the electorates and duchies, by the
new method of judicature, and finally, by the corporative system
in the cities ; it is, nevertheless, impossible to speak in terms
of admiration of an age, during which so many unnatural cir-
cumstances became second nature to the German, and during
which the empire was transformed into a helpless and often a
motionless machine, incapable of improvement save by de-
struction. So long as the Estates of the empire held an un-
decided position in respect to each other, so long as it still
appeared possible for this enormous mass of spiritual and tem-
poral, great, less, and petty members of the empire, to con-

1** FRUSTRATION OF THE REFORMATION.

glomerate, so as finally to form one mass, or, at all events, to
confederate, according to their original nationalities in less
compact masses, the wildest of the feudal times was not with-
out a ray of hope, but, when the members of the state, great
and petty, petrified as they stood, in varied disorder, the dis-
ease under which the empire laboured turned from acute to
chronic, a passing evil was transformed into a stationary, ap-
parently natural one, and the holy empire, like the incurable
paralytic, had merely dissolution left to hope for.

The council at Basle still sat. On the settlement of the
Bohemian question, that for the introduction of the long-
sighed for reform in the other parts of the empire, and for the
abolition of the most glaring of the church abuses, was agi-
tated. The example of the Hussites had rendered the assem-
bled heads of the church sensible of the necessity of measures
being taken for the prevention of a more general outbreak. The
open immorality of the priests (the chief charge made against
them by the Hussites, who had undertaken to extirpate the sins
protected by the church) was, consequently, restrained, be-
sides the desecration of churches by revels, fairs, and licentious
festivals, and the most notorious of the papal methods of ex-
tracting money, such as annates, etc. These resolutions were
adopted by the council in 1435, and ratified by the imperial
diet held at Mayence, a. d. 1439. Eugenius IV. openly op-
posed them, and was, in consequence, deposed by the council,
and Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, was elected in his stead, as
Felix V.* An able sovereign at this period, by taking ad-
vantage of the favourable disposition of the council, might
have produced a bloodless reformation in the church, but the
imperial crown was on a slumberer's brow, Roman wiles were
again triumphant, and the horrors of the Hussite war seemed
scarcely to have left a trace.

The emperor, during his first diet held at Frankfurt on the
Maine, solemnly placed the poet's wreath with his own hand
on the brow of jEneas Sylvius Piccolomini, the private secre-
tary of the council, a witty Tuscan, whose poems had brought
him into note. He was a friend of Caspar Schlick. When
commissioned by the council to act as their negotiator with

* A dreadful pestilence raged at that time in Basle, and carried off
five thousand persons. The celebrated picture of the Dance of Death,
afterwards renewed by Holbein, was painted in memory c-f this calamity

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FRUSTRATION OF THE REFORMATION. 185

Frederick III., he quitted their service in order to become
his private secretary and biographer, and being sent by him
to Rome for the purpose of inducing Eugenius IV. to submit
to the council of Basle, abandoned his imperial master, be-
came private secretary to the pope, entered the church, and
ever afterwards exerted his talents in defence of the tiara
against both the council and the emperor, and endeavoured to
win the latter, who was extremely bigoted, over to the papal
cause. In this plan he was aided by Caspar Schlick, and the
consequent union between the pope and the emperor speedily
disarmed the council, whose zeal in the cause of reform, never
very sincere, had gradually become more lukewarm. The de-
fection of the once energetic cardinal, Julian, was followed
by that of almost all the rest, with the exception of the tem-
poral princes of Germany, who still insisted upon the main-
tenance of the former resolutions passed by the council and
accepted by the imperial diet at Mayence, and earnestly
pointed out the danger of fresh disturbances on the part of
the people in case the old abuses were again tolerated. The
archbishops of Cologne and Treves, who sided with them,
being arbitrarily deprived of their mitres by Eugenius, [a. d.
1445,] the electors convoked a fresh assembly at Frankfurt
on the Maine, [a. d. 1446,] and despatched George von
Heimburg at the head of an embassy to Rome, where he
boldly addressed the pope in terms inspired by his sense of
the insults offered to the dignity of the empire, and the in-
juries inflicted upon her by the hypocritical Roman. -ZEneas
Sylvius, who had preceded him to Rome, however, found
means to pacify the pope, and craftily counselled him to dis-
semble his wrath and to amuse the infuriated Germans,
whilst he worked upon the council by means of the apostate
Nicolas of Cusa. Terms had already been made with the
emperor, and nothing more was wanting for the success of
their plans than to instigate the people against the princes.
The jealousy of the citizens of Frankfurt was aroused, and
they formally declared themselves subservient to the em-
peror alone. JEneas Sylvius finally succeeded in bribing
John von Lisura, the chief counsellor of the electors of
Mayence, one of the principal founders of the federation,
(foederis auctor et defensor,) the counsellors of Brandenburg,
the archbishops of Salzburg and Magdeburg, etc. The fait*

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186 THE SWISS WARS.

step taken by the remaining electors of Cologne, Treves,
Pf'alz, and Saxony, who sought the support of France, and to
conclude a treaty with that power at Bourges, [a. d. 1447,1
naturally rendered the originally just and national cause of
the electoral assembly extremely unpopular, and placed the
victory in the hands of the papal party. The four electors
were compelled to submit, and declared their determination to
maintain the resolutions ratified at Mayence with the reserv-
ation of an indemnity to the pope. Eugenius expired at
this conjuncture, and Felix was compelled to abdicate. His
successor, Nicolas V., emboldened by these precedents, con-
cluded a separate Concordat, that of Vienna, with the emperor,
[a. d. 1448,] to which the princes gave their assent, not pub-
licly in the diet, but singly as they were gradually won over,
and by which every resolution of the council of Basle, relating
to the restriction of papal abuses, was simply retracted.

Thus by an impious diplomacy were the people deceived, and
thus was the warning voice of history, the great lesson taught
by the Hussite war, despised. But, at the moment when the
hopes of the people for a reformation in the church by its
heads fell, a new power rose from among themselves, John
Guttenberg discovered the art of printing.

PART XV.

THE AGE OF MAXIMILIAN.

CLXXXVIIL The Stviss wars.— The Armagnacs.— George

von Podiebrad.

During the century that elapsed from the first unsuccessful
attempt of the Bohemian reformers to the great and signal
triumph of those of Saxony, history merely presents a succes-
sion of petty and isolated facts. The emperor slumbered on
bis throne ; the princes and cities were solely occupied in pro

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THE ARMAGNACS.

187

■noting their individual interests, and popular outbreaks had
become rare, the people finding a vent for their fanatical rage
in combating the French and Turks. The insolence of the
pope, now totally unopposed, overstepped all bounds, and the
hierarchy, far from gaining wisdom or learning caution from
the past, fondly deemed their strength invincible, and shame-
lessly pursued their former course the moment the storm had
passed away.

War was carried on with various success, between the free
cantons of Switzerland, the French and Italians, from 1402 to
1428. The peasants in the Rhaetian Alps also asserted their
independence at this period, and [a. d. 1396] formed a con*
federacy against the nobility and clergy at Truns ; this con-
federacy, denominated the grau or grey Bund, from the grey
frocks worn by the peasants, gave name to the whole country
of the Grisons, or Graubundten. This was followed by the
war between Schwytz and Zurich, occasioned by the refusal
of the latter to join the confederation and the maintenance of
its claims on the country of Toggenburg. The emperor,
Frederi«k III., in the hope of regaining the Habsburg pos-
sessions, invited [a. d. 1439] a body of French mercenaries,
the Armagnacs, so named from their leader, to invade Switzer-
land. The pope, who thought this a good opportunity for
dispersing the council at Basle, also countenanced the scheme,
but, instead of four thousand mercenaries, an army of thirty
thousand men, headed by Louis, the French Dauphin, crossed
the German frontier, for the purpose, not of aiding, but of
conquering Germany. Shortly before this, Charles VII. of
France had mulcted the city of Metz without any resistance
being offered on the part of the emperor. The Armagnacs,
the majority of whom consisted of the dregs of the populace,
of escaped and branded criminals, met with a friendly recep-
tion from the nobility of the upper country, who even conde-
scended to gamble and carouse with them on an equal footing,
but they no sooner approached Basle than the confederated pea-
santry, at that time besieging Zurich, despatched fifteen thou-
sand men to Basle, where the citizens manfully protected
their walls. An unexpected rencontre taking place on the
Birs between this small troop and the whole of the French
army, a dreadful struggle ensued ; the Swiss were overpow-
ered, and the remnant, five hundred in number, taking refugti

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186

THE SWISS WARS

in the hospital of St. Jacop, withstood the siege for a whole
clay. Six thousand of the French were slain. The Swiss
were at length cut to pieces by the Austrian cavalry ; ninety-
nine were suffocated in the hospital, which had been set on
fire by the besiegers ; one only of the fifteen thousand, ^bli
of Glarus, escaped death. On recovering from his wounds,
he was chosen Landamman by his fellow-countrymen. Six-
teen Swiss, who had escaped by flight, were branded and
banished. The red wine produced from the vineyards on the
Birs has since borne the name of Schweizerblut, Swiss blood.
The Dauphin, dispirited by his dearly- won victory, hastily
retreated on learning the advance of the main body of the
confederated army, and retraced his steps down the Rhine,
pillaging and burning on his route. One hundred and ten
villages were reduced to ashes, and several thousands of the
peasantry inhumanly butchered. The emperor's ambassadors
were contemptuously dismissed. The citizens of Strassburg
sallied forth, defeated the Armagnacs, and regained the ban-
ner taken from the Swiss at St. Jacob. The Rhenish princes
were, nevertheless, so imbittered against the cities as even to
prohibit their serfs to furnish the citizens with the necessary
provisions, and to allow the enemy, unopposed, to lay the
country waste. In the Weiierthal, five hundred peasants
rolled great stones upon the heads of the foe as they wound
through the pass. Metz was besieged by the Armagnacs,
who were at length induced by a bribe to recross the frontiers.

The Austrians again attempted to aid Zurich, but being
defeated at Ragaz, Zurich concluded peace, and renounced
her alliance with the emperor, a. d. 1446. Toggenburg pass-
ed by inheritance into the family of Raron, by whom it was
sold [a. d. 1469] to St. Gall. The confederates destroyed
several castles belonging to the Austrian nobility, particularly
Falkenstein, and [a. d. 1471] the three confederated cantons
entered into a treaty of mutual defence with the Grisons.

In Hungary, the new-born prince, Ladislaw, had been
crowned king by the German faction. His mother, Elisabeth,
according to iEneas Sylvius, had fostered a wish to wed
Wladislaw of Poland for the greater safety of her son. She
is said to have been poisoned at the emperor's instigation^
A. D. 1442. The Hungarians, ever harassed by the Turks
•bortly afterwards elected Wladislaw king. This monarch

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GEORGE VOX PODIEBRAD.

189

was killed during the same year, [a. d. 1444,] at Varna,
where his army was defeated by the overwhelming forces of
the Turks, who afterwards turned towards Austria, where
they contented themselves with pillaging and devastating the
country, and carrying off the inhabitants. Frederick III.,
peaceably occupied with his garden, left them unopposed, nor
once dreamt of seconding the efforts of the noble John
Hunyadi, who, unaided, made head with the Hungarians
against the barbarian invader.

In Bohemia, Ladislaw was universally recognised king, but
the Estates, between whom a reconciliation had taken place in
a great diet held at Prague, a. d. 1440, governed in his stead.
The chiefs of the two factions, Meinhard von Neuhauss and
Ptaczek, divided the government. The Utraquists, however,
gradually regained the upper hand ; Rokizana was reinstated
in the see of Prague, and George von Podiebrad, a descend-
ant of the German house of Bernegg and Nidda, which had
migrated to Bohemia, ruled in the field. On the death of
Ptaczek, he placed himself at the head of the free-thinkers,
and, on the refusal of the Pope to recognise the articles of
Prague, and the theft of the original documents by Cardinal
Carvajel, suppressed the rising power of the Catholic faction,
took Prague by surprise, threw Meinhard von Neuhauss into
prison, where he expired, [a. d. 1448,] and seized the sole
government. The example of Hunyadi and George found an
imitator in Austria, in one Eitzinger, a Bavarian by birth,
who ruled in that province at the head of the Estates. t

The emperor, incapable of wielding the sceptre, and jealous
of his youthful competitor, Ladislaw, kept him under strict
surveillance, and, in the hope of transmitting the crown to a
descendant of his own, wedded Eleonora of Portugal, a princess
of great beauty and wit The bridal pair met at Siena, were
crowned at Rome, and celebrated their wedding at Naples,
where the fountains were made to flow with wine, and thirty
thousand guests were feasted A. D. 1452. The successful at-
tempt of the Tyrolean Estates to release their duke, Sigmund,
then a minor, from the hands of Frederick, inspired Eitzinger,
and the Count von Cilly, with a similar design in favour of La-
dislaw, and Frederick no sooner reached Neustadt, his usual
place of residence, than he was compelled to deliver him into
their hands.- Ladislaw was instantly proclaimed king of Hun-

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190

GEORGE VOX FODIEBRAD.

gary and Bohemia, where he was received with the greatest
manifestations of delight, but, misled by the Count Ulric von
Cilly, he speedily acquired a disinclination for grave affairs,
and having the folly to act as a zealous upholder of Catholi-
cism in Bohemia, where he publicly treated the Utraquist fac-
tion, and their archbishop, Rokizana, with contempt, he quick-
ly lost the confidence of the people, who once more turned to
their ancient favourite, George von Podiebrad. This leader
had, meanwhile, defeated the sons of Meinhard von Neuhauss
with their allies of Meissner, and had carried his victorious
arms into the heart of Saxony. Disturbances also took place
in Silesia, where the petty princes of the race of Piast refused
to do homage to Ladislaw and besieged the city of Liegnitz,
which was, in reward for its fidelity, chartered by Ladislaw,
A. d. 1453. Austria also became a scene of intrigue. Ulric
von Cilly was deprived of his power by Eitzinger, whom be
had treated with great ingratitude, and by the Austrian
Estates. Ladislaw was compelled to part with his favourite,
who was driven by the mob out of Vienna, but shortly af-
terwards found means to regain his former station, and
Eitzinger was exiled.

Hungary was equally misgoverned. The people, however,
possessed in John Hunyadi a powerful leader, equal to the
exigencies of the times. In 1453, the capture of Constanti-
nople and the consequent destruction of the Grecian empire
by the sultan, Mohammed III., struck Christendom with
terror. Nicolas V., JEneaa Sylvius, and their chief tool, an
Italian monk, John Capistrano, general of the Capuchins,
preached a crusade, and attempted to rouse the fanaticism of
the people against the Turks, Capistrano travelling for that
purpose through the greater part of Germany ; but his elo-
quence, although it influenced the bigotry, failed to rouse the
military ardour of the people. In Silesia, where he preached
with great vehemence against the Jews, every individual be-
longing to that hapless race was burnt alive. The princes,
instead of joining the crusade at his summons, contented them-
selves with praying and ringing the Turkish bells, as they
were called. A force of 3000 peasants, armed with flails
and pitchforks, whom he inspired with extraordinary enthu-
siasm, was all he succeeded in mustering in Germany, and
with this he saved Belgrade, already given up as lost bj

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GEOkoE VON PODIEBliAD.

191

Hunjadi, as if by miracle ; the Turks were repulsed from
the walls, their entrenchments carried, twenty-four thousand
of them slain, their camp and three hundred cannon taken,
and the sultan was wounded. Capistrano, in the one hand a
stick, in the other a crucifix, was seen in the thickest of the
fight, a. d. 1455. Hunyadi expired, and was shortly after-
wards followed by Capistrano. Ladislaw and Matthias Cor-
vinus, Hunyadi's two sons, now became the objects of their
sovereign's jealousy. A letter sent by Ulric von Cilly to the
despot of Servia, in which he promised to send him ere long
two balls to play with, (the heads of the youthful Hunyadi,)
becoming known to them, Ladislaw Hunyadi slew Ulric, and
was in revenge beheaded by the king ; Matthias, who lay in
prison in expectation of a similar fate, was liberated by the
death of the king, Ladislaw, who fell a victim to excess at the
age of eighteen, and was placed by the Hungarians on the
throne, [a. d. 1457,] the emperor displaying his usual indif-
ference on the occasion.

The Bohemians now raised their favourite, George von
Podiebrad, to the throne, and an alliance was formed between
him and Matthias of Hungary, to whom he gave his daughter
Caterina in marriage. The loss of both these kingdoms was
peaceably submitted to by the emperor, to whom Matthias
had presented 60,000 ducats, whilst George aided him against
his brother, Albert the Squanderer. The Austrian nobility
treated the emperor with insolence, and Albert intrigued
against him. An electoral assembly was even held at Eger,
[a. d. 1461,] for the purpose of raising George von Podie-
brad to the imperial throne, but the confusion consequent on
the war in the Pfalz caused the matter to drop. Vienna,
meanwhile, revolted against the emperor ; the town-council
was thrown out of the windows of the town-house ; Wolfgang
Holzer, the former instigator of the tumult against Ulric von
Cilly, again took the lead, and the emperor degraded himself
so far as to flatter the rebellious citizen in order to be per-
mitted to enter his castle. The empress Eleonora, revolted
by this conduct, said to her little son, Max, " Could I believe
you capable of demeaning yourself like your father, I should
lament your being destined to the throne." Some knights
firing from the castle upon the citizens, the emperor was, at
the instigation of Albert, formally besieged. George fon

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192

GEORGE VON PODIEBRAD.

Podiebrad, however, took the part of the unfortunate emperor,
and raised the siege. His son, Victorin, was, in return for
this service, created duke of Munsterberg. Peace was con-
cluded, and the emperor consented to cede Vienna to his bro-
ther Albert, who, forgetful of the services of the citizens,
ruled them with a rod of iron, and condemned Holzer, who
now favoured the emperor, to the wheel. Albert died, [a. d.
1463,] leaving Austria in a state of great confusion, and fre-
quented by robbers. Matthias of Hungary, whom the em-
peror called to his aid against them, caused two hundred and
eighty to be hanged, and five hundred (three hundred of
whom were women) to be drowned in the Danube ; notwith-
standing which, the empress was robbed whilst taking the
waters at Baden, by the knights von Stein and Puchheim.

George defended the Lausitz against the claims of Saxony,
and sought to maintain the alliance anciently subsisting be-
tween Silesia and Bohemia. The German citizens of Breslau,
whom he had unintentionally offended, alone viewed him
with implacable hatred, and defended their town against the
whole of his forces, A. d. 1459. The pope, Pius II., who still-
favoured George, sent his legate, Hieronymus of Crete, to
negotiate terms of peace, but the citizens refused to yield.
The pope, who had meanwhile succeeded in winning over
Matthias of Hungary, and in separating him from George,
now threw off the mask, revoked the articles of Prague, and
placed George under an interdict. This act of treachery re-
mained at first without result, Matthias being still too power-
less to attack Bohemia. Pius expired, a. d. 1465. His suc-
cessor, Paul II., carried his zeal against the Bohemian heretics
to a more violent degree, caused George's ambassadors to
be driven with rods out of Rome, and despatched another
legate, Rudolf, bishop of Lavant, to Silesia, Saxony, and Bo-
hemia, for the purpose of preaching a crusade against the
heretical king ; and a murderous war consequently sprang up
on the frontiers of Bohemia between the Catholics and the
; Hussites, each party branded their prisoners with the cup or the
cross. George was, nevertheless, victorious in every quarter,
[a. d. 1467,] but, being ungratefully abandoned by the em-
peror, his son-in-law, Matthias, attacked him, and caused him-
self to be proclaimed king in Bohemia by the Catholic faction
and by the Silesians. George, how \\ atched him in the

FRITZ THE BAD. 193

forests of Wylemow, where he caused the trees, within an
enormous circle, to be half sawn through, and the moment
Matthias entered the circle, to be suddenly thrown down, and
shut him up so closely that he agreed to make peace, and to
pay the expenses of the war. Matthias no sooner found him-
self in safety than he infringed the peace, sent George a chest
full of sand instead of the promised gold, every oath taken to
a heretic being pronounced disobligatory by the pope, and
collected his forces for a fresh attack, a. d. 1468. George
fell sick ; excommunicated, surrounded by innumerable foes,
and plainly foreseeing that the Bohemian crown could not re-
main in his family, he entreated the Bohemians to place
Wladislaw of Poland, their ablest defender, on the throne.
The news of the capture of his son, Victorin, by the Hunga-
rians, reached him shortly before his death, a. d. 1471.

Wladislaw became king of Bohemia, and, in order to con-
ciliate the pope, persecuting theUtraquists, a revolt took place ;
the. citizens of Prague threw their burgomaster out of the
window, and deprived several of the town-councillors of their
heads. Their most furious attacks were directed against the
monks and priests. Tranquillity was at length restored by
the sons of the late king, Victorin and Henry, who had re-
gained their liberty, and Wladislaw consented to treat the
Utraquists with less rigour, a. d. 1483.

CLXXXIX. Fritz the Bad.— The German Hospitallers.—
The Burgundian wars. — Mary of Burgundy.

Frederick, the Rhenish Pfalzgrave, surnamed by his
enemies Fritz the Bad, was a man of an impetuous, decisive
character, and sided with the Upper Germans against the em-
peror and the pope. In 1461, he and George von Heimburg
were actively engaged in forwarding the election of George
von Podiebrad by the electoral assembly convoked at Eger,
which being violently opposed by the pope and the emperor,
the war in the Pfalz broke out. Fritz the Bad built a tower
at Heidleberg, named by him Trutz-Kaiser, in defiance of
the emperor. Mayence fell into the hands of the imperialist*,
and was deprived of her charter, Adolf of Nassau saying to
the citizens, as he pointed to a large stone in the markeft-

VOL. II. O

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194

FRITZ THE BAD.

place, "Your privileges shall not be restored until this stone
shall melt." Ulric of Wurtemberg and Charles of Baden,
the emperor's confederates, committed the most terrible de-
predations in the Pfalz, tying large branches of trees to their
horses' tails in order the more effectually to destroy the corn
through which they rode. Fritz, seconded by the enraged
peasantry, was victorious at Seckenheim, where Ulric, George,
bishop of Metz, and Charles fell into his hands, [a. d. 1462,]
and Albert Achilles being afterwards defeated by Fritz's ally,
Louis of Bavaria, who, on this occasion, took the imperial
banner, peace was concluded between the contending parties.
Fritz sumptuously entertained the captive princes, but left
them unfurnished with bread, saying, on their complaining of
this treatment, that they had destroyed all the corn on the
ground with their own hands. On their refusal to pay the
ransom demanded, he put them, lightly dressed, into an icy-
cold room with their feet in the stocks. Ulric and Charles
. cost their Estates 100,000 florins each, whilst the bishop was
merely valued at 45,000.

Fritz the Bad rendered himself still further remarkable by
his marriage, notwithstanding the prejudices of birth, with
Clara Dettin, the daughter of a citizen of Augsburg, re-
nowned for her extraordinary beauty and vocal powers. Their
children, compelled to cede the Pfalz to Bavaria, took the title
of Lcewenstein, and founded the present princely house of
that name.

At the diet held at Ulm, 1466, the pope attempted to per-
suade the princes to make head against the Turks, now at the
summit of their power. War, more especially when foreign,
was at this period carried on by means of mercenaries.
These mercenaries were, however, well paid, and on the
present occasion each Estate sought to lay the expense on the
other, the princes demanding that the greater part of the ne-
cessary supplies should be furnished by the cities, which on
their part refused not so much from avarice as from hatred ot
the princes. The nobility, merely intent upon emancipating
themselves, constituted a counts' union as an intermediate
power between the princes and the cities, which, in 1512,
occupied a separate bench in the diet. A promise of 20,000
mercenaries was all the pope could obtain.

In the ensuing year the emperor performed a pilgrimage

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FRITZ THE BAD

to Rome, not for the purpose of regulating the affairs of Italy,
not on account of Venice, which, since 1463, had been at
war with Trieste, nor on account of Sforza, the bold mercenary
leader, who, since the extinction of the house of Visconti, had
seized the duchy of Milan, but solely and simply in perform-
ance of a pious vow. By his personal subserviency to the
pope he rendered himself ridiculous, and on his return [a. d.
1469] found his empire in a state of general disturbance.
Continually in want of money, he had already caused false
coin to be struck, and, nevertheless, left the mercenaries, fur-
nished for him by his adherents, unpaid. The murmuring
soldiery found an advocate in Andreas Baumkirchner, the
emperor's true-hearted servant, but Frederick, instead of
satisfying their just claims, invited Andreas to a conference
at GraRtz, promising him safety until vespers, and detained him
in conversation, until Baumkirchner, at length perceiving that
the day was drawing to a close, rushed out, and leaping into
his saddle, galloped towards the gate ; at that moment the
vesper bell rang, the portcullis dropped, he was disarmed
and beheaded beneath the gate-way. Thus did a Habsburg
reward fidelity.

In the same year, [a. d. 1469,] the Turks again invaded
Carniola ; the aid promised by the diet had been procrasti-
nated, and on their evacuating the country, and the breaking
out of dissension between them and Matthias of Hungary, if
still continued to be so. The question was again laid befort
the diet held at Ratisbon, [a. d. 1471,] but the emperor fell
asleep during the first debate. The ten thousand men voted
on this occasion were never raised.

Frederick indemnified himself for the obloquy he had in-
curred as emperor, and for the losses of his house, with the
new title of archduke, which, in 1453, he bestowed upon the
house of Habsburg. A complaint in his feet, the consequence
of a bad practice of kicking open every door that happened
to be closed, chiefly contributed to his isolated residence at
Neustadt. One of his feet having mortified, he was obliged
to submit to amputation: "Ah," exclaimed he, "a healthy
boor is better than a sick Roman emperor ! "

The German Hospitallers in Prussia were, meanwhile,
totally deprived of their power. In 1412, a great revolution
broke out. The provincial nobility, oppressed by their

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196 THE GERMAN HOSPITALLERS.

tyranny, rebelled and threw off their yoke. In 1440, a league
was publicly entered into by the Prussian cities and the pro-
vincial nobility, for the purpose of " appeasing the internal
dissensions of the Order, of protecting the country against the
Poles, of securing their persons and their property, and of
defending right." This league was vainly prohibited by the
Order, and invalidated by the pope's bull. The contending
parties referred the matter to the emperor, who at first favoured
the popular party, and afterwards [a. d. 1453] put the con-
federates out of the bann of the empire, in consequence of
which the Prussians threw off their allegiance to the Order,
and placed themselves under the protection of Poland. A
furious war instantly broke out : Casimir of Poland entered
the country, where he was received with acclamations of de-
light ; more particularly by the citizens of Dantzig, who be-
held in their union with Poland an increase of commercial
prosperity on account of the opening of the Vistula. This
city alone furnished fifteen thousand mercenaries towards
the war.

The arrival of a body of fifteen thousand German mercena-
ries in the following year, 1454, to the aid of the Order,
turned the tide of war. The Poles suffered a signal defeat.
The elector of Brandenburg, who dreaded the increasing
power of his Polish neighbours, vainly attempted to negotiate
terms of peace, in the hope of saving the Order from utter
destruction. The Bohemian mercenaries, no longer paid by
the impoverished grand-master, seized his person, and sold
him and the whole of western Prussia to Casimir for 436,000
florins. The German population, however, speedily rebelled
against the Polish rule, and a petty war was carried on until
1466, when peace was finally concluded at Thorn, and the
grand-master, completely deserted by his German allies, was,
besides ceding Western Prussia, compelled to hold Eastern
Prussia in fee of the Polish crown.

A war of thirteen years had transformed Prussia into a
desert; one thousand and nineteen churches had been de-
stroyed, those that remained standing, plundered and dese-
crated ; out of twenty-one thousand villages but three thou-
sand and thirteen remained, and, as if to render the misery
complete, a dreadful pestilence broke out in 1463, which car
ricd off twenty thousand persons in Dantzig alone.

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The dukes of Burgundy had, at this period, risen to a
great degree of opulence and power ; Charles the Bold, who
succeeded his father, Philip the Good, [a. d. 1467,] destroyed
Liege, whose citizens were encouraged by his mortal foe, Louis
XI. of France, [a. d. 1468,] put all the male inhabitants re-
maining in the city to the sword, and threw several thousand
women tied back to back into the Meuse. In 1472, he liber-
ated the duke Arnold of Gueldres, who had been imprisoned
by his wife, Catherine of Cleves, and his unnatural son,
Adolf, and was in consequence declared heir to Gueldres.
Nimwegen, Aix-la-Chapelle, and Metz were laid under con-
tribution, a. d. 1473.

The emperor, Frederick III., had again lost the whole of the
rich Luxemburg inheritance, Bohemia, and Hungary, was de-
spised throughout the empire, had been more than once attacked,
and was at length threatened with great danger by the Turks.
His hopes now solely centred in his son, Maximilian, a youth of
great promise, for whom he aspired to the hand of Mary, the
lovely heiress of Charles the Bold. It was on this account
that Sigmund of the Tyrol was compelled to hypothecate the
government of Alsace to Charles, who was also on this account
allowed, unopposed, to destroy Liege, to mulct Aix-la-Chapelle
and Metz, and to seize Gueldres. These preliminary civilities
over, the crippled emperor went to Treves in order to hold a
conference with the bold duke, who far outvied him in mag-
nificence. The negotiation, nevertheless, remained uncon-
cluded. Charles demanded the title of king of Burgundy, but
on the emperor's insisting on the marriage being concluded
beforehand, procrastinated the matter ; Louis XI. of France
having also sued for the hand of Mary for his son, and it
being to his advantage to keep the rival monarchs in a state
of indecision. The pope, who not long afterwards sided with
Charles against the emperor, appears to have willingly aided
in hindering a marriage by which the power of a German
house would receive so considerable an accession. Frederick
III., offended at this treatment, suddenly quitted Treves, [a. d.
1473,] without taking leave of or bestowing the royal dignity
on Charles, who revenged the insult by attacking Cologne,
whence he was repulsed with great loss.

The tyrannical conduct of Peter von Hagenbach, governor
of Alsace, had meanwhile rendered the Burgundian rule de-

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THE BURGUNDIAN WARS

tested by the Alsacians and their neighbours the Swiss. This
circumstance afforded the emperor an opportunity for taking
up arms as protector of the empire, and he accordingly took
the field against Charles the Bold, who was at that time be-
sieging Neuss, whilst Sigmund of the Tyrol raised a power-
ful conspiracy against Burgundy in Upper Germany ; Basle,
Strassburg, and the cities of the Upper Rhine as far as Con-
stance, laying aside their ancient hatred of the Austrian dy-
nasty, in order to repel their common foe. Sigmund released
the government of Alsace, the cities furnishing the necessary
sum, 80,000 florins. Charles's refusal to accept it was totally
disregarded ; the whole of Alsace threw off her allegiance to
Burgundy, and raised the standard of the Habsburg. Hagen-
bach was beheaded at Breisach, a. d. 1474.

The emperor had meanwhile encamped before Neuss. The
two camps lay in such close vicinity, that balls fell from that
of Charles into the emperor's tent and carriage. A truce was
agreed to on the intervention of the pope, Charles promising
to withdraw without coming to a battle, and the emperor not
to follow him ; that is, to leave the Swiss, whom Charles was
about to attack, to their fate. The execution of Hagenbach,
who had been condemned by the confederation, furnished him
with a plausible pretext, and he accordingly entered into a
close alliance with Iolantha of Savoy, who governed in the
name of her infant children, and with Sforza of Milan, who
sympathized in his antipathy to the bold Swiss peasantry.
His adversaries, Rene II. of Lothringia, who took refuge in
Zwitzerland, and Henry of Wurtemberg, who resided at
Mumpelgard, fell into his hands. Mumpelgard, however, re-
fused to surrender. The Swiss rose en masse, slew two thou-
sand five hundred of the Burgundians, whom they totally
defeated at Ericourt, [a. d. 1474,] garrisoned the whole
of Valais belonging to Savoy, and formed a league with the
Vallisers, who guarded the passes towards Lombardy, and
defeated two thousand Lombards and Venetians, who were
marching to Charles's aid, a. d. 1475.

The Swiss had dispersed to their several cantons, leaving
the forts strongly garrisoned, when Charles undertook a se-
cond campaign against them, [a. d. 1476,] at the head of an
rverwhelraing force. The emperor, instead of sending aid,
permitted Sigmund to seize Engadin, a fort appertaining to

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the Grisons. Louis XI. promised them pecuniary assistance.
Strassburg was the only city to which the confederation ap-
plied that sent effectual aid. The little garrison of Granson
was faithlessly butchered by Charles, to whom it had surren-
dered on a promise of safety. This perfidy was nobly
avenged by the confederated Swiss, who gained a signal tri-
umph, completely routed the Burgundians, despoiled their camp,
and took their artillery. Charles was, however, speedily re-
inforced from Savoy and Italy, and laid siege to Murten on
the lake, beneath whose walls a furious engagement took place,
in which twenty-six thousand of the Burgundians were either
slain or driven into the lake, whose waters were dyed with the
frightful carnage, A. D. 1476.

Charles, maddened with rage, vented his fury on his ally
lolantha of Savoy, whom he threw into prison together with
her children with the intent of depriving them of their inhe-
ritance. When attempting to reduce Nancy by famine, he
was attacked by the Swiss and Austrians, who, seeing Charles's
star on the wane, had joined their former confederates, and
was completely routed. His horse fell with him into a morass,
where he was suffocated. His frozen corpse was cut out
with the hatchet, A. D. 1477. Louis XI. presented the Swiss
confederation with 24,000 florins. Engelbert of Nassau,
who fell into their hands, was ransomed with 50,000 florins.
The Valais was restored to Savoy. Unter Valais joined the
confederation.

The duchy of Burgundy was, immediately on the death of
Charles, seized by Louis XL, who was only withheld from
occupying the county of Burgundy by the Swiss, who refused
to tolerate him in their neighbourhood. He was also rejected
by the Netherlands. His infamous favourite, Olivier de
Dain,* was expelled Ghent, and his field-badge, the white
cross, was exposed at Arras on the gallows. Arras was
taken and destroyed, but Ghent stoutly bade him defiance.
The heads of the Burgundian town -councillors, and of several
of the nobility who favoured the French, fell ; among others,
those of Humbercourt and Hugonet, the chief councillors
of the youthful duchess, notwithstanding her passionate en-
treaties. Adolph of Gueldres, in the hope of regaining the

# Hit barber, a monster in tinman form, like his master.

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MARY OF BURGUNDY.

possessions of which he had been so justly deprived, placed
himself at the head of the Flemish, who promised to reward
his success with the hand of the Duchess, but fell at Tournay
opposing the French. His son Charles, then a minor, fell
into the hands of the French king, a. d. 1477.

Mary of Burgundy, anxious alike to escape the merciless
grasp of this royal monster and the rule of the wild demo-
cracy of Ghent, at first endeavoured to conciliate the Dutch
by the promulgation of the great charter, in which she vowed
neither to marry, nor to levy taxes, nor to make war, without
their consent, and conceded to them the right of convoking
the estates, of minting, and of freely voting on every question.
In the hope of gaining a greater accession of power by a
foreign marriage, she skilfully worked upon the dread with
which the French were viewed by her subjects, to influence
them in favour of Maximilian, the handsomest youth of his
day, whom she is said to have seen at an earlier period at
Treves, or, as some say, of whose picture she had become
enamoured. Max inherited the physical strength of his
grandmother, Cimburga of Poland, and the mental qualities
of his Portuguese mother, surpassed all other knights in
chivalric feats, was modest, gentle, and amiable. Mary con-
fessed to the assembled Estates of the Netherlands, that she
had already interchanged letters and rings with him, and
the marriage was resolved upon. Max hastened to Ghent,
and, mounted on a brown steed, clothed in silver gilt armour,
his long blond locks crowned with a bridegroom's wreath re-
splendent with pearls and precious stones, rode into the city,
where he was met by Mary. The youthful pair, on beholding
one another, knelt in the public street and sank into each
other's arms. " Welcome art thou to me, thou noble German,"
said the young duchess, " whom I have so long desired and
now behold with delight ! "

This event greatly enraged the French monarch, who at
length succeeded in persuading the Swiss to enter into alli-
ance with him, and to cede to him the county of Burgundy, A. d.
1478. Max speedily deprived him of the territory he had
seized in the Netherlands, A. D. 1479. Louis, finding other
means unsuccessful, now attempted to kindle the flames of
civil war, and instigated the faction of the Hoecks against
that of the Kabeljaus, which Max favoured. This young

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pnnce, unaccustomed to civil liberty, had recourse to violence,
And gave his mercenaries licence to murder and pillage. The
heads of the faction were executed at Ley den. The protec-
tion granted by him to the young Count von Hoorn, the mur-
derer of John von Dudselle, the popular ringleader at Ghent,
increased the wrath of the people. The marriage that had
commenced under such happy auspices also found a wretch-
ed termination. On the convocation to Herzogenbusch of all
the knights of the Golden Fleece, an order instituted by
Philip the Good of Burgundy, [a. b. 1430,] a scaffolding fell
in and numbers of the spectators were killed. This was re-
garded as an unlucky omen. Cheerfulness was, however,
restored by another and a better omen on the knighting of
Mary's little son, Philip, who, during the ceremony, drew his
sword to defend himself against the knight who had touched
him on the shoulder. Mary had, besides this son, given
birth to a daughter, Margaret, and was again pregnant, when
she was, whilst hunting, thrown from horseback, and danger-
ously hurt by the stump of a tree, against which she was
squeezed by her fallen horse. From a false feeling of deli-
cacy, she concealed her state until surgical aid was unavailing,
and expired in the bloom of life, A. d. 1482. The death of
the beauteous duchess was a signal for general revolt, and
Max, perceiving his inability to make head both against
France and his rebellious subjects, concluded the peace of
Arras with the former, and promised his daughter, Margaret,
to the Dauphin, with Artois, Boulogne, and the county of
Burgundy in dowry, a d. 1482. Margaret was sent to Paris.
Burgundy and the Arelat were united to France.

Peace being thus concluded with his most formidable op-
ponent, Max turned his whole forces against the rebellious
Hoecks, who had taken possession of Utrecht. They were
defeated, A. d. 1483. The Flemish, nevertheless, refused
submission to the Habsburg, by whom their ancient liberties
were neither understood nor respected, and seized the person
of the young duke Philip, whom they alone recognised as
Mary's successor. A revolt took place at Bruges, where Max
was taken prisoner by the citizens, his councillors were put
to the rack in the public market, and, on the news of the ap-
proach of an army to the relief of the Habsburg, beheaded.
Maximilian's celebrated jester, Kung von den Rosen, attemptod

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MAltY OF BURGUNDY.

to release his master, and swam by night across the fosse of
the castle where he was confined, but was attacked and driven
back by the swans, A. d. 1488.

The emperor summoned the whole of the vassals of the
empire to the field in order to liberate his son, and the pope
hurled his fulminations against the rebels. The princes, en-
raged at the temerity of the burgesses to imprison one of their
order, assembled in great numbers beneath the imperial ban-
ner, and bore all before them. The first burgher of Ghent
who fell into the emperor's hands was nailed to a door, with
the inscription, "Thus will be treated all who have imprisoned
the Roman king," and sent floating down the stream to Ghent.
The defeat of the citizens of Bruges struck the rebels with
dismay, and their royal captive was set at liberty on binding
himself by oath not to take revenge nor to injure their privi-
leges. Max, who had been four months a prisoner, took the
oath demanded, and went into the Tyrol, to escape the neces-
sity of breaking it. But his father refused to comply with
these terms, and notwithstanding the aid furnished by the
French, the Flemish were defeated at Bertborg, A. D. 1489.
Nieuport repulsed the attack of the French army. The Hoecks,
under Franz von Brederode, secured themselves in Rotterdam,
and were supported by Philip of Cleves. Albert of Saxony, the
imperial stadtholder, vainly besieged Brussels, until seconded
by a pestilence which carried off almost the whole of the
inhabitants. The power of the Hoecks now declined. Rot-
terdam was taken, and Brederode retired to Flanders, where
he turned pirate and greatly harassed the imperialists. He
was taken in a naval engagement off Brouvershaven, and died
a few days after of his loisraanaged wounds, aged 24, A. d.
1490. Philip of Cleves took refuge in France.

The flames of war appeared to rage with redoubled fury
in Flanders, on the rape of Anna of Brittany, whom Max had
demanded in marriage, and who was captured by Charles of
Fiance when on her way to Germany, and compelled to
marry him, in revenge for the loss of Mary of Burgundy, of
whose hand he had been formerly deprived by Maximilian.
The projects of the French monarch upon Italy, however,
inclined him to yield the Netherlands, and Max was speed-
ily pacified. Peace was concluded at Senlis, [a. d. 1493,]
and Margaret was restored to her father. France also resigned

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MATTHIAS OF HUNGARY.

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all claims upon her stipulated dowry. Ghent, Bruges, and
Ypern submitted and were pardoned. Forty citizens of
Bruges, who had most grievously insulted the royal person,
being alone executed. On Maximilian's return to the Nether-
lands in 1493, Albert of Saxony led his two children to him
at Maestricht, with these words, " God has granted me suc-
cess, therefore I bring you these two children and an obedient
land." Albert had vowed not to shave his chin until the
Netherlands enjoyed the blessings of peace. During the
festival at Maestricht, Margaret the elder, the widow of \
Charles the Bold, the grandmother to the two children, cut
off a part of his beard, and he had the rest shaved off. Maxi-
milian owed him a heavy debt of gratitude, for he had fur-
nished the means for carrying on the war in the Netherlands
from his private property, the mines in the snow mountains.

CXC. Matthias of Hungary. — Affairs in Italy. —
Maximilian the First

On the death of George von Podiebrad, Matthias, king of
Hungary, laid claim to Bohemia, but was solely able to hold
Silesia, where he fixed his head-quarters with his black guard,
a picked troop of mercenaries. Casimir of Poland, and his
son, Wladislaw of Bohemia, vainly attempted to dislodge him.
The most terrible reprisals were taken on the unfortunate
prisoners. John, duke of Sagan, also laid Glogau waste, a. d.
1 488. Matthias, occupied with the west, neglected to defend
his eastern frontiers against the Turks, who made numerous
inroads into Carniola, Carinthia, and Styria, whence they were
sometimes repelled with great loss by the peasantry. These
destructive inroads continued without intermission for up-
wards of twenty years, from 1471 to 1493, during which
these countries were laid waste, and numbers of the inhabit-
ants carried away captive, without attracting the attention of
the rest of Germany.

An alliance was formed [a. d. 1482] between the Emperor
Frederick and Wladislaw of Bohemia, against their common
i'ue, Matthias of Hungary, who was defeated near Bruck on
the Leytra, but afterwards regained strength and laid siege
to Vienna, whose inhabitants vainly implored aid from the

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MATTHIAS OF HUNGARY

emperor, who replied to their entreaties, " You also allowed
me to starve when I was besieged by you ! " The city fell into
the hands of Matthias, A. d. 1485. The emperor at length
iound a friend in Albert of Saxony, who, generously saying,

It is better for all the princes of Germany to be beggars than
tor the Roman king to want money !" furnished him with the
necessary supplies from his mines, and defeated the superior
Hungarian force at Negau, a. d. 1487. The return of Max
from the Netherlands now compelled Albert to repair thither,
whilst Max went to the Tyrol, where Sigmund had com-
menced a doubtful war with Venice, known as the Rovereiter
war, which took its rise from a frontier dispute between the
Venetian inhabitants of Riva, and the Tyrolean Count von
Arco. Bombs were first used in the siege of Botzen by the
Count von Metsch Roveredo. Sigmund, offering to yield,
notwithstanding the unflinching courage of the Tyrolese, was
deposed by the Estates, who provisionally elected Frederick
Kappler as their captain, and, with a thousand men, com-
pletely routed the Venetians near Calliano. Their general,
the famous Roberto di San Severino, was drowned in the
Adige. The whole of the Tyrol hastened to pay homage to
Max on his arrival, and he ever afterwards clung with affec-
tion to this country, where he eternalized his memory ; he
used to say of it, " The Tyrol is only a coarse boor's frock,
but it keeps one warm." On the death of Matthias, [a. d.
1490,] he hastened to liberate Austria, took Vienna, where he
received a wound in the shoulder, by storm, and penetrated
into the heart of Hungary. Long Conrad, a Swabian in his
army, boasted of having murdered three hundred persons with
his own hand at the taking of Stuhl-Weissenburg. The blood
stood half a hand high round the tomb of Matthias. The in-
fantry collected so much booty that they abandoned their
youthful commander and returned home. The Hungarians
now elected Wladislaw of Bohemia king, and tranquillity was
restored. Wladislaw bestowed great privileges and the right
of being governed by a native stadtholder on Silesia, by the
Colowrat treaty, which was chiefly managed by the Bohemian
noble of that name.

War also broke out between the Swiss and the Milanese,
who attempted to regain possession of the Livinenthal. The
confederation took up arms, but again dispersed, on account of

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the severity of the winter. Six hundred men under Frisch-
hans Theiling of Lucerne alone kept the field, near Irnis,
(Giornico,) against sixteen thousand Milanese under Count
Borello. The advice of one of the peasants, named Stanga,
to flood the country, was followed by his companions, and the
whole of the valley was converted into one vast sheet of ice. The
Milanese, on arriving at the spot, found it impossible to keep
their footing, and were speedily put into confusion and utterly
defeated by the iron-shod Swiss, of whom, notwithstanding
their numerical inferiority, two only were slain, one of whom
was Stanga. Milan purchased peace, A. d. 1479.

Max had scarcely begun to regulate the affairs of Austria,
when his aged father expired, A. D. 1493. No emperor had
reigned so long and done so little as Frederick III. Max was
proclaimed his successor on the imperial throne without a dis-
sentient voice, and speedily found himself fully occupied.

France at that time cast her eyes upon Italy. Nepotism,
the family-interest of the popes, who bestowed enormous
wealth, and even Italian principalities, on their nephews, rela-
tives, and natural children, was the prevalent spirit of the court
of Rome. The pope's relations plundered the papal treasury,
which he filled with the plunder of the whole of Christendom,
by raising the church taxes, amplifying the ceremonies, and
selling absolution. Alexander VI., who at that period occu-
pied the pontifical throne, surpassed all his predecessors in
wickedness. He died of poison, [a. d. 1503,] laden with
crimes. The royal house of Arragon again sat on the throne
of Naples. In Upper Italy, besides the ancient republics of
Venice and Genoa, and the principalities of Milan and Fer-
rara, Florence had become half a republic, half a principality,
under the rule of the house of Medicis.

France, ever watchful, was not tardy in finding an oppor-
tunity for interference. In Milan, the young duke, Giovanni
Galeazzo Sforza, had been murdered by his uncle Luigi, who
seized the ducal throne. Ferdinand of Naples, Galeazzo's bro-
ther-in-law, declaring against the murderer, Luigi claimed the
assistance of the French king, Charles VIII., who promised
him his protection, and at the same time asserted his own
ciaim to the Neapolitan throne as the descendant of the house
of Anjou. a. d. 1494, he unexpectedly entered Italy at the
head of an immense army, partly composed of Swiss merce-

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MAXIMILIAN THE FIRST

naries, and took Naples. Milan, alarmed at the overwhelm
ing strength of her importunate ally, now entered into a league
with the pope, the emperor, Spain, and Naples, for the pur-
pose of driving him out of Italy, and Alexander VI. astonished
the world by leaguing with the arch-foe of Christendom, the
Turkish sultan, against the "most Christian" king of France.
Charles yielded to the storm, and voluntarily returned to
France, a. d. 1495. Maximilian had been unable, from want
of money, to come in person to Italy, and three thousand men
were all he had been able to supply. He had, however, se-
cured fiimself by a marriage with Bianca Maria, the sister of
Galeazzo Sforza, and attempted, on the withdrawal of the
French, to put forward his pretensions as emperor. Pisa
[a. d. 1496] imploring his aid against Florence, he undertook
a campaign at the head of an inconsiderable force, in which
he was unsuccessful, the Venetians refusing their promised
aid. His marriage with Bianca, a woman of a haughty, cold
disposition, unendowed with the mental and personal graces
of Mary of Burgundy, was far from happy. Max had several
illegitimate children, three sons, ecclesiastics, who died in ob-
scurity, and five daughters.

A still closer alliance was formed with Spain, where the
whole power had, as in France, centred in the monarch.
The last descendants of the ancient petty kings of this coun-
try, Ferdinand of Arragon and Isabella of Castile, had mar-
ried, and by their united force had expelled the Moors, a. d.
1492, a year also famous for the discovery of America, whose
mines so greatly enriched Spain, by Columbus the Genoese.
The marriage of Philip, Maximilian's son, with the Infanta
Johanna, and that of his daughter Margaret, with the Infant
Don Juan, [a. d. 1496,] brought this splendid monarchy into
the house of Habsburg, the Infant Don Juan expiring shortly
afterwards, and the whole of Spain falling to Philip in right
of his wife.

Maximilian was distinguished for personal bravery; his
disposition was benevolent, cheerful, and enthusiastic ; he was
of an active turn, well-informed, full of wit, spirit, and ani-
mation, the very reverse to his pedantic parent He had,
nevertheless, inherited a portion of his father's frivolity, his
thoughts, like his actions, being totally deficient in greatness.
Ever occupied, he never accomplished any really useful de-

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MAXIMILIAN THE FIRST.

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lign ; ever preserving the mien of a genial autocrat, he still
permitted himself to be swayed by others. Macchiavelli, the
greatest politician of his time, says of him, " He believed that
he did every thing himself, and yet allowed himself to be misled
from his first and best idea." He cherished all sorts of projects,
which, when put into execution, turned out exactly contrary to
his intention. He was, in reality, completely out of his ele-
ment in the council and in the field ; chivalric feats, in which
he could display his personal courage and gallantry, were his
delight, and for which he was best fitted by nature. His
biography, written under his dictation, is merely an account of
feats of this description. His condescending manners, al-
though rendering him the darling of the people, greatly less-
ened his dignity, and was often unfitting to him as the
emperor of the holy Roman empire, and drew upon him the
mockery of his jester, Kunz von der Rosen. A diary, written
by the emperor himself, has been preserved ; it contains in-
numerable little hints, how a certain fish should be caught
and cooked, such a weapon be fabricated, how much the chas-
tellain of a distant imperial castle should be paid, and many
a scandalous anecdote, — but not one word concerning the great
questions of the day, the church and the state. His biography
is that of an adventurous knight, not that of an emperor.

Maximilian ever intended well, and would sometimes kindle
with the fire of the ancient Hohenstaufen when planning the
execution of some great project. He fervently desired to
march against the Turks, to re-annex Italy to the empire, to
chastise the insolence of France, in a word, to act as became
a great German emperor ; but he was a prisoner in the midst
of the weapons of Germany, a beggar in the midst of her
wealth ; the vassals of the empire, sunk in shameless egotism,
coldly refused to assist their sovereign, and rendered him the
laughing-stock of Europe.

Eberhard im Bart, count of Wurtemberg, a petty, but wise
and influential prince, whose follies had been expiated by a
pilgrimage to the Holy Land, ever seconded the good inten-
tions of the emperor, and aided in carrying several of his pro-
jects into execution. In 1477, Eberhard founded the uni-
versity at Tubingen, whose most distinguished scholars were
his friends. The emperor, sensible of his merit, raised him
[a. d. 1495] to the dignity of duke. On his first appearance

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MAXIMILIAN THE FIRST

after his elevation in the diet, a dispute arising concerning the
seat that was his due, he declared his willingness to sit even
behind the stove if the diet would only discuss and pass some
useful resolution. One of the most essential services rendered
by this duke was his attempt to restore peace and order to the
whole empire, as well as to Wurtemberg. It was to him that
the Swabian league chiefly owed its rise, A. D. 1488. This
league was originally an aristocratic society, known as that of
St. George's shield, which, by the incorporation of the
clergy and of the citizens within its ranks, became a general
union of all the princes, counts, knights, bishops, abbots, and
cities in Swabia for the maintenance of peace and right. At
the diet held at Worms, Maximilian zealously laboured to
increase the external power of the empire by promoting its
internal union, order, and peace, but only succeeded in render-
ing the confusion systematic, the absurdities, hitherto unrecog-
nised by law, legal, and the external weakness and internal
anarchy of the empire eternal. The empire was one confused
mass of electorates, duchies, earldoms, bishoprics, abbeys,
imperial free towns, and estates of the nobility, which, whether
great or small, refused to yield to one another, and jealously
asserted their independence. None possessed sufficient power
to maintain order by force, or sufficient confidence to intrust
that power to another. Order could therefore alone arise from
the mutual necessity and voluntary alliance of all. The ex-
ample given by the Swabian league was followed, and the
whole empire was divided into ten circles, each of which was
to form a league similar to that of Swabia. These circles
were, Swabia, Bavaria, Franconia, the Upper Rhine, West-
phalia, Lower Saxony, Austria, Burgundy, the Rhenish
"iectorate, and Upper Saxony, without comprising Bohemia,
•Silesia, Moravia, the Lausitz, and Prussia. As a point of
union for all these circles, Maximilian demanded the estab-
lishment of a government, or imperial council, over which the
emperor was to preside, and in whose hands the supreme
power was to be lodged during his absence. This plan was
never put into execution. An imperial chamber with salaried
councillors, who took cognizance of legal matters, was alone
established, but its decisions, owing to want of power, also
teraained without authority.

The regulation of the imperial revenue was rendered 8 till

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MAXIMILIAN THE FIRST.

209

more urgent by the fact, daily becoming more notorious, that
money was power, that without that necessary article the em-
peror was powerless, and the necessity of a general imperial
treasury wherewith to meet the general outlay was clearly
visible. The greater portion of the revenue formerly enjoyed
by the crown, had been seized by the Estates. A new mode
of taxation, as in France, was, consequently, necessary. The
Instates, meanwhile, either refused to contribute or disputed
the division of the contribution, and it was with great diffi-
culty that Maximilian at length induced them to grant the
common penny for four years, that is to say, the payment by
every subject of the empire of one penny out of every thou-
sand pence he possessed, thus a tenth per cent., towards the
maintenance of the state. This tax was, however, notwith-
standing its insignificant amount, seldom regularly paid, and
the emperor was ever poverty-stricken. Another regulation,
the establishment of the post for the purpose of facilitating
communication, the management of which was intrusted to
the Count von Thurn and Taxis, also failed on account of the
bad state of the roads.

It is undeniable that by the federation of every class, the
petty and great, the weak and strong, were alike represented
in the diet. The great dukes no longer ruled the whole as-
sembly ; the other princes of the empire besides the electors,
the counts and other grades of nobility, the prelates, and, above
all, the cities, asserted their authority, and by this means many
a man and many an idea appeared in the diet, totally distinct
from those appertaining to the court ; but ideas however ex-
cellent, purposes however honest, whether harboured by the
emperor or by the meanest of his subjects, were alike unavail-
ing against the torrent of opposing interests. Hence the
wearying prolixity of affairs. Seats and titles had to be con-
tested before the real question could be investigated. Verbal
proceedings were succeeded by endless written ones, so that
before the representatives in the diet could lay the question in
debate before their constituents, and then before the diet, the
moment for action had generally passed. The interminable wnt-
ing also introduced a crowd of lawyers, who explained every
thing according to the Roman law, and took advantage of the
contradiction between the German and Roman jurisprudence
to create such a chaotic state of confusion, that people were no

*0L. 11.

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210 SEPARATION OF SWITZERLAND

longer able to trust to their own senses, and were compelled
to have recourse to the sophistry of a set of pettifogging
pedants.

Instant aid was demanded against the Turks. But all the
Estates, instead of granting aid, unanimously joined in com-
plaining of the conduct of their sister Estates in Italy, Bur-
gundy, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, which separated
themselves more and more from the empire, and no longer
contributed their quota to the maintenance of the state. The
nobility declined contributing in money, the cities refused to
furnish men. After a long debate it was at length resolved

to levy a tax of 24,000 florins, to defray the expense of

defending the empire against the Turks. This sum, like the
former ones granted, was never raised. When the emperor,
in 1497, convoked the Estates to Lindau, in order to take
measures against the French in Italy, they came unfurnished
with troops and unsupplied with money.

CXCI. Separation of Switzerland from the Empire, — Wars
of the Friscians and Ditmarses. — Civil dissensions, — The
Bundschuh. — Wars of Venice and Milan,

The empire, like the oak whose topmost branches first show
symptoms of the decay spreading from its roots, first lost the
finest of her German provinces, and her holy banner was
hurled from those glorious natural bulwarks, whence, mid ice
and snow, our victorious forefathers had looked down upon the
fertile vales of Italy. Unlike the defection of the Slavonians
and Italians from the empire, that of the Swiss inflicted a
heart-felt wound. Their desertion has been explained and
justified by time, but how much nobler would it not have been
had they at least attempted to remodel the empire, by creating
an energetic interposition on the part of the people !

The Swiss confederation had been declared an integral
part of the Swabian circle, but, influenced by distrust of the
Swabian cities, which had ever preserved a false neutrality
towards them, and of the princes and nobles, their hereditary
foes, they refused to enter into the league. Their success
against Burgundy had, moreover, rendered them insolent and
presumptuous, whilst France incessantly incited them to de»

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FROM THE EMPIRE.

211

clare themselves independent of the empire. France drew
her mercenaries from the Alps, was a good paymaster, and
flattered the rough mountaineers with a semblance of royal
confidence ; whilst the German princes, and even the emperor,
thoughtlessly treated them with contempt. A dispute con-
cerning landmarks that arose between the Grisons peasantry
and the Austrian Tyrolese, and occasioned their enrolment in
the confederation, brought the matter to an issue. The en-
raged emperor declared war [a. d. 1498] against the Swiss,
in which he was seconded by the Swabian league. In 1499,
the Swiss concluded a treaty with France, and, quitting their
mountains, attacked the approaching foe on every side. Wil-
libald Pirkheimer, who was present with four hundred red-
habited citizens of Nuremberg, has graphically described every
incident of this war. The imperial reinforcements arrived
slowly and in separate bodies ; the princes and nobles fighting
in real earnest, the cities with little inclination. The Swiss
were, consequently, able to defeat each single detachment be-
fore they could unite, and were in this manner victorious in
ten engagements. The emperor, on his arrival, publicly ad-
dressed an angry letter to the Swiss from Freiburg in the
Breisgau. The Tyrolese failed in an attempt to take the Grisons
in the rear across Bormio, and four hundred of the imperialists
were, on this occasion, crushed by an avalanche. Pirkheimer
saw a troop of half-starved children under the care of two old
women seeking for herbs, like cattle, on the mountains, so
great was the distress to which the blockade had reduced the
Swiss. They, nevertheless, defended themselves on every
side, and slew four thousand Tyrolese near Mais in the
Vienstgau, in revenge for which four hundred Grisons pea-
sants, detained captive at Meran, were put to death. The
emperor went to Constance, where a letter from the confeder-
ation was delivered to him by a young girl.* Peace was,
however, far from *.he thoughts of the emperor, who, dividing
his forces, despatched the majority of his troops against Basle,

• On being asked the number of the Swiss, she replied, " There are
plenty to beat you ; you might have counted them during the battle had
not fear struck you blind :" and on an old soldier, stung by the sarcasm,
drawing his sword upon her, she said, " If you are such a hero, seek men
to fight with." Gutz von Berlichingen, who was present, thus describes
the emperor; "He wore a little old green coat, and little short green
cap, and a great green hat over it." (Quite Tyrolean.)

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212

PHILIP THE HANDSOME.

under the Count von Furstenberg, whilst he advanced towardu
Geneva, and was occupied in crossing the lake when the news
of Fiirstenberg's defeat and death, near Dornach, arrived.
The princes, little desirous of staking their honour against
their low-born opponents, instantly returned home in great
numbers, and the emperor was therefore compelled to make
peace. The Swiss retained possession of the Thurgau and of
Basle, and Schaffhausen joined the confederation, which was
not subject to the imperial chamber, and for the future be-
longed merely in name to the empire, and gradually fell under
the growing influence of France, a. d. 1499.

Some years after the Swiss war, Maximilian was involved in
a petty war of succession in Bavaria, a. d. 1504. Disturbances
had also arisen in the Netherlands, [a. d. 1494,] where the
neople favoured Charles of Gueldres to the prejudice of the
Habsburg. Maximilian's son, Philip the Handsome, at length
concluded a truce with his opponent, and went into Spain for
the purpose of taking possession of the kingdom of Castille,
whose queen, Isabella, had just expired, in the name of her
daughter, his wife, Johanna. Ferdinand of Arragon, his
father-in-law, however, refused to yield the throne of Castille
during his life-time, and, in his old age, married a young
Frenchwoman, in the hope of raising another heir to the
throne of Arragon. Johanna had been imprisoned during
Philip's absence, by command of her cruel father, in Medina
del Campo. Animated by a strong desire to rejoin her hus-
band, whom she passionately loved, she placed herself under
the gateway, whence she refused to move, notwithstanding
the inclemency of the weather, and remained there night and
day until she was liberated. She was reported to her hus-
band as crazed, but his messenger disproved the fact, and he
rejoined her, but shortly afterwards died, either of a sudden
chill, or of poison, which Johanna was accused of having ad-
ministered, but a heavier suspicion falls upon Ferdinand.
Johanna refused to quit the body of her husband, which she
constantly held in her embrace and watched over, taking it
every where with her, so that, as had been once foretold to him,
lie wandered more about his Spanish kingdom after his death
than during his life-time. She was at length persuaded to
permit his interment ; but the body had scarcely been removed
**te she imagined herself at Medina del Campo, her beloved

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WARS OF THE FRISCIANS AND DITMARSES. 213

Philip in the Netherlands, and that she was not allowed to
join him, and her attendants were compelled to beg of her to
order the vault to be reopened, in order to convince herself of
his death. She did so, but had the coffin once more placed at
her side. She then consoled herself with a nurse's tale of a
dead king, who, after a lapse of fourteen years, was restored
to life, and with childish delight awaited the day. On finding
her hopes disappointed she became incurably insane, and was
put under restraint. She survived her husband fifty years.

Philip left two sons, Charles and Ferdinand. His sister,
Margaret, became regent of the Netherlands, whence Albert,
the brave duke of Saxony, had been expelled by Philip, and
been degraded to a mere stadtholder of Western-Friesland.
Eastern-Friesland was a prey to civil dissension, [a. d. 1454,]
and bravely defended itself against Oldenburg and Western-
Friesland until 1515, when it submitted to the emperor, and
Henry of Nassau, who had wedded the heiress of the French
house of Orange and had taken that name, became stadtholder
of Holland, where he acquired great popularity, a. d. 1516.

The Ditmarses sustained a far more serious war with Den-
mark, which commenced A. d. 1500. The invading army,
thirty thousand strong, was completely cut to pieces [a. d.
1511] by three hundred peasants. But their hour also came.
Success had rendered them insolent, and civil dissensions
breaking out among them, they fell under the rule of Fre-
derick, king of Denmark, [a. d. 1559,] who wisely endea-
voured to win them by exempting them from every war-tax,
by raising no fortresses in their country, and by leaving them
to their own jurisdiction.

The tumults that continued to occur in the cities had no
influence on the course of events, and merely merit notice as
indications of the insolence resulting from prosperity. Quar-
rels broke out in the Hansa, which also withstood the repeated
attacks of the neighbouring powers. Most of the disturbances
that took place within the cities arose from the discontent of
the people, on account of the imposition of fresh taxes, and
the egotism of the municipal governments. The example of
the Burgundian court had increased the luxury and ostenta-
tion of the higher classes, and the maintenance of peace and
order called for a greater outlay in the administration, and
consequently caused the general imposition of taxes, dues, etc

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214

THE BUNDSCHUH.

These charges fell more heavily on the peasant than on the
citizen, and occasioned continual disturbances. The first ex-
tensive conspiracy of the peasants was formed in 1498, at
Schlettstadt, in Alsace. Their banner was the Bundschuh,
a peasant's shoe stuck upon a stake, the symbol of the pea-
santry, as the boot was that of the knights. Their object was
the abolition of the ecclesiastical and Roman courts of law, of
the customs and enormous imposts. This conspiracy was dis-
covered and put down by force, but appeared again at differ-
ent periods under various names. The most violent demon-
stration of this description was made [a. d. 1514] in the
Remsthal, simultaneously with the fearful revolt of the pea-
sants in Hungary. Both had a sanguinary close.

Charles had been succeeded on the throne of France by
Louis XII., who renewed the projects upon Italy, and main-
tained his claims upon Milan in right of his grandmother, a
Visconti. Venice, ever at strife with that city, gladly fa-
voured his pretensions ; and the pope, Alexander VI., in the
hope of gaining by his means an Italian throne for his son,
the notorious Caesar Borgia, also sided with him. Louis in-
vaded Italy, [a. d. 1.500,] and took possession of Milan. Sforza
taking eight thousand Swiss mercenaries into his service, and
regaining his duchy, Louis also turned to them for aid, and,
strengthened by a body of ten thousand of these troops, shut
up Sforza in Novara. The Swiss, however, refusing to fight
against each other, Sforza's mercenaries were permitted to
march unmolested out of the city. The duke, disguised as
one of the number, quitted the place with them, but was sold
by a man of Uri, named Turmann, to the French monarch,
who sent him prisoner to France. The confederation sen-
tenced the traitor to execution, but the good name of the
Swiss had suffered an irreparable injury, not only by this in-
cident, but by their mercenary habits. Anshelm the historian
observes, that they returned to their mountains laden with
booty and covered with disgrace.

Maximilian beheld the successes of the French monarch in
Italy, and Ferdinand of Naples dragged in chains to France,
with impotent rage, and convoked one diet after another with-
out being able to raise either money or troops. At length, in
the hope of saving his honour, he invested France with the
duchy of his brother-in-law, Sforza, and, by the treaty of

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WARS OF VENICE AND MILAN.

Blois, [a. d. 1 504,3 ceded Milan to France for the sum of two
hundred thousand francs. The marriage of Charles, Max-
imilian's grandson, with Claudia, the daughter of Louis, who
it was stipulated should bring Milan in dowry to the house of
Habsburg, also formed one of the articles of this treaty, and
in the event of any impediment to the marriage being raised
by France, Milan was to be unconditionally restored to the
house of Austria. The marriage of the Archduke Ferdi-
nand with Anna, the youthful daughter of Wladislaw of
Hungary and Bohemia, was more fortunate. Ferdinand of
Spain, unable to tolerate the Habsburg as his successor on the
throne, entered into a league with France, who instantly in-
fringed the treaty of Blois, and Claudia was married to
Francis of Anjou, the heir-apparent to the throne of France.
Maximilian, enraged at Louis's perfidy, vainly called upon the
imperial Estates of Germany to revenge the insult ; he was
merely enabled to raise a small body of troops, with which he
crossed the Alps for the purpose of taking possession of
Milan and of being finally crowned by the pope. The Ve-
netians, however, refused to grant him a free passage, defeated
him at Catora, and compelled him to retrace his steps. At
Trient, Matthaeus Lang, archbishop of Snlzburg, placed the
crown on his brow in the name of the pope, a. d. 1508. The
Venetians, inspirited by success, followed up their victory by
the reduction of Trieste and Fiume ; and a great revolt of the
people in Genoa, who favoured the imperial cause, against the
aristocracy, the partisans of France, was suppressed by the
Swiss mercenaries in Louis's pay. The confederation, over-
whelmed with reproaches and moved to shame by the earnest
appeal of the emperor to their honour as Germans, sent am-
bassadors to Constance, to lay excuses for their conduct before
the emperor, but the reconciliation that ensued was speedily
forgotten on the unexpected annunciation of the alliance of
the emperor with France.

The insolence and grasping policy of Venice had rendered
her universally obnoxious. Maximilian had been insulted and
robbed by her; Louis dreaded her vicinity to his newly-
gained duchy of Milan ; whilst Ferdinand, the pope, and the
rest of the Italian powers viewed her with similar enmity.
These considerations formed the basis of the league of Cam-

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216

WARS OF VENICE AND MILAN.

bray, A. D. 1508, in which all the contending parties ceased
their strife to unite against their common foe. The French
gained a decisive victory at Aguadello. Vicenza was taken
by the imperial troops, A. d. 1510. The Swiss, who had at
first aided Venice, being forced to retreat during the severe
winter of 1512, revenged themselves by laying Lombardy
waste. Venice, deprived of their aid, humbled herself before
the emperor, and the senator Giustiniani fell in the name of
the republic at his feet, and finally persuaded both him and the
pope to renounce their alliance with France. The new con-
federates were, however, defeated at Ravenna by the French
under Gaston de Foix. The Swiss confederation, gained over
by the bishop of Sion, who was rewarded with a cardinal's
hat, now took part with the emperor and the pope, and, march-
ing into Lombardy, drove out the French and placed Max
Sforza on the ducal throne of Milan, A. D. 1512. The sub-
sequent tyranny and insubordination of the Swiss in Lom-
bardy, and the great preparations for war made by France,
induced Venice, ever watchful over her interests, again to
enter into alliance with that country. The fresh invasion
of Lombardy in 1513, by the French under Latremouille, and
the German lancers of Robert von der Mark, terminated
disastrously to the invaders, and the Swiss, after plundering
Lombardy, united with a small body of imperialists under
Ulric, duke of Wurtemberg, and, penetrating into France »3
far as Dijon, made the king tremble on his throne. Their
departure was purchased at an enormous price.

The emperor, although unable to offer much opposition to
France in Italy, was more successful in the Netherlands, where,
aided by the English, he carried on war against Louis and gain-
ed a second battle of spurs at Teroanne.* He also assembled
a troop of lancers under George von Frundsberg, who besieged
Venice, and fought his way through an overwhelming force
under the Venetian general, Alviano, at Ceratia. On the

* Peter Daniel says, in his History of France, " berause onr cavalry
made more use of their spurs than of their swords." The Chevalier
Bayard, on perceiving the impossibility of escape, took an English knight,
who had just dismounted, prisoner, in order instantly to surrender him*
self to him. Maximilian, on being informed of this strange adventure
restored Bayard to liberty.

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217

death of Louis, [a. d. 1515,] fortune once more favoured
France. Francis L, immediately after his accession to the
throne, invaded Italy in person, at the head of an immense
force, among which were six thousand (Germans) of the
black band, so called from their harness, under Robert von
der Mark, and twenty thousand under the duke of Gueldres.
By a shameful treaty at Galera, the Swiss agreed to deliver
up to him the city of Milan for three hundred thousand
French crown dollars, and the small Swiss force, still defend-
ing that duchy, was, consequently, recalled. The Bernese
obeyed, but the Zurichers and the peasantry of the four can-
tons preferred annihilation to dishonour, and stood their
ground. The battle of Marignano, between the Swiss and the
French, took place on the 14th of September, 1515. Schin-
ner, the cardinal-bishop of Sion, mounted on horseback and
arrayed in his purple robes, headed the confederation. This
engagement lasted a day and a half, and the victory was at
length decided by the arrival of the Venetians, who fell upon
the rear of the Swiss. Zwingli of Zurich, who shortly after-
wards appeared as the great reformer, was also in this battle.
The confederated Swiss, notwithstanding their enormous num-
ber of killed and wounded, made an orderly and honourable
retreat, but were reproached on their return home for having
broken the treaty of Galera. The French party triumphed.
Domo d'Ossola was delivered up to them by the Bernese go-
vernor. Francis unsparingly showered gold upon the con-
federation, and, in 1516, Berne, Lucerne, Unterwalden, Zug,
Glarus, Fryburg, Solothurn, and Appenzell concluded the so
called "eternal alliance" with France. Zurich, Uri, Schwytz,
and Basle alone disdained this disgraceful traffic in blood.
Frundsberg, left unaided in Italy, was shut up in Verona by
the French, where, in spite of famine and pestilence, he
bravely held out until relieved by a small force under Rogen-
dorf. Maximilian entered Lombardy in person, [a. d. 1516,]
with twenty thousand men, ten thousand of whom were Swiss,
under the loyal-hearted Stapfer of Zurich, but was compelled
to retreat, owing to want of money, and the superior numbers
of Swiss in the service of France. Unable to save Milan, he
made a virtue of necessity and ceded that duchy to Francis.
In his old age, he zealously endeavoured to raise means for
carrying on the war against the Turks, but the princes re-

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218

THE CHURCH.

fused their aid, and the first symptoms of the reformation be-
gan to stir among the people. " Let us march," wrote Ulric
von Hutten, " not against the Turk, but against the pope ! *

PART XVI.

THE REFORMATION.

CXCIL The Church.— The Humanists.— The art of Print-

ing. — Luther.

The self-subjugation of Bohemia and the Vienna concordat
had effectually checked every demand for reformation in the
church, and Rome once more breathed freely. The people
were reduced to silence, and the popes redoubled their pre-
tensions and more shamelessly exhibited their vices. After
Pius II. (^Eneas Sylvius) had proved to the world that dis-
loyalty was the best recommendation to the pontifical throne,
Paul II. demonstrated by his all-despising brutality, splen-
dour, and arrogance, that he could still further abuse the vic-
tory gained by his predecessor, and by his fury against the
Bohemians the implacability of the despotism self-denominated
the loving mother of all the nations of the earth. Sixtus IV.
bestowed the fiendish institution of the Inquisition on Spain,
and public brothels on Rome. Innocent VIII. enriched his
sixteen illegitimate children from the treasury of St. Peter,
replenished by the offerings of the faithful, and publicly de-
clared that, " God, instead of desiring the punishment of sin-
ners, only called upon them to pay for their sins." Alexander
VI., whose horrid crimes have been recorded by his master of
the ceremonies, John Burkhard of Strassburg, surpassed all
his predecessors in profligacy. His daughter, the infamous
Lucretia Borgia, was termed " Alexandri filia, sponsa, nurus."
Stained with blood, unnatural crime, intemperance, and treach-
ery towards both friend and foe, this monster at length fell a

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THE CHURCH.

219

rictira to the poisoned cup prepared by him for his cardinals.
Julius II. concealed similar crimes beneath his love of war
which, although totally opposed to his destiny as the shepherd
of souls, was nevertheless tolerated in that chivalric age.
Leo X., who closes the line of popes immediately anterior to
the Reformation, was free from personal vices, but was a mere
child of fortune. By the interest of his powerful family, that
of Medicis, he was created cardinal at the age of thirteen, and
became pope at thirty-seven. Accustomed to pomp from his
childhood, he surpassed all his predecessors in splendour and
luxury, and was, on this account, besides his patronage of art
and his revival of those of ancient Greece and Rome, termed
" the heathen pope." Whatever praise may be his due as a
patron of modern and ancient art, the mind turns with disgust
from the anomaly presented by a pope surrounded with hea-
then divinities and licentious forms. The immense sums
necessary for the erection of the gigantic church of St. Peter,
raised by him in commemoration of himself, and for his other
extravagances, were drained from the different nations of
Europe, more especially from the Germans. All the ecclesi-
astical benefices, property, and revenues had long been in the
power of the pope, which no bishop nor council now ventured
to oppose, but, as the riches of the church were insufficient,
fresh and novel taxes were imposed upon the laity. Church
penances were multiplied. Since the cessation of the cru-
sades, the popes had decreed that whoever made a pilgrimage
to Rome and laid an offering on St. Peter's shrine, should re-
ceive as plenary remission for his sins as if he had undertaken
a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The jubilee was at first to be so-
lemnized every hundred years, which, on its being found so
productive, were decreased to fifty, then to thirty-three, and
finally to twenty-five. Countless multitudes visited Rome
and poured millions into the papal treasury ; but as the whole
of the faithful children of the church were unable to make the
desired pilgrimage, the pope considerately furnished them
with the means of purchasing absolution, by fabricating a pa-
per-currency issued by heaven, but cashed upon earth. These
indulgences, which fixed beforehand the price for each ima-
ginable sin, and secured the salvation of the purchaser, were
publicly offered for sale throughout Europe.

The popes no less desecrated their sacred office by the zeal

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THE CHURCH

with which they emulated the sovereigns of France in the art
of political perfidy, of diplomatic falsehood, of insidious trea-
ties, of treachery towards their allies, and of systematic ty-
ranny, of fraudulent or violent suppression of ancient popular
liberty. Political craft was, it is true, also practised by the
potentates of Germany ; the emperor, Charles IV., was, never-
theless, owing to the lessons he had been taught during his
youth at Avignon, the only perfect adept in the art, the rough
honesty of the German character ever displaying itself in the
actions, whether good or evil, of the princes of the empire.
In France and Italy deceit was, on the contrary, the guiding
maxim in diplomacy, the spirit of which has been faithfully
portrayed by Macchiavelli in his work, " The Prince," whose
political object is unlimited despotism, whose means are sol-
diers for conquest and oppression, money for raising an army
and for bribing opponents, assassination, treachery, falsehood,
for getting rid of a rival or for deceiving him, diplomatic spies
in the person of ambassadors at the courts of brother mon-
archs, (the papal legates were patterns for ambassadors of this
description,) and the promotion of popular ignorance by the
diffusion of superstitious doctrines, least believed by those
who taught them.

The depravity of the church was the inevitable result of
the enormous multitude of idlers and hypocrites fostered in
her bosom. The bishoprics had, generally speaking, gradually
become sinecures for princes and counts, and the canonries
were, consequently, as was the case at Strassburg, usually be-
stowed upon nobles of high birth, who revelled in wantoD
luxury. Men of talent could alone attain distinction in the
service of the pope. The priests were proverbially ignorant *
and brutal, and their ignorance was countenanced by the
popes, who expressly decreed that out of ten ecclesiastics one
alone was to study. Their morals were as depraved as their
minds were besotted. Celibacy was eluded by the main-
tenance of housekeepers, and drunkenness was a clerical vice
commonly alluded to in the satires of the day. Wealthy
priests had poor vicars, travelling students, in their pay, who
preached for them, and the hopes of these hirelings, wh( bore

• The anecdote of the priest, who, having once heard the expression,
" St Benedictus benedicat," ignorantly said, " St. Bernhardus bernhar*
4at,*' had long been a popular jest.

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THE CHURCH.

221

the whole burthen of the office for the merest pittance, may
be easily conceived, on the outburst of the Reformation. Most
of the travelling preachers belonged to this class. The most
horrid disorder prevailed in the monasteries and convents.
It was proverbially said in reference to the triple vow, " the
monks are only poor in the bath, obedient at table, and
chaste at the altar," and also, " the abbots have, by means of
their poverty, become the wealthiest proprietors, by mean3 of
their obedience, mighty potentates, by means of their chastity,
the husbands of all the women." The princely abbots of St.
Gall, Fulda, etc., who had a seat in the diet, were in fact power-
ful and real princes. The nuns were not much better than
the monks, who, John von Goch said at Mechlin, " did what
the devil was ashamed to think !" Schotasticism had intro-
duced fresh symbols into religion. The Virgin had become
an object of deeper devotion than either God or the Saviour,
and the people were habituated to gross and obscene repre-
sentations. The veneration paid to relics was rendered
ridiculous by the practice of deceit and the fabrication of sub-
stitutes. The saints had generally three or four different
bodies, and innumerable limbs, all of which were declared
genuine ; there was a chemise, belonging to the holy Virgin,
six feet in length ; the drum on which the march was beaten
when the Jews crossed the Red Sea dry-shod ; hay from the
manger ; a piece of the head of Tobias's fish, etc. etc. : added
to which were the coarse buffooneries enacted in the churches,
partly by the priests in self-mockery, the shameless burlesque
sermons, the fools' and asses' festivals, and other spectacles of
a similar description. The sale of indulgences was, however,
more revolting than all ; it was intrusted by the pope to the
begging monks on account of their intercourse with the peo-
ple, and the matter became a complete quackery. Tetzel, the
best known of these dealers in absolution on account of his
having been the first who was attacked, carried about a
picture of the devil tormenting poor souls in hell, and wrote on
his money-box,

"As the money in you pop,
The souls from purgatory hop."

The indulgence was at that period generally termed "The
Roman pardon," and was purchased more from fear than

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222

THE CHURCH.

stupidity. The emperor Wenzel and Hieronymus f Prague
were not solitary in their disapprobation, numbers regarding
it as an obnoxious tribute to Rome, and fear alone rendering
the popular discontent inaudible. It was, nevertheless, mani-
fested in an imperial decree of 1500, which declared that
a third of the immense sums raised by the sale of indulgences
should alone be granted to the pope, and that the remaining
two- thirds should be applied by the government for the de-
fence of the empire against the Turks, but no one, except
Wimpheling, who presented a work of his composition to the
emperor Maximilian during the diet held at Augsburg, a. d.
1510, in which he said, "that the church was intrusted to
people who knew better how to drive mules than to guide
men, and that Germany wasted money on the foreigner that
she required for herself," ventured to protest against this
system of peculation.

The old German universities, and those that had arisen since
the abandonment of that of Prague by the German professors
and students, were peopled with the most decided foes to the
Bohemian cause, and their doctors had been Huss's most viru-
lent antagonists in the council of Constance. Every species
of nonsense was at this period capable of being proved sense
by means of scholastic logic. Learning, however, speedily
revenged herself on her unworthy professors. The solemn
fools pretending to the title of professors and doctors were too
idle to learn even ordinary Latin, and men of superior intellect
gradually succeeded, under the unsuspicious pretext of im-
proving the languages in the universities, in elevating their
tone. A school, in which genuine piety went hand in hand
with enlightenment, had formed in obscurity, independent of
the universities. It was founded at Deventer, in the 14th
century, by Gerard de Groote, under the form of a monical
community, which bore the simple title of " Brethren of com-
mon life." This school sent forth Ruysbroek, who founded a
learned university in Grunthal, near Cambray. The younger
generation of students attained still greater distinction by
the study of the dead languages, by means of which they ob-
tained admission into the universities, and strongly opposed
scholasticism. The new study of the dead languages was
termed " Humaniora," on account of the historical aesthetic
philosophy introduced by its mean? in opposition to that purely

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THE ART OF PRINTING,

223

theological. The church at first took no offence at this in-
novation, the Humanists merely improving the church Latin,
whilst the study of the ancient heathen writers was simply
regarded as an amusement likely to wean men from the
practice of the strict morality inculcated by the Reformers.
The pure study of the classics was especially promoted in
Heidelberg and Erfurt by Lange, but its greatest patrons
were, at the end of the 15th century, Erasmus of Rotterdam
at Basle, and Reuchlin of Pforzheim in Tubingen, the former
of whom possessed all the subtlety, the latter all the solid
learning, requisite for deep investigation.* The study of
Hebrew in addition to Greek and Latin, however, roused the
suspicion of the church, which feared lest the study of the
Bible text might render the infallibility of the papal ordinances
doubtful, and [a. d. 1479] Burchard of Oberwesel was con-
demned to perpetual imprisonment for venturing to assert that
the Bible ought to be read in Hebrew. An attempt made to
burn all Hebrew books was controverted by Reuchlin, who
said "that it would certainly do no harm to destroy some
irrational books of the Jewish Talmud, but that whatever was
good in Hebrew ought to be perused like every thing that
was good in other languages." To the great vexation of the
opposite party, Leo X., who patronized learning, was of a
similar opinion.

The art of printing was invented in the first half of the 15th
century. The first step to it was the art of carving on wood ;
pictures of saints, cards for playing, elementary school-books,
had been printed from wooden tablets. This art was greatly
practised at Haarlem. The art of printing with movable
letters was first invented by John Guttenberg at Mayence ;
was improved upon by John Fust, with whom Guttenberg, on
account of his poverty, entered into partnership; and still
further perfected by Peter Schoeffer. Before the time of
Luther the Bible had already been translated and printed in
both High and Low Dutch, and the comparison between the

* Erasmus was reputed the greatest scholar in the world. A statue
was erected to his memory by his fellow-citizens at Rotterdam, where it
is still to be seen. It was asserted in the popular superstition of the day,
that from time to time he turned over a leaf of the book he is represented
holding in his hand, and that when the last leaf shall turn over the woilj
wiL be at an end.

224

THE ART OF PRINTING.

overdrawn ordinances of the church and the simple gospel
was thus greatly facilitated. The press quickly became the
organ of controversy, and the empire was ere long inundated
with works for and against the Humanists. The celebrated
Erasmus, without deviating from the dogmas of the church,
taught the students to read the Bible in the original text and
to investigate its meaning, whilst his Latin satirical poems,
the wittiest of those times, spread throughout civilized Europe,
and accustomed the reader to laugh at many things hitherto
viewed with reverential awe.* The increasing diffusion of
satirical works first demonstrated the power of the weapon
placed by Guttenberg in the hands of the people. The monks
perceived their danger, and, as the untaught people were un-
able to read or write, and books consequently fell merely into
the hands of the literati and the small educated portion of the
nobility and citizens, they sought to prejudice the people
against this novel invention by ascribing it to the devil, and
hence arose the story of Dr. Faust, in whose name that of
Fust the printer at Mayence is hardly recognisable. Berthold,
archbishop of Mayence, first introduced the censorship and
prohibited printed books.

Humanism was greatly promoted by the foundation of the
university at Wittenberg, [a. d. 1502,] by the elector of
Saxony, Frederick the Wise. Reuchlin sent thither young
Philip Melancthon, (Schwarzerde, black earth,) who possessed
both his solid acquirements and the subtle penetration of
Erasmus, and greatly surpassed them both in zeal for truth.
This university was opposed [a. d. 1506] by another
founded by Joachim, elector of Brandenburg, at Frankfurt on
the Oder, with a papal tendency.

The discovery of the passage to the East Indies and to
America opened a fresh field for investigation, and also greatly
contributed to the enlightenment of the age, befure which scho-
lastic sophistry could no longer stand. Still, notwithstand-
ing the advance in the learning of the age, the people, far
removed from its influence, remained in a state of mental
darkness, and the scholars of the day, liberal-minded as they

* Erasmus was, a. d. 1510, invited to England by Henry VIII., wrote
Wis " Praise of Folly" whilst residing with Sir Thomas More, and was
appointed Margaret professor of divinity and Greek lecturer at Cam-
bridge.—Translator.

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LUTHER.

225

frequently were, either wanted the power or the courage to
speak openly and freely. The veneration and awe generally
inspired by the authority of the pope restrained the discon-
tented, until a man, belonging to the lower classes, gave the
example, and animated even princes in the cause. Martin
Luther, the son of a poor miner in Saxony, an Augustin
monk, Doctor and Professor of Theology at the new uni-
versity of Wittenberg, a fiery and daring spirit, a hero in the
garb of a monk, resolved, alone and fearlessly, to promulgate
the convictions common to him and to many others. Uncon-
scious of his high destiny and as yet totally devoid of ambi-
tion, his first actions were solely inspired by wrath on seeing
the shameless conduct of John Tetzel, the retailer of indulg-
vnces, in Saxony.

Luther was born at Eisleben, and lived for some time with
his parents at Mcera, near Schmalkald ; on the improvement
in their circumstances, consequent on his father being taken
into the service of Count von Mansfeld, he was sent to the
academies, and at first devoted himself to the study of juris-
prudence at Erfurt, which he abandoned for that of theology
on the death of his friend Alexius, who was struck with light-
ning when at his side. He afterwards entered the order of
St. Augustin, a branch of Franciscans, whose strict morality
and learning strongly contrasted with the licence, ignorance,
and perverting sophistry of the other monastic orders. In
1509, Luther visited Rome on business relating to his order,
and took up his abode outside the Porta del Popolo, in the
little monastery that is still to be seen there. On his return,
[a. d. 1512,] he was appointed doctor at Wittenberg, and
[A. D. 1516] published the " German Theology," a work writ-
ten in the simple, severe style of the best mystics, among
whom he sought shelter and encouragement against the scho-
lastics. As yet he had neither joined the witty and learned
Humanists nor did his inclinations sympathize with theirs;
he attacked the follies and depravity of the age, not with sa-
tire and irony, but with the earnest gravity of a mystic monk,
a stranger to the world. He acted with perfect independence,
to the astonishment of both his antagonists and his friends.

On the 31st of October, 1517, Luther publicly brought for-
ward in the castle-church at Wittenberg ninety-five These*
against the indulgence, the principal of which were, "that by

VOL. II. Q

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LUTHER.

sincere repentance and penance alone, not by the payment of
a sum of money, could sins be remitted, and, consequently,
that the pope had no right to dispense absolution for money ;
moreover, that the pope, being merely the vicegerent of God
upon earth, could only remit the external penances ordained
by the church on earth, not the eternal punishment awarded
to the sinner after death." This bold assertion, like a spark
of vivid light amid profound darkness, rendered the truth fully
visible, and thousands, once the spell of silence broken, ven-
tured to utter their secret thoughts ; thousands became clearly
aware of facts of which they had before timidly doubted. The
whole of Germany and Europe was inundated with copies of
the Theses, and unanimously showered applause upon the bold
monk. The ancient church, undermined by advancing know-
ledge and her own depravity, tottered to the base. The ex-
citement caused by these Theses was so great that Tetzel
found himself forced to attempt a defence, which, however,
merely consisted of coarse abuse of his antagonist, and a
haughty appeal to the authority of the pope. Prierias, Hoch-
straaten, and Eck wrote in a similar spirit. At Rome, the
affair was merely viewed as a monkish dispute, and the Car-
dinal Thomas of Gaeta, (Cajetanus,) the general of the Do-
minicans, was commissioned to examine into it. The old
emperor, Maximilian, had, exactly at that period, [a. d. 1518,]
opened a diet at Augsburg, at which several of the princes
and cities complained of the sale of indulgences and of other
ecclesiastical disorders, and the emperor, deeming it politic to
make use of Luther as a means of humbling the pontiff, and
of compelling him to retract some of his inordinate demands,
refused to deliver him up, although he had been cited to ap-
pear at Rome, and, on the conclusion of the diet, a discussioi
took place between Luther and Cajetanus at Augsburg. Ii
was in vain that the cardinal demanded unconditional recant-
ation, Luther was firm, and Cajetanus at last terminated the
discussion by saying, *' I will no longer talk to this beast ; he
is deep-sighted, and has wonderful ideas." Luther appealed
"from the ill-informed pope to those better informed," and,
besides maintaining his Theses, increased the boldness of his
scrutiny and of his words as his antagonists augmented, and
turned the arguments they brought forward in defence of the
papal ordinances against themselves. The politics of the day

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■

LUTHER. 227

also momentarily insured his personal safety, and allowed
time for his friends to assemble before his enemies could take
any decisive step against him. The pope and all the temporal
princes were at that period deeply interested in the election
of a successor to Maximilian, who, on the close of the diet and
after assisting at the marriage of Albert Achilles, Margrave of
Brandenburg, with Susanna of Bavaria, had quitted Augsburg
for Innsbruck, where the citizens, enraged at the licentious
conduct of his officers, closed the gates against him and com-
pelled him to remain during the whole of the wintry night,
January, 1519, in his carriage in the open street. Mortifica-
tion and chill brought on a fever, and he expired at Wels on
his way to Vienna.

Frederick of Saxony became regent of the empire ; by many
he was even destined for the throne ; at all events his vote at
the election was of great weight, and the pope consequently
presented him with a golden rose and acted with extraordinary
lenity towards Luther, between whom, his friends Melancthon
and Carlstadt on one side, and the terrible dialectic Eck on
the other, a religious discussion took place at Leipzig.
Luther, powerful in body and mind, spoke with manly, clear
precision ; Carlstadt, a diminutive, dark man, with bitterness
nnd heat ; whilst Melancthon, with his pale countenance,
slight and drooping form, impressive tones, and deep learning,
breathed gentle persuasion ; but Eck, overpowering in person
as in lungs, drowned their voices, and with great acuteness
pointed out the contradictions inseparable from the Protestant-
ism of later days. This discussion, like its predecessors, was
merely productive of increased hatred.

Luther's partisans, meanwhile, increased in number and
courage. The Bohemians wrote to him with great delight t
the Humanists also declared in his favour ; U lric von Huttei.
addressed to him a letter with the superscription, " Awake,
noble freedom and Franz von Sickingen offered him shelter
and protection, in case of necessity, in his hidden castles ; but
Luther's hopes were centered in Charles V., the youthful
grandson of the late emperor, who had just been proclaimed
his successor, aided by whom the reformation of the church
would be secured. With this intention he addressed to him
a letter of admonition, but full of reverence and suited to the
•pint of the age, which the imperious youth, confident of the

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228 LUTHER.

infallibility of his commanding genius, and blind to the exi*
gencies of the times, did not comprehend, and treated with
disdain.

Inspirited by public sympathy, Luther gave to the world
his two celebrated works, " To the Christian Nobility of the
German Nation," and, "Of the Babylonian Captivity of the
Church," the boldest that had yet appeared. The words of
the hero of Wittenberg struck dumb his antagonists and con-
firmed the wavering. He addressed the pope, the emperor,
the aristocracy, the people, reminding them of the duty they
had to perform in these agitated times, and requiring each to
aid in placing Christianity and the German empire on a
firmer basis. He wrote in Latin to potentates and savants,
in German to the people, and his enthusiasm suddenly raised
that language, which had deteriorated since the Swabian
period, and laid the foundation to the High German of more
modern times. His introduction of a German in the place of
the Latin liturgy, until now used, of German psalm-singing in
churches, and his abolition of the Latin service, were justly
considered as some of the most essential reforms.

Rome now lamented her tardiness, and the pope, at the
urgent request of the German theologians, who saw the
danger close at hand, published, in the beginning of 1520, the
bull " Exurge Domine," in which Luther's doctrines were con-
demned. Cardinal Alcander carried the bull to Germany,
where his life was endangered by the almost universal popu-
larity of the bold Reformer, who now solemnly renounced all
obedience to the pope and to the ancient church. Convoking
the professors and students of Wittenberg before the Elster-
thor, he publicly delivered the papal bull and the books of
the canonical law to the flames, December 11th, 1520; the
elector not only countenancing this proceeding, but also blam-
ing Alcander for having promulgated the papal bull in Ger-
many without his knowledge, and declaring the papal bull
unjust, and that the pope, by listening to Luther's personal
enemy, Dr. Eck, had forgotten his duty as a judge by not
hearing the opposite side, and by needlessly agitating the peo-
ple. Shortly after this, on Christmas day, Carlstadt, publicly
and unopposed, administered the sacrament in both forma,
giving the cup to the laity after the manner of the Hussite*.

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CHARLES THE FIFTH

229

CXCIII. Charles the Fifth,— The Diet at Worms.— Thomas
Munzer. — ZwinglL — Pope Adrian. — Internal feuds.

Whilst the people were thus busied with the Reformation,
the attention of the princes was wholly bestowed on the elec-
tion of a successor to the throne, on which the balance of
power in Europe depended.

The house of Habsburg had become the most powerful in
Europe. Maximilian died, a. d. 1519; his only son, Philip,
in 1506, leaving two sons, Charles and Ferdinand, to the
elder of whom fell all the Habsburg possessions, and, on the
demise of Ferdinand the Catholic, the whole of Spain and
Naples, together with the late Spanish conquests in America.
This monarch boasted that the sun never set on his dominions.
A Persian ambassador addressed him as " the monarch pro-
tected by the sun." He also bore two globes in his escutcheon.
Although naturally desirous of wearing the imperial crown on
the death of his grandfather, he had, notwithstanding his
youth, the ability to perceive that his election would rouse
the fear and jealousy of the other potentates of Europe, and
cautiously to veil his ambitious project of gaining the supre-
macy in Europe. His motto was "nondum." Francis I.,
who had reaped laurels whilst Charles was yet a boy, his
equal in ambition, but his inferior in intellect and power, at
first boldly confronted him in the lists, and competed for the
imperial throne. Had the crown of Germany been placed on
his brow, the power of the Habsburg would have found an
equipoise ; his ill success, on the contrary, placed him, as if in
a giant's grasp, between Germany and Spain, and limited him
to a mere defensive policy.

Each of the competitors sought to incline the election in his
favour, and, as the issue was doubtful, to secure himself in
case of ill success. The pope dreaded Charles's supremacy
and opposed him, at the same time carefully guarding against
converting him into an enemy, whilst the electoral princes
dreaded the power of both of the aspirants and offered the
crown to Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony, who, con-
scious that the little power possessed by his house would in-
capacitate him from acting with the energy requisite on the
throne, steadily refused it. Francis was upheld by the dukes

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230

THE DIET AT WORMS.

of Wurtemberg, Brunswick, Gueldres, and Mecklenburg, and
for a short time by the celebrated knight Franz von Sickingen.
His partisans, bribed by promises and gold, however, merely
injured his cause. The traitors were viewed with universal
abhorrence, and Francis being rejected on the grounds of
his not being a German, the choice consequently fell upon
Charles, who accorded a capitulation to the princes, by which
they carefully guarded their rights, a. d. 1519. He left Spain
for Germany, a. d. 1521.

A great diet, to which all the princes and estates of the
empire flocked, was convoked at Worms, for the purpose of
receiving the emperor, of regulating the affairs of the empire,
but principally for that of deciding the Lutheran controversy.
The dignified demeanour, gravity, gentleness, and condescend-
ing manners of the youthful emperor, inspired the assembly
with reverence. The dislike of the Spaniards to their Ger-
man ruler, and the inimical preparations of his unsuccessful
rival, Francis L, rendered the confidence of the Germans and
the maintenance of peace and unity throughout the empire
important ; the new religious controversy was, consequently,
obnoxious to Charles, who, perceiving the indifference felt to-
wards it by the princes of the empire, deemed it a heresy easy
to suppress, and as offering a means of winning over the pope.
So blind was this emperor, talented in other respects, to the
tendency of the age. Recent events alone might have proved
to him that the Reformation was inevitable, and if, instead of
aiding the pope, he had placed himself at its head, it might
have been preserved from the errors produced by partiality,
have been carried through with power and moderation, and
have attained its aim without terminating in a schism.

Charles, anxious to retain the friendship of the elector of
Saxony, imagined that the Lutheran question might be quietly
set aside, and that the insignificant monk would seek to shel-
ter himself in obscurity from the proud imperial assembly at
Worms, before which he was cited to appear. Luther's
friends, alarmed for his safety, vainly advised him not to ap-
pear. On his arrival at Worms, two thousand people collected
and accompanied him to his lodging. He was summoned be-
fore the council, April 18th, 1521. His demeanour as he
confronted this imposing assembly was dignified and calm.
On being commanded to retract the charges he had made

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THE DIET AT WORMS.

231

against the church, he addressed them at great length in
German, and, at the emperor's request, repeated all he had
said in Latin, openly declaring that he should be guilty of the
deepest sin were he to recant, as he should thereby strengthen
and increase the evil he opposed, and urgently demanding to
be refuted before being condemned. This was refused. The
emperor, impatient for the termination of the affair, insisted
on a simple recantation, which Luther steadily rejected. The
manly courage. with which he spoke was beheld with admira-
tion by the princes, and with delight by the German nobility,
and ii was rumoured that tour hundred of their number had
sworn to defend him at all hazards ; papers were even found
on which the significative word " Bundschuh " was inscribed.

Luther was now put out of the ban of the empire, but the
emperor, who, in after years, bitterly lamented his not having
got rid of him by condemning him to the stake, pacified the
people by a solemn assurance of the inviolability of the safe-
conduct granted to him, observing, that " if truth and faith
abode no where else they ought ever to find a refuge in the
courts of princes." Luther returned home, but was on his
way carried off by a troop of horsemen to the Wartburg,
where, safe from the artifices of his enemies, he remained in
concealment under the protection of his friend and patron,
Frederick of Saxony.

The emperor, after forming a new government, in which
the elector of Saxony had great influence, returned to Spain,
leaving his brother, the Archduke Ferdinand, in possession of
Wur tern berg and of his more ancient hereditary possessions
in Germany.

Luther's party had already acquired such strength that his
works were even published at Worms, during the emperor's
stay. His friends, although imagining him lost, zealously
followed in his steps, but the want of a leader and the inde-
cision that prevailed in the exposition of the new doctrines
produced, like the rising storm as it beats the surface of the
ocean, a confused murmur throughout Germany. The literati
endeavoured to render the new Lutheran doctrines clear to
the dull comprehension of the people. Melancthon drew up
the principal articles of the Christian doctrine, (the loci com-
munes,) which greatly contributed to the harmony of the party,
and formed the groundwork of their system. Ulric von

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232

THOMAS MUNZER.

Hutten continued his attacks upon the pope. Luther, never -
theless, in his retirement in the Wartburg, where he was
known as the Chevalier George, and amused himself sometimes
by hunting in the neighbourhood, far more aided his cause
by the translation of the Bible into German, which, besides
rendering the Scriptures accessible to men of every grade,
greatly improved the language, and laid the foundation to the
whole of High German literature.

The illiterate and the enthusiastic, however, far outstripped
Luther in their ideas ; instead of reforming they wished to
annihilate the church, and to grasp political as well as religious
liberty, and it was justly feared lest these excesses might
furnish Rome with a pretext for rejecting every species of
reform. "Luther," wrote their leader, Thomas Munzer,
"merely draws the word of God from books, and twists the
dead letters." Nicolas Storch, MLinzer's first teacher, a
clothier, who surrounded himself with twelve apostles and
seventy-two disciples, boasted of receiving revelations from
an angel. Their rejection of infant baptism and sole recog-
nition of that of adults as efficacious, gained for them the ap-
pellation of Anabaptists. Carlstadt joined this sect, and fol-
lowed the example already given by Bartholomew Bernhardi,
a priest, one of Luther's disciples, who had married. The
disorder occasioned by Carlstadt, who, at the head of a small
number of adherents, destroyed the images and ornaments in
the churches, forced Luther, who, regarding himself as the
soldier of God fighting against the power of Satan upon
eartli, saw the works of the devil not so much in the actions
of his enemies as in those of his false friends and of those
who gave way to exaggerated enthusiasm, to quit his retreat,
and [a. d. 1522] he returned to Wittenberg, where he
preached for eight days, and at length succeeded in quelling
the disturbance. The moderate party regained its former
power. Luther continued to guide the Reformation. His
influence over the people and his moderation inclined the
princes in his favour, and strengthened their disposition to aid
his projects. Henry VIII. of England, although he wrote
with a coarseness against him which he equalled in his re-
ply, reformed the English church and threw off the papal yoke,
a step, which he would, in all probability, not have ventured
upon without Luther's precedent. Brandenburg, Hesse, and

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ZWINGLI. 233

Saxony, where Frederick introduced the service in the Ger-
man language, and, in 1524, the first German Psalm Book,
into the churches, warmly espoused the cause of the Reforma-
tion. The cities also declared in its favour. In 1523, Mag-
deburg, Wismar, Rostock, Stettin, Dantzig, Riga, expelled
the monks and priests, and appointed Lutheran preachers*
Nuremberg and Breslau, where almost all the priests married,
hailed the Reformation witli delight.

In Switzerland, [a. d. 1516,] Ulric Zwingli of Toggenburg
began to preach against ecclesiastical abuses, but was silenced
by a papal pension. Luther's example, however, again roused
his courage, and, since 1519, he exercised the greatest influ-
ence in Zurich, where the citizens generally favoured the Re-
formation. Their example was followed by those of Berne,
Basle, Strassburg, Constance, Miihlhausen, St. Gall,Glarus,
Schaffhausen, and a part of Appenzell and the Grisons. In
Zurich, Zwingli destroyed the pictures and organs in the
churches, whilst Luther protected and honoured art. His
marriage with a widow, Anna Reinhardt, was solemnized,
A. D. 1524. He administered the sacrament without the holy
wafer, with common bread and wine. The Anabaptists, re-
pulsed by Luther, encouraged by these precedents, drew near
to Zwingli, and their leader, Thomas Munzer, who had been
expelled from Wittenberg, went to Waldshut on the Rhine,
where, countenanced by the priest, Hubmaier, the greatest
disorder took place. Zwingli declared against them, and
caused several of them to be drowned, [a. d. 1524,] but was,
nevertheless, still regarded by Luther as a man who, under
the cloak of spiritual liberty, sought to bring about political
changes. Faber preached at Berne, that the Reformers had
begun with the clergy, but should end with the rulers.
Luther, on the contrary, cherished an almost biblical reverence
for the anointed of the Lord, by whose aid he hoped to suc-
ceed in reforming the church. Zwingli also went much fur-
ther than Luther in his attack upon the ancient mysteries,
teaching, for instance, that the bread and wine in the Lord's
supper merely typified the body and blood of Christ, whilst
Luther maintained their being the real presence.

In 1521, Charles Y. had raised his ancient tutor, Adrian
of Utrecht, to the pontifical throne. This excellent old man
tully acknowledged the evils that prevailed in the church,

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234 INTERNAL FEUDS.

accepted the hundred grievances of the Germans, and pro-
jected a comprehensive reform in the outward observances of
the church, independent of its doctrine. He shared the fate
of almost every German pontiff who had ventured to reform
the Church of Rome, and expired, a. d. 1523. His successor,
Clement VII., declared with great truth that " the separation
of the North from the church was far less perilous than a
general Reformation, and that it was better to lose a part than
:he whole." His endeavours were therefore chiefly directed
to the isolation of the Reformation, an idea, which he sought,
by means of his coadj utors, Matthew Lang and the Archduke
Ferdinand, to instil into the mind of the emperor. The per-
secution of the Lutherans, several of whom were condemned
to death, began at this period.

The tranquillity of Germany was at this time disturbed by
the Wurtemberg, Hildesheim, and Sickingen feuds. To the
numerous nobility of the empire in Swabia, Franconia, and
the Rhenish provinces, the opening Reformation presented a
favourable opportunity for improving their circumscribed po-
litical position, seizing the rich lands belonging to the church,
and raising themselves to an equality with, if not deposing,
the temporal princes. Ulric von Hutten vainly admonished
their union with the citizens and the peasantry as the only
means of success, a policy which their pride of birth and dread
of the encroaching democracy forbade them to pursue. Franz
von Sickingen,* a man of diminutive stature and of surpass-
ing valour and wit, celebrated for his private feuds with Metz,
Worms, and Lorraine, had, in the commencement of the war
between Charles V. and Francis I., been intrusted with the
command on the Rhine, where he was opposed by the Cheva-
lier Bayard, whom he shut up in Mezieres and was solely
prevented taking prisoner by the jealousy of the count of
Nassau. Francis I. seized this opportunity to make pro- J
posals to Sickingen and to the German nobility, who, in the
hope of succeeding in their schemes by his aid, willingly
listened, and Sickingen convoked the whole of the immediate
nobility of the empire of Swabia, Franconia, and the Rhinc;
to a great diet at Landau, [a. d. 1522,] where he was nomin-
ated captain of the confederacy, and i* was even whispered

* His portrait and that of Ulnc von Hutten, by Albert Durer, are ia
the Munich gallery.

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235

that, in case of success, he was destined to the imperial throne.
His opponents termed him the anti-emperor ; Luther, the anti-
pope. Cleves,Limburg, and Brunswick rose in his favour,
but were reduced to submission by the princes of Cleves, Co-
logne, and Hesse. In 1522, he besieged Richard of Treves
at the head of twelve thousand men, but was repulsed by the
princes of Hesse and of the Pfalz. Deserted by Furstenberg
and Zollern, the chiefs of the confederacy, he bravely defended
his fortress of Landstuhl against the overwhelming forces of
the enemy, until it was reduced to a mass of ruins by the
heavy cannonade. Mortally wounded by a splinter, he lay on
his death-bed, bitterly exclaiming, " Where now are my
friends Arnberg, Furstenberg, Horn, etc. ! " when the prince*
of the Pfalz, of Hesse and Treves, who had gained possession
of the fortress, entered his chamber. Richard of Treves loaded
him with reproaches, to which he merely replied, " I have
now to speak with a greater Lord than you," and immediately
expired. The three princes knelt and prayed for the salva-
tion of his soul. The taking of the Landstuhl decided the
triumph of the new over the old mode of warfare, of artillery
over the sword, the lance, and walled fortress, and that of the
princes over the nobility. Ulric von Hutten fled to Switzer-
land, and died at Ufnau, on the lake of Zurich, a. d. 1525.
Several other feuds of minor importance also disturbed the
empire. During the period intervening between the defeat
of Sickingen and the great insurrection of the peasantry, the
papal faction was unremitting in its attacks against that of
Saxony. The government of the empire, over which Fre-
derick of Saxony exercised great influence, being unable
to maintain tranquillity during the emperor's absence, its
authority consequently diminished, and was finally destroyed
by the disunion that prevailed among the Estates at the diet
held at Nuremberg, a. d. 1524. The disinclination of the
emperor to countenance the Reformation, the discord that
broke out among the princes at the diet, and their inability to
guide the Reformation and to hold the reins of government,
necessarily produced popular anarchy on the one hand, and a
fresh attack on the part of the pope on the other. Before the
outbreak of the great peasant war, immediately on the disso-
lution of the Nuremberg diet, Clement VII., by the cession
of the fifth of all the revenues of the church to the Bavarian

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THE PEASANT WAR.

dukes, induced tbem to promise to take up arms in case of ne-
cessity against the heretics, and to make the university of
Ingolstadt a bulwark of Ultramontanism. The Archduke
Frederick also received in donation from the pope a third of
the church revenues within his possessions, and appears, ac-
cording to Ranke, in his account of the Reformation in Ger-
many, to have also acceded to similar terms, a. d. 1524.

CXCIV. The peasant war. — Defeat of the peasants.

The example of the nobility, who revolted singly against
the princes, was followed by the peasantry, who had not re-
mained undisturbed by the general movement. The religious
liberty preached by Luther was understood by them as also
implying the political freedom for which they sighed.

Their condition had greatly deteriorated during the past
century. The nobility had bestowed the chief part of their
wealth on the church, and dissipated the remainder at court.
Luxury had also greatly increased, and the peasant was con-
sequently laden with feudal dues of every description, to which
were added their ill-treatment by the men-at-arms and mer-
cenaries maintained at their expense, the damage done by the
game, the destruction of the crops by the noble followers of
the chace, and finally, the extortions practised by the new law
offices, the wearisome written proceedings, and the impoverish-
ment consequent on law-suits. The German peasant, de-
spised and enslaved, could no longer seek refuge from the
tyranny of his liege in the cities, where the reception of fresh
suburbans was strictly prohibited, and where the citizen,
enervated by wealth and luxury, instead of siding with the
peasant, imitated the noble and viewed him with contempt.

Attempts had already been made to cast off the yoke, when
the Reformation broke out and inspired the oppressed pea-
santry with the hope that the fall of the hierarchy would be
followed by that of the feudal system. In 1522, they raised
the standard of revolt, the golden shoe, with the motto, " Who-
ever will be free, let him follow this ray of Tight," in the
Hegau, but were reduced to submission. In the autumn of
1524, a fresh insurrection broke out and spread throughout
Upper Swabia. Donau-Eschingen was unsuccessfully be-

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THE PEASANT WAR. 23?

sieged by the insurgents. During the winter, George Truch-
sess (dapifer) von Waldburg was nominated by king Ferdinand
to the command of the Swabian confederacy against the pea-
santry, and ordered to use the utmost severity in order to
quell the revolt. Negotiations were at first carried on be*
tween the Truchsess and the peasants of Stuhlingen, not-
withstanding which, in the spring of 1525, the insurrection
again burst out on every side under George Schmidt and -
George Toeubner, who formed a confederacy including all the
neighbouring peasantry, and fixed a stake before the house
door of every man who refused to join, in sign of his being an
enemy to the common cause. The Algauer under Walter-
bach von Au, and the citizens of Memmingen under their
preacher, Schappeler, joined the insurgents. The serfs of
the Truchsess besieged his castles. Ulric, the smith of Sul-
mentingen, encamped at the head of eighteen thousand men at
Baldringen. The most numerous and the boldest band of
insurgents assembled under Eitel Hans Muller, on the lake
of Constance. Ulric, the ex-duke of Wurteraberg, seized this
opportunity and raised a body of fifteen thousand Swiss mer-
cenaries, in the hope of regaining possession of his territories.
The Swiss, bribed by the Truchsess, who was shut up in
Tuttlingen between them and the insurgent peasantry, de-
serted Ulric when marching upon Stuttgard, sold his ar-
tillery, and compelled him to seek refuge within the walls of
Rotweil. The Swiss, although themselves peasants, disco-
vered little inclination to aid their fellows, and monopolized
their freedom. The peasants, abandoned by the Swiss, were
now exposed to the whole of the Truchsess's forces, con-
sisting of two thousand cavalry and seven thousand in-
fantry, well supplied with artillery furnished by the large
towns, and were slaughtered in great numbers at Leipheim
and Wurzach ; but their opponent was in his turn shut
up in Weingarten by Eitel Hans Muller, and compelled to
negotiate terms. The peasantry discovered extreme mo-
deration in their demands, which were included in twelve
articles, and elected a court of arbitration consisting of the
Archduke Ferdinand, the elector of Saxony, Luther, Me-
lancthon, and some preachers, before which their grievances
were to be laid.

The twelve articles were as follows : — 1. The right of the

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THE PEASANT WAR

peasantry to appoint their own preachers, who were to be
allowed to preach the word of God from the Bible. 2. That
the dues paid by the peasantry were to be abolished, with tho
exception of the tithes ordained by God for the maintenance
of the clergy, the surplus of which was to be applied to
general purposes and to the maintenance of the poor. 3. The
abolition of vassalage as iniquitous. 4. The right of hunting,
fishing, and fowling. 5. That of cutting wood in the forests.
6. The modification of soccage and average-service. 7. That
the peasant should be guaranteed from the caprice of his lord
by a fixed agreement. 8. The modification of the rent upon
feudal lands, by which a part of the profit would be secured to
the occupant. 9. The administration of justice according to
the ancient laws, not according to the new statutes and to
caprice. 10. The restoration of communal-property, illegally
seized. 1 1. The abolition of dues on the death of the serf, by
which the widows and orphans were deprived of their right.
12. The acceptance of the aforesaid articles, or their refutation
as contrary to the Scriptures.

The princes naturally ridiculed the simplicity of the pea-
santry in deeming a court of arbitration, in which Luther was
to be seated at the side of the archduke, possible, and Luther
himself refused to interfere in their affairs. Although free
from the injustice of denying the oppressed condition of the
peasantry, for which he had severely attacked the princes and
nobility, he dreaded the insolence of the peasantry under the
guidance of the Anabaptists and enthusiasts, whom he viewed
with deep repugnance, and, consequently, used his utmost
endeavours to quell the sedition ; but the peasantry, believing
themselves betrayed by him, gave way to greater excesses,
and Thomas Munzer openly accused him " of deserting the
cause of liberty, and of rendering the Reformation a fresh ad-
vantage for the princes, a fresh means of tyranny. "

The whole of the peasantry in Southern Germany, incited
by fanatical preachers, meanwhile revolted, and were joined
by several cities. Carlstadt, expelled from Saxony, now ap-
peared at Rotenburg on the Tauber, and the Upper German
peasantry, inflamed by his exhortations to prosecute the Re-
formation independently of Luther, whom he accused of
countenancing the princes, rose in the March and April of
1525, in order to maintain the twelve articles by force, to corn-

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239

pel the princes and nobles to subscribe to them, to destroy the
monasteries, and to spread the gospel. Mergentheim, the seat
of the unpopular German Hospitallers, was plundered. The
counts of Hohenlohe were forced to join the insurgents, who
said to them, " Brother Albert and brother George, you are
no longer lords but peasants, we are the lords of Hohenlohe ! "
The ringleaders were Florian Geyer, a notorious captain ot
mercenaries, Bermeter, Metzler, a tavern-keeper in the Oden-
wald, and Jaechlein Rohrbach. Numbers of the nobility were
forced, under pain of their castles being plundered and de-
stroyed, to join the insurgents. The castle and city of Wein-
sperg, in which a number of Swabian nobles had taken refuge
with their families and treasure, were besieged, and the former
was stormed and taken by Geyer. The citizens retained the
nobles, who, on seeing all was lost, attempted to flee by force,
and they fell together into the hands of the victorious pea-
santry, by whom the nobles, seventy in number, were con-
demned to run between two ranks of men armed with spears,
with which they pierced them as they passed.

This atrocious deed drew a pamphlet from Luther " against
the furious peasantry," in which he called upon all the citizens
of the empire " to strangle, to stab them, secretly and openly,
as they can, as one would kill a mad dog."* The peasantry
had, however, ceased to respect him. Florian Geyer returned
to Franconia, where he systematically destroyed the castles of
the nobility. The main body of the insurgents, meanwhile,
held a great council of war at Gundelsheim, in which Wendcl
Hippler, who had formerly been in the service of the counts
of Hohenlohe, by whom he had been ill-treated, advised them
\ to seek the alliance of the lower nobility against the princes,
and to take the numerous troops of mercenaries, inclined to
favour their cause, into their pay. The avarice and confi-
dence of the peasantry caused the latter proposal to be re-
jected, but the former one was acceded to, and the chief
command was accordingly imposed upon the notorious robber-
knight on the Kocher, GceU von Berlichingen with the iron
hand. Goetz had carried on several feuds with the temporal
and spiritual princes, and was reputed a bold and independent

• Caspar von Schwenkfeld said, " Luther has led the people out of
Hgypt (ura papacy) through the Red Sea (the peasant war), but has de-
aerud them in the wilderness." Luther never forgave him.

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240 THE PEASANT WAR.

spirit ; his eoarage was, however, the only quality befitting
him for the office thus imposed upon him, his knowledge of
warfare being solely confined to the tactics of highway rob-
bery. His life had been spent in petty contests ; and in the
candid biography, still extant, written by himself, he never
even alludes to the great ideas of the times, but details with
extreme zest the manner in which he had way-laid and plun-
dered not only armed foes, but also peaceable wayfarers and
merchants. With this extraordinary leader, or rather pri-
soner, at their head, the multitude crossed the Neckar, and,
advancing into the valley of the Maine, spread terror as far as
Frankfurt, where the communes rose and deposed the council.
Aschaffenburg was forced to subscribe to the twelve articles.
The peasants around Spires and Worms, and in the Pfalz, on
either bank of the Rhine, meanwhile revolted under Frederick
Wurm, and a citizen of Weisrfenburg, nicknamed Bacchus.
The insurrection in the Pfalz was quelled by the Elector
Louis, who listened to the demands of the peasantry, and in-
duced them to return to their homes. The eastern part of
Swabia was completely revolutionized, and fresh multitudes
assembled at Gaildorf and Ellwangen, under Jacob Bader,
who needlessly destroyed the fine old castle of Hohenstaufen,
and, on the Neckar side of the Alp, Matern Feuerbacher as-
sembled twenty-five thousand men. Had those multitudes, in-
stead of plundering monasteries and castles, aided their bre-
thren of Upper Swabia, the force of the Truchsess, before
which Eitel Hans Muller was retreating, must have been
annihilated.

The main body of the peasantry, under Gcetz, Metzler, and
Geyer, now marched upon Wurzburg, within whose fortress the
clergy and nobility had secured their treasures. The whole
country was in open revolt as far as Thuringia, In the city
of Wurzburg, Hans Bermeter had already incited the citizens
to rebellion, and had plundered the houses of the clergy. The
city was easily taken, but the strongly-fortified castle of
Frauenberg was gallantly defended by the feudal retainers of
the bishop. Several bloody attacks proving unsuccessful,
Goetz advised his followers to retreat, and either to aid the
Swabian peasantry against the Truchsess or to overrun the
whole of Franconia and Thuringia, and to spread the revolu-
tion to the utmost limits of the empire. But bis advice waj

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DEFEAT OF THE PEASANTS. 241

©▼em/led by Geyer, and the peasants continued to expend
their energy on the impregnable fort until the news of the un-
successful defence of their brethren in Swabia against the
Truchsess was brought by Hippler, in consequence of which
the siege was suddenly raised, and the united force of the
peasantry was turned against the Truchsess.

The elector, Louis, would, notwithstanding the counsels of
the refugee nobility, the bishops of Wurzburg and Spires,
who continually admonished him to break his plighted word,
to follow the example given by the Truchsess and others of
the nobility, and to head his troops against the peasantry,
have remained true to his promise, had he not applied for
advice to Melancthon, who declared him free from guilt in
case he broke his knightly word, and zealously exhorted him
to make head against the rebels. He joined the Truchsess,
who now found himself at the head of a well-armed force of
twelve thousand men, and marched to the relief of Wurzburg.

When too late, the Franconian peasantry resorted to
diplomatic measures by the convocation of a Franconian diet
at Schweinfurt, composed of all the Estates and nobles by
whom they had been joined, and which was opened by an
energetic manifesto. Negotiation was, however, unavailing
in the face of a victorious imperial army. Battle or flight
were the only alternative, and the diet was dissolved after
sitting a few days. Hippler vainly loaded the peasants with
bitter reproaches for their rejection of the counsel he had so
wisely given, and endeavoured to maintain some degree of
discipline and order. Goetz von Berlichingen secretly re-
gained his home during the following night, May 28th, 1525,
and a general dispersion took place among the different
bodies of peasantry. On the 2nd June, the Truchsess
attacked Metzler, who had encamped near Koenigshofen.
Metzler fled, and the peasantry were cut down by thousands.
This defeat was chiefly caused by the disunion that prevailed
among them and by the absence of Geyer and his followers, who
were engaged in negotiating terms with the Margrave Casimir
von Culmbach, and in besieging the castle of Wurzburg. Geyer
reached the field of battle too late to turn the day, and was
himself defeated in a decisive and desperate engagement that
took place a few days after. He escaped to the vicinity of
Limburg, where he was overtaken and slain.

VOL. II. B

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DEFEAT OF THE PEASANTS,

Thousands of the peasantry had fallen, and all opposition
now ceased. The city of Wurzburg threw open her gates to
the triumphant Truchsess, who held a fearful court of judg-
ment, in which the prisoners were beheaded by his jester,
Hans ;* nineteen citizens and thirty-six ringleaders were
among the number. Similar horrors were enacted through-
out the country, and were followed by a systematic persecu-
tion on the part of the bishop. The Rhenish princes were,
nevertheless, speedily recalled in order to quell a fresh insur-
rection that had broken out in their rear, and were again
victorious at Pfeddersheim. The Margrave, Casimir of Bran-
denburg-Culmbach, who had kept his father a close prisoner
for several years under pretext of insanity, treated the pea-
santry with the most refined cruelty, and reduced them to
such a state of desperation that the peasant lads would ask
him as he rode along, whether he intended to exterminate
their class. The Truchsess, after the execution at Wurz-
burg, joined Casimir at Bamberg, which had been lately the
scene of a fresh defeat of the wretched peasantry, who, to-
gether with some of the citizens, suspected of co-operating
with them, were cruelly butchered. Hundreds of heads fell
on the return of the expelled nobility. The spiritual princes
surpassed their lay brethren in atrocity. Another insurrec-
tion in Upper Swabia was put down. Goetz was retained a
prisoner for two years. Hippler died in prison. Nor did
the cruelty of the Truchsess remain unretributed. His son,
a student in the French university, was carried off, and, in all

• The peasants knelt in a row before the Truchsess, whilst Hans the
^ster, with the sword of execution in his hand, marched up and down
behind them. The Truchsess demanded, " which among them had been
implicated in the revolt ?" None acknowledged the crime. "Which of
them had read the Bible ?" Some said yes, some no, and each of those
who replied in the affirmative was instantly deprived of his head by
Hans, amid the loud laughter of the squires. The same fate befell those
who knew how to read or write. The priest of Schipf, an old gouty
man, who had zealously opposed the peasantry, had himself carried by
four of his men to the Truchsess in order to receive the thanks of that
prince for his services, but Hans, imagining that he was one of the
rebels, suddenly stepping behind him, cut off his head; " upon which,"
the Truchsess relates, I seriously reproved my good Hans for his un-
toward jest." See Hormayr. A young peasant said, as he was about to
be beheaded, " Alas ! alas ! must I die so soon, and 1 have scarcely had
% bellyful twice in my life !" Stumpf.

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DEFEAT OF THE PEASANTS. 248

probability, murdered, (as he never reappeared,) by a Chevalier
von Rosenberg, whom he had insulted.

At the same time, in the summer of 1525, an insurrection,
bearing a more religious character, broke out in Thuringia,
where Thomas Miinzer appeared as a prophet, and preached
the doctrines of equality and fraternity. The insurgents were
defeated by Ernest, Count von Mansfeld, whose brother Albert
had conceded all their demands ; and afterwards at Fulda,
by Philip of Hesse, who, reinforced by Ernest, the Duke
George, and the Elector John of Saxony, marched on Fran-
kenhausen, the head-quarters of the rebels, who, infatuated
with the belief that Heaven would fight for them, allowed
themselves to be slaughtered whilst invoking aid from God.
Five thousand were slain. Frankenhausen was taken and pil-
laged, and three hundred prisoners were beheaded. Miinzer
was discovered in a hay-stack, in which he had secreted
himself, put to the rack, and executed with twenty-six of his
companions.

The revolt had, meanwhile, spread from Strassburg through-
out Styria, Carinthia, and a part of the Tyrol, and Count
Sigmund von Dietrichstein was despatched thither by the
Archduke Ferdinand, at the head of a small troop of merce-
naries, for the purpose of restoring tranquillity. The merce-
naries, however, refusing to face the insurgents, he was com-
pelled to retreat and to reinforce himself with Hussars,* who
practised the greatest atrocities in the Alps. Whilst carous-
ing with his followers at Schladming, celebrated for its mines,
he was surprised during the night by the peasants under
Michael Gruber. Three thousand of his soldiers were slain,
thirty-two nobles beheaded, and he was himself taken prisoner.
His life was spared at the request of the mercenaries, who
had deserted to the rebels, but all the Bohemians and Hussars
in his army were put to death.

Ferdinand now attempted to pacify the peasantry by con-
cessions and promises, and sent to them, as mediator, George
von Frundsberg, the idol of the mercenaries, who succeeded
in quelling the rebellion in the Salzburg territory. Nicolas
von Salm, however, refused to make terms with the insur-

• So named from the Hungarian number "huss," twenty; these
troops of cavalry having been originally formed by the enrolment of every
twentieth man in Hungary. Translator.

m a

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INCREASING POWER OP

gents, and burnt Schladming with all its inhabitants, forcing
those who attempted to escape back into the flames. He was
also victorious over the rebel chief, Geismayr, at Radstadt.
Fearful reprisals were taken. The whole country became one
scene of devastation, and young children were cast as " Lu-
theran dogs" into the flames.

Thus terminated this terrible struggle, during which more
than one hundred thousand of the peasantry fell, and which
reduced the survivors to a more degraded state of slavery.

CXCV. Increasing power of the House of Habsburg. — Vic-
tories in Italy. — The intermixture of diplomacy with the
Reformation. — The Augsburg Confession.

The emperor, Charles V., and his brother, Ferdinand, en-
gaged in extending the power of their family abroad, took
merely a secondary interest in the events that agitated Ger-
many. The rescue of Italy from French influence and in-
trigue, the alliance of the pope as a means of promoting the
interest of the house of Habsburg, and the possession of the
Luxemburg inheritance, (Hungary and Bohemia,) formed the
chief objects of their ambition ; and the royal brothers, conse-
quently, solely took a serious part in the internal movements
of the empire, or made use of them, for the purpose of in-
fluencing the pope.

Austria was by no means free from the general state of
fermentation, and demanded the greatest caution on the part
of her ruler. A new government had been formed by the
Estates on the death of Maximilian, and their recognition of
his grandson was declared dependent upon certain conditions.
The doctrines of Luther were also preached at Vienna, by
Paul von Spretten, (Speratus,)and were generally disseminated
throughout Austria. Charles V., unable at that moment to
turn his attention to that portion of his dominions, intrusted
its management to the archduke, who visited Vienna in 1522,
seized the persons of the new counsellors at a banquet, and
deprived them and six of the citizens of their heads. Spera-
tus was banished, and his successor, Tauler, condemned to the
stake. Hubmaier of Waldshut was also burnt. Lutheranism,
nevertheless, rapidly progressed, and fresh preachers, patron-

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THE HOUSE OF HABSBURG.

245

ized and protected by the nobility, upon whom Ferdinand could
not retaliate, arose. The disputes between the emperor and
the pope, moreover, inclined him to leave the Reformers un-
harassed, nor was he altogether uninfluenced by the hope of
enriching himself with the plunder of the church. During
his church visitation in 1528, he discovered that almost the
whole of the Austrian nobility had embraced Lutheranism ;
and in 1 532, the Estates demanded religious liberty, and re-
iterated their demand with increased energy in 1541. When,
in 1538, Cardinal Alcander visited Austria, he found several
hundred curacies vacant, the priests having either run away
or married, leaving their posts to be gradually refilled by
Lutheran preachers. For ten years past, not a single student
in the university of Vienna bad turned monk.

Louis, the unfortunate king of Bohemia and Hungary, fell,
in his twentieth year, in the great battle of Mohacz, fighting
•against the Turks, and his possessions were inherited by
Ferdinand in right of his wife, Anna, Louis's sister. The
Bohemians, unwilling to give up their Hussite compacts, as
admonished by Luther, who urged them to make common
cause with Saxony, were flattered and caressed by the arch-
duke, who promised toleration in religious matters. In Hun-
gary he behaved with still greater liberality, and placed
himself at the head of the Reformers ; the Catholics, supported
by the pope, attempting to place John Zapolya on the throne.
This competitor was defeated, and Ferdinand solemnized his
coronation at Stuhlweissenburg, A. D. 1527. William of
Bavaria, another aspirant to the throne of Bohemia, was re-
jected by the Bohemians in favour of the more tolerant arch-
duke, and ever afterwards distinguished himself as a cruel
persecutor of the Lutherans.

Whilst these disturbances afflicted Germany, the youthful
emperor was busily engaged with Spain and Italy. On the
conclusion of the council of Worms he had hastened into
Spain to quell a revolt that had broken out against the Habs-
burg rule. Order was speedily restored, and, after fortifying
himself by an alliance with England against France, he des-
patched a Spanish army under Pescara into Italy. The con-
stable, Charles de Bourbon, who was on ill terms with his
cousin, the French king, also exerted his distinguished talent*
ew a commander in his favour. The pope, Adrian, was a

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246

VICTORIES IN ITALY.

complete tool of the emperor ; but his successor, Clement, en-
deavoured to hold the balance between the emperor and
France, whilst the petty Italian states dreaded the overwhelm-
ing power of the former more than the influence of the
latter. The French under Lautrec, aided by Swiss mer-
cenaries, were, consequently, enabled to take firm footing in
Italy, and Pescara was hard pushed. George von Frunds-
berg and his German Lancers unexpectedly came to his rescue
across the Veltlin, and an engagement, in which five thou-
sand of the Swiss fell, took place at Bicocca, A. d. 1522. The
Flemish and English also invaded France, and advanced as
far as Paris, A. d. 1523. In the ensuing year, Bourbon and
Pescara expelled the French from Italy. Frundsberg took
Genoa by storm, but Marseilles made a steady resistance.
Twelve thousand of the Lancers were carried off by pestilence
and famine during the futile siege.

In the ensuing year, Francis I. took the field at the head
of a fine army, supported by eight thousand Swiss under
Diesbach, and the Black Guard, five thousand strong, com-
posed of German mercenaries. Bourbon, Pescara, and Frunds-
berg awaited the enemy at Pavia, where a decisive battle was
fought, February 24th, 1525. Francis, incredulous of defeat,
refused to quit the field and was taken prisoner. The whole
of the Black Guard was cut to pieces by their enraged coun-
trymen. Twenty thousand of the French and their allies
strewed the field.

This glorious victory, however, exposed the emperor to
fresh danger. His power was viewed with universal appre-
hension. England united with France ; the pope, the Italian
princes, not excepting Francesco Sforza, who owed his re-
storation to the ducal throne of Milan to Charles, followed
her example, and Pescara's fidelity was attempted to be
shaken. France took up arms for her captive monarch, and
Charles, with characteristic prudence, concluded peace at
Madrid with his prisoner, A. d. 1526, who swore to renounce
all claim upon Italy and Burgundy, and to wed the emperor's
sister, Eleonora, the widowed queen of Portugal. But faith
had fled from courts. Francis no sooner regained his liberty
than he sought to evade his oath, from which the pope, more-
over, released him. Charles, meanwhile, retained his sons in
hostage.

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VICTORIES IN ITALY.

247

Pescara dying, Charles de Bourbon was created generalise
gimo of the imperial forces in Italy, and fresh reinforcements
were granted at the diet held at Spires by the princes, [a. d.
1526,] who in return were allowed freedom of conscience, the
edict of Worms being abrogated, if not in form, at least in
fact. George von Frundsberg, himself a Lutheran, and Se-
bastian Schertlin, another celebrated captain, speedily found
themselves at the head of a picked body of troops. A mutiny,
however, caused by the emperor's delay in furnishing the sum
required, broke out in the camp. Florence, trembling for her
safety, sent 150,000 ducats, and Charles of Bourbon conde-
scended to demand aid, which was refused, from the pope.
Frundsberg vainly attempted to quell the mutiny. His Lancers
turned their arms against him. He fell senseless with rage,
and never after sufficiently recovered to retake the command,
which deferred to the constable. The Lancers, ashamed of
their conduct, demanded to be led against the pope, and aston-
ished Rome suddenly beheld the enemy before her gates.
Charles de Bourbon was killed by a shot from the city. The
soldiery, enraged at this catastrophe, carried it by storm, a. d.
1527. The pillage lasted fourteen days. The commands of
the officers were disregarded, and Frundsberg fell ill from
vexation. The Lutheran troopers converted the papal chapels
into stables, dressed themselves in the cardinals' robes, and
proclaimed Luther pope. Clement was besieged in the Torre
di San Angelo and taken prisoner. The numbers of unburied
bodies, however, produced a pestilence, which carried off the
greater part of the invaders. The survivors, headed by the
Prince of Orange, marched to Naples, which he valiantly de-
fended against the French. The Germans under Schertlin
fought their way back to Germany. The French again in-
vaded Italy, and regained Genoa, but being defeated at Pavia
by Caspar, the son of George von Frundsberg, Naples still
holding out, Henry of Brunswick marching to the emperor's
aid, and Andreas Doria, the celebrated doge of Genoa, de-
claring in Charles's favour, Francis I. concluded a treaty at
Cambray, [a. d. 1529,] known as the ladies' peace, his mother
and the emperor's aunt, Margaret, stadtholderess of the Ne-
therlands, being the chief negotiators. Eleonora of Portugal
restored the two hostage* to their father, by whom she was
received as a bride.

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248 THE INTERMIXTURE OF DIPLOMACY

The defeat of the nobility and peasantry had crushed the
revolutionary spirit in the people, and the Reformation, strip-
ped of its terrors, began to be regarded as advantageous by
the princes. Luther also appeared, not as a dangerous inno-
vator, but in the light of a zealous upholder of princely power,
the Divine origin of which he even made an article of faith ;
and thus through Luther's well-meant policy, the Reformation,
the cause of the people, naturally became that of the princes,
and, consequently, instead of being the aim, was converted
into a means of their policy. In England, Henry VIII. fa-
voured the Reformation for the sake of becoming pope in his
own dominions, and of giving unrestrained licence to ty-
ranny and caprice. In Sweden, Gustavus Vasa embraced the
Lutheran faith as a wider mark of distinction between the
Swedes and Danes, whose king, Christiern, he had driven out
of Sweden. His example was followed [a. d. 1527] by the
grand-master, Albert, of Prussia, who hoped by that means to
render that country an hereditary possession in his family.
His cousin, the detestable Casimir von Culmbach, sought to
wipe out the memory of his parricide by his confession of the
new faith. Barnim of Pomerania, Henry of Mecklenburg,
the Guelphic princes of Brunswick, Wolfgang von Anhalt,
and the counts of Mansfeld appear to have been actuated by
nobler motives in favouring the Reformation. John, elector
of Saxony, and Philip of Hesse, adhered to Luther's cause
with genuine enthusiasm. Lubeck, Schleswig, Holstein, and
the majority of the northern cities, had already declared in
favour of the Reformation. Joachim, elector of Brandenburg,
Henry of Brunswick- Wolfenbuttel, and George, duke of
Saxon-Thuringia, formed the sole exceptions among the north-
ern potentates, and remained strictly Catholic, partly through
dread of the emperor and of the pope, partly through jealousy
of their relatives and neighbours.

The elector John, Luther's most zealous partisan, immedi-
ately on his accession to the government of Saxony, on the
death of Frederick the Wise, empowered Luther to undertake
a church visitation throughout his dominions, and to arrange
ecclesiastical affairs according to the spirit of the doctrine he
taught. His example was followed by the rest of the Lutheran
princes, and this measure necessarily led to a separation from,
instead of a thorough reformation of the church. The first

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WITH THE REFORMATION

249

step was the abolition of monasteries and the confiscation of
their wealth by the state, by which a portion was set apart for
the extension of the academies and schools. The monks and
nuns were absolved from their vows, compelled to marry and
to follow a profession. The aged people were provided for
during the remainder of their lives. These measures, arbi-
trary as they appear, were hailed with delight by multitudes
of both sexes, who sometimes quitted their convents without
receiving permission, and Luther, in defiance of the ancient
prophecy that antichrist would spring from the union of a
monk and nun, wedded [a. d. 1o2o] the beautiful young
nun, Catherine von Bora, who brought him several children.

The whole system of the church was simplified. The
sequestrated bishoprics were provisionally administered, and
the affairs of the Lutheran church controlled by com-
missioners selected from among the Reformers, and by the
councils of the princes, Luther incessantly promulgating the
doctrine of the right of temporal sovereigns to decide all
ecclesiastical questions. His intention was the creation of a
counterpoise to ecclesiastical authority, and he was probably
far from imagining that religion might eventually be deprived
of her dignity and liberty by temporal despotism. Episcopal
authority passed entirely into the hands of the princes. An
ecclesiastic, who received the denomination of preacher or
pastor, (shepherd,) was placed over each of the communes.
The churches were stripped of their ornaments, and the
clergy, like Luther, assumed the black habit of the Augustins,
over which they placed the white surplice when before the
altar. The German language was adopted in the service.
Luther edited the first book of hymns, the most beautiful
among which were his composition. The church catechism
was also placed in the hands of the schoolmaster, who was
under the surveillance of the pastor. The schools were
greatly improved by Luther.

Luther carried on a long and bitter dispute with Eras-
mus, which was rendered more violent by the papist party,
who poured oil upon the flames of discord.

In the diet held at Spires, [a. d. 1529,] the Catholic princes,
who had entered into closer union with the emperor, and
were in the majority, prohibited all further reform, and de-
creed that the affairs of the church should remain in statu quo

250 THE INTERMIXTURE OF DIPLOMACY

until the convocation of a council. Against this an energetic
protest was made by the Lutheran princes, from which they
and the Lutheran party received the name of Protestants,
April 19th, 1529. The ambassadors deputed to present this
protest to the emperor, who was at that time in Italy, were
thrown by him into prison.

The Landgrave, Philip, weary of the slow advance of the
Reformation, notwithstanding the general feeling in its favour,
now projected the union of all the Reformers in the empire,
and, for this purpose, concerted a meeting between Luther
and Zwingli at Marburg, A. D. 1529. Luther's invincible
repugnance to the tenets of the latter, however, proved an
insuperable obstacle to concord. He was, moreover, infatu-
ated with the idea of gaining over the emperor to his cause,
on his return from Italy. The elector, John, sued for the
hand of the emperor's sister, Catherine, for his son.

Charles V., after his triumph at Pavia and the conquest of
Rome, had arranged the affairs of Italy and entered into
alliance with the pope, on whose natural son, Alessandro di
Medici, he bestowed his natural daughter, Margaret, and the
duchy of Florence. Francesco Sforza was permitted to retain
Milan. In reference to religion, the pope openly preferred a
schism to a council, whence a general reformation might re-
sult ; and Charles, intent upon weakening the opposition of
the princes, {divide et impera,) unable to crush the Lutheran
party without resorting to open and bloody warfare, and com-
pelled by necessity to direct the whole of his forces against
the invading Turk, fully shared his views.

The Turks, then at the height of their power, had, under
Suleiman II., taken Rhodes and driven thence the knights of
St. John, a. d. 1522. Suleiman, prevailed upon by France,
recognised John Zapolya as king of Hungary, A. D. 1529,
entered that country at the head of two hundred and fifty i
thousand men, took possession of it and laid siege to Vienna. '
The siege lasted twenty-one days. After a last and furious
attempt to take the city by storm, Suleiman, after laying the
country waste as far as Ratisbon, withdrew, carrying thou-
sands of the inhabitants away captive.

The news of the retreat of the Turks no sooner reached the
emperor in Italy than his projects for reducing the Germans
to submission revived. After solemnizing his coronation ut

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WITH THE REFORMATION

25\

Bologna, he returned to Germany, where, on the 18th June,
1530, he opened the great diet at Augsburg. The hopes
cherished by Luther and by Saxony were completely frus-
trated, the proud emperor refusing to bestow the hand of
his sister on the elector, or to invest him, as was customary,
with the electorate, whilst Luther, owing to his being still
under the bann of the empire, was unable to appear in person
at Augsburg. Lutheran preaching was also strictly pro-
hibited in the city during the sitting of the diet. The princes,
nevertheless, openly confessed their resolution to remain true
to the faith they professed, and the emperor found himself
compelled to hear the accused before deciding the Lutheran
question. The confession of faith, known as the Augsburg
Confession, drawn up by Melancthon, and remarkable for pre-
cision, vigour, moderation, and forethought, was, consequently,
publicly laid [a. d. 1530] before him by the princes. Charles
expressed a desire to have it read in Latin, which was op-
posed by the elector, John, who exclaimed, " We stand on
German ground, his Majesty will therefore surely permit us
to use the German language." Charles assented, and Bajer,
the chancellor of Saxony, read it in a loud, clear tone, that
was distinctly heard, even in the castle-yard. The cities of
Upper Germany, more Zwinglian than Lutheran, presented a
particular confession, and a third party sent a printed copy
of Zwingli's creed. The result was, the adhesion of William
of Nassau to the Protestants the instant he became acquainted
with their tenets, and a counter-declaration or confutation,
remarkable for weakness, on the part of the emperor.

A last attempt, made by Melancthon, and supported by
Luther, to bring about a general reformation in the church
by means of the pope, with the view of securing the church
from the authority of the temporal princes, failed, owing to
the extreme demoralization of the clergy, and Luther was
speedily reduced to silence by the princes intent upon the
secularization of the bishoprics.

The Landgrave, Philip, equally averse to the conferences
both with the emperor and the pope, (the Germans, according
to him, wanting the spirit and not the power to hrlp them-
selves,) secretly quitted the diet and returned home, filled with
anger at the weakness of his friends in subscribing to the
decree by which the disciples of Zwingli were put under the

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THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION.

bann of the empire. He had, however, the melancholy grati
fi cation of seeing the failure of the projected reconciliation
the Protestants, after long and vainly demanding the acknow-
ledgment of their confession of faith from the emperor, re*
fusing to grant the aid he in his turn demanded against the
Turks, and the diet being dissolved in anger on both sides.
The edict of Worms, condemnatory of the whole of the
Lutheran innovations, was confirmed by the emperor. This
edict was rejected by the Protestants, and the city of Augs-
burg, notwithstanding the emperor's presence, refused to
subscribe. The emperor, unable to contend against the spirit
of the Protestant and the jealousy of the Catholic party, was
compelled to yield. The election of his brother as king of
Germany, for the greater security of the power of his house
in Germany and Hungary during his almost constant ab-
sence, was effected, after the dissolution of the diet, by the
Catholic electors, in January, 1531, at Cologne, Saxony re-
fusing to vote, and the dukes of Bavaria, the most zealous
among the Catholic party, siding, on this fresh confirmation of
the hereditary power of Austria and the consequent fall of
their hopes for the possession of the crown, with the oppo-
sition.

The warlike projects of the Landgrave were now upheld
by the whole of the Protestant party, and Luther, who bad
formerly maintained that obedience to the emperor, as su-
preme ruler, was a Divine command, openly declared war
against the emperor to be agreeable to the will of God. In
1531, an offensive and defensive alliance was entered into at
Schmalkald by John, elector of Saxony, Philip of Hesse,
Philip, Ernest and Francis of Brunswick, Wolfgang of An-
halt, the counts of Mansfeld, and the cities of Strassburg.
Ulm, Constance, Reutlingen, Memmingen, Lindau, Biberach,
Isni, Lubeck, Magdeburg, and Bremen. Brunswick, Goet-
tingen, Gosslar, and Eimback gradually joined the alliance ;
Bavaria declared herself willing to favour the Protestants,
and drew Zapolya in Hungary and the French monarch into
their interest. On the 26th May, 1532, a formal treaty was
signed at Scheyern between France, Bavaria, Saxony, and
Hesse, which drew a protest from Luther, whose national
feelings revolted at a league with France, his country's
hereditary foe. His words found an echo in the hearts ol

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THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION

2.53

the electors ; the French plenipotentiaries were dismissed, and
a reconciliation with the emperor, who, alarmed at the double
danger with which he was threatened from the French and
Turk9, no longer held aloof, took place, and [a. d. 1532] a
treaty for the settlement of existing religious differences was
signed at Nuremberg, the emperor acknowledging Protestant-
ism in statu quo, but merely until a future and definitive set-
tlement, and strictly prohibiting every fresh reform, as well as
excluding the Zwinglians, who were a second time put under
the bann by their Lutheran brethren ; the Protestants, in
consideration of this concession, granting the aid demanded
by the emperor against the Turks.

It was high time. Suleiman had again presented himself on
the frontier, at the head of an immense army, with the avowed
intention of placing himself on the throne of the Western em-
pire. All Germany flew to arms. The news of the termin-
ation of intestine dissension in Germany no sooner reached
the sultan's ears, than he asked, with astonishment, " Whether
the emperor had really made peace with Martin Luther?"
and, although the Germans only mustered eighty thousand
men in the field, scarcely a third of the invading army, sud-
denly retreated. A body of fifteen thousand cavalry, under
Casim Beg, laid the country waste as far as Linz, but were
cut to pieces by the Germans. Gratz fell into the hands of
Ibrahim Pacha, [a. d. 1532,] but the citizens, throwing them-
selves into the castle, made a brave resistance, until relieved
by an imperial army under Katzianer. The Turks were
routed. The Pacha was killed at Firnitz. Peace was con-
cluded between the emperor and the sultan, who was at that
time engaged in a fresh contest with Persia. A part of Hun-
gary was ceded to Ferdinand, Zapolya retaining possession
of the rest, but the Persian war was no sooner brought to a
conclusion, than hostilities broke out anew.

A violent struggle was, meanwhile, carried on in Switzer-
land. The Alpine shepherds, the four cantons, and Zug, since
known as the Catholic cantons, leagued together, and with
the Archduke Ferdinand. The whole of Switzerland took up
arms. Negotiation was unavailing, Zwingli being averse to
peace. He fell at Albis, where his party suffered a total de-
feat. Geneva rejected the Catholic service, Ta. d. 1535,1 as-

254

THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION.

sorted her freedom, and placed herself under the government
of the great Reformer, Calvin, whose tenets spread thence into
France, where they were upheld by the Huguenots (Eidgenos-
senf confederates).

Philip of Hesse, dissatisfied with the treaty of Nuremberg,
speedily infringed the conditions of peace by leaguing with
the Swabian confederation, and with Wurtemberg, against
Ferdinand. The emperor, threatened by fresh dangers, mean-
while lay sick, having broken his leg when hunting. A con-
ference took place at Marseilles between the pope and the
French monarch, both of whom smarted beneath the supre-
macy of the Habsburg, nor was it without the permission of
the former that the latter entered into alliance with the Ger-
man Protestants, and advanced 100,000 dollars in aid of the
attempt made by Ulric, the young duke of Wurtemberg, to
regain his duchy, at this time incorporated with Austria. A
meeting took place between Philip of Hesse and Francis I. at
Bar le Due, after which Philip, secure of his ally, took the
field with twenty thousand men, with the view of reinstating
Ulric on the throne of Wurtemberg. The Pfalzgrave Philip,
Ferdinand's stadtholder at Stuttgard, who had been merely
able to assemble a body of ten thousand men, was defeated at
Lauffen, and Ulric took possession of Stuttgard, A. D. 1534.
The emperor and the archduke, anxious to avoid a general
war, yielded, on condition of the latter being recognised as
Roman king, and of Wurtemberg remaining in fee of Austria.
Peace was made at Kadan, and, by a treaty at Linz, Bavaria
was induced to recognise Ferdinand as king of Germany.
The Protestant faith was established in Wurtemberg by Ulric,
who also ratified the ancient liberties of his subjects. Wur-
temberg, consequently, formed a point of union between the
Lutherans in the North and the Swiss ; and the Landgrave,
Melancthon, and the citizens of Basle again revived the nego-
tiations broken at Marburg, for the purpose of uniting the
whole of the Reformers in one great party. Luther was this
time more compliant, and gave his assent to the Wittenberg
concordat drawn up by Melancthon, which conciliated the
most essential differences between the Swiss and Lutherans.
A secret feeling of animosity, nevertheless, still existed, and
the concessions made by the Zwinglians merely brought the

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DISTURBANCES IN THE CITIES.

255

Calvinists in more striking opposition to the Lutherans, and
ranged all the free-thinkers and the republican spirits of the
day, opposed to Luther's doctrines, on their side.

CXCVI. Disturbances in the cities. — The Anabaptists in
Munster. — Great Revolution in the Hansa. — Dissolution
of the German Hospitallers. — Russian depredations.

Each of the estates had successively attempted to bring
about the Reformation. The clergy had commenced it by
raging among themselves; the nobility and the peasantry
had separately endeavoured to turn it to their own advantage
and had been defeated ; the attempts of the cities, still more
limited and isolated, were also destined to fail, for it was de-
creed that among all the Estates the princes alone should reap
the benefits it produced.

In 1523, a great movement took place among the cities of
Lower Germany. Lutheran preachers were every where
installed, the Catholic priests expelled, and the refractory
town councils deposed. The cities of Upper Germany also
favoured the Reformation. Strassburg, Constance, and the
cities of the Upper Rhine adhered to Zwingli. (Ecolam-
padius reformed Basle, A. d. 1529.

The Anabaptists had, since the defeat of the peasantry,
rarely ventured to reappear. The cruelty with which they
were persecuted by the Lutherans induced them to emigrate
in great numbers to the Netherlands, where the sedentary
occupations of the greater part of the inhabitants, chiefly
artisans and manufacturers, inclined them the more readily
to religious enthusiasm. The people were, at a later period,
secretly instigated to revolt by individuals of this sect. The
emperor, Charles, never lost sight of the Netherlands, which
he highly valued, and sought to secure both within and with-
out. For this purpose, he concluded peace with the restless
Charles of Gueldres, on whom he bestowed Gueldres and
Zutphen in fee, and published the severest laws or Placates
against the heretics, which sentenced male heretics to the
stake, female ones to be buried alive. Margaret, the stadt-
holderess of the Netherlands, died, [a. d. 1530,] and was

256

THE ANABAPTISTS IN MUNSTER.

succeeded by Maria, Charles's sister, the widow of Louis
of Hungary, who was compelled to execute her brother's cruel
commands.

The Anabaptists, persecuted in the Netherlands, again emi-
grated in great numbers, and were received [a. d. 1532] by
the citizens of Munster, who had expelled their bishop and
been treated with great severity by Luther, who, true to his
principles, ever sought to keep the cause of the Reforma-
tion free from political revolutions.* The most extravagant
folly and licence ere long prevailed in the city. John
Bockelson, a tailor from Leyden, gave himself out as a pro-
phet, and proclaimed himself king of the universe ; a clothier,
named Knipperdolling, and one Krechting, were elected bur-
gomasters. A community of goods and of wives was pro-
claimed and carried into execution. Civil dissensions ensued,
but were speedily quelled by the Anabaptists. John of Ley-
den took seventeen wives, one of whom, Divara, gained great
influence by her spirit and beauty. The city was, mean-
while, closely besieged by the expelled bishop, Francis von
Waldeck, who was aided by several of the Catholic and
Lutheran princes; numbers of the nobility flocked thithei
for pastime and carried on the siege against the Anabaptists,
who made a long and valiant defence. The attempts of
their brethren in Holland and Friesland to relieve them
proved ineffectual. A dreadful famine ensued in consequence
of the closeness of the siege ; the citizens lost courage and
betrayed the city by night to the enemy. Most of the fanatics
were cut to pieces. John, Knipperdolling, and Krechting
were captured, enclosed in iron cages, and carried for six
months throughout Germany, after which they were brought
hack to Munster to suffer an agonizing death. Divara and
the rest of the principal fanatics were beheaded.

The disturbances produced throughout Germany by the
Reformation concluded with a revolution in the Hansa, more
extensive in nature than any of the preceding ones, and which;
had it been less completely isolated from the southern part of

• It is a remarkable fact that the tricolour was, even at this period, the
revolutionary symbol. Uniforms were either grey or green, the arm?
white ; grey, in remembrance of death ; green, in sign of regeneration ;
white, in token of innocence. A golden ring was also worn in sign of a
common marriage.

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GREAT REVOLUTION IN THE HANSA. 237

the empire, might easily have produced the most important
results.

In 1 528, Luther's works were publicly burnt at Lubeck by
the common hangman, but, two years later, the people rebelled,
compelled the town-council to grant religious liberty, pro-
hibited the Catholic service in the churches, and drove the
burgomaster, Nicolas Brcemser, out of the city. His flight
was a signal for the expulsion of the whole of the town-coun-
cillors ; the artisans seized the government, [a. d. 1 520,] and
placed at their head Jiirgen Wullenweber, a poor tradesman,
whose genius was far in advance of his times. His nomina-
tion to the burgomastership of Lubeck rendered him, accord-
ing to statute, president of the Hansa, and, perceiving at a
glance the political position of the North, he projected the
lasting confirmation of the power of the Hansa by a great
revolution.

Shortly anterior to these events, the Hansa had made vari-
ous attempts to dissolve the union of the three kingdoms of
the North, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden under Christiern
II., and had aided the Swedes under Gustavus Vasa, and the
Danes under Frederick of Holstein, to shake off his yoke.
Christiern was treacherously seized by the Danes, and im-
prisoned in the castle of Sunderburg, A. d. 1532. The aid
received from the Hansa was speedily forgotten by the Swedes
and Danes, and Gustavus leagued with Frederick against
their common ally. Frederick expired in the ensuing year,
and Wullenweber instantly planned the restoration of Chris-
tiern to the vacant throne, and in his name organized a fear-
ful revolution against the Danish nobility. The liberty of the
people, was the general cry. The cities of the Baltic, Stral-
. sund, Rostock, and Wismar, imitated the example set by
Lubeck, and formed popular committees, all of which were
subservient to Wullenweber, who, aided by the burgomaster
of Copenhagen and the minter of Malmoe, the capitals of
Denmark, instigated the people to revolt. Mark Meyer, who
had risen from the forge to the command of the forces of the
city of Lubeck, the handsomest man of his time, defended the
Sound against the Dutch and English, and being wrecked on
the English coast, was thrown into the Tower and sentenced to
be hanged as a pirate. He, however, persuaded Henry VIII.,
who was at that time on ill terms with the pope and the em

VOl.. II. A

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238

GREAT REVOLUTION IN THE HANSA.

peror, and jealous of the northern states, to offer his alliance
to Lubeck, and, instead of being sent to the gallows, wae
dubbed knight and sent away with every mark of distinction
by the English monarch. Meyer, on his return, sent Wullen-
weber to Sweden, with the view of placing Sture, a descendant
of a royal branch, on the throne. This project was nullified
by the incapacity of the youthful pretender.

Christopher, count of Oldenburg, Christiern's cousin, now
took the chief command, and, although opposed by the Danish
nobility, who offered the crown to Christian, count of Holstein,
entered Copenhagen in triumph, the Danes every where rising
against the obnoxious nobles and bishops. Christian, in re-
prisal, closely besieged the city of Lubeck, cut off all cor-
respondence between her and the country, and destroyed the
suburban gardens and villas. The citizens, reduced by these
measures to a state of great discomfort, began to clamour
for peace, and Wullenweber, on returning from Copenhagen,
whither he had accompanied the count, was ill received, and,
notwithstanding his concessions, became, owing to the ma-
chinations of the aristocratic party, gradually less popular.
Christian, immediately after the conclusion of this partial
peace, attacked the Danish peasantry, who were in revolt
throughout Jutland, and beheaded their leader. Meyer was
betrayed into his hands at Helsingborg, and imprisoned in
Vardbierg, where he gained over the garrison, expelled the
commandant, and seized the castle. A decisive engagement,
in which the Hansa was defeated, took place at Assens. The
Lubeck fleet, which favoured the aristocratic faction, was, at
the same time, defeated by the united squadrons of Denmark
and Sweden. Hamburg convoked an Hanseatic diet, before
which Wullenweber appeared and implored the deputies to
prosecute the war. The aristocratic faction, nevertheless,
triumphed, and a decree was passed, threatening Lubeck with
exclusion from the empire, unless the people were compelled
to abdicate their sovereignty. The destruction of the Ana-
baptists in Munster increased the insolence of the aristocratic
faction in Lubeck ; the municipality was compelled to resign
its functions, and BroBmser was triumphantly reinstalled.

Wullenweber, deserted by the fickle citizens, was treacher-
ously seized by the archbishop of Bremen, and delivered to
the cruel duke, Henry of Brunswick, by whom he was three

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DISSOLUTION OF THE GERMAN HOSPITALLERS. 259

times put to the rack and then beheaded. Peace was, to the
fruin of the Hansa, concluded with Christian, and the Ger-
mans were withdrawn from Copenhagen, which was com-
pelled by famine to surrender. Meyer, forced to yield by his
followers, was put to the rack and quartered. The glory of
the Hansa fell, never again to rise.

The Lutheran clergy, however, celebrated their triumph
over the Anabaptists and the Calvinists. The maintenance
of the Confession of Augsburg and of the Lutheran Cate-
chism was confirmed by the Hanse towns, at a great convo-
cation at Hamburg, a. d. 1535.

The empire of the German Hospitallers, founded by the
Hansa, suffered far greater reverses. Albert, duke of Bran-
denburg, brother to Casimir von Culmbach and George von
Anspach-Jaegerndorf, was elected grand-master, a. d. 1511
The Poles, instigated by the bishops, invaded Prussia, A. d.
1520. A truce was concluded, [a. d. 1521,] although Al-
bert was, at that time, supported by a body of fourteen
thousand German mercenaries. The Order had fallen into
such great disrepute that the knights never ventured to wear
their dress in public. The pride of the aristocracy had
fallen ; the knights had voluntarily elected a prince as their
leader. The pope even, on the complaint of the duke against
the bishops, reproached him with the degraded condition of
the Order and demanded its reformation, a demand with
which he complied in a manner little intended by his monitor,
by yielding to the desire of the people for the admission of
Lutheran preachers, the use of the German language in the
church-service, and the abolition of enforced celibacy. In
1525, he concluded a treaty at Cracow with Poland, by
which the Order was dissolved, and he was declared hereditary
duke of Prussia, which he held in fee of Poland. He also
strengthened himself by an alliance with Denmark by wed-
ding the Princess Dorothea, the daughter of Frederick II.

Livonia and Courland, where the Teutonic Order still main-
tained a shadow of authority, were devastated by a horde of
one hundred and thirty thousand Russians under their czar,
Ivan Wasiliewicz II., the most bloodthirsty monster that
ever raged on earth. The Hansa, jealous of the prosperity of
the colony she had herself founded, refused her aid. Got hard
Kettler, the last master of the Order in Livonia, made a de-

• 2

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260 RUSSIAN DEPREDATIONS.

termined resistance, and was at length assisted by Poland,
Denmark, and Sweden, who partitioned the country between
themselves, leaving Courland and Semgall as an hereditary
duchy to Kettler. The jealousy that prevailed among the
new possessors was turned to advantage by the czar, who
invaded Livonia [a. d. 1572] at the head of two hundred
thousand men, plundered and ravaged the country, and mas-
sacred the inhabitants. A fresh invasion took place in 1577,
and the most horrid barbarities were again perpetrated. The
Ererman garrison of the castle of Wenden, on learning the
fate of their countrymen, destroyed themselves by blowing
the castle into the air. Hans BUring of Brunswick, the
hero of Livonia, alone made head with a small troop of fol-
lowers against the Russians, whom he greatly harassed.
The fortune of the czar, however, turned at Wenden.
The Swedes despatched an army against him under the
French general Pontus de la Gardie, who speedily drove him
out of the country. Sweden was rewarded by the possession
of Esthonia ; Livonia remained annexed to Poland, and Cour-
land under Kettler, whilst Denmark retained the island of
CEsel. The power of the two last was, however, very incon-
siderable, and before long a war broke out between the rival
powers, Poland and Sweden, from which Russia, ever on the
watch, alone reaped benefit.

CXCVII. The council of Trent.— The Sckmalkald war.—

The Interim. — Maurice.

Before the settlement of the great question that agitated
Christendom, the infidels had again to be combated. Not-
withstanding the aid promised by the Estates of the empire,
the Turks had met with but trifling opposition in Hungary,
where the imperial troops under Katzianer suffered a dis-
graceful defeat near Esseck. Katzianer, although evidently
innocent, was by order of Ferdinand imprisoned at Vienna,
whence he escaped to Zriny, the Ban of Croatia, by whom
he was assassinated as he sat at table under pretext of his
intending to seek shelter with the Turks, a step counselled
by his pretended friends. This defeat compelled Ferdinand
to recognise Zapolya as king of Hungary, on condition ol

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THE COUNCIL OF TRIDENT

the crown reverting on his demise to the house of Habsburg.
The reconciliation of the factions that agitated Hungary was,
however, prevented by the sultan, who overran the whole
country, converted Ofen into a Turkish city with mosques,
and partitioned the territory into Turkish governments. At
the same time, Haraddin Barbarossa, a Turkish pirate, found-
ed a kingdom in Algiers and seized Tunis, whence his ves-
sels struck terror along the coasts of Italy and Spain and
scoured the Mediterranean. Tunis was taken by Charles and
his ally, Admiral Doria, [a. d. 1535,] but the distant con-
quest could not be maintained, and the pirates speedily reap-
peared. A second expedition undertaken by Charles [a. d.
1541] against Algiers proved unsuccessful.

War again broke out with France. Francis I. renewed
his claims upon Milan on the death of Francesco Sforza,
[a. d. 1535,] ar'd invaded Italy, whence he was forced to re-
treat by Charles and the duke of Alba, who, in reprisal, en-
tered Provence, whence they were in their turn driven by
pestilence. Peace was once more concluded, a. d. 1537. The
emperor retained Milan. Three years after this, he journeyed
from Spain to the Netherlands, and having the intention to
visit Henry VIII. of England, had the boldness to pass through
France, where he was sumptuously entertained by Francis,
who accompanied him from Paris to the frontier.

The Lutherans, meanwhile, increased in strength, if not in
unity. John, elector of Saxony, was succeeded [a. d. 1532]
by his son, John Frederick, who surpassed him in zeal for the
Reformation : he was also continually at feud with Philip of
Hesse. Christian, king of Denmark, joined the Schmalkald
confederacy, A. d. 1538. Brandenburg embraced Lutheran-
ism, [a. d. 1539,] and Thuringia followed the example. The
nobility in most of the northern states upheld the Catholic,
the burghers the Lutheran, faith. 'The Protestant party de-
manded a council, independent of the pope and held on this
side of the Alps, and therefore refused to recognise the au-
thority of that convoked by the emperor for the settlement of
religious differences, for which it was moreover clear a
council was utterly inadequate. The Catholic princes also
openly entered into a holy alliance in opposition to that of
Schmalkald, a. d. 1538. This alliance consisted of the Arch-
duke Ferdinand, William and Louis of Bavaria, Eric and

262

THE SCHMALKALD AVAR.

Henry of Brunswick, and the ecclesiastical princes. Each
side narrowly watched the other and equally avoided a strug-
gle, whilst the moderate party again attempted to conciliate
matters with the aid of the emperor and without the pope.
Philip of Hesse was, at that period, also disposed to make
concessions. John Frederick of Saxony revived his former
project of allying himself with the house of Habsburg. The
emperor, moreover, still threatened by the Turks and French,
was, like the Protestants, far from disinclined to peace.

A tolerably peaceable discussion took place between Me-
lancthon and Eck at the diet held at Ratisbon, [a. d. 1541,]]
at which the Ratisbon Interim was proposed by Granvella,
the chancellor of the empire, in Charles's presence, for the
provisional accommodation of religious differences. The
princes of Anhalt were sent as imperial ambassadors to make
proposals to Luther, who, falsely regarding the whole affair
as an intrigue intended to mislead the Protestants, obstinately
refused to concede to the emperor's wishes. The French
monarch, meanwhile, anxious to separate the pope from the
emperor, and to hinder any concession on the part of the
former to the Protestants, pledged himself for the maintenance
of the purity of the Catholic faith, in which he was joined by
Bavaria, jealous of the restriction upon her power consequent
upon the union of the contending parties under the emperor.

Fresh disputes speedily broke out, and a wordy contest was
for some time carried on between the elector of Saxony and
Henry, duke of Brunswick. Blows quickly followed. The
Schmalkald alliance flew to arms, was victorious at Kalfelden,
[a. d. 1542,] and expelled the weak duke from Brunswick.
The city of Hildesheim expelled her bishop and embraced
Lutheranism.

The emperor again appeared in person at the diet held
during the ensuing year, [a. d. 1543,] at Spires, and per-
suaded the Schmalkald confederacy to aid him against the
French monarch, who had once more taken up arms. The
elector of Saxony was appointed generalissimo of the imperial
forces, and marched against William of Cleves, who, irritated
at the emperor's refusal to invest him with the countship of
Gueldres, for the purpose of annexing it to the Netherlands,
had entered into alliance with France. The city of Diiren was
etormed and burnt down, and the inhabitants were put to the

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THE COUNCIL OF TRIDENT.

263

word, and William, in order to save his country, flung him-
self at the emperor's feet at Venloo, ceded Gueldres, and, to
the great mortification of the Protestants, who had so strongly
aided in his discomfiture, swore to maintain Catholicism
throughout his dominions. He shortly afterwards wedded
the emperor's niece, Maria, one of king Ferdinand's daughters.
The French were driven from Luxemburg, which they had
seized, and pursued almost to the gates of Paris, when the
treaty of Crespy was suddenly concluded between Charles
and Francis, the former of whom, with the view of humbling
the Protestants, once more sided with the pope, urged the
instant convocation of the council, and took measures to curb
the growing power of the Schmalkald confederation, whose
members neither turned their favourable position to advan-
tage nor perceived the monarch's wiles. Henry of Bruns-
wick again attempted to regain possession of his territory, but
was defeated and taken prisoner at Nordheim [a. d. 1545]
by the leagued princes, who gained an ally in the elector of
the Pfalz.

The council of Trident was opened by the pope, [a. d.
1545,] and the emperor convoked a diet for the ensuing year
at Ratisbon, with the view either of entrapping the Protest-
ants or of putting them down by force. Before the opening
of this memorable diet, Luther expired at Eisleben, 18th
February, 1546. He died in sorrow, but in the conscientious
belief of having faithfully served his God, and, although the
great and holy work, begun by him, had been degraded and
dishonoured partly by his personal faults, although the Re-
formation of the church had been rendered subservient to the
views of a policy essentially unchristian, the good cause was
destined to outlive these transient abuses. The seeds, scat-
tered by this great Reformer, produced, it is true, thorns
during his life-time and during succeeding centuries, but burst
into blossom as the storms through which the Reformation
passed gradually lulled.

France being humbled, England gained over, and the sultan
pacified by the cession of Hungary, the pope and the emperor
turned their united strength against the Proicstants. In 1540,
the pope had taken into his service in Spam a newly-founded
monkish order, that of Jesus, which he had commissioned, by
means of the French and Italian policy practised by it as

264

THE SCHMALKALD WAR.

morality, to extirpate heresy. The motto of this new order
was, " The aim sanctifies the means." The Jesuits made their
first appearance at the council of Trent. The pope, more-
over, prepared a new bull, the publication of which he re-
served until a fitting opportunity.

The emperor, unwilling to have recourse to violent mea-
sures, tried by every method of subterfuge and hypocrisy to
induce the Protestants, at the diet held at Ratisbon, to recog-
nise the council, meanwhile secretly assuring the pope, in the
event of war, of his intention to extirpate the Lutheran
heresy. The pope, fully acquainted with Charles's duplicity,
deceived him in his turn, by publishing these secret promises,
to his extreme mortification, throughout Germany. The
anger of the Protestants was justly roused by the perfidy of
the emperor, who, true to his policy, now endeavoured to
breed disunion among them by putting the elector of Saxony
and the Landgrave of Hesse out of the bann of the empire,
whilst he spared the rest of the confederates, with some of
whom, for instance, Joachim II. of Brandenburg, who had
ever been lukewarm in the cause, Albert Alcibiades of Culm-
bach, and Maurice of Saxon-Thuringia, on whom Philip
had bestowed one of his daughters, he entered upon a secret
understanding. The publication of the bull, and the bann,
meanwhile, roused the most phlegmatic members of the
Schmalkald confederacy from their state of quiescent ease
and inspired them with unwonted energy. The gallant
Schertlin von Burtenbach assembled an armv in the service
of Augsburg and of the rest of the cities of Upper Germany ;
the Landgrave Philip hailed the outbreak of war with open
delight, and even the Saxon elector, unwieldy as he was in
person, mounted his war-steed with alacrity.

These vigorous measures took Charles, whose troops were
still unassembled, by surprise. In August, 1546, the princes
of Saxony and Hesse united their forces at Donauwoerth with
the burghers under Schertlin and the Wurtembergers under
Hans von Heidek. They numbered forty-seven thousand
men, and might easily have surprised the emperor, who had
merely nine thousand, of which two thousand were Spaniards,
at Ratisbon, had the advice of Schertlin, who invaded the
Tyrol, to advance with the whole of their forces been
listened to by the princes, who, unwilling to disturb Bavaria,

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THE SCHMALKALD 'WAR.

2 as

that had declared herself neutral, allowed the emperor tc
escape and to place himself at Landshut at the head of twenty
thousand men, sent to his aid from Italy, with whom he threw
himself into Ingolstadt. The disunion that prevailed among
the confederates, meanwhile, rendered their superior numbers
unavailing, and, after vainly bombarding Ingolstadt, they
withdrew with the intention of intercepting the reinforcements
brought from the Netherlands by the Count von BUren, who
eluded their search and joined the emperor with fifteen thou*
sand men.

The Saxon elector was now recalled into Saxony by an at-
tack on the part of Duke Maurice, who was secretly instigated
by the emperor, and the rest of the confederates dispersing,
Upper Germany was exposed to the whole wrath of the em-
peror. The cities, deaf to Schertlin's remonstrances, offered
no opposition. The princes of Upper Germany also submit-
ted. John Frederick of Saxony was taken prisoner on the
Lochauer heath, [a. d. 1547,] and Wittenberg was induced,
by the emperor's threat to decapitate his prisoner, to open her
gates. The elector steadily refused to recant. His prison
was voluntarily shared by his friend, the celebrated painter,
Lucas Cranach. Philip of Hesse was also treacherously seized
at Halle by the emperor, from whom he had received a safe-
conduct. The Protestant party was thus deprived of its last
support. Wolfgang of An halt voluntarily quitted his posses-
sions, and lived for some time incognito as a miller. Schert-
lin fled to Switzerland, and Bucer, the Strassburg Reformer,
to England, where his remains were, under the reign of Mary,
exhumed and burnt.

The emperor returned to Augsburg in order to regulate the
affairs of the empire, whilst his brother Ferdinand went to
Prague for the purpose of revenging himself upon the Bohe-
mians for the negative aid granted by them, during the late
contest, to the Protestant party. The bloody diet was opened,
and the heads of a confederacy formed at Prague, February
15th, 1547, by the Estates in defence of their constitution and
religious liberty, were publicly executed. Numbers of the
nobility were compelled to emigrate ; others purchased their
lives with the loss of their property. The cities were mulcted,
deprived of their privileges, and placed under imperial judges.
Numbers of the citizens were exiled and whipped across the

266

THE INTERIM.

frontier by the executioner. All the Hussites belonging to
the strict sect of the Taborites, the "Bohemian Brethren,**
were sentenced to eternal banishment and sent in three bands,
each of which numbered a thousand men, into Prussia. The
whole of Austria favoured the doctrines of Luther, but had
remained true to her allegiance. The pope, Paul III., terror-
stricken at the successes of the emperor, instead of being de-
lighted at the triumph of Catholicism, removed the council
from Trident to Bologna on the emperor's return [a. d. 1546]
to Augsburg, where, true to his former policy, he treated the
heretics with great moderation. His arbitrary abolition of
corporative government and restoration of that of the ancient
burgher-families in all the cities of Upper Germany gave a
death-blow to civil liberty. In the spring of 1547, Francis L
of France expired. His son and successor, Henry II., in-
stantly confederated with the pope against the emperor, and
even affianced his natural daughter to a Farnese, one of the
pope's nephews. Charles V., meanwhile, boldly protested
against the removal of the council to Bologna, declared its de-
cisions invalid until its return to Trent, and, in the mean
time, endeavoured to accomplish a church-union, without the
pope, with the now humbled and more tractable Protestants,
but all his diplomacy failed in reconciling principles diametri-
cally opposed.

The Augsburg Interim, chiefly drawn up by Joachim, the
lukewarm elector of Brandenburg, and his smooth-tongued
chaplain, John Agricola, and proposed as his ultimatum by
the emperor to the Protestants, was a master-piece of incon-
gruity, and utterly failed in its intention. Ulric of Wurtem-
berg and the Pfalzgrave Frederick, harassed by the imperial
troops, accepted it unconditionally, but the elector Maurice
attempted to replace it by another, the Leipzig Interim, drawn
up by Melancthon. The majority of the other princes also
highly disapproved of it. The captive elector of Saxony
steadily refused to subscribe, but the Landgrave, Philip of
Hesse, complied. The Interim was neither Catholic nor
Lutheran, and was viewed with suspicion by the people, by
whom it was regarded as a sign of retrogression.

The cities openly rejected the Interim, which the emperor
merely succeeded in imposing on the South, where his troopt
were encamped. Constance was surprised by the Spaniard^

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MAURICE.

267

[a. d. 1548,3 converted into a provincial town of Austria, and
compelled to embrace Catholicism. Flaccius, Luther's most
faithful disciple, until now a teacher at Leipzig, quitted that
city in disgust at the Leipzig Interim, which, in truth, was
not much superior to that of Augsburg, and took refuge in
Magdeburg, where the bold citizens set the emperor and the
pope equally at defiance.

The little approbation bestowed upon the Interim, and the
intrigues of William, duke of Bavaria, against his power,
now induced Charles to abandon his plan for the reconcilia-
tion of the Protestants without the interference of the pope,
and for their conversion by his means into mere political
tools. This change in his policy was, by chance, masked by
the death of Paul III., who was succeeded by Julius III., a
weak arid slothful prince, who, bribed by the emperor's pro-
mise of bringing the Protestants to him, opened, [a. d. 1551,]
apparently of his own accord, the council at Trent, whither
the Protestants were compelled to send their deputies. The
elector of Brandenburg most deeply humbled himself, by pro-
mising, as a good son of the church, to obey every decree of
the council. The emperor, unwilling to concede too much to
the pope, however, beheld this excessive servility with dis-
pleasure, and would, in all probability, have defended the
Protestants with greater ability than they displayed on their
own behalf, had not the whole tissue of impotence and fraud
been suddenly rent asunder by the rebellion of Maurice of
Saxony, whom the emperor had commissioned to execute the
bann pronounced upon Magdeburg, but who, secretly assem-
bling an immense force, entered into alliance with Henry II.
of France, and, together with Albert von Culmbach, raised
the standard of revolt, and published a manifesto, in which,
unmindful of their own treasonable correspondence with
France, they bitterly reproached the emperor for the numbers
of Spaniards and Italians brought by him into Germany.

Maurice, after granting peace to Magdeburg, marched,
[a. d. 1552,] with William of Hesse, the son of the captive
elector, and Albert the Wild of Culmbach, upon Innsbruck,
where the emperor lay sick. The Ehrenberg passes were
stoutly disputed by the Austrians, three thousand of whom
fell. A mutiny that broke out in the electoral army gave the
emperor time to escipe from Innsbruck, whence he wits car-

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268

MAURICE

ried in a litter across the mountains to Villach, in Carinthia.
John Frederick of Saxony was restored to liberty on condition
of negotiating terms of peace. The emperor was, at this
conjuncture, without troops, the enemy was in full pursuit, the
whole of Germany in confusion at this unexpected stroke,
the Catholics were panic-struck, the Lutherans full of hope.
Every city, through which Maurice passed, expelled the
priests, and the ancient burgher families rejected the Interim,
re-established the pure tenets of the gospel, and restored
corporative government. Had the reaction spread, the em-
peror would, infallibly, have been compelled to sue for peace.

Henry II. at the same time took the field as "the liberator
of Germany." His first care was to secure his promised
prey. Toul was betrayed into his hands. Metz was taken
by stratagem, and was henceforward converted into a French
fortress. The young duke, Charles of Lorraine, was sent
captive to France. Strassburg refused to open her gates to
the invader. Hagenau and Weissenburg were seized. The
people, far from countenancing the treachery of their rulers,
every where gave vent to their hatred against the French,
who were warned by their ally, the Swiss confederation, not
to attack the city of Strassburg. Maria, stadtholderess of
the Netherlands, meanwhile, sent a body of troops across the
French frontier, and Maurice making terms with the emperor,
the "Liberator" hastily retreated homewards, seizing Verdun
en route.

At the first news of the revolt of the elector, Ferdinand
had attempted to prevent war by negotiation, to which
Maurice refused to listen until the emperor's flight from Inns-
bruck had placed him in a position to dictate terms of peace.
A treaty was, consequently, concluded at Passau, August 2nd,
1552, by which religious liberty was secured to the Protest-
ants, and the princes, John Frederick and Philip, were re-
stored to freedom, Maurice binding himself in return to
defend the empire against the French and the Turks. He
accordingly took the field against the latter, but with little
success, the imperial commander, Castaldo, contravening all
his efforts by plundering Hungary and drawing upon himself
the hatred of the people.

Charles, meanwhile, marched against the French, and,
without hesitation, again deposed the corporative governments

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MAURICE. 269

reinstated by Maurice, on his way through Augsburg, Ulm,
Esslingen, etc. Metz, valiantly defended by the duke de
Guise, was vainly besieged for some months, and the emperor
was at length forced to retreat. The French were, neverthe-
less, driven out of Italy.

The aged emperor now sighed for peace. Ferdinand, averse
to open warfare, placed his hopes on the imperceptible effect of
a consistently pursued system of suppression and Jesuitical ob-
scurantism. Maurice was answerable for the continuance of
the peace, the terms of which he had prescribed. Philip of
Hesse, and John Frederick, whose sons had, during his im-
prisonment, founded a new university at Jena, similar to that
at Wittenberg, had already one foot in the grave. Ulric of
Wurtemberg had expired in 1550 and been succeeded by his
son, Christopher, who wisely sought to heal the bleeding
wounds of his country, upon which, in unison with his
Estates, he bestowed a revised constitution ; provincial Estates,
solely consisting of Lutheran prelates and city deputies, with
the right of rejecting the taxes proposed by the government,
of controlling the whole of the state property, etc., and ren-
dered permanent by a committee ; a general court of justice,
and numerous other useful institutions. Peace was, conse-
quently, a necessity with this prince. The weak elector of
Brandenburg was, as ever, ready to negotiate terms. Albert
the Wild was the only one among the princes who was still de-
sirous of war. Indifferent to aught else, he marched, at the
head of some thousand followers, through central Germany,
murdering and plundering as he passed along, with the intent
of once more laying the Franconian and Saxon bishoprics
waste in the name of the gospel. The princes at length
formed the Heidelberg confederacy against this monster and
the emperor put him under the bann of the empire, which
Maurice undertook to execute, although he had been his old
friend and companion in arms. Albert was engaged in plun-
dering the archbishopric of Magdeburg, when Maurice came
up with him at Sievershausen. A murderous engagement
took place [a. d. 1553]. Three of the princes of Brunswick
were slain. Albert was severely wounded, and Maurice fell at
the moment when victory declared in his favour, in the thirty-
third year of his age, in the midst of his promising career.
Albert fled, pursued by Henry of Brunswick breathing venge-

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270

MAURICE

ance for the untimely fate of his sons, to France, but, too
proud to eat the bread of dependence, he returned to Ger-
many, where he found an asylum at Pforzheim under the
protection of the Margrave of Baden. He died, worn out
by excess, [a. d. 1557,] in his thirty-fifth year.

Every obstacle was now removed, and a peace, known as
the religious peace of Augsburg, was concluded by the diet
held in that city, a. d. 1555. This peace was naturally a
mere political agreement provisionally entered into by the
princes for the benefit, not of religion, but of themselves.
, Popular opinion was dumb, knights, burgesses, and peasants
bending in lowly submission to the mandate of their sove-
reigns. By this treaty, branded in history as the most law-
less ever concerted in Germany, the principle "cujus regio,
ejus religio," the faith of the prince must be that of the
people, was laid down. By it not only all the Reformed sub-
jects of a Catholic prince were exposed to the utmost cruelty
and tyranny, but the religion of each separate country was
rendered dependent on the caprice of the reigning prince ; of
this the Pfalz offered a sad example, the religion of the people
being thus four times arbitrarily changed. The struggles of
nature and of reason were powerless against the executioner,
the stake, and the sword. This principle was, nevertheless,
merely a result of Luther's well-known policy, and conse-
quently struck his contemporaries far less forcibly than after-
generations. Freedom of belief, confined to the immediate
subjects of the empire, for instance, to the reigning princes,
the free nobility, and the city councillors, was monopolized by
at most twenty thousand privileged persons, including the
whole of the impoverished nobility and the oligarchies of the
most insignificant imperial free towns, and it consequently
follows, taking the whole of the inhabitants of the empire at
twenty millions, that, out of a thousand Germans, one only
enjoyed the privilege of choosing his own religion.

The ecclesiastical princes, to the great prejudice of the
Reformation, did not participate in this privilege. By the
ecclesiastical proviso, they were, it is true, personally per-
mitted to change their religion, but incurred thereby the de-
privatior. of their dignities and possessions.

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PART XVIL

THE WAR OF LIBERATION IN THE NETHERLANDS.

CXCVIII. Preponderance of the Spaniards and Jesuits.—

Courtly vices.

The false peace concluded at Augsburg was immediately
followed by Charles V.'s abdication of his numerous crowns.
He would willingly have resigned that of the empire to his
son Philip, had not the Spanish education of that prince, his
gloomy and bigoted character, inspired the Germans with an
aversion as unconquerable as that with which he beheld them.
Ferdinand had, moreover, gained the favour of the German
princes. Charles, nevertheless, influenced by affection to-
wards his son, bestowed upon him one of the finest of the
German provinces, the Netherlands, besides Spain, Milan,
Naples, and the West Indies (America). Ferdinand received
the rest of the German hereditary possessions of his house,
besides Bohemia and Hungary. The aged emperor, after thus
dividing his dominions, went to Spain and entered the Hie-
ronymite monastery of Justus, where he lived for two years,
amusing himself, among other things, with an attempt to make
a number of clocks keep exact time ; on failing, he observed,
" Watches are like men." His whim for solemnizing his own
funeral service proved fatal ; the dampness of the coffin in
which he lay during the ceremony, brought on a cold, which
terminated a few days afterwards in death, a. d. 1558
Charles, although dexterous in the conduct of petty intrigues,
was entirely devoid of depth of intellect, and ever misunder-
stood his age; magnanimous in some few instances, he was
unendowed with the greatness of character that had empower-
ed Charlemagne to govern and to guide his times. Possessed
of far greater power than that magnificent emperor, the half
of the globe his by inheritance, he might, during the thirty
years of his reign, have moulded the great Reformation to his
will ; notwithstanding which, he left at his death both the

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PREPONDERANCE OF THE

church and state in far more wretched disorder than at hit
accession to the throne of Germany. Frederick III. was too
dull of intellect to rule a world ; Charles V. was too cunning.
He overlooked great and natural advantages, and buried him-
self in petty intrigue. Luther remarked of him during his
youth, " He will never succeed, for he has openly rejected
truth, and Germany will be implicated in his want of suc-
cess." Time proved the truth of this opinion. The insuffi-
ciency of the Reformation was mainly due to this emperor.

Ferdinand I., opposed in his hereditary provinces by a pre-
dominating Protestant party, which he was compelled to to-
lerate, was politically overbalanced by his nephew, Philip II.,
in Spain and Italy, where Catholicism flourished. The pre-
ponderance of the Spanish over the Austrian branch of the
house of Habsburg exercised the most pernicious influence
on the whole of Germany, by securing to the Catholics a sup-
port which rendered reconciliation impossible, to the Spaniards
and Italians admittance into Germany, and by falsifying the
German language, dress, and manners.

The religious disputes and petty egotism of the several
Estates of the empire had utterly stifled every sentiment of
patriotism, and not a dissentient voice was raised against the
will of Charles V., which bestowed the whole of the Nether-
lands, one of the finest of the provinces of Germany, upon
Spain, the division and consequent weakening of the powerful
house of Habsburg being regarded by the princes with delight.

At the same time that the power of the Protestant party
was shaken by the peace of Augsburg, Cardinal Caratia
mounted the pontifical throne as Paul IV., the first pope who
following the plan of the Jesuits, abandoned the system of de
fence for that of attack. The Reformation no sooner ceased
to progress, than a preventive movement began. The pontiffs,
up to this period, were imitators of Leo X., had surrounded
themselves with luxury and pomp, had been, personally, far
from bigoted in their opinions, and had opposed the Reform-
ation merely from policy, neither from conviction nor fana-
ticism. But the Jesuits acted, whilst the popes negotiated ;
and this new order of ecclesiastics, at first merely a papal tool
in the council of Trent, ere long became the pontiflPs mas-
ter. An extraordinary but extremely natural medley existed
in the system and the members of this society of Jesus. Tlie

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most fervent attachment to the ancient faith, mysticism, as-
cetic extravagance, the courage of the martyr, nay, desire for
martyrdom, reappeared in their former strength the moment the
church was threatened ; the passions, formerly inspiriting the
crusader, burst forth afresh to oppose, not, as in olden times, the
sensual pagan and Mahommedan, but the stern morality and
well-founded complaints of the nations of Germany, to which a
deaf ear was turned ; and religious zeal, originally pure, but now
misled by a foul policy, indifferent alike to the price and to
the means by which it gained its aim, sought to undermine the
Reformation. Among the Jesuits there were saints equalling
in faith the martyrs of old ; poets overflowing with philan-
thropy ; bold and unflinching despots ; smooth-tongued di-
vines, versed in the art of lying. The necessity for action, in
opposing the Reformation, naturally called forth the energies
of the more arbitrary and systematic members of the order,
and threw the dreamy enthusiasts in the shade. Nationality
was also another ruling motive. Was the authority of the fo-
reigner, so long exercised over the German, to be relinquished
without a struggle ? This nationality, moreover, furnished an
excuse for immoral inclinations and practices, for all that was
unworthy of the Master they nominally served. The attempts
for reconciliation made by both parties in the church no sooner
failed, and the moderate Catholic party in favour of peace
and of a certain degree of reform lost sight of its original
views, than the whole sovereignty of the Catholic world was
usurped by this order. The pope was compelled to throw
himself into its arms, and Paul IV., putting an end to the
system pursued by his predecessors, renounced luxury and
licence, publicly cast off" his nephews, and zealously devoted
himself to the Catholic cause. At the same time he was, not-
withstanding the similarity in their religious opinions, at war
with Philip of Spain, being unable, like his predecessors, to
tolerate the temporal supremacy of the Spaniard in Naples.
Rome, besieged by the duke of Alba, was defended by Ger-
man Protestants, and the pope was reduced to the necessity
of seeking aid from the Turk and the French. Peace was
concluded, a. D. 1557. Philip afterwards treated the pope
with extreme reverence, and confederated with him for tfie
restoration of the church.

The settlement of the Jesuits throughout the whole of Ca-
vol. n. T

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PREPONDERANCE 01 THE

tholic Germany was the first result of this combination. Wil-
liam, duke of Bavaria, granted to them the university of
Ingolstadt, where Canisius of Nimwegen, the Spaniard, Salme-
ron, and the Savoyard, Le Jay, were the first Jesuitical pro-
fessors. Canisius drew up a catechism strictly Catholic, the
form of belief for the whole of Bavaria, on which [a. d. 1561]
all the servants of the state were compelled to swear, and to
which, at length, every Bavarian subject was forced, under
pain of banishment, to subscribe. This example induced the
emperor Ferdinand to invite Canisius into Austria, where
Lutheranism had become so general that by far the greater
number of the churches were either in the hands of the Pro-
testants or closed, and for twenty years not a single Catholic
priest had taken orders at the university of Vienna. Canisius
was at first less successful in Austria than he had been in Ba-
varia, but nevertheless effected so much, that even his oppo-
nents declared that without him the whole of southern Ger-
many would have ceased to be Catholic* Cardinal Otto,
bishop of Augsburg, a Truchsess von Waldburg, aided by
Bavaria, compelled his diocesans to recant, and founded a Je-
suitical university at Dillingen. In Cologne and Treves the
Jesuits simultaneously suppressed the Reformation and civil
liberty. Coblentz was deprived of all her ancient privileges,
a. d. 1561, and Treves, a. d. 1580.

Ferdinand I. was in a difficult position. Paul IV. refused
to acknowledge him on account of the peace concluded be-
tween him and the Protestants, whom he was unable to op-
pose, and whose tenets he refused to embrace, notwithstanding
the expressed wish of the majority of his subjects. Like his
brother, he intrigued and diplomatized until his Jesuitical con-
fessor, Bobadilla, and the new pope, Pius IV., again placed
him on good terms with Rome, a. d. 1559. He also found a
mediator in Carlo Borromeo, archbishop of Milan, who had
gained a high reputation for sanctity by his fearless and phi-
lanthropic behaviour during a pestilence, and who was, more-
over, a zealous upholder of the external pomp of the church
and of public devotion.

Augustus, elector of Saxony, the brother of Maurice,
alarmed at the fresh alliance between the emperor and the
pope, convoked a meeting of the Protestant leaders at Naum-

* He was in consequence mockingly termed " canis Austriaciis."

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burg. His fears were, however, allayed by the peaceful pro-
posals of the emperor, [a. d. 1561,] and, in point of fact, the
fitting moment for another attempt at reconciliation had ar-
rived. The great leaders of the Reformation were dead, the
eeal of their successors had cooled or they were at variance
with one another. Disgust had driven several theologians
back to the bosom of the Roman Church. The emperor, and
even Albert of Bavaria, William's successor, were willing to
concede marriage to the priests, the sacrament under both
forms to the people, the use of the German tongue in the
thurch-service, and several other points, for the sake of ter-
minating the schism in the church ; and even the pope, through
his talented nuncio, Commendone, made several extremely
touching representations to the assembly at Naumburg. All
was vain. Commendone was treated with great indignity by
the assembled Protestants. His subsequent attempt to gain
the princes over one by one also failed, Brandenburg alone
giving him a favourable reception. The assembly at Naum-
burg was, nevertheless, extremely peaceful in comparison with
the convocation held simultaneously at Liineburg, where the
strictest Lutherans, the pope's most irreconcilable foes, chiefly
preachers from the Hanse towns, had assembled. John Fre-
derick, duke of Weimar, had also separated himself from the
meeting at Naumburg, through hatred of the electoral house.

The reconciliation so ardently hoped for by the moderate
party on both sides, was no longer possible. The schism had
been too much widened ever again to close. The Protestants,
instead of awaiting a general discussion of ecclesiastical mat-
ters by a council, had, on their own responsibility, founded a
new church with new ceremonies and tenets. The Catholics
had, on their side, placed the council not over the pope, but
the pope over the council, in order to give themselves a head
and greater unity, and this council, led by the Jesuits, had
already passed several resolutions to which the Protestants
could not accede. Neither party would retract lest more
might be lost, and each viewed the other with the deepest dis-
trust. Leon hard Haller, bishop of Eichstaedt, said in the
council, " It is dangerous to refuse the demands of the Pro-
testants, but much more so to grant them." Both parties
shared this opinion, and resolved to maintain the schism. A
last attempt to save the unity of the German church, in the

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PREPONDERANCE OF THE

e\ ent ot its separation from that of Rome, was made by Fer*
dinand, who convoked the spiritual electoral princes, the arch*
bishops and bishops, for that purpose to Vienna, but the con-
sideration with which he was compelled to treat the pope
rendered his efforts weak and ineffectual ; those made by
Albert of Bavaria, independently of the Protestants, in the
council, for the abolition or restriction of the most glaring
I abuses in the church, were more successful, although the whole
Df his demands were not conceded. The council clearly per-
ceived the necessity of raising the fallen credit of the clergy
by the revival of morality. A number of abuses in this
respect, more particularly the sale of indulgences, were abol-
ished ; the local authority of the bishops was restored, and
the arbitrary power of the legates restricted ; a catechism for
the instruction of the Catholics was adopted in imitation of
that published by the Lutherans, and, by the foundation of
the Order of Jesus, talent and learning were once more to be
spread among the monastic orders. But the council also drew
the bonds of ancient dogmatism closer than ever, by its con-
firmation of the supremacy of the pope and of his infallibility
in all ecclesiastical matters. "Cursed be all heretics," ex-
claimed the cardinal of Lorraine at the conclusion of the
council, which re-echoed his words with thunders of applause,
a. d. 1563. Pius IV., who closed the council, and, by his
reconciliation with the emperor and with Spain, had weakened
the opposition of the hierarchy and strengthened that of the
Protestants, was succeeded by Pius V., a blind zealot, who
castigated himself, and, like Philip in Spain, tracked the here-
tics in the State of the Church by means of the Inquisition,
and condemned numbers to the stake.

The Protestants, blind to the unity and strength resulting
from the policy of the Catholics, weakened themselves more
and more by division. The Reformed Swiss were almost more
inimical to the Lutherans than the Catholics were, and the
general mania for disputation and theological obstinacy pro-
duced divisions amongst the Reformers themselves. When,
in 1562, Bullinger set up the Helvetic Confession, to which
the Pfalz also assented, in Zurich, Basle refused and main-
tained a particular Confession. A university, intended by
Ferdinand I. as a bulwark against the Reformation, was
founded by him at Besancon, then an imperial city, A. d. 1564.

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Ferdinand expired, [a. d. 1564,] and was succeeded on the
imperial throne by his son, Maximilian II., who had gained
great popularity throughout Germany by his inclination to
favour the Lutherans ; but, unstable in character, he commit-
ted the fault of granting religious liberty to his subjects with-
out embracing Lutheranism himself, and consequently exposed
them to the most fearful persecution under his successor. No
one ever more convincingly proved how much more half-
friendship is to be dreaded than utter enmity.

The empire was, at this period, externally at peace.
France, embroiled by the Catholics and Huguenots, was
governed by a female monster, the widow of Henry II., the
Italian, Catherine di Medicis, who, sunk in profligacy, and
the zealous champion of the ancient church, reigned in the
name of her sons, Francis II. and Charles IX. The Hugue-
nots turned for relief to Germany. In 1562, six thousand
Hessians, and, in 1567, the Pfalzgrave, John Casimir, with
seventeen thousand men, marched to their aid. The queen
was, on her side, assisted by the Swiss Catholics, and, to his
eternal disgrace, by John William, duke of Weimar, who
sent a reinforcement of five thousand men. John Casimir
reaped still deeper shame by his acceptation of a royal bribe,
and his consequent desertion of the Huguenots.

The Turks also left the empire undisturbed. They were
opposed in Hungary by an imperial army under Castaldo,
which, instead of defending, laid the country waste. The
monk, George Mertenhausen, (Martinuzzi,) was more in-
fluential by his intrigues. On the death of Zapolya, to
whom he had acted both as temporal and spiritual adviser, he
found himself at the head of affairs in Hungary, and proposed
a marriage, which never took place, between Zapolya's son,
John Sigismund, and one of Ferdinand's daughters. His
first condition was the emancipation of the peasantry by the
emperor, on the grounds that " the Turks offered liberty to
the Hungarian serfs, and thereby induced numbers to aposta-
tize, and, in this apostacy from Christianity, those alone who
tyrannized over the peasantry were to blame." Ferdinand
naturally refused to listen to these remonstrances, and George
was shortly afterc accused of a treacherous correspond-
ence with the Tui 1 was murdered by Castaldo's bravos.
The pope, who shortly before presented him, at Fer-

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PREPONDERANCE OF THE

dinand's request, with a cardinal's hat, merely observed on
this occasion, " He ought either to have been less strongly re-
commended or not to have been assassinated." The Hunga-
rians, roused to desperation by the tyranny of Castaldo, and by
the devastation committed by his soldiery, at length attacked
him, killed the greater part of his men, and declared in favour
of John Sigismund Zapolya. This demonstration was ren-
dered still more effective by an invasion of Carniola by the
Turks, a. d. 1559. Maximilian II., on his accession to the
throne, purchased peace by an annual tribute of 300,000
guilders, and by the recognition of John Sigismund as prince
of Transylvania. The sultan infringed the treaty ; the peace
of Germany, nevertheless, remained undisturbed, the grey-
headed sultan expiring before the walls of Sigeth, which were
gallantly defended, to the immortal honour of his nation, by
the Hungarian, Nicolas Zriny. The Turks withdrew, and
were kept in check by Lazarus Schwendi, an old and experi-
enced general of the time of Charles V.

Maximilian, insensible to the advantages presented by the
peaceful state of the empire, and incapable of guiding events,
merely ventured upon a few timid steps that might easily be
retraced. After having, in 1565, invited Pius IV. to abro-
gate the celibacy of the clergy, against which he protested,
his next step should have been the prosecution of the Re-
formation independent of the pope ; instead of which, uncon-
scious of the deadly suspicion and of the dark assassin that
dogged his every step, he used his utmost efforts to preserve
amicable relations with him, whilst, on the other hand, he
granted the free exercise of their religion to the Austrian no-
bility, and to the cities of Linz, Steyer, Enns, Wels, Frei-
stadt, Gmunden, and Vcecklabruck, and tolerated the intro-
duction of the new Protestant church into Austria by Chytraeus
von Rostock, a. d. 1568. He afterwards allowed the Bible
to be translated for the use of the Slavonians in Carniola,
Carinthia, and Styria, and protected, even in Vienna, the
Protestants as well as the Jesuits, on one occasion bestowing
a box on the ear on his son, afterwards the emperor Rudolf
II., for having attached a Protestant church at the instigation
of the Jesuits. Half measures of this description were ex-
actly calculated to excite the revenge of the young emperor
on the decease of his father Had Maximilian embraced the

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Lutheran faith, or, at all events, extended freedom in religious
matters indifferently to every class, had he sanctioned it by a
solemn decree, and placed it under the guarantee of the rest
of Protestant Germany, his concessions would have met with
a blessed result and have defied the sovereign's caprice, in-
stead of acting, as they eventually did, as a curse upon those
among his subjects, who, under his protection, demonstrated
their real opinions, and were, consequently, marked as victims
by his fanatical successor. He also tolerated the grossest
papacy in his own family. His consort, Maria, the daughter
of Charles V., entirely coincided with the opinions of her
brother Philip, and instilled them into the mind of her son.
His brothers, Ferdinand and Charles, were zealous disciples
of the Jesuits. Maximilian also gave his daughters in mar-
riage to the most bloodthirsty persecutors of the heretics in
Europe, Anna to Philip H. of Spain, Elisabeth to Charles
IX. of France, who, on St. Bartholomew's night, aided with
his own hand in the assassination of the Huguenots, who had
been treacherously invited by him to Paris. This event filled
Maximilian with horror ; he, nevertheless, neglected to guard
his wretched subjects from the far worse fate that awaited
them during the thirty years' war. For the sake of treating
each party with equal toleration, he allowed the Jesuits, during
a period when hatred was rife in every heart, full liberty of
action, and thus encouraged a sect, which, solely studious of
evil, and animated by the most implacable revenge, shortly
repaid his toleration with poison.

A female member of the imperial family was also an object
of the hatred of the Jesuits. During the reign of Ferdinand
I., his son, Ferdinand of the Tyrol, became enamoured of the
daughter of an Augsburg citizen, Philippina Welser, the most
beautiful maiden of her time, whom he secretly married.
Philippina went to the imperial court, and, throwing herself
under a feigned name at the emperor's feet, petitioned him to
guard her from the danger with which she was threatened in
case her marriage was discovered by an intolerant father-in-
law. Ferdinand, moved by her beauty, raised her and pro-
mised to plead in her favour. Upon this Philippina dis-
covered the truth, and the emperor, touched to the heart,
forgave his son. The pope confirmed the marriage, and the
happy pair spent a life of delight at the castle of Am bras, in

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280 COURTLY VICES.

the Tyrol, not far from Innsbruck, until it was poisoned by
the venom instilled by the Jesuits. Their children were
created Margraves of Burgau. The family became extinct
in 1618.

The Protestants also allowed the opportunity offered to
them by the emperor to pass unheeded, and, although they
received a great accession in number, sank, from want of
unity, in real power and influence. The rest of the German
princes, Charles and Ernest of Baden, and Julius of Bruns-
wick-Wolfenbuttel, the son of Henry the Wild, embraced
Lutheranism. Austria, Bavaria, Lorraine, and Juliers re-
mained Catholic. The Reformers were devoid of union
and energy, and oppressed by a sense of having abused and
desecrated, instead of having rigidly prosecuted, the Reform-
ation. • Was their present condition the fitting result of a
religious emancipation, or worthy of the sacred blood that had
been shed in the cause ? Instead of one pope, the Protestants
were oppressed by a number, each of the princes ascribing
that authority to himself ; and instead of the Jesuits they had
court chaplains and superintendents-general, who, their equals
in venom, despised no means* however base, by which their
aim might be attained. A new species of barbarism had found
admittance into the Protestant courts and universities. The
Lutheran chaplains shared their influence over the princes
with mistresses, boon -com pan ions, astrologers, alchymists, and
Jews. The Protestant princes, rendered, by the treaty of
Augsburg, unlimited dictators in matters of faith within their
territories, had lost all sense of shame. Philip of Hesse married
two wives. Brandenburg and pious Saxony yielded to tempta-
tion. Surrounded by coarse grooms, equerries, court-fools of
obscene wit, and misshapen dwarfs, the princes emulated each
other in drunkenness, an amusement that entirely replaced
the noble and gallant tournament of earlier times. Almost
every German court was addicted to this bestial vice.
Among others, the ancient house of Piast in Silesia was
utterly ruined by it. Even Louis of Wurtemberg, whose
virtues rendered him the darling of his people, was continually
in a state of drunkenness. This vice and that of swearing
even became a subject of discussion in the diet of the empire,
[a. d. 1577,] when it was decreed, " That all electoral princes,
nobles, and Estates, should avoid intemperate drinking as an

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COURTLY VICES

28)

example to their subjects." The chace was also folk wed to
excess. The game was strictly preserved, and, during the
hunt, the serfs were compelled to aid in demolishing their
own corn-fields. The Jews and alchymists, whom it be-
came the fashion to have at court, were by no means a slight
evil, all of them requiring gold. Astrology would have been
a harmless amusement had not its professors taken advantage
of the ignorance and superstition of the times. False repre-
sentations of the secret powers of nature and of the devil led
to the belief in witchcraft and to the bloody persecution of its
supposed agents. Luther's belief in the agency of the devil
had naturally filled the minds of his followers with super-
stitious fears. Julius, duke of Brunswick, embraced the
Reformation, lived in harmony with his provincial Estates,
founded the university of Helmstaedt, and, during a long peace,
raised his country to a high degree of prosperity, but had
such an irresistible mania for burning witches, that the black-
ened stakes near Wolfenbuttel resembled a wood. The con-
sort of Duke Eric the younger was compelled to fly for safety
to her brother Augustus of Saxony, Julius having, probably
from interested motives, accused her of witchcraft.

The Ascanian family of Lauenburg was sunk in vice. The
same licence continued from one generation to another ; the
country was deeply in debt, and how, under these circum-
stances, the cujus regio was maintained, may easily be con-
ceived. The Protestant clergy of this duchy were proverbial
for ignorance, licence, and immorality.

The imperial court at Vienna offered, by its dignity and
morality, a bright contrast to the majority of the Protestant
courts, whose bad example was, nevertheless, followed by
many of the Catholic princes, who, without taking part in the
Reformation, had thereby acquired greater independence.

CXCIX. Contests between the Lutheran Church and the

Princes.

The whole Reformation was a triumph of temporal over
spiritual power. Luther himself, in order to avoid anarchy,
had placed all the power in the hands of the princes. The
memory of the ancient hierarchy had, however, not been con*

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282 CONTESTS BETWEEN THE LUTHERAN

signed to oblivion, and the new passions roused by the Re-
formation constantly gave the preachers an influence of which
they well knew how to avail themselves in opposition to the
weaker princes. Had they not been defeated by their own
want of union, they might, at all events, have rendered the
triumph of the temporal power less easy.

The strict Lutherans, by whom the least tenable and least
practical theses of Luther, which fostered disunion among the
Reformers, were rigidly defended against the attacks of the Ca-
tholics, the Zwinglians, and the Calvinists, had fixed them-
selves at Jena under the youthful John Frederick, the son of
the expelled elector of like name. The Illyrian, Flacius, the
spiritual head of this university, was an energetic but narrow-
minded man, by whom Luther's doctrine concerning original
sin was so extremely exaggerated, that he declared " original
sin not only innate in man, but his very essence, and that he
was thoroughly bad ; an image, not of God, but of the devil."
He was, it is true, driven to this extreme by the exaggerated
assertions of Agricola at Berlin, and of Osiander at Koenigs-
berg, who maintained that man had the privilege, when once
touched by grace, of being no longer subject to sin, whatever
his actions might be. Between these two extremes stood the
Wittenberg party under the aged and gentle-minded Melanc-
thon, and that of Tubingen under the learned Brenz, who
was shortly to be followed by the diplomatizing Jacob Andrea.

The relation in which these theological parties stood to
temporal politics was extremely simple. The doctrine of
grace taught by Agricola Osiander placed man in a high po-
sition, flattered him, facilitated the forgiveness and also the
commission of sin by the doctrine of justification, and there-
fore exactly suited the licentious princes. The founders of
this doctrine also manifested the utmost servility in the exter-
nal observances of the church, and conceded every thing to
their sovereign. This sect would have triumphed over the
more gloomy tenets of the Flacians, who, inflexible in the
maintenance of external observances, bade defiance to the
princes, had it not in its pure theological dogma more resem-
bled Calvinism than genuine Lutheranism. The majority of
the princes, decidedly biassed against Calvinism on account
of its republican tendency, preferred Lutheranism and the
hateful contest with its theologians.

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John Frederick and his chancellor, Briick, actuated by he-
reditary hatred of the elector, Augustus, countenanced the
attacks of the theologians of Jena upon those of Wittenberg.
The Interim furnished Flacius with an opportunity for de-
fending the Adiaphora, (sacrificed by the followers of Me-
lancthon at Wittenberg as subordinate to the Interim,) which
he maintained as essential ; and for carrying on a dispute con-
cerning the efficacy of good works, which he totally rejected,
and declared to be a doctrine of destruction. The most criminal
wretch, possessing faith, was, according to him, to be pre-
ferred before the most virtuous unbeliever. An antagonist
appearing at Jena in the person of Strigel, a disciple of Me-
lancthon, a Philipist, supported by Hugel, he caused them
both to be thrown into prison. A clever physician, named
Schrceter, however, pointing out to the duke " the advantage
of making use of the clergy instead of allowing them to make
use of him," he excluded the whole of the professors of Jena
from the consistory, which he composed of laymen. In the
midst of these disorders, Melancthon, who had long sighed
for relief from ecclesiastical disputes, found peace in the grave,
a. d. 1559. The Flacians triumphantly beheld the elector's
conciliatory proposals scornfully rejected by John Frederick,
but, deceived by the belief of their being the cause, openly
rebelling against the ducal mandate by which they were
deprived of all ecclesiastical authority, they were deposed and
expelled the country, a. d. 1562. Flacius, cruelly persecuted
by his former pupils, especially by the morose Heshusius, died
in misery at Frankfurt on the Maine, A. d. 1575.

The Tubingen party, in 1558, made the extraordinary pro-
position of placing a superintendent-general, consequently, a
Protestant pope, over the whole of the new church ; this pro-
position, however, failed, the princes having no inclination to
render themselves once more subordinate to an ecclesiastic.

Albert, duke of Prussia, was severely chastised for the
foundation of the university of Ingolstadt in 1546, notwith-
standing the comfortable doctrine of his favourite, Osiander,
by the jealousy of the professors, some of whom, as followers
of Flacius, others at the instigation of the ancient aristocracy
of the Teutonic order, threw themselves, headed by Mcerlin,
into the opposition, and roused the whole country against the
talented and courtly Osiander, who, dying suddenly in 1552,

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CONTESTS BETWEEN THE LUTHERAN

the duke published a mandate ordaining peace. Moerlin bade
him defiance, was deposed, and fled to Brunswick, upon which
the nobility, cities, and clergy confederated, and assumed such
a threatening aspect that all the Osiandrists quitted the
country. Skalich, a Croatian by birth, the duke's privy
counsellor, fled. The court chaplain, Funk, and some of the
counsellors, deeming themselves in security, remained. Moer-
lin*s adherents, however, compelled the duke to discharge his
mercenaries, the duchess to retract her former declaration in
Osiander's favour, and seized the persons of the counsellors in
the presence of their sovereign. Horst, one of his favourites,
embraced the knees of his master, who wept in his helpless-
ness. Horst, Funk, and others were beheaded, and the duke
was compelled to recall Moerlin, [a. d. 1566,] whose in-
solence broke the heart of the aged duke and duchess, both of
whom expired on the same day, a. d. 1568. Their son,
Albert Frederick, a boy fifteen years of age, was driven in-
sane by the treatment he received from Moerlin and the
nobility. Moerlin died, [a. d. 1571,] and bequeathed his
otfice to Heshusius, a man of congenial character, possessing
all the instincts of the dog except his fidelity. Such were
the horrid natures produced by the passions of the age !

The feud carried on by John Frederick against Augustus,
elector of Saxony, terminated in blood. John Frederick,
implicated in an attempt made by a Franconian noble, Wil-
liam von Grumbach, to revive Sickingen's project for the
downfal of the princes, was put with him under the bann of
the empire, which Augustus executed upon him. John
Frederick was taken prisoner in Gotha, borne in triumph to
Vienna, and imprisoned for life at Neustadt. Grumbach and
Briick were quartered, and their adherents hanged and ex-
ecuted. On the death of John William, John Frederick's
brother, who died, A. d. 1573, his infant children fell under
the guardianship of the elector, Augustus, who expelled all
the Flacian preachers, one hundred and eleven in number,
from Weimar, and reduced them to beggary. The Philipists
triumphed. Their leader, Peucer, Melancthon's son-in-law,
the elector's private physician, was in great favour at court.
Emboldened by success, they attempted to promulgate their
tenets, in which they approached those of the Calvinists, and
published a new catechism in 1571, which aroused the sus-

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CHURCH AND THE PRINCES.

285

picion of Julius of Brunswick, who warned the elector against
his crypto-calvinistic clergy. Augustus instantly convoked
his clergy, and a satisfactory explanation took place, but, in
1574, influenced by his consort, Anna, a Danish princess,
who ascribed the death of their infant son to the fact of his
having been held at the font by Peucer, the crypto-calvinist,
he threw both him and his adherents, on a supposition of
treachery, into prison, assembled the whole of the clergy at
Torgau, and compelled them to retract the tenets they had so
long defended in the pulpit and by the press. Six of their
number alone, Rudiger, Crell, Wiedebram, Cruciger, Pegel,
and Moller, refused obedience to the electoral mandate, and
were sent into banishment. Peucer remained for twelve years
in a narrow, unwholesome dungeon, without books or writing
implements.

The fanaticism with which the Calvinists were persecuted
was increased by other causes. Their tenets being embraced
by Frederick, elector of the Pfalz, by whom the French
Huguenot refugees were protected, a confederacy was formed
against him by Christopher, duke of Wurtemberg, Wolfgang,
duke of Pfalz-Neuburg, and Charles, duke of Baden. Frederick,
rendered more obstinate by opposition, published [a. d. 1563]
the notorious Heidelberg Catechism as form of belief, the
most severe bull in condemnation of sectarians called forth by
the Reformation, and the dispute would have taken a serious
turn had not the emperor, Maximilian II., avoided touching
upon every fresh ecclesiastical innovation at the diet held at
Augsburg, A. d. 1566. Frederick remained isolated, and
maintained Calvinism throughout his dominions with extreme
severity. A Socinian clergyman, Sylvan, a disciple of the
Pole, Socin, who denied the Trinity, and merely admitted
one person in the Godhead, was, by his orders, beheaded at
Heidelberg, a. d. 1572. Frederick died, a. d. 1576. His
son, Louis, a zealous Lutheran, destroyed his father's work.
On entering Heidelberg he ordered all among his subjects
who were not Lutheran to quit the city, and those among the
Calvinistic preachers who refused to recant were expelled
the country.

The various parties were now sufficiently chastised, and
the clergy demoralized, for the safe publication of a fresh
formula or concordat, by the Lutheran princes. In Bran-

REVOLT IN THE NETHEllLANDS.

denburg the clergy had been taught blind submission to the
court by Agricola, and, in 1571, the elector, John George,
placed the consistory under the presidency of a layman,
Chemnitz. Augustus, elector of Saxony, found a servile tool
for a similar purpose in Selneccer, who, with Andrea of Wur-
temberg, the son of a smith of Waiblingen, completed the
•triumvirate, who, in the name of the Lutherans of Southern
Germany, drew up the formula, [a. d. 1577,] without the
convocation of a synod, in the monastery of Bergen, and im-
posed it upon the whole of the Lutheran world. William of
, Hesse, whose father, Philip, had died, laden with years, in
1567, Pomerania, Holstein, Anhalt, and some of the cities,
alone protested against it. The people obeyed.

Harmony had existed amongst the Reformers since the
covenant, by which all essential differences were smoothed
down, entered into [a. d. 1563] by the obstinate elector of
the Pfalz and Bullinger, Zwingli's successor in Zurich.
Basle alone maintained a separate confession between Luther-
anism and Zwingiiism. The disputes among the Reformers,
although less important than those among the Lutherans,
nevertheless equalled them in virulence.

CC. Revolt in the Netherlands.— The Geuses.

Charles V. had assiduously endeavoured to round off the
Netherlands, and to render them a bulwark against France
and the Protestants. Gueldres resisted the Habsburg with the
greatest obstinacy.* The aged and childless duke, Charles,
was compelled by the Estates, when on his death-bed, to name
William, duke of Juliers, his successor, in preference to
the Habsburg. Ghent also revolted against the enormous
taxes imposed by the emperor, who appeared [a. d. 1514] in
person before the gates, forced the citizens to submit, and be-
headed twenty of the principal townsmen. Gueldres was
also reduced, and William of Juliers was compelled to re-
nounce his claim in favour of the Habsburg.

* Hoog van moed,
K lein van goed,
Een Zwaard in de hand
1st wapen van Gelderland.

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The emperor vainly attempted to keep the Netherlands free
from heresy by the publication of the cruel Placates. Tyranny
merely rendered zeal extravagant, and gave rise to secret sec-
tarianism. In 1546, a certain Loy was executed for promul-
gating the extraordinary doctrine of the existing world being
hell. From Basle, his place of refuge, the influence of David
Joris, and of another Anabaptist, Menno Simonis, greatly
spread. The Mennonites were distinguished from the rest of
the Anabaptists by their gentleness and love of peace, which
caused their renunciation of the use of arms. The French
Calvinists, who had found their way into Flanders, were,
however, far more intractable and bold. Such numbers were
thrown into prison and sentenced to the stake, that the mer-
cantile class addressed a petition to the emperor, represent-
ing the injury thereby inflicted on industry and commerce.
Material interests, nevertheless, predominated to such a de-
gree in the Netherlands, that the victims of the Placates,
numerous as they were, excited little attention among the
mass of the population, and amid the immense press of busi-
ness.* Charles drew large sums of money from the Nether-
lands, which he at the same time provided with every means
for the acquisition of wealth. Commerce and manufactures
flourished. He also rendered himself extremely popular by
his constant use of his native tongue, Flemish, his adoption of
that dress, and the favour he showed to his countrymen even
in foreign service. His father, Maximilian, had greatly con-
tributed to bring Low Dutch, which under the Burgundian
. rule had ceded to French, into general use. Under the
Habsburgs the literature of the Netherlands was greatly fos-
tered, and chambers of rhetoric were formed in all the cities.
Charles V., a thorough Fleming at heart, did still more for
the country, notwithstanding which, he abandoned his Ger-
manic system, and sacrificed the fine provinces of the Nether-
lands to the stranger.

* The cities were at the height of their prosperity ; hence the epi-
thets, Brussels the Noble, Ghent the Great, Mechlin the Beautiful, Na-
mur the Strong, Antwerp the Rich, Lou vain the Wise (on account g|
her university).

" Nobilibus Bruxella viris, Antwerpia minimis,
Gandavum laqueis, formosis Brugga puellis,
Lovanium doctis, gaudet Mechlinia stuuis."

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288 REVOLT IN THE NETHERLANDS.

The petty policy with which this monarch coquetted duriDg
his long reign, with which he embarrassed instead of smooth-
ing affairs, the great cunning and power with which he exe-
cuted the most untoward and the most useless projects, was
not contradicted by his ill-starred will, by which he arbitrarily
bestowed the Netherlands on his son, Philip II. of Spain, de-
prived Germany of her finest province, and laid a heavy
burthen upon Spain. By it the natural position of the nations
in regard to one another was disturbed and an artificial con-
nexion created, the dissolution of which was to cost torrents
of blood.

Philip II. at first received the most brilliant proofs of the
fidelity of the Netherlands by their opposition to the French,
who had renewed the war, and were again aided by the Swiss.
Their general, Count Egmont, victorious at St. Quintin and
Gravelines, concluded a favourable peace at Cambresis,
[a. d. 1559,] which restored Dunkirk, that [a. d. 1540] had
been taken by the English, who [a. d. 1558] had been de-
prived of it by the French, to Philip. The breast of this
monarch, nevertheless, remained impervious to gratitude.
During the battle of St. Quintin, whilst others fought for him,
he remained upon his knees, and vowed, were he victorious,
to raise a splendid church in honour of St. Laurence, and, in
performance of this vow, erected, in the vicinity of Madrid,
the famous monastery of the Escurial, on which he expended
all the treasures of Spain. Being overtaken by a storm during
a sea-voyage, he took a solemn oath, in case of safety, to ex-
terminate all the heretics in honour of God, and, in fulfilment
of this vow, spilt torrents of the blood of his subjects with
the most phlegmatic indifference. His principal occupation
consisted of repose in solitary chambers. The gloom of the
Escurial formed his ideal of happiness. The bustle of pubUc
life, the expression of the popular will, were equally obnoxious
to him. He therefore endeavoured to maintain tranquillity
by enforcing blind obedience or by death.*

Philip, on his departure from Spain, left his half-sister, a
natural daughter of Charles V., Margaret of Parma, a woman
of masculine appearance, stadtholderess of the Netherlands,

* The best portraits of this monarch, particularly those at Naples,
near by no means a gloomy or austere expression, but rather one of ccol
impudence. The features are of a common, nay, almost knavish cast

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289

and placed near her person the Cardinal Granvella, a man of
acute and energetic mind, blindly devoted to his service. This
appointment greatly offended the Dutch, who, instead of re-
ceiving a native stadtholder, either the Prince of Orange or
Count Egraont, in compliance with their wishes, beheld a
base-born stranger at the head of the government Philip,
instead of making use of the nobility against the inferior
classes, by this step impolitically roused their anger; sus-
picious and wayward, he preferred a throne secured by vio-
lence to one, like that of his father, ill-sustained by intrigue.
"With the view of effectually checking the progress of heresy,
he decreed that the four bishoprics, until now existing in the
Netherlands, should be increased to seventeen. This uncon-
stitutional decree gave general discontent ; to the nobility,
whose influence was necessarily diminished by the appoint-
ment of an additional number of churchmen ; to the people, on
account of their secret inclination to and recognition of the te-
nets of the Reformed Church ; and to the clergy, whose ancient
possessions were thus arbitrarily partitioned among a number
of new-comers. The representations made by every class were
disregarded ; Granvella enforced the execution of the decree,
erected the new bishoprics, and commenced a bitter persecu-
tion of the heretics. The Dutch, nevertheless, did not over-
step the bounds of obedience, but revenged themselves on the
Cardinal by open mockery and the publication of caricatures,*
which rendered the country hateful to him, and he took his
departure, A. D. 1564.

The Netherlands had patiently permitted the imposition of
the useless bishoprics, the doubly severe Placates, the new
resolutions of the council of Trent, and would indubitably
have remained tranquil but for the attempt made to introduce
the Inquisition by Philip, which at once raised a serious op-
position. The very name of this institution was not heard
without a shudder. The manner in which it had in America
sacrificed thousands of Indians in bloody holocaust to the
Christian idols of Spain, and the auto-da-fes, great execu-

• They imitated his cardinal's hat with a fool's cap ; represented him
under the form of a hen, brooding over seventeen eggs* and hatching
bishops. Egniont'8 servants, even at that time, wore a bundle of arrows
embroidered on their sleeves, a symbol of onion, afterwards adopted m
the arms of Holland.

VOL. II, 9

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290 REVOLT IN THE NETHERLANDS

tional festivals, during which thousands of heretics were burnt
alive, and over which the king, in his royal robes, presided*
were still fresh in men's minds. " We are no stupid Mexi-
cans," exclaimed the Dutch, " we will maintain our ancient
rights ! " The nobles signed the compromise, a formal pro-
test against the Inquisition, which they laid in the form of
a petition before the regent, a. d. 1566. The procession,
headed by Count de Brederode, went on foot and by two and
two to the palace. Count de Barlaimont, a zealous royalist,
on viewing their approach, said jeeringly, " Ce n'est qu'un
tas de gueux !" Margaret gave them a friendly reception, but,
incapable of acting in this affair without authority from the
king, promised to inform him of their request. Barlaimont's
remark being afterwards repeated at a banquet attended by
the nobility, Brederode good-humouredly sent a beggar's wal-
let and a wooden goblet round the table with the toast, " Vi-
vent les gueux ! " The name was henceforth adopted by the
faction.

The nobles, offended at the contemptuous silence with
which their petition was treated by the king, now ventured to
prescribe a term for the reception of his reply. A great po-
pular tumult, in which the nobles were partially implicated,
broke out simultaneously. The captive heretics were re-
leased by force, the churches and monasteries were stormed,
and all the pictures, to the irreparable injury of native art,
destroyed. The nobles were, however, finally constrained by
the stadtholderess to come to terms. The Calvinists in Va-
lenciennes and Tournay alone made an obstinate defence, but
were compelled to yield. Egmont, anxious for the mainten-
ance of tranquillity and for the continuance of the royal favour,
acted with great severity.

Philip, without either ratifying or declaring against the
terms of peace, proclaimed a general amnesty, and announced
his speedy arrival in the Netherlands, and his desire to fulfil
the wishes of his people. Lulled suspicion was, however,
speedily reawakened by the news of the approach, not of the
king, but of his ferocious commander-in-chief, the duke of Al-
ba, at the head of a powerful force. The more spirited
among the nobles advised instant recourse to arms, and the
defence of the frontier against the approaching army, but
were overruled by the moderate party, who hesitated to rebel

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against a monarch whose intentions were merely suspected.
William of Orange, count of Nassau, the wealthy possessor of
Chalons-Orange, stadtholder of Holland, Seeland, and (Jtrecht,
surnamed the Silent, on account of his reserve, whose talents
had endeared him to Charles V., vainly warned his friends of
the danger they incurred. The Counts Egmont and Horn
remained incredulous, and William, unable to persuade the
States to make a resolute opposition before the mask was
openly dropped by the king, resolved to secure his safety by
flight. On taking leave of Egmont he said, " I fear you will
be the first over whose corpse the Spaniards will march ! "
Some of the nobles mockingly calling after him as he turned
away, " Adieu, Prince Lackland ! n he rejoined, " Adieu,
headless sirs ! w Numerous adherents to the new faith and
wealthy manufacturers, alarmed at the threatening aspect of
affairs, quitted the country. The majority withdrew to Eng-
land.* One hundred thousand men, more than would have
sufficed for the defence of the country against the Spanish
army, had the States been resolute and united, emigrated.
Brederode also fled, and died shortly afterwards in exile.

Alba, a monster both in body and mind, entered Brussels
in the summer of 1567, at the head of a picked force of twelv e
thousand Spaniards and a body of German troops which he
raised on his march from Milan. He was received with a
death-like silence. Fear had seized every heart. He com-
menced by displaying the greatest mildness, received Egmont
and the rest of the nobles with open arms and overwhelmed
them with civility, called no one to account, took no step
without convoking the Estates, and inspired the Dutch with
such confidence that numbers of the more timid, who had
withdrawn, were induced to quit their strong-holds and to re-
turn to Brussels. For three weeks the same part was en-
acted ; the certainty of the intended absence of the Prince of

* They were rejected by the Hanse towns from an old sentiment of
jealousy, and on account of their Calvinistic tenets. England, more
clearsighted, gave the industrious and wealthy emigrants a warm recep-
tion. It was in this manner that William Curten of Flanders carried his
art and his capital to England, to whose monarch he lent enormous
6ums ; he also settled a colony of eighteen thousand men in the island of
Barbadoes, and opened the trade between England and China. He died
poor, but his grandson presented a number of valuable antiques and a
collection of natural history to the British Museum.

292

WILLIAM OF ORANGE.

Orange then caused him to throw off the mask, and, inviting
ihe Counts] Egmont and Horn to a conference, he unexpect-
edly placed them under arrest, September 9th, 1567, and
from this moment cast away the scabbard to bathe his sword
in the blood of the unsuspecting Dutch.

The regent, Margaret, was, under pretext of a secret order
from the king, sent out of the country, and a criminal court,
Thich passed judgment upon all the Dutch, who confessed
heretical tenets, had signed the compromise, or been impli-
cated in the disturbances, was appointed. This court was
solely composed of Spaniards, to whom some Dutch traitors,
for instance, Hessels and the Count de Barlaimont, served as
informers. The confiscation of property was the principal
purpose for which this court was instituted, and numerous
wealthy proprietors were accused and beheaded, though
guiltless of offence. The secret of their hidden treasures was
extorted by the application of the most horrid tortures, after
which the unhappy victims were delivered over to the ex-
ecutioner. Blood flowed in torrents, Egmont and Horn were
executed, A. D. 1568, and two noble Dutchmen, Bergen and
Montmorency-Montigny, sent as ambassadors to Madrid, were
by Philip's command put to death, the one by poison, the
other in his secret dungeon.

CCI. William of Orange.

William had fled into Germany to his brother, John the
Elder of Nassau -Dillenburg, one of the noblest men of his
day, who was unfortunately sovereign over merely a petty ter-
ritory. He was the first who, from feelings of humanity and
respect for his fellow Christians, abolished bond-service. He
also engaged with his whole forces in the Dutch cause, and
aided William, who found no sympathy among the Lutheran
princes, to levy troops. The high Gimsburg, in the solitary
forests, was the spot where the leaders secretly met. They
succeeded in raising four small bodies of troops, composed of
exiles, friends of liberty, and Huguenots. John, William, and
their younger brothers, Louis, Adolf, and Henry, generously
mortgaged the whole of their possessions, and entered the

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WILLIAM OF ORANGE. 293

Netherlands with their united forces.0 Alba instantly seized
William's son, Philip William, a student at Louvain, and sent
him a prisoner to Spain. The struggle commenced, a. d.
1568. The princes of Nassau gained a victory at Heiligerlee,
which cost Adolf his life, but the Spaniards were victorious
at Grbningen, where Louis lost six thousand men, and nar-
rowly escaped by swimming. A merely desultory warfare
was afterwards carried on by petty bands in the forests, (the
Bush or Wood Geuses,) or on the sea, by the Water Geuses.
Hermann de Ruyter, the grazier, boldly seized the castle of
Loewenstein, which he blew up when in danger of falling
again into the hands of the Spanish.

There being nothing more to confiscate, Alba imposed a
tax, first of the hundredth, then of the tenth, and afterwards
of the twentieth penny. He boasted that he could extract
more gold from the Netherlands than from Peru, and, never-
theless, withheld the pay from his soldiery in order to incite
them still more to pillage. Close to Antwerp he erected his
principal fortress, the celebrated citadel, from which he com-
manded the finest city in the Netherlands, the navigation of
the Scheldt, Holland on one side, and Flanders on the other.
It was here that he caused a monument, formed of the guns he
had captured, to be raised in his honour during his life-time.
The pope, in order to reward his services and to encourage
his persecution of the heretics, sent him a consecrated sword.
The number of victims executed at his command amounted to
eighteen thousand six hundred ; putrid carcases on gallows
and wheels infected all the country-roads. The appearance
of a new and enormous star, (in Cassiopeia,) which for more
than a year remained motionless and then disappeared, filling
the whole of Europe with terror and astonishment, and a
dreadful flood on the coast of Friesland, by which twenty
thousand men were carried away, added to the general misery.
On the latter occasion, [a. d. 1572,] the Spanish stadtholder,
Billy, gave a noble example by the erection of excellent dikes,
which found many imitators, and his memory still venerated

* Four of these noble -spirited brethren shed their life-blood in the
cause of the freedom of conscience and of the independence of the
Netherlands, Adolf, Louis, and Henry falling on the battle-field, William
by the hand of the assassin. John was for some time stadtholder oi
Gueldres, but returned to his native Nassau.

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294 WILLIAM OF ORANGE,

on the coasts of the Northern Ocean. Happy would it hav6
been for Germany had all her enemies resembled him !

It was not until 1572 that William regained sufficient
strength to retake the field. Men were not wanting, but they
were ill-provided with arms, and too undisciplined to stand
against the veteran troops of the duke. By sea alone was
success probable. William von der Mark, Count von Lumay,
Egmont's friend, who had vowed neither to comb nor cut his
hair until he had revenged his death, a descendant of the cele-
brated Boar of Ardennes, quitted the forests for the sea, cap-
tured the richly-freighted Spanish ships, and took the town
of Briel by a ruse de guerre. Alba, on learning this event,
remarked with habitual contempt, " no es nada " (it is
nothing). These words and a pair of spectacles (Brille, Briel)
were placed by the Geuses on their banners. No sooner had
a fortified city fallen into their hands than the courage of the
Dutch revived. The citizens of Vliessingen, animated by the
public admonitions of their pastor, rebelled, put the Spaniards,
who had laid the foundation of another citadel commanding
the town, to death, and hanged the architect, Pacieco. The
whole of Holland followed their example. The Spaniards
were every where slain or expelled, and were only able to
keep their footing in Middelburg.

William of Orange had again raised an army in Germany,
and his brother Louis another in France. The faithless
French court offered its aid on condition of receiving the
southern provinces, whilst William was to retain those to the
north. Louis consented, and invaded the Hennegau, whilst
William entered Brabant ; but this negotiation had been
merely entered into by the Catholic party in France, for the
purpose of attracting the Huguenots to Paris, where they
were assassinated. The news of the tragedy enacted on the
night of St. Bartholomew opened the eyes of the princes of
Nassau to the treachery of France, and they hastily withdrew
their troops. A plot laid for William's capture at Mons was
frustrated by the fidelity of a small dog belonging to him,
which is still to be seen sculptured on his tomb.

Alba, burning with revenge, now marched in person upon
Mechlin, where he plundered the city and put all the inhabit-
ants to the sword, whilst his son, Frederick, committed still
more fearful atrocities at Zutphen. Holland was, howexer

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WILLIAM OF ORANGE

295

destined to bear the severest punishment. Frederick was des-
patched thither with orders to spare neither age nor sex. The
whole of the inhabitants of Naarden, contrary to the terms of
capitulation, were treacherously butchered. Haarlem was gal-
lantly defended by her citizens and by a troop of three hun-
dred women, under the widow Kenan Hasselaar, during the
whole of the winter. William von der Mark and William of
Orange vainly attempted to raise the siege, and the town was
at length compelled by famine to capitulate, A. d. 1573.
Frederick had lost ten thousand of his men. The inhabitants
were sent to the block, and when the headsmen were unable
from fatigue to continue their office, the remaining victims,
three hundred excepted, were tied back to back and thrown
into the sea. Frederick then marched upon Altmaar, which
was so desperately defended by the inhabitants, both male
and female, that one thousand of his men, and some of the
three hundred Harlemites, fell in the trenches, and he was
compelled to withdraw. The Water Geuses were at the
same time victorious in a naval engagement, in which thirty
of the great Spanish ships were beaten, and the enormous
admiral's ship, the Inquisition, and six others, taken by
twenty-four of the small Dutch vessels. A Spanish fleet of
fifty-four ships was afterwards beaten, and a rich convoy of
merchantmen taken. The captured vessels were manned
with Dutchmen, and Holland ere long possessed a fine fleet of
one hundred and fifty sail, which effectually kept the Spaniards
at bay.

The Spanish court at length perceived the folly of its
cruelty and severity. Alba was recalled, and replaced by
Requesens, [a. d. 1574,] who sought by gentleness and
mildness to restore tranquillity. The Dutch, however, no
longer trusted to Spanish promises, and continued to carry on
war. Middelburg fell into their hands, and a Spanish fleet,
hastening to the relief of that town, was annihilated. Suc-
cess, nevertheless, varied. During the same year, the princes
were beaten in an open engagement on the Mookerheath
near Nimwegen, where Louis and Henry fell, covered with
glory. Requesens pacified his mutinous soldiers, who de-
manded their pay, with a promise of the plunder of the rich
city of Leyden, to which Valdez suddenly laid siege before it
could provide itself with provisions. The city, surrounded

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WILLIAM OF ORANGE.

by sixty-two Spanish forts, quickly fell a prey to famine, the
Dutch land-army had been dispersed, and the ships of the
"Water Geuses were unavailable. In this distress, William s
advice to cut the dikes and to flood the country was eagerly
put into practice. "Better to spoil the land than to lose it,"
exclaimed the patriotic people. The sea poured rapidly over
the fields and villages, bearing onwards the ships of the gal-
lant Geuses. It was, nevertheless, found impossible to reach
the still distant wails of Leyden, which were viewed with
bitter rage by the rough and weather-beaten skippers, on
whose broad-brimmed hats was worn a half-moon with the
inscription, "Liever turcx dan pausch," "Better Turkish
than popish." Boisot and Adrian Wilhelmssen headed the
expedition. The most profound misery reigned, meanwhile,
in the city. Six thousand of the inhabitants had already died
of hunger. The prayers of the wretched survivors were at
length heard. A sea-breeze sprang up. The water, impelled
by the north-east wind, gradually rose, filled the trenches of
the Spaniards, who sought safety in flight, and reached the
city walls, bearing on its broad surface the boats of the brave
Geuses, who, after distributing bread and fish to the famish-
ing citizens collected on the walls, went in pursuit of the
Spaniards, of whom one thousand five hundred were drowned
or slain, a. d. 1 575. The university at Leyden was erected
in memory of the persevering fidelity of the inhabitants, and
in compensation for their losses. The anniversary of this
glorious day is still kept there as a festival.

Holland was henceforth free. William was elected stadt-
holder by the people, but still in the name of their obnoxious
monarch, and the Calvinistic tenets and form of service were
re-established, to the exclusion of those of the Catholics and
Lutherans. As early as 1574, the Reformed preachers had,
in the midst of danger, opened their first church -assembly at
Dordrecht. The cruelties practised by the Catholics were
equalled by those inflicted on the opposing party by the Re-
formers. William of Orange endeavoured to repress these
excesses, threw William von der Mark, his lawless rival, into
prison, where he shortly afterwards died, it is said, by poison,
and occupied the wild soldiery, during the short peace that
ensued, in the re-erection of the dikes torn down in defence
of Leyden. The most horrid atrocities were, nevertheless,

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perpetrated by Sonoi, by whom the few Catholics remainiug
in Holland were exterminated, a. d. 1577. A violent com-
motion also took place in Utrecht, but ceased on the death of
the last of her archbishops, Frederick Schenk (cupbearer) von
Tautenburg, a. d. 1580.

Spain remained tranquil. The armies and fleets furnished
by Philip had cost him such enormous sums that the state
was made bankrupt by the fall in the revenue. Requesens,
who was neither able nor willing to take any decisive step,
suddenly expired, a. d. 1576. His soldiery, unpaid and im-
patient of restraint, now gave way to the most unbridled
licence, dispersed over Flanders, sacked one hundred and
twenty villages, and, driving in their van numbers of cap-
tive women and girls, approached the gates of Maestricht,
where the citizens refusing to fire upon the helpless crowd,
the Spaniards forced their way into the city, where they
practised every variety of crime. This event caused the long-
suppressed wrath of the citizens of Ghent to explode. The
German citizens of this town, who favoured the tenets of
the Reformers, had unresistingly submitted to Alba, and, al-
though the gallows had remained standing for years in each of
the city squares, and numbers of Iconoclasts, Reformed preach-
ers, and Geuses had been hanged, beheaded, and burnt, Ghent
had suffered comparatively less than her sister-cities. The ru-
moured advance of the Spanish troops roused the whole of the
inhabitants, the men flew to arms, the women and children
lent their aid in tearing up the pavement, in order to fortify
the town against the castle, commanded by Mondragon, the
brave defender of Middelburg. The troops of the Prince of
Orange were allowed to garrison the city. — The Spanish sol-
diery, however, intimidated by those preparations, and con-
scious of their want of a leader, turned off towards Antwerp,
which they took by surprise, November 4th, 1576. They laid
five hundred houses in ashes, murdered five thousand of the
inhabitants, and completely sacked the city. Numbers of thf
citizens fled to Frankfurt on the Maine, which they enriche*
by the introduction of their arts and manufactures.

William of Orange, meanwhile, took advantage of the ab-
sence of a royal stadtholder and of the universal unpopularity
of the Spaniards, to seize, by means of his friends Lalaing and
Glimes, the town-council of Brussels that favoured the Span-

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WILLIAM OF ORANGE.

iards, and to propose a union of all the Netherlands for the
confirmation of peace, the equal recognition of both confes-
sions of faith, and the expulsion of the Spaniards. This was
accomplished by the pacification of Ghent, the 8th Novem-
ber 1576. Ghent was the centre of the movement, having
for aim the union of the southern to the northern provinces.
Mondragon vainly attempted to defend the citadel against the
enthusiastic populace, and finally capitulated.

Don Juan, a natural son of Charles V. by Barbara Blum-
berger, the daughter of a citizen of Augsburg, the new Span-
ish stadtholder, a man already known to fame by the great
victory of Lepanto, gained by him [a. d. 1571] over the Turk-
ish fleet, arrived at this conjuncture. The mutinous soldiery
instantly submitted to him, but the Estates insisted upon his
confirmation of the pacification of Ghent in the name of the
king, to which he assented and marched to Brussels. The
Spanish troops were, in consequence of this peace, sent out of
the country, Don Juan dissembling his real projects, and
yielding to every demand with the view of weakening the in-
fluence of the Prince of Orange, of limiting him to Holland
and Seeland, and of reconciling the southern provinces to
Spain. Several of the nobles were jealous of William of
Orange, among others, the duke of Aerschot, who, as governor
of Flanders, garrisoned the citadel of Ghent in Don Juan's
name, and secretly corresponded with him. Don Juan also
broke his word, secretly quitted Brussels, threw himself into
the fortified castle of Namur, and recalled the Spanish troops.
The Estates, indignant at this act of treachery, deprived him
of his office, and called William of Orange to the head of af-
fairs, but that prince, conscious of the jealousy with which he
was beheld by the rest of the grandees, and less intent upon
his personal aggrandizement than desirous of the welfare of
the country, ceded his right in favour of the Archduke Mat-
thias, the second son of Maximilian II., by whom the Nether-
lands might once more be united with Germany, and who,
moreover, appeared far from disinclined to advance the cause
of the Reformation. Matthias was received with open arms
by the German party, and the foreign and Spanish faction
completely succumbed on the capture of the citadel of Ghent
by the enraged populace, October 28th, 1577. The govern-
ment of this city became a pure democracy. Iconoclasm and

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the assassination of Catholic priests recommenced, and a vio*
lent feud was carried on with the Walloon nobility, the zeal-
ous supporters of Catholicism. These events were beheld with
great uneasiness by Matthias and the Prince of Orange, whose
efforts were solely directed to the union of all the Netherlands,
whether Catholic or Reformed, under a German prince against
Spain. William visited Ghent in person, for the purpose of
preaching reason to the Calvinists and of renewing the article
concerning religious toleration contained in the Pacification
of Ghent.

Soon after this, in the February of 1578, the Dutch army
under Matthias and Orange, was, whilst attempting to take
Don Juan's camp at Gemblours by storm, defeated by the
Spanish, principally owing to the bravery and military science
of the young Duke Alexander of Parma, the son of Margaret.
This misfortune again bred dissension and disunion among
the Dutch ; Matthias lost courage, and endeavoured by hu
promises to induce the Catholics to abandon the Spaniards,
whilst the citizens of Ghent, with increased insolence, again
attacked monasteries and churches, committed crucifixes and
pictures of the saints to the flames, and burnt six Minorites,
accused of favouring the enemy, alive. The French, with
customary perfidy, now attempted to turn the intestine dis-
sensions of the Dutch to advantage, and Francis, Duke
d'Alencon, the brother of the French monarch, Henry III.,
offered aid, in the hope of seizing the government of the
Netherlands. Elizabeth, queen of England, made a futile
attempt to assist the Reformers by sending large sums of
money to the Pfalzgrave, John Casirnir, whom she com-
missioned to raise troops for the Prince of Orange ; but the
Pfalzgrave, actuated by jealousy of the fame of that prince,
joined the demagogues of Ghent. Alencon, rejected by every
party, withdrew from the country, and, in revenge, allowed
the French soldiery, several thousands in number, raised for
this expedition, to join the Walloons, who, under the name of
malcontents or beadsmen, had just commenced a bitter war
against the people of Ghent, who, under their leader, Ryhove,
gained the upper hand, took Bruges, and required the united
efforts of the Prince of Orange and of Davidson, the English
ambassador, to keep within bounds. Don Juan expired at
this period, [a. d. 1578,] and the Dutch, had harmony sub-

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800 WILLIAM OF ORANGE.

sisted among them, might easily have seized this opportunity,
during the confusion that consequently ensued in the Spanish
camp, to expel the duke of Parma. The bigotry of the peo-
ple of Ghent long rendered every attempt at reconciliation
between them, the Walloons, and the rest of the Catholics,
abortive, and it was not until William of Orange again ap-
peared in person at Ghent, that a religious convention was
agreed to and peace was once more restored, December
I6th, 1578.

The moment for action had, however, passed. The duke
of Parma had already taken a firm footing in the southern
provinces, and, aided by the implacable Walloons, was steadily
advancing. Matthias and the German Catholics tottered on
the brink of destruction. The return of the Catholic priests
to Ghent was a signal for a fresh popular outbreak, and the
treaty, so lately concluded, was infringed. The northern
provinces, resolute in the defence of their liberties, kept aloof
from these dissensions, and, on the 22nd January, 1579, sub-
scribed to the Union of Utrecht, renounced all allegiance to
Spain, and founded a united republic, consisting of seven
free states, Gueldres, Holland, Seeland, Zutphen, Friesland,
Oberyssel, and Groningen, the states-general of Holland,
over which William of Orange was placed as stadtholder-
general. This step had been strongly advised by Elizabeth
of England, as a means of raising a strong bulwark on the
mouths of the Rhine against both France and Spain. The
Dutch declaration of independence, like that of the Swiss
confederation, contained the preamble, that by this step Hoi
land had no intention to separate herself from the holy
Roman empire. The aid demanded by both the Dutch and
the Swiss against foreign aggression had been refused, owing
to the egotism of the princes and the mean jealousy of the
cities. The emperor wanted the spirit to act with decision ;
his brother, Matthias, entered the country and quitted it with
equal secrecy. The Lutherans refused all fellowship with the
followers of Calvin.

The Prince of Parma, a man distinguished both as a warrior
and as a statesman, formed a coalition with the Walloons, with
the discontented nobility, even gained over William's friend,
the influential Lalaing, and commenced operations without
delay. Dunkirk was taken within six days ; Maestricht woe

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WILLIAM OF ORANGE.

301

stormed, the inhabitants were put to the sword, and the city
was reduced to ruins. Herzogenbusch and Mechlin fell by
stratagem. The underhand system of seduction pursued by this
prince was opposed by an open manifesto on the part of the
stadtholder of Holland, in which the revolt of the provinces
against their legitimate sovereign was justified, on the grounds
that the people were not for the prince but that the prince was
for the people, and that Philip had injured, not benefited his
subjects. This manifesto was answered by another on the part
of Philip II., in which, without touching upon the just com-
plaints of the people, he ascribed the revolt of the Nether-
lands to the intrigues of William of Orange, who had wickedly
seduced his happy subjects from their allegiance. He, at the
same time, set a price of twenty-five thousand ducats on the
head of this arch-rebel, and promised to bestow a patent of
nobility on his assassin.

William of Orange for a third time visited Ghent, [a. d.
1580,] and appeased the civil broils. Ghent and Bruges
subscribed to the Union of Utrecht. Matthias had volun-
tarily retired ; and William, in order to raise a fresh enemy
to the rear of Parma, who continued rapidly advancing, ad-
vised the election of a French prince to the stadtholdership.
Alencon instantly hastened into the country, and delayed the
duke's progress by the siege of Cambray. The Spanish
manifesto had not, meanwhile, vainly appealed to the basest
passions of the human heart A Frenchman, named Jaure-
gui, ambitious of the promised guerdon, shot the Prince of
Orange in the head, in the March of 1581. The wound,
although dangerous, was not mortal.

The Prince of Parma, favoured by the state of inactivity to
which William was reduced in consequence of his wound, re-
doubled his efforts, took Tournay and Oudenarde, and was
even more successful by intrigue than by force of arms. The
French were equally obnoxious to both the German and
Spanish factions, and Alencon was compelled to retire, A. d.
1581. Parma, meanwhile, skilfully took advantage of the
national dislike of the Germans to the French to pave the
way to a reconciliation with Spain, and William of Orange,
on his recovery, perceived with alarm the inclination of the
southern provinces to accede to his proposals for the sake of
peace. His faction in Ghent was defeated, [a. d. 1583,] but

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302 WILLIAM OF ORANGE,

the treason of Hembyze, the head of the Spanish party, who
offered to deliver up the city to Parma, being discovered, the
Orange faction was recalled, the treaty concluded at Tournay
between Ghent and Parma annulled, and the duke's letters
were, by way of answer, publicly burnt. Bruges, instigated
by the Duke von Aerschot, opened her gates to the Spaniards.

Orange, true to his motto, " calm in the midst of storms,"
still hoped for success, but scarcely had he recovered from
the effects of his wound than a second assassin was sent by
the Spanish monarch. Balthasar Gerard presented himself
, as a suppliant before him and received a handsome present,
in return for which he lodged three balls in his body. " Oh
God, have mercy upon me, and upon this poor nation ! " were
the last words of the dying prince. This deed of horror took
place the 17th July, 1584. His last wife, Anne de Coligny, had
seen her murdered father, the celebrated admiral, and her first
husband, Teligny, expire in her arms. Gerard was quartered,
but Philip II., in imitation of the pope, who, on receiving the
news of the murder of the Huguenots on St. Bartholomew's
night, ordered public rejoicings, ennobled his family, and
bestowed upon it the title of " destroyer of tyrants."

The perfidious Hembyze, who, although in his seventieth
year, had just married a young woman, was, as if in expia-
tion of this base assassination, almost at the same time, Aug.
4th, beheaded at Ghent as a traitor to his country. The
Orange faction in the city was, nevertheless, compelled to
submit to the duke and to comply with the general desire
for tranquillity and peace, A. d. 1584. Parma prohibited
the Calvinistic form of worship, threw four hundred of the
citizens into prison, closed the academies and printing-presses,
and established the Jesuits in the city. The house of Hem-
byze was converted into a Jesuit college. Brussels and Ant-
werp were taken, after sustaining a lengthy siege.

The southern Netherlands were thus lost to the Reforma-
tion and to liberty, and, by their separation from the north«?rn
provinces, gave rise to that unnatural distinction between na-
tions similar in descent that still keeps Holland and Belgium
90 widely apart

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THE REPUBLIC OF HOLLAND

CCIL— The Republic of Holland,

Peace was, on the death of the Prince of Orange, offered
by the duke of Parma to Holland, by whom it was steadily
rejected and Spain was declared a faithless friend, whom she
would oppose to the last drop of her heart's blood. Fortune,
meanwhile, favoured Parma. Maurice, William's son, an
inexperienced youth, had been raised by the grateful people
to the stadtholdership, and Leicester, the English envoy, had,
by his incapacity and arrogance, rendered himself obnoxious
to the Dutch, whom he would willingly have reduced beneath
the British sceptre. The declining power of the Reformers
was, nevertheless, renovated by the destruction of the in-
vincible Armada, which, shattered by a storm, was completely
annihilated by the Dutch and English ships under the ad-
mirals Howard and Drake,* A. d. 1588. This success ani-
mated the Dutch with fresh courage, and Parma, compelled to
raise the siege of Bergen-op-Zoom, which had for some time
resisted his efforts, fell ill with chagrin. The castle of
Bleyenbek yielded to the Dutch, a. d. 1589. Breda was
taken and sacked by Maurice, who defeated the Spaniards
under Verdugo at Caeworden, freed Groningen from her
tyrannical governor, the Count von Rennenburg, and took
Nimwegen.

The war dragged slowly on. Philip II. again had recourse
to intrigue, and, restoring Philip William, Maurice's elder
brother, whom he had long detained a prisoner in Spain, to
liberty, sent him unexpectedly back to the Netherlands, in
the hope of dissensions breaking out between the brethren ;
but Philip William, although refused admission into the coun-
try by the Dutch, who feared the disturbance of their repub*
lie, nobly rejected Philip's proposals, and even preferred re-
nouncing his right to his Burgundian estates to holding them
on dishonourable terms, a. d. 1595.

The duke of Parma expired, [a. d. 1596,] and was sue*
ceeded by another Spanish stadtholder, Albert, also a son of the
emperor Maximilian II. Albert had married Philip's daugh-
ter, Isabella. Peace was equally desired by all parties in the
Netherlands, and remained alone unconcluded from want of
♦ This officer brought the first potatoes from America,

304

THE REPUBLIC OF HOLLAND

unanimity. The war was, meanwhile, mechanically carried
on, principally by foreigners, French, English, and eastern
Germans ; and it was in this school that most of the great
military characters daring the ensuing wars acquired theit
science and skill. The most remarkable event during this
war was the siege of Ostend, which Albert, or rather his
wife, Isabella, " the only man in her family," resolved to gain
at whatever price ; she even vowed not to change her under-
garment until success had crowned her endeavours. The
siege commenced, a. d. 1602, and was at length terminated by
Spinola, a. d. 1605 ; the city had, during this interval, been
gradually reduced to a heap of ruins, and one hundred thou-
sand men had fallen on both sides. The tint known as Isa-
bella-colour was so named from the hue acquired by the gar-
ment of the Spanish princess.

A truce for twelve years was at length concluded, [a. d.
1609,] but war broke out afresh on the commencement of the
religious war that convulsed the whole of Germany. The
seven northern provinces retained their freedom, the southern
ones remained Spanish. The latter lost all their inhabitants
favourable to the Reformation, and with them their prosperity
and civil liberties. The cities stood desert ; the people were
rendered savage by military rule, or steeped in ignorance by
the Jesuits; and in this melancholy manner was Germany
deprived of her strongest bulwark, of the most blooming and
the freest of her provinces. Holland, on the other hand,
blessed with liberty, quickly rose to a high degree of pros-
perity. Her population, swelled by the Calvinistic emigrants
from the Spanish Netherlands, from France and Germany,
became too numerous for the land, and whole families, as in
China, dwelt in boats in the vicinity of the larger towns. The
over-population of the country gave rise [a. d. 1607] to that
Herculean enterprise, the draining of the Bremstersee, by which
a large tract of land was reclaimed, and to the excellent
Waterstaat or system of canals and dikes, which prevented
the entrance of the sea, and was superintended by Deichgrafs.
The navy created by the Water Geuses furnished means for the
extension of the commercial relations of the republic. Amster-
dam became the great emporium of Dutch commerce and the
outlet for the internal produce of Holland. The trade long car-
ried on between the merchants of Spain and of Holland had

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THE REPUBLIC OF HOLLAND.

secretly continued during the war. The traffic of the former
with the East Indies and America was carried on with the
capital of the Dutch, who, out of their share of the profit,
armed their countrymen against the Spanish troops. This
traffic being discovered and strictly prohibited by Philip II.,
the Dutch carried it on on their own account, and speedily
rivalled the merchants of Spain in every part of the globe.
In 1583, Huygen van Linschoten made the first voyage to
the East Indies, whither, in 1595, Cornelius Houtmann sailed
with a small fleet and planted the banner of the republic in
Java, where it still flutters in the breeze. In 1596, the
united fleets of Holland and England took the rich com-
mercial town of Cadiz and burnt it to the ground. During
the same year Linschoten and Heemskerk set out on an ex-
pedition for the discovery of a north-eastern passage to China.
The Dutch had long maintained commercial relations with
Russia and Archangel had been founded by Adrian Kryt ;
the enterprise, nevertheless, failed, the ships being ice-bound
in the Frozen Ocean, and Heemskerk compelled to winter on
Nova Zembla. In 1599, Stephen van der Hagen opened the
spice trade with the islands of Molucca ; in 1601, van Neck,
the tea trade with China, and van Spilbergen, the cinnamon
trade with Ceylon. An incessant struggle for the empire of
the sea was meanwhile carried on between Holland, Spain,
and Portugal, the two latter of which had already colonized
parts of the New World. The English Channel was, in 1605,
blockaded by Houtain, the Dutch admiral ; no Spanish ship
was permitted to reach the coast of Holland, and all the
Spaniards who fell into his hands were drowned. The Dutch
fleets incessantly harassed the Spanish coasts. In 1608, Ver-
hoeven settled in Calicut, on the Coromandel coast. One of
his ships visited Japan in 1609, and discovered a Dutch
sailor, named Adam, who had been cast on the shore, living
there in great repute. A connexion with this country was
formed at a later period by van den Broek, who, aware of the
great importance of the island of Java as the centre of the
Dutch possessions in the East Indies, erected [a. d. 1618] the
fortress of Batavia, which speedily grew into an extensive
city. In 1614, van Noordt followed on the track of the
Spaniards in the southern ocean, and, in 1615, Schouten
sailed round the southern point of America, named by him

VOL. II. x

306

THE REPUBLIC OF HOLLAND.

Cape Horn, in honour of his native town, Hoorn. New Zea-
land was discovered about the same time and named after the
province of Seeland. Hudson, in 1610, had also discovered
the extreme north of America, and the bay named after him.
The English, jealous of his success, seized and starved him to
death. Numbers of his countrymen followed in his track,
and, in 1614, added the whale fishery to those of codfish and
herrings, which were almost exclusively in their hands.

The mean jealousy of the Hansa towns met with its fitting
reward, their commerce gradually declining as that of Hol-
land rose. Their prohibition of English manufactures caused
the expulsion of all the Hanseatics from England and the
instalment of the Dutch in their stead, a.d. 1598.

Maurice inherited little of the noble sincerity of his father,
and viewed with jealous eyes the despotic power wielded by
the neighbouring princes. The peace, to which he had been
forced to accede by Henry IV. of France, the friend of reform,
the commercial prosperity, the increase of the navy, the colo-
nial and civil wealth, and the republican spirit of Holland,
were alike distasteful to him, but, compelled to relinquish the
hope of executing his tyrannical projects by force of arms, he
concealed them beneath a mask of religion, and made use of
means the best calculated, in those fanatical times, to work
upon the multitude.

At the new university of Leyden, Justus Lipsius had gained
jrreat fame for learning, and Gomarus, the Calvinist, for or-
thodoxy and zeal. Another deeply-learned and talented
preacher, Arminius, (Harmsen,) who had successfully combat-
id the doctrine of predestination, being also appointed to a
professor's chair at Leyden, Gomarus, who, like the rest of
his Calvinistic brethren of that period, professed ultra-liberal-
ism, but acted with a bigotry equalling that of the Catholics
and Lutherans, instantly raised a cry of heresy. The attempts
made by Hugo Grotius, the most eminent scholar and states-
man of the age, to reconcile the adverse parties, were rendered
futile by political intrigue. Maurice, instigated by resent-
ment against Olden Barneveldt, the most popular and influ-
ential of the statesmen of Holland, declared in favour of Go-
marus.* The Arminians defended themselves in a remon-

* His ignorance was such that he, on one occasion, demanded of an
Axiniiiian " Uow he could uphold such nonsense as a belief in ptedestia-

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307

strance to the states-general, whence they gained the name of
Remonstrants. The Gomarists, supported by Maurice, how-
ever, gained the victory, and Olden Barneveldt, Hugo Gro-
tius, with their friends Hogerbeet and Ledenberg, were, at
Maurice's command, arrested in the name of the states-gener-
al, which were in utter ignorance of the affair. The Remon-
strants, fearful of sharing the fate of their leaders, fled the
country. The town-councils and the states-general were
biassed by the creatures of the prince, and the prisoners were
judged by a criminal court acting solely under his influence.
By the great synod convoked at Dordrecht as a cloak for his
crime, the Remonstrants were condemned unheard as abomin-
able heretics, whilst Maurice loaded the Gomarists with
favours, a. d. 1619. Ledenberg, in order to escape the rack,
stabbed himself with a knife. Olden Barneveldt, an old man
of seventy-two, the most faithful servant of the republic,
the founder of its real grandeur, of its navy, was condemned
to death, as a disturber of the unity of the state and of the
church of God. He addressed the people from the scaffold in
the following words, "Fellow citizens, believe me, I am no
traitor to my country. A patriot have I lived and a patriot
will I die." Maurice, by whom the people had been deceived
with false reports against their only true friends, pretended
to mourn for his death and to lament the treason that had led
to his condemnation, A. d. 1619. Hogerbeet and Grotius
were condemned to perpetual imprisonment. The latter
escaped from the castle of Lb'wenstein, in which he was im-
mured, by means of his wife, Maria von Reigersberg, who
concealed and had him carried away in a chest of books.

Popular disturbances ensued. Several insurrections were
quelled by force ; the secret assemblage of the Remonstrants
was strictly prohibited and the censorship of the press estab-
lished. The two sons of Olden Barneveldt conspired against
the life of Maurice, were discovered and executed, a. d. 1623.
Maurice expired, A. D. 1625. Conscious of the inevitable
discovery of the artifice with which he had studiously slan-
dered his victims and deceived the Dutch, and of the infamj
attached to his name, he enjoined his brother and successor,
Frederick, with his dying breath, to recall the Remonstrants.

ation ?" and on being told that was the doctrine of the Gomarists and
not of the Arminians, pretended to disbelieve the assertion.

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RUDOLPH THE SECOND.

CCIII. Rudolph the Second.

The rest of Germany beheld the great struggle in the
Netherlands with almost supine indifference. The destruc-
tion of the Calvinistic Dutch was not unwillingly beheld by
the Lutherans. The demand for assistance addressed [a. i>.
1570] by the Dutch to the diet at Worms received for re-
ply, that Spain justly punished them as rebels against the
principle of cujus regio, ejus religio. The Lutheran princes,
either sunk in luxury and vice, or mere adepts in intrigue,
shared the peaceful inclinations of their Catholic neighbours.
The moderation of the emperor, Maximilian IL, also greatly
contributed to the maintenance of tranquillity, but still far
more so the cunning policy with which the Jesuits secretly
encouraged the internal dissensions of the Reformers whilst
watching for a fitting opportunity again to act on the offensive.

Maximilian II. had, shortly before his death, been elected
king of Poland, and great might have been the result had he
been endowed with higher energies. The Jagellons be-
came extinct with Sigismund Augustus, A. i>. 1572. The
capricious Polish nobles, worked upon by the agents of the
French monarch, raised Henry of Anjou to the throne, which
that prince speedily and voluntarily renounced for that of
France. * Maximilian was elected king by one faction, and
Stephen Bathori, prince of Transylvania, by another. Max-
imilian ceded his claim and expired shortly afterwards, A. D.
1575. The Jesuits were accused of having taken him off by
poison, through jealousy of his inclination to favour the Re-
formation. The beautiful Philippina Welser is also said to
have been murdered in the castle of Ambras by opening her
veins in a bath, A. D. 1576.

Maximilian was succeeded by his son, Rudolph IL, a second
Frederick III. This prince devoted his whole thoughts to
his horses, of which he possessed an immense number, al-
though he never mounted them ; to the collection of natural
curiosities and pictures ; to the study of alchymy and
astrology, in which he was assisted by the Dane, Tycho
de Brahe, and by Kepler,* the great German astronomer

* This extraordinary man, to whom we are indebted for the discovery
the laws which regulate the movements of the planetary bodies, theu

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RUDOLPH THE SECOND

il ill

309

Tycho is said to have drawn his horoscope and to have fore-
told his death by the hand of his own son, in consequence of
which he forswore marriage and lived in constant seclu-
sion. He was subject to fits of fury resembling madness.
His sleeping apartment was strongly barred like a prison, so
great was his apprehension of a violent death.

Rudolph bestowed no attention upon the empire ; he, never-
theless, permitted Melchior Clesel, bishop of Vienna, and the
Jesuits, to attempt to bring about a reaction in his hereditary
provinces against the Protestants, who, deeming themselves
secure under his father's sceptre, had, contrary to agreement,
erected churches on 6pots not immediately belonging to the
privileged nobility. In 1579, every unprivileged cure was
seized and the public instruction placed exclusively in the
hands of the Catholics, a proceeding extremely mild when
compared with the merciless extirpation of the Calvinists in
Saxony, of the Lutherans in the Pfalz, etc

The great victories of the Dutch, the decided inclination of
Elizabeth, queen of England, and of Henry IV. of France, to
Calvinism, suddenly raised that sect to a high degree of influ-
ence, which was further increased by the defection of several
of the princes from Lutheran ism through disgust at the doc-
trines taught by the clergy. Immediately after the triumph
gained by the Lutherans by means of the concordat, the only
Calvinistic prince remaining in Germany, the Pfalzgrave,
John Casimir, brother to Louis, the Lutheran elector, had, at
a congress held at Frankfurt a M. [a. d. 1577,] demanded
aid from England and France. He had himself levied a
troop of German auxiliaries for the French Huguenots. On
the death of his brother, he undertook the guardianship of his
infant nephew, Frederick IV. [a, d. 1585] ; all the Luther-

ellipticity, etc., was bom in 1571, at Wiel, in Swabia. Whilst a boy,
tending sheep, he passed his nights in the fields, and by his observation
acquired his first knowledge of astronomy. His discovery was con-
demned by the Tubingen university as contrary to the Bible. He was
about to destroy his work, when an asylum was granted to him at Graetz,
which he afterwards quitted for the imperial court. He was, notwith-
standing his Lutheran principles, tolerated by the Jesuits, who knew how
to value scientific knowledge. He was solely persecuted in his native
country, where he with difficulty saved his mother from being burnt us a
witch. He was also in the service of the celebrated General WaUen-
iUO. He died f a. d. 1630] at Raiisbon.

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RUDOLPH THE SECOND

aus were instantly expelled the Pfalz and the tenets of Calvin
imposed upon the people.

It was about this period that Gebbard, elector of Cologne,
born Count Truchsess (dapifer) von Waldburg, a young,
gentle-hearted, but somewhat thoughtless man, embraced Cal-
vinism. His equally worldly-minded predecessor, Salentin
von Ysenburg, had, [a. d. 1577,] after persecuting the Lu-
therans, suddenly renounced his office and wedded a Countess
von Ahremberg, an example Gebhard was inclined to follow,
but without relinquishing his position. He had already be-
come notorious for easy morality, when, one day, looking
from his balcony, he beheld, in a passing procession, the
Countess Agnes von Mansfeld, canoness of the noble convent
of Gerrisheim near Dusseldorf, the most beautiful woman of
the day, and becoming violently enamoured, called her into
his presence, and, by his united charms of rank, youth, and
beauty, quickly inspired her with a corresponding passion.
The Lutheran Counts von Mansfeld, speedily informed of the
connexion between their sister and the archbishop, hastened
to Bonn, where they were holding court together, and com-
pelled the archbishop to restore their sister's honour by a
formal marriage. The Calvinists in the Pfalz, in Holland,
and France, however, promising him their aid on condition of
his reforming the whole of the Colognese territory, and in-
spiring him with the hope of rendering his possessions here-
ditary in his family, he embraced the tenets of Calvin, and
consequently deprived himself of the support of the strict
Lutherans. He was himself completely devoid of energy.
The bishop of his cathedral, Frederick von Saxon-Lauenburg,
who grasped at the archiepiscopal mitre, almost the entire
chapter and ttie citizens of Cologne, declared against him.
His predecessor, Salentin von Ysenburg, actuated by jealousy,
also opposed him. On the day on which Gebhard solemnized
his wedding at Bonn, the bishop took possession of the city of
Kaiserswerth, Feb. 2nd, 1583. The majority of the people
were against him. The pope put him under an interdict ; the
emperor and the empire were bound by the ecclesiastical
proviso ; the Lutherans refused their aid through jealousy of
the Calvinists. Ernest, duke of Bavaria, bishop of Liege
and Freysingen, was elected archbishop in his stead, and in-
vaded his territory. The Pfalzgrave, John Casimir, to when*

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RUDOLPH THE SECOND. 31 1

he had in his terror mortgaged the whole of the electorate of
Cologne, was too deeply engaged in the expulsion of the Lu-
therans from the Pfalz to lend him the requisite aid, and left
him to his fate. The whole of the electorate was speedily in
the hands of the Bavarian duke, and Gebhard took refuge in
Zutphen, whence he escaped to William of Orange. Agnes
secretly visited England and applied for assistance to Essex,
the queen's favourite, but was instantly expelled the country
by the jealous queen, who refused to see her. Gebhard's ad-
herents, meanwhile, ravaged the country around Neuss, but
were forced to capitulate by the Spanish under the duke of
Parma, to whom Ernest had turned for aid. The cause of
the expelled archbishop now became hopeless, and [a. d.
1589] he withdrew with Agnes, to whom he ever remained
faithful, to Strassburg, where he had formerly held the office
of deacon. He died, [a. d. 1601,] leaving no issue. Agnes
survived him ; the period of her death and her burial-place
are unknown.

Ernest of Cologne, who became at the same time bishop of
Munster, Liege, and Hildesheim, favoured the Jesuits, and
persecuted the Protestants with the greatest rigour in Aix-
la-Chapelle. The Catholic league, meanwhile, incessantly
carried on hostilities against the Huguenots, whose leader,
Henry of Bourbon, the first of that line, mounted the throne
of France, a. d. 1589. This monarch was greatly seconded
in his war with the league by the Reformed Swiss, under Louis
von Erlach, and by the Calvinistic prince, Christian von An-
halt. The Landgrave, Maurice of Hesse-Cassel, openly em-
braced Calvinism, A. d. 1592. The separation of Hessian
Darmstadt from Cassel took place, a. d. 1614. It was brought
about by the Lutheran prince, Louis of Darmstadt, Maurice's
cousin, in direct opposition to the will of the provincial Estates.
Maurice* was one of the most eminent among the princes of
his time, witty and learned, deeply versed in classic literature
and art, well acquainted with modern and foreign cultivation
and customs, and not the less zealous for the improvement of
Germany. The Margrave, Ernest Frederick of Baden-Dur-
lach, became a convert to Calvin, and imposed his tenets on
his Lutheran subjects. He died of apoplexy, [a. d. 1604,]

* This prince was the first inventor of the telegraph, an invention thai
did not come into use until long alter.

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RUDOLPH THE SECOND.

when marching upon Pforzheim, whoso citizens had resisted
his tyranny. John Sigismund, elector of Brandenburg, also
embraced Calvinism, the faith of the citizens of Juliers, Cleve,
and Berg, his subjects by inheritance. He incurred great un-
popularity by his toleration of Lutheranism in Brandenburg.

The CathoKc party had gradually gained internal strength.
Paul IV. commenced the restoration ; Pius IV. gave a new
constitution to the Catholic world by the resolutions of the
council of Trent ; Pius V. exchanged the shepherd's staff
for the faggot and the sword, and, by his example, sanctified
the cruelties perpetrated by Philip II. ; Gregory XIIL, the
representative of Jesuit learning, put the Protestants to
shame with his improved Calendar, which was published,
a. d. 1584, and violently protested against at the imperial
diet by the Lutherans, who preferred an erroneous computa-
tion of time to any thing, however accurate, proceeding from
a pope ; and finally, Sixtus V. again displayed the whole
pomp of the triumphant church from 1585 to 1590.

The Jesuits had rapidly spread over the whole of the Ca-
tholic world, and, solely opposed by the Dominicans, jealous of
the power they had hitherto possessed, had placed all beneath
their rule. The Franciscans, so influential over the people,
were replaced by another Jesuitical body of begging monks,
drawn from their ranks, the Capuchins, who were commis-
sioned to work upon the lower, as the Jesuits did upon the
higher, classes. Permanent nunciatures, as advanced posts
noting the movements of the enemy and of the confederation,
were stationed, in 1570, at Luzerne, in 1588, at Brussels,
Cologne, and Vienna.

The Reformers had entirely lost sight of the ancient church
in the midst of their internal dissensions, nor was it until the
publication of Cardinal Bellarmin's subtle criticism on the
Reformation in 1581, and that of Pope Gregory's celebrated
bull in coena Domini in 1584, on the one side, and of the history
of the order of Jesus by the renegade Jesuit, Hasenmuller, in
which he lays bare all its evil practices and exaggerates its
crimes, in 1586, on the other side, that polemics again raged
and the press vented its venom on both parties.

The bishoprics continued a material object of discord ; those
to the north of Germany had irrecoverably fallen into the hands
of the princes of Brandenburg, Brunswick, Mecklenburg, and

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itvDOLFH THE SECOND. 313

Saxon-Lau mburg. The possession of others was a matter of
uncertainty. In Upper Germany and in Switzerland, the
Catholics greatly increased in strength and daring, and the
confederates, instigated by the Jesuits, took up arms against
one another. In 1586, the Catholic cantons, influenced by
Louis Pfyffers of Lucerne, the head of the Catholics, sur-
named the Swiss king, concluded the golden or Borromean
league with St Charles Borromeo for the extermination of
heretics. This league raged so fearfully in Italy that num-
bers of Reformers fled thence to Zurich ; hence the celebrated
Zurich names of Pestalozzi, Orelli, etc.

The favour lavished by Stephan Bathori, king of Poland,
upon the Catholic party, afforded the Jesuits an opportunity
to spread themselves over Livonia and Polish -Prussia. They
were, however, driven out of Riga by the Lutheran citizens,
a. d. 1587, and out of Dantzig in a similar manner, a. d. 1606.

Clement VIII., meanwhile, intent upon extending his tem-
poral sway in Italy, had, on the death of Alfonso, the last
Marches of the house of Este, [a. d. 1595,] seized Ferrara
and forcibly annexed that duchy to the dominions of the
church. His successor, Paul V., zealously persecuted the he-
retics, and, during his long reign, from 1605 to 1621, inces-
santly encouraged discord and dissension.

Bavaria displayed the greatest zeal in the Catholic cause.
Baden-Durlach, whose Margrave, Philip, had fallen at Mont-
oncourt fighting for the Huguenots, had been re-catholicized
by Duke Albert, the guardian of Philip's infant son. Albert's
successors, William [a. d. 1579] and Maximilian, [a. d.
1598,] befriended the Jesuits. In 1570, all the wealthy in-
habitants of Munich took refuge in the Lutheran imperial
cities. These proceedings were far from indifferent to the
Calvinists, the most courageous among the Reformers. Frede-
rick IV., elector of the Pfalz, exhorted the Lutherans to make
common cause with the rest of the Reformers, but was solely
listened to by Wurtemberg and the Margraves of Franconia,
who entered into a union with him at Anhausen, [a.d. 1608,]
which was joined [a. d. 1609] by Brandenburg and opposed
by Maximilian of Bavaria, who convoked the Catholic princes,
with whom he concluded a holy alliance. Party hatred was
still further inflamed [a. d. 1610] on the death of the last
duke of Juliers, Cleve, Berg, Mark, and Ravensperg, when

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RUDOKPH THE SECOND.

those splendid countries fell to the nearest of kin, John Sigis
tnund, elector of Brandenburg, and Wolfgang William, Pfalz-
grave of Neuburg, both Reformed princes. The majority of
the people was also Reformed. The Catholic party, led by
Bavaria, had, in the hope of frustrating the expectations of
their antagonists, compelled Jacobea of Baden,* who was edu-
cated at Munich, to bestow her hand upon the imbecile duke,
John William, a. d. 1585. This scheme, however, failed;
the duke went completely mad, and Jacobea remained child-
less. The government was seized by his sister, Sibylla, an
elderly maiden, totally devoid of personal graces, who, jealous
of Jacobea's beauty and aided by the Catholic party, set the
now useless victim aside. Jacobea was, under a false pre-
text, seized, accused of sorcery, and strangled in prison, after
undergoing a variety of tortures. Antonia of Lorraine was
the next victim bestowed upon the duke, in the hope of rais-
ing a progeny in the Catholic branch, but also remaining
childless, she was sent back to Lorraine, and Sibylla, in her
forty-ninth year, wedded Charles, Margrave of Burgau. Her
hopes of issue were also frustrated, and, on the death of John
William, in 1609, the whole of the rich inheritance fell to the
Reformed branch, which, aided by France, finally succeeded in
expelling Sibylla's faction, which was supported by the Span-
ish Netherlands.

The united princes, meanwhile, took the field, but again
laid down arms on the death of the elector of the Pfalz and
the murder of Henry of Navarre by Ravaillac, the tool of the
Jesuits. Brandenburg and Neuburg remained in peaceable
possession of the Juliers-Cleve inheritance, until a quarrel
breaking out between them, the Pfalzgrave embraced Catho-
licism and called the League and the Spaniards to his aid.
The matter was, nevertheless, settled by negotiation, Bran-
denburg taking Cleve, Mark, and Ravensberg ; Neuburg, Ju-
liers and Berg, a. d. 1614. They were, however, still des-
tined not to hold the lands in peace, the emperor attempting to
place them under sequestration as property lapsed to the

• Her portrait is still to be seen at Dusseldorf. She was uncommon-
ly beautiful and captivating. She loved a Count von Manderscheid, who,
cn the news of her marriage, became insane. The pope sent his bcnedic-
tion on the marriage of this lovely woman with the imbecile duke, and
presented the unhappy bride with a golden rose.

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RELIGIOUS DISTURBANCES IN AUSTRIA.

315

trown ; the Dutch and Spaniards again interfered in the dis-
pute that ensued, and shortly afterwards the great war broke
out. John Sigismund succeeded the imbecile duke, Frederick
Albert, on the throne of Prussia, [a. d. 1614,] where, during
that stormy period, the Brandenburgs with difficulty secured
their footing.

part xvra.

THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR.

CCIV. Great religious disturbances in Austria. — Defeat of

the Bohemians.

The projects laid by the emperor Maximilian II. were, even
during his life-time, frustrated by his brother, Charles, the
ultra-Catholic archduke in Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola.
This energetic man, who, by his settlement of the military
colonies in Croatia, in the heart of which he erected [a. d.
1580] the metropolis of Carlstadt, had greatly served the
empire, violently opposed the Protestants, established the
Jesuits at Graetz, and by his virulent persecution of the
Lutheran communes in the mountain districts drove them to
rebel, a. d. 1573. The peasantry throughout Styria and
Carniola revolted, but were reduced to submission by the
Uzkokes,* wild Slavonian robbers, called for that purpose
from the mountains of Dalmatia.

The violent abolition of the religious liberty of the privi-
leged cities by Rudolph II. called forth an energetic remon-
strance from the whole of the provincial Estates, that drew
from him the grant of four privileged churches at Graetz,
Judenburg, Clagenfurt, and Laibach, A. D. 1578, which were,
nevertheless, destroyed by the Archduke Charles, at whose
command twelve thousand German Bibles and other Lutheran

* These barbarians afterwards greatly annoyed his son, the emperor
Ferdinand II., who, at the entreaty of Venice, interdicted their piracy in
th* Adriatic.

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$16 3REAT RELIGIOUS

books were burnt by the public executioner at Groetz, A. D.
1579. The Lutheran preachers were gradually superseded
by Catholic clergy in all the cities, the chartered towns not
excepted, and the citizens were compelled to recant. The
privileges of the nobility were still held sacred, but the prin-
ciple, cujus regio, ejus religio, was in some measure even
applied to them, no Lutheran lord being permitted to take a
Catholic peasant into his service unless born on his estates.
The Estates, perceiving their demands unheeded by their
sovereign, laid their complaints [a. d. 1582] before the diet
of the empire, in the hope of being protected by the Lutheran
princes. But here also their hopes were frustrated by the
pitiless axiom, cujus regio, ejus religio. The Jesuits, em-
boldened by this defeat, redoubled their attacks ; numbers of
Lutheran preachers were incarcerated, but were partly re-
stored to liberty by the enraged peasantry. The movement
gradually increased, and [a. d. 1588] the archduke was merely
saved from assassination at Judenburg by the magnanimity
of a Lutheran preacher. An insurrection broke out simul-
taneously in the archbishopric of Salzburg. Tumultuous
meetings, the violent seizure of the preachers and the armed
opposition of the peasantry, were annually renewed in Austria
from 1594.

The persecution of the Austrian Protestants raged with re-
doubled violence on the accession of the Archduke Ferdinand,
a. d. 1596. His Jesuitical preceptors had carefully prepared
him from his earliest childhood for the part they intended him
to perform, and he had solemnly vowed at the shrine of
the Virgin at Loretto to extirpate heresy from his dominions.
The actions and principles of his uncle, Philip II., the model
on which he formed himself, were merciful in comparison with
his. Unwarlike, nay, effeminate in his habits, ever surrounded
by Jesuits and women, he, nevertheless, possessed a bigoted
obstinacy of character that nought had power to soften, and,
whilst tranquilly residing in Vienna, willing tools were easily
found to execute his horrid projects. His first act, in answer
to the renewed petitions of the Estates for religious liberty,
was the erection of gallows throughout the country for the
evangelical preachers, the demolition of their churches, nay,
the desecration of the churchyards by the disinterment of
the dead. In Laibach, where the most resolute resistance

i • » »

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DISTURBANCES IN AUSTRIA.

317

was offered, the pastors were torn from their pulpits, the
citizens that refused to recant expelled, and their goods con-
fiscated. The opposition of the Estates was weakened by the
dissolution of their union, those of Upper and Lower Austria,
Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola being compelled to hold separ-
ate assemblies. The Estates, refused aid by their brethren
in belief, were driven by necessity to demand assistance from
their foreign neighbours. Venice was too Catholic, Hun-
gary too deeply occupied with her internal affairs and the
war with the Turks, to listen to their entreaties. Bethlen
Gabor, Prince of Transylvania, took advantage of the gradual
decadence of the Turkish empire, on the one hand, and of the
religious war in Germany, on the other, to found an independ-
ent power in Hungary. The German Transylvanians had
been converted to Lutheranism, [a. d. 1533,] and were, at
this period, in close alliance with the German Lutherans. Ru-
dolph II., with the view of reconverting them to Catholicism,
instigated the Hungarians against them, and the Saxons were
actually declared in the Hungarian diet [a. d. 1590] serfs to
the Hungarians, there being no noblemen among them. The
national Graf, Hutter, however, rose in their defence, and
openly told the magnates before the whole assembly, that
" Labour was nobler than robbery," and succeeded in repeal-
ing their decision. The Transylvanian Saxons, as a protec-
tion against the Jesuits, formed a union, [a. d. 1613,] and
bound themselves by oath to stand up as one man in defence
of their political freedom and of the Augsburg Confession,
never to accept of nobility, and ever to preserve their equality,
the condition of their freedom.

Thus, Tyrol alone excepted, all the hereditary possessions
of the house of Habsburg had favoured the Reformation, and
were, in point of fact, Reformed. Catholicism was, neverthe-
less, reimposed, by means of political intrigue, on the whole
of this immense population.

The archdukes, less influenced by the discord that prevailed
throughout the empire than by the disturbances in the here-
ditary provinces, which caused the Habsburgs to totter on the
throne, resolved [a. d. 1606] to install Matthias in the place
of his spiritless brother, the emperor Rudolph. This event af-
forded a glimmer of hope to the oppressed Protestants. Mat-
thias speedily found himself at the head of an army, and con*-

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GREAT RELIGIOUS

pelled the emperor to cede Hungary and Austria. Rudolph,
shaken from his slumbers, hastened unexpectedly to Prague,
where, sacrificing the principle on which he had hitherto go-
verned, the exclusive rule of the Catholic form of worship, to
his enmity towards his brother, he fully restored the privi-
leges anciently enjoyed by the Utraquists, and [a. d. 1609]
promulgated the famous letter patent, the palladium of Bohe-
mia, by which her political and religious liberty was con-
firmed. The storm had, however, no sooner passed than,
regretting his generosity, he allowed his cousin, the Arch-
(■ duke Leopold, bishop of Passau, whom, notwithstanding his
' priestly office, he destined for his successor on the throne, to
assemble a considerable body of troops at Passau, invade and
devastate Bohemia, and take possession of the Kleine Seite of
Prague. The Bohemians under Matthias, Count von Thurn,
made a gallant defence, and several bloody engagements took
place. The rage of the Bohemians was, however, chiefly di-
rected against the Jesuits, who were accused of having insti-
gated this attack upon their liberties, and Rudolph, deeply sus-
pected by the citizens of Prague of participating in the plot,
was kept prisoner by them until Leopold voluntarily retreated
on the news of the approach of Matthias from Hungary.
Rudolph was compelled to abdicate the throne of Bohemia in
favour of his brother, whose coronation was solemnized amid
the joyful acclamations of the people, on whom he lavished
fresh privileges. "Ungrateful Prague!" exclaimed the de-
posed monarch, as he looked down upon the gorgeous city
from his palace window, " Ungrateful Prague ! to me dost
thou owe thy wondrous beauty, and thus hast thou repaid my
benefits. May the vengeance of Heaven strike thee, and my
curse light upon thee and the whole of Bohemia ! "

The Bohemians, enchanted with Matthias's liberality, pru-
dently sought to draw a real advantage from, and to strength-
en their constitution by, his deceptive concessions. The fal-
lacy of their hopes is clearly proved by the fact of Ferdinand's
having annihilated in the mountains every trace of the liberty
so deceitfully planted by his uncles and sovereigns in Bohe-
mia. Shortly before the Christmas of the same year, 1610,
the Passau troops made a second incursion into Upper Aug*
tria and cruelly harassed the Protestant inhabitants.

Matthias succeeded to the imperial crown on the death of

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DISTURBANCES IN AUSTRIA. 3 1 9

Rudolph II., [a. d. 1612,] and, unable to recall past events,
peaceably withdrew from public life, committing the govern-
ment to his nephew, Ferdinand, whom he caused to be pro-
claimed king of Bohemia, and who was destined to discover
the little accordance between the system of oppression pur-
sued by him in the mountains and the letters patent issued by
Rudolph. Ferdinand treated his uncle with the basest ingrati-
tude, depriving him of the society of his old friend, Cardinal
Clesel, and treating him with the deepest contempt. The
poor old man was at length carried off by gout, A. d. 1617.
Clesel had drawn upon himself the ill-will of the youthful ty-
rant, by expressing a hope that Bohemia might be treated
with lenity, to which Ferdinand replied, " Better a desert than
a country full of heretics." The only descendants of the house of
Habsburg still remaining in Germany, were Ferdinand II., his
two brothers, Leopold, bishop of Passau, and Chawes, bishop
of Breslau. The throne of Spain was [a. d. 1621] mounted
by Philip IV., (grandson to Philip II.,) whose brother, Fer-
dinand, became a cardinal and the stadtholder of the Nether-
lands.

The arrival of Ferdinand with his Jesuitical counsellors at
Prague filled Bohemia with dread, nor was it diminished by
his hypocritical oath to hold the letters patent granted by
Rudolph sacred ; for how could a Jesuit be bound by an oath ?
the principles on which he acted had been clearly shown by
his behaviour at Graetz and Laibach. The Jesuits no longer
concealed their hopes, and the world was inundated with
pamphlets, describing the measures to be taken for the extir-
pation of heresy throughout Europe, and for the restoration
of the only true church.

Ferdinand speedily quitted Bohemia, leaving the govern-
ment in the hands of Slawata (a man who, for a wealthy
bride, had renounced Protestantism, and who cruelly perse-
cuted his former brethren,) and Martinitz, who sought to in-
snare the people and systematically to suppress their rights.
A strict censorship was established ; Jesuitical works were
alone unmutilated. Religious liberty, although legally posJ
sessed by the nobility alone, had, by right of custom, extended
to the Protestant citizens, more especially since the grant of
the letters patent by the emperor, Rudolph II., but they no
•ooner ventured to erect new churches at Bra an a u and

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GREAT RELIGIOUS

Klostergrab, than an order for their demolition was issued by
Ferdinand, who, treating the representations of the Estate*
with silent contempt, their long-suppressed discontent broke
forth, and, at the instigation of Count Thurn, they flung
Slawata and Marti nitz, after loading them with bitter re-
proaches, together with their secretary, Fabricius, according
to old Bohemian custom, out of the window of the council-
house on the Radschin. They fell thirty-five yards. Mar-
tinitz and the secretary* escaped unhurt, being cast upon ft
heap of litter and old papers ; Slawata was dreadfully shat-
tered, and was carried into a neighbouring house, that of a
Princess Schwarzenberg, where he remained unmolested.
This event occurred May the 23rd, 1618, and from this day
dates the commencement of the thirty years* war.

The first act of the Bohemian Estates under the direction of
Count Thurn was the expulsion of the Jesuits, in which they
were imitated by the rest of the hereditary provinces, Silesia
under the rule of John George, duke of Brandenburg-
Jaegerndorf, Moravia under its principal leader, the Baron
Frederick von Teuffenbach, Austria, whose chief representa-
tive was Erasmus von Tschernembl, and Hungary under
Bethlen Gabor (Gabriel Bathory). A list of grievances was
sent to Vienna, and religious liberty was demanded as the con-
dition of their continued recognition of Ferdinand's authority.

Ferdinand, without deigning a reply, instantly raised two
small bodies of troops, which he intrusted to the command of
Dampierre and Bouquoi, the former a Frenchman, the latter
a Spaniard, whilst he continued to levy men in Italy, Spain,
and the Netherlands ; but Thurn, marching at the head of the
Bohemians upon Vienna, he avoided falling into his hands by
going to Frankfurt on the Maine, [a. d. 1619,] where the
Lutheran princes, gained over by his Jesuitical artifices, elect-
ed and crowned him emperor of Germany. Every trace cf
the scruples formerly raised against the election of Charles V
and of Ferdinand I. had vanished.

The Estates of Bohemia, Silesia, Moravia, Hungary, Aus-
tria, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, abandoned as usual in
the moment of need by their Protestant brethren, now closely

• He afterwards received the title of Hohenfall. He is said to ha7e
fallen upon Martinitz, and, notwithstanding the horror of the moment, to
Lave politely asked pardon for his involuntary rudeness.

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DISTURBANCES IK AUSTRIA

321

confederated, and took Count Ernest von Mansfeld, who had
served with distinction in the Netherlands, with fourteen
thousand German mercenaries, into their service. Bouquoi,
after defeating Mansfeld at Pilsen, marched into Hungary
against Bethlen Gabor, whilst Dampierre, worsted in Mora-
via by Teuffenbach, retired upon the Danube, where the Up-
per Austrians, under Stahremberg, lay in wait for the empe-
ror on his return from Frankfort. Ferdinand, however,
avoided them by passing through Styria to Vienna. That city
was instantly besieged by Thurn and Bethlen Gabor, and the
Viennese, who, notwithstanding the practices of the Jesuits,
were still evangelically inclined, stormed the palace and de-
manded a formal grant of the free exercise of their religion.
At this moment Dampierre's cavalry entered the palace-yard.
The citizens withdrew, and the Bohemians and Hungarians,
weakened by famine and sickness, and threatened to the rear
by a fresh enemy raised against them by Ferdinand's diplo-
matic arts, also speedily retreated. The Cossacks, (not those
of the Ukraine,) the rudest of the Lithuanian tribes, were in-
vited into Austria by the emperor for the purpose of convert-
ing the people by fire, sword, and pillage. A Spanish army
under Verdugo also crossed the Alps and defeated Mansfeld at
Langen-Loys. The Bohemians and Hungarians were, mean-
while, victorious over the Poles, and, in the midst of the tu-
mult of war, elected Frederick V., elector of the Pfalz, king of
Bohemia, and Bethlen Gabor king of Hungary, in the stead
of the emperor, a. d. 1620.

The behaviour of the German princes during the war in
Austria was more deeply than ever marked by treachery and
weakness. Never has a great period produced baser charac-
ters, never has a sacred cause found more unworthy champions.
The projects harboured by the pope, the emperor, Spain, and
France, for the complete suppression of the Reformation, were
well known, and could alone be frustrated by a prompt and firm
coalition on the part of the Protestant princes. George Wil-
liam of Brandenburg, John George of Saxony, Louis of Darm-
stadt, John Frederick of Wurtemberg, and the Margrave,
Joachim Ernest, of Brandenburg, bribed by personal interest
or actuated by cowardice and by jealousy of the Pfalzgrave,
abandoned their brethren to their fate, and took part with the
emperor. Maximilian, duke of Bavaria, who, notwithstand-

VOL. II. i

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GREAT EEL1G10U8

ing his jouth, was at the head of the Catholic League, had,
through jealousy of his cousin the Pfalzgrave, sacrificed the
brilliant prospects of his house, and headed the Wittelsbach
against the Wittelsbach in a war profitable alone to the Habs-
burg. Conscious of this false step, he endeavoured, although
the ally of the Habsburg, to curb the power of the emperor,
and to retain his position as the head of Catholic Germany.
For this purpose, he long delayed advancing to his aid, until
actually compelled, by the fear of losing the laurels he hoped
to win, to take the field at the head of his whole force, after
concluding an alliance at Wurzburg with his brother Ferdi-
nand in Cologne, and Schweighart, elector of Mayence, in which
Lothar of Treves and Louis of Darmstadt also joined, and after
protecting his rear by making terms, as creditable to him as a
statesman as they were scandalous in the opposite party, in
the name of the League with the Union, the duke of Wurtem-
berg promising to discharge the troops of the Union, Bavaria
on her part undertaking to leave the Lutheran and Reformed
countries, including the Pfalz, Bohemia alone excepted, un-
fa arassed by the League.

Frederick, elector of the Pfalz, a young and ambitious man,
whose projects were ever seconded by his wife, Elizabeth, a
zealous Calvinist, the daughter of James I. of England, had
placed himself without difficulty, owing to the supine indif-
ference of the rest of the united princes, at the head of the
Union. His ineptitude for government was, however, speedily
discovered by the Bohemians, by whom he had been elected
king and received with the greatest enthusiasm. Frederick
was merely fitted for parade, and was, perhaps, the most in-
capable of the reigning princes of his time, for he never allow-
ed others to govern in his name. The Lutheran princes,
jealous of the increased importance of the Pfalz, and inimical
to him on account of his Calvinistic tenets, abandoned him.
His introduction of the French tongue and of French customs
and fashions into his court created great dissatisfaction
among his Bohemian subjects, which was still further increas-
ed by his encouragement of the attacks made from the pulpit
by his chaplain, Scultetus, upon the Utraquists and Luther-
ans, and by the demolition of the ornaments still remaining in
the churches at Prague. The crucifixes and pictures were
torn down and destroyed. The attempt to demolish the great

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DISTURBANCES IN AUSTRIA. 323

stone crucifix on the bridge over the Moldau caused a revolt,
which Thurn was alone able to quell. Peace was restored,
but Frederick had forfeited the affection of his subjects. In-
stead of attaching the Bohemian aristocracy to his person, he
showered favours upon two poor nobles, distinguished neither
by their talents nor by their characters, Christian, prince oi
An halt, and George Frederick, Count von Hohenlohe, by
whom Count Mansfeld, whose birth was illegitimate, was
treated with such marked contempt, that he withdrew with
his troops from the royal army. The terms stipulated [a. d
1620] between the League and the Union also deprived Fre
derick of the aid of the latter, Bohemia being expressly given
up as a prey to the former. His alliance with Turkey, more-
over, greatly contributed to increase his unpopularity with
every party.

Whilst the Protestants were thus weakened by their own
treachery and disunion, the Catholics acted with redoubled
vigour. Spinola marched from the Netherlands at the head
of twenty thousand men and systematically plundered the
Pfalz. The cries of the people at length struck upon th<*
dulled sense of the united princes. Wurtemberg tremblingly
demanded, " Why the late stipulation was thus infringed ? "
and remained satisfied with the reply that Spinola, not being
included in the League, was not bound to keep its stipula-
tions ; and the Union made a treaty with Spinola at Mayence,
by which they consented to his remaining in the Pfalz on
condition of the neighbouring princes being left undisturbed.
Heidelberg, Mannheim, and the Fran ken thai were defended
by the troops of Frederick Henry of Orange, who was aban-
doned by the rest of the united princes. Maximilian and iiis
field-marshal, John T'serclaes,* Count von Tilly, a Dutch-
man, who had served under Alba, next invaded Upper
Austria with a force of thirty thousand men. Linz yielded ;
the Estates were compelled to take the oath of fealty to the
duke as the emperor's representative; Tschernembl fled to
Geneva, where he died in want, A. D. 1626. The mountain
peasantry, enraged at the capitulation of Linz by the panic-
Btruck nobles, took up arms, but were unable to overtake the
duke, who had, in the mean time, entered Bohemia, where

* T'serclaes signifies Sir Claus, Sir Nicolas.

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DEFEAT OF THE BOHEMIANS

numbers of the inhabitants were, on account of their deter*
mined resistance, cruelly butchered.

Dampierre, sacrificing himself for the emperor, kept Bethlen
Gabor at bay, though with an inferior force, but was finally
defeated and slain before Presburg. The Hungarians poured
in crowds around Vienna, whilst the League, joined by Bou-
quoi, Verdugo, and the whole of the imperial forces, left
Vienna to the right and marched straight upon Prague, where
the king, Frederick, little anticipated battle. Anhalt and
Hohenlohe had fixed an encampment on the Weissen Berg,
famed for Zizka's deeds of prowess ; Mansfeld and the flower
of the army were far away at Pilsen, and, before it was possi-
ble for him to advance to ihe relief of the metropolis, the
enemy unexpectedly stormed the Weissen Berg, Oct. 29th,
1620. Christian of Anhalt rushed to the encounter and was
wounded; the Hungarian auxiliaries fled and drew the
Bohemians in their train. The Moravians made a valiant but
futile resistance. The battle rolled onwards to the gates of
Prague, where the confusion was still further increased by the
panic of the king. Prague was well fortified ; the troops had,
after suffering a trifling loss, entered the walls ; an immense
Hungarian army lay around Vienna; Mansfeld was at
Pilsen ; Upper Austria in open insurrection ; four thousand
men and ten cannons, left in the hurry of the moment on the
Weissen Berg, comprised the whole amount of loss. But fear
had paralysed the senses of the monarch. Instead of, like the
Hussites, intrenching himself behind his fortifications and
awaiting the arrival of his friends, he yielded his metropolis
without a blow, merely demanding twenty-four hours to pre-
pare for his departure, notwithstanding which he left behind
him his crown and most important documents, the whole ar-
chive of the Union, which fell into the hands of the imperial*
ists. Frederick fled to Breslau, then farther, never to retura
One winter brought his reign to a close, hence he received
the soubriquet of the winter-king.* Thurn also escaped.

The elector of Saxony, who had, meanwhile, occupied the
Lausitz with his troops and had taken Bautzen and Zittau,
now expelled the fugitive king of Bohemia from Silesia and
<**npelled Breslau to do him homage as the emperor's repre-

* Comes palatums palans sine comite. He was pursued with satiric*.
iMtijp and caricatures.

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DEFEAT OF THE BOHEMIANS.

325

sentative. Frederick took refuge in Holland with his consort,
whom the elector of Brandenburg had unwillingly permitted
to remain at Frankfort on the Maine until after the birth of
her son, Prince Maurice. The castle of Rhenen, in Holland,
was granted as a residence to the exiled pair by the Prince of
Orange.

Mansfeld, driven from Pilsen by Tilly, entered into a pre-
tended negotiation with the emperor, who vainly attempted
to bribe him to enter into his service, and had no sooner pro-
vided himself, by pillaging the country around Tachau, with
horses, ammunition, and money, than, forcing his way through
Bamberg and Wurzburg, he escaped the imperialists under
Maximilian and General Cordova, who had been left by
Spinola, on his return to the Netherlands, in the Pfalz where
he had wintered. Tilly vainly pursued the fugitives ; Mans-
feld passed the Rhine and fixed himself in Alsace and Lor-
raine, ready, in case of necessity, to retreat upon Holland.

Bethlen Gabor, driven from both Vienna and Presburg by
Bouquoi, was, in his turn, victorious over the Austrian fac-
tion under Count Palffy in Hungary, and was reinforced by
J aegerndorf, who again took the field in Silesia. Bouquoi fell
before Neuhausel. Mansfeld's expulsion, the open perfidy of
the Union, and the threatening aspect of Poland, however, in-
clined Bethlen Gabor to make terms with the emperor, to
whom he, consequently, resigned the Hungarian crown on
condition of receiving seven districts and the title of prince of
the empire. Jsegerndorf, who now stood unaided and alone,
was compelled to dismiss bis troops, and the Silesian Estates
credulously accepted the proffered mediation of the elector of
Saxony, who promised to protect their religious liberty.

Ferdinand's apparent lenity greatly facilitated the subjec-
tion of Bohemia. For three months vengeance slumbered.
With the cold-blooded hypocrisy of Alba, his master in deceit,
he patiently waited until the Bohemians, lulled into security,
had retaken their peaceful occupations, and the fugitives had
regained their homes. On the 20th of February, 1621, the
storm burst forth. All the popular leaders, who had not
escaped, were arrested. Thurn was not to be found, but his
friend, Count John Andreas von Schlick, a descendant of the
celebrated chancellor, to whom the Habsburgs owed so much
of their grandeur, was delivered by the perfidious elector <if

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DEFEAT OF THE BOHEMIANS

Saxony, to whom he had fled for shelter, to the headsmen of
Prague. His right hand and his head were struck off.
Twenty-four nobles were beheaded, three citizens hanged,
etc. Seven hundred and twenty-eight of the nobility, who
were induced by a promise of pardon to confess their partici-
pation in the rebellion, were deprived of their estates. Forty
million dollars were collected by confiscation alone. Five
hundred noble and thirty-six thousand citizen families emi-
grated. Bohemia lost the whole of her ancient privileges. The
letter patent granted by Rudolf was destroyed by the emperors
own hands. His confessor, the Jesuit Lamorraain, (Lsemmer-
mann,) searched for and burnt all heretical works, particularly
those of the ancient Hussites. Nor did the dead escape ;
Rokyzana's remains were disinterred and burnt ; Zizka's
monument, every visible memorial of the heroism of Bohemia,
was destroyed. Every trace of religious liberty was annihilated,
and the emperor, disregarding his promise to the elector of
Saxony in regard to the Lutherans, declared himself bound in
conscience to exterminate all heretics. Saxony, for form's sake,
protested against this want of faith. The churches throughout
Bohemia were reconsecrated by the Catholics ; the Hussite pas-
tors, who failed in making their escape, fell a prey to the savage
soldiery. The peasantry were imprisoned by the hundred and
compelled by famine to recant. The few Catholic nobles, Sla-
vvata, Martinitz, Mittrovski, Klenau, Czeyka, who had formerly
been expelled the country, took a fearful revenge. The
emigrants were the most fortunate portion of the population.
At Lissa, the citizens set fire to their own homes and fled into
Saxony. A desperate resistance was here and there made by
the people. The most valuable of the confiscated property
was granted in donation to the Jesuits, who were triumphantly
re-established in the country for the purpose of drugging the
minds of the enslaved people, and so skilfully did they fulfil their
office, that ere one generation had passed away, the bold, free-
spirited, intelligent Bohemian was no longer to be recognised
in the brutish creature, the offspring of their craft, that until
very lately has vegetated unnoted by history.

A similar plan was pursued in Silesia, which had submitted
on the guarantee of its religious liberty by the elector of
Saxony. Jesuits or other monks, accompanied by a troop of
the Lichtenstein dragoons, under Count Hannibal von Dohna,

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DEFEAT OF THE EOHEMIANS. 327

went from village to village, from one house to another, for
the purpose of converting the inhabitants ; pillage, torture,
the murder or robbery of children, were the means resorted
to. Emigration was prohibited. The emperor, not satisfied
with suppressing religious liberty, also restricted the civil
liberty of the Estates and metamorphosed the Silesian pro-
vincial Estates into a body of commissioners nominated by
and subservient to him. Breslau and the duchies of Liegnitz,
Brieg, and Oels, which were still governed by their petty im-
mediate princes, were alone spared. Ferdinand, unable to
suppress Protestantism in Hungary, secured his hereditary
provinces from infection by commercial interdictions. His
offer of pardon to a fugitive nobleman, Frederick von Rog-
gendorf, on condition of his return to his country, received
for answer, " What sort of pardon ; a Bohemian one ? Heads
off*! A Moravian one? Imprisonment for life! An Austrian
one? Confiscation \ n These horrors were enacted at Ferdi-
nand^ command, under the superintendence of his confessor,
Lamormain, who styled himself, in reference to the immense
confiscations that took place, " God's clerk of the exchequer."
Saxony received the Lausitz in pledge ; Brandenburg was
invested with Prussia. Frederick of Bohemia, John George
von Japgerndorf, and Mansfeld, (on whose head a price was
fixed,) were put under the bann of the empire. Anhalt and
Hohenlohe were pardoned. The Protestant Union voluntarily
dissolved, a. d. 1621.

Disturbances, caused by the attempt made by the emperor to
get the passes of the Grisons into his hands, on account of the
communication with Spain and Italy, but more particularly
for the purpose of cutting off that between Switzerland and
Venice, which countenanced the Reformers, broke out simul-
taneously in Switzerland. The inhabitants of Veltlin were
butchered [a. d. 1620] by the Spanish and Italian troops under
the Archduke Leopold and Feria, governor of Milan, but
the peasantry, excited to desperation by this outrage, rising
en masse, the imperialists were driven out of the country,
A. D. 1622. Teuffenbach, who had taken refuge in Switzer-
land from the troubles in Moravia, and who lay sick at Pfsef-
fers, was, during this contest, seized by the people of Sargans,
sold to Ferdinand's executioners,

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Full text of "The history of Germany, from the earliest period to 1842"

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